Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| Rjåhornet | 598m | 105m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Aksla | 188m | 188m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP |
| Høgkubben | 450m | 62m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP |
| Røddalshorn | 563m | 100m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Pikhaug | 816m | 24m | Sogndal, Norway | |
| Simosete | 520m | – | Luster, Norway |
Rjåhornet (600m), Nov 26 2018
Monday: Rjåhornet day, and the weather was just as nice as last week.
Today, Karma and I headed out from Leikong and I hoped to get to see some awesome colors in the sky, before it got dark. It looked promising so far…
Last week’s frost had now turned to a tiny layer of snow.
As we reached the top, the sky had the deepest colors. Just wonderful…
This was a great start to the week, and I looked forward to what the week had in store for us!
Trip statistics: 6,2km, 600 vertical meters, 1,5 hours
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the hike:
Aksla (188m), Nov 27 2018
Tuesday: Ålesund day, and after work, my inspiration was limited to do anything else but a round trip hike on Aksla. Darkness came fast these days, and I still hadn’t turned over to the dark side. Which means that I still tried to get as much daylight as possible. It’s a seasonal thing. Once on the dark side, I have the opposite problem when the days get longer. It’s the same with skiing. I hike until it makes no sense anymore, then get on with skiing. And in spring, I try to ski as much and as late as possible…
We started out in Gangstøvika and headed for Rundskue – the highest point on the Aksla mountain.
It wasn’t dark quite yet, and we had a nice view towards Molladalstindane: Randers Topp, Mohns Topp and Jønshornet (aka Ramoen)
When we got to Fjellstua, it was still light enough and just dark enough to get a picture of the town with the city lights on. I know – is it a town or city … But you get the point…
Trip statistics: 8km, 345 vertical meters, 1h:40m
Høgkubben (450m) , Nov 28 2018
Wednesday: Another Ålesund day, and after work I felt very little creative and adventurous. That’s when I default to the walks that at least gives an OK feeling in terms of walking the dog. Like – Høgkubben.
It was altogether a nice round trip hike from Blindheim, with a nice afternoon view towards Ålesund.
Trip statistics: 5,3km, 415m vertical meters, 1h:40m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the hike:
Røddalshorn (563m), Nov 29 2018
Thursday: The weather wasn’t all that great, and I defaulted to one of my easy tops, so at least Karma would get her afternoon walk.
We did a loop, starting at Leikongsætra. It was pretty dark when we reached the top, so the headlamp had to be switched on, on our way down.
Back at the trailhead, I decided to take the bike along the lit trail on Leikongeidet. It’s just a 3km loop, but felt twice as long because the ground was very soggy.
Trip statistics: 7,3km, 500 vertical meters, 1h:33m
Pictures (Iphone) from the hike:
Pikhaug (816m), Dec 1 2018
Saturday: Back in Sogndal, and up for a very memorable and quite unusual trip with Karma.
I drove to Hovland on Kaupanger, planning to visit the forest top Pikhaug. I had never been in this particular part of the forest before, and was excited about the trip.
I biked 6,2km up the forest road, to the entrance of Svartedalen. It was a very tough bike trip, as the tractor road was soggy.
Eventually, we left the forest road and I pushed the bike up the ridge to Pikhaug (0,8km). It was either too slippery (snow) or too rocky to do stay on the bike.
And then we could “tick off” yet another forest top in the Kaupanger forest.
So what next? Returning the same way is always boring, so I decided to carry the bike to Øyestølen (1,1km) and see if I could follow another tractor road back to Hovland. But when we got to Øyestølen, the tractor road was all icy, and not fit for biking.
So, I decided to carry the bike to lake Breidesetevatnet (1,5km), hoping the forest road to Goro would not be too icy.
The road was perfectly fine, and I biked and Karma ran the 3,5km down to Goro.
At Goro, we turned west and followed a different tractor road which connected to the tractor road from Hovland. Now, we had 4,3km back to Hovland, for the most part downhill.
Very fun! Too bad Anne didn’t have time to come along!
Trip statistics: 17,4km, 604 vertical meters, 2h:10m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip/hike:
Simosete (520m), Dec 2 2018
Sunday: Another day with mixed biking and walking in Sogn, but this time with Anne.
Anne wasn’t in for a longer trip today, but reckoned that a 8km bike-trip (one way) from Osen by lake Hafslovatnet and to Simosete was within her capacity for the day.
The vertical gain up to Simosete was only 400 meters, but it was nevertheless a tough and long hill!
The gravel road turned into an icy road, and Karma was happy!
And eventually we reached Simosete and got a feeling of winter again. Even the concept of biking in Sogn in December is ludicrous. But it’s seemingly a new day and age in terms of weather…
We discussed what to do next. One option was to turn around. Another was that Anne and Karma turned around and I continued down to Moane and biked the main road back. The third option was that Anne and Karma came along down to Moane and waited for me to get the car. Fortunately, Anne decided to go for option c) and we had a very “interesting” trip down the forest…
We had to deal with a lot of ice in the upper part, but eventually we got below the snow and ice. But that didn’t mean we could easily go biking again…
2,6km after leaving Simosete, we arrived at Soget. From here, we would follow a tractor road along lake Tverrbergvatnet as long as we could, and then see how we could get to Moane. The tractor road was incredibly icy and we had to bike very carefully.
We made it down to Hesjevollen (1,5km from Soget), down by the lake and was eager to see if we could continue biking.
We were able to bike for another 100 meters where we ran into a very steep and cruel forest. The bikes had to be carried, and one point was a bit critical in terms of making sure Karma didn’t slip on the icy rock and fell down onto the lake. This section lasted only 0,4km but it felt like 4km! Part of the reason was that I also carried Anne’s bike half the distance. But eventually, we reached another tractor road.
We biked another 1,4km, crossing the bridge between lakes Straumavatnet and Hafslovatnet along the way.
The only thing left to do for Anne was to push her bike to Moane, where she and Karma could relax while I biked the remaining 10,3km back to Osen to pick up the car. It was raining and combined with the wind and up to 40km/h, it was a chilly trip – to put it mildly.
But, the trip was a small adventure in its own right. We both agreed to that. There’s probably not too many people who have taken their bikes completely around lake Hafslovatnet. And then some..
Trip statistics: 25,1km, 600m vertical meters, 4 hours
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip/hike:
Sunday evening ended on an extra good note, when Anne and I went to the Eva Weel Skram concert in Sogndal. Eva is from Sogndal and ended her tour on home turf. She was well received by the local audience!
