2020 Week 24

Documentation week II and trail maintenance

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It was a good week in the local mountains…

Index

Date Peak/Place Height PF Location WCP
08.06.2020 Øyrahornet 417m 42m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
09.06.2020 Huldrehornet 271m 113m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
10.06.2020 Skåla 184m 497m Herøy, M&R, Norway
11.06.2020 Nonshornet 485m 7m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
11.06.2020 Sollia 661m 661m Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway WCP
13.06.2020 Sandvikshornet 352m 13m Herøy, M&R, Norway
13.06.2020 Storehanen 493m 67m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
13.06.2020 Selsteinen 598m 90m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
13.06.2020 Øyrahornet 417m 42m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
14.06.2020 Rjåhornet 421m 68m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
14.06.2020 Sollia 661m 661m Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway WCP

My current health condition can be measured by a simple question – DO I want to hike or not? It’s that simple, and as last week ended on a good note, I was very optimistic as a new week was on my doorstep.

But the week started out with a visit to a new Vet – as Karma had been struggling with an ear infection for several months. I was hoping that the new Vet would be able to cure it. He eventually did, and little did I know that we would keep the Vet busy this summer. Unfortunately…

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High hopes…

Øyrahornet (417m), June 8 2020

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The route up and down Øyrahornet

Monday: Not only did I want a hike, I also wanted to rip some bush – which is a very good sign! So I decided to do some work on the normal path from Tjørvåg to Øyrahornet.

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Øyrahornet seen from Tjørvåg

The real work happens at the foot of the mountain (where there is bush and forest) and I got busy with my lopper. It feels good to know that when I remove the roots, it will take YEARS before we have to go at it again. When the dog grew too impatient, we moved on up the mountain.

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Going up Øyrahornet

As “punishment” for her impatience, Karma had to put in some extra work for the summit treat…

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So you found it, eventually…

On the way down from Øyrahornet, we took a quite steep off-trail route into the lower part of Øyradalen valley.

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Skåla mountain seen from Øyrahornet

And the river crossing went just fine…

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The river offered an easy crossing today. Not always so…

Trip statistics: 4,5km, 420 vertical meters, 1h:53m

Huldrehornet (271m), June 9 2020

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Our route across Huldrehornet

Tuesday: I was still in the mood for trail maintenance, and decided to pay the Huldrehornet forest a visit – with my lopper. I chose the route from Myrvåg – a route that is not among the most popular ones and the path can quickly become a bit overgrown.

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The pine forest part doesn’t need a lot of maintenance

After a good session, we rose above the thickest forest and aimed for the top.

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Towards Huldrehornet

It was such a nice day, and we both enjoyed being up here.

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The good life…

And then we reached the top of Huldrehornet – a top I’ve been to FAR too many times this year. But something happened during my “lows” this spring and summer. I’ve sort of lost the inspiration to drive very far for a hike. Which is good news for the hikers using our trails, as I’m out there to maintain them…

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On Huldrehornet

I was still documenting all the trails – updating my picture archive, map route overview and the list of all the signposts – so that I could get in sync with what was “out there”. I had made good progress in week 23, and today I would cover the Huldrehornet – Dyrkyrkja – Myrvågneset route.

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At Dyrkyrkja

Karma has still not been to the top of the Dyrkyrkja rock. It’s too steep from the mailbox, but I *can* get her up on the other side – if I just remember to put a harness on her. Not that she needs one, but it feels safer for me…

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Myrvåg – my local neighbourhood – seen from Dyrkyrkja

Trip statistics: 5km, 330 vertical meters, 2h:20m

Skåla (184m), June 10 2020

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Our route across Skåla

Wednesday: Exactly one week after our last visit, we were back on Skåla. With the lopper. Trail maintenance for the 3rd in a row. I was clearly on a roll…

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Skåla (the mast) seen from the trail

After some hard work of ripping bush, I was happy with my effort and we moved on to the top.

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On Skåla. Ulsteinvik in the background

I then took the below picture towards the neighbour mountains, not knowing that I would spend a LOT of time up there in the next two weeks. More on that in next week’s report.

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Rjåhornet, Øyrahornet and Sandvikshornet – seen from Skåla

We did a round trip hike (of course) and returned to the trailhead via a nice gravel road that runs alongside the main road.

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Returning to Stokksund Skule

Trip statistics: 3,5km, 190 vertical meters, 1h:14m

Nonshornet (485m), Sollia (661m), June 11 2020

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Today’s trip tracks

Thursday: Today I decided to hike Sollia from Tjørvåg – via Nonshornet. It was a route I still hadn’t documented and I was somewhat “nervous” about a hike of this length. Relative to my recent health status, that is. I didn’t want to overdo anything – yet another time and go back to scratch. At least, I would take it nice and easy. And no trail maintenance, even if the path really needed it.

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Nonshornet seems FAR away and that’s like … halfway to Sollia

It was yet another lovely day and it felt so nice to reach Nonshornet and take in the views up north…

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Hareidlandet island mountain tops

From Nonshornet, we continued up to Sollia. This was the 3rd time up there so far in 2020, which is an unusually low number. But it’s been a weird year – one to just “write off” and enjoy every good moment.

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Karma on Sollia. It’s a WARM day…

Nice weather all around, except for Runde island – which had some local sea fog.

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Runde island

On our way back, we stopped by lake Holmevatnet and Karma found a place to cool off. Snow up here in mid-June is just crazy…

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Take your time…

We finished off by following a vague path that I’ve only done once before. It’s definitely a candidate for becoming a member in our route network, but we’ll see..

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Tjørvåg

Trip statistics: 10,1km, 710 vertical meters, 2,5 hours

Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:

Sandvikhornet (352m), Storehanen (493m), Selsteinen (598m),  June 13 2020

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Our round trip hike around Øyradalen

Saturday: I took Friday off to start painting the house. A job that would keep me busy in the afternoons for the coming month. I live in a double apartment house and I have 5 outside walls. 3 are easy enough to paint, but the final two means being higher up in a ladder than I am happy with. As such, I decided to get an offer from a painter. He wanted ~NOK 40,000 – like 4000 Euros for the two walls. Norway is an expensive country… That was just a no-go deal and so I decided to do it myself. Not only were there walls that required immediate attention, but also stuff like the terrace…

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High time…

On Saturday, I decided that I would finish my documentation project this weekend and today I would cover the Sandvikhornet – Storehanen route. But I would never think about returning the same route, so it would clearly be a round trip hike around the Øyradalen valley. I was in for a LONG walk – again – relatively speaking.

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On our way to Sandvikhornet

The first top was Sandvikhornet (352m).

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Sandvikhornet

It is a mighty fine coastal view from up here…

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Coastal view from Sandvikhornet

It was a super-hot day and I was so happy when we finally reached water where Karma could satisfy her thirst.

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Take your time. No hurry…

The next top was Rysseviktua (452m).

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On Rysseviktua. Storehanen in the background.

Then we continued to Storehanen (493m) above Moltudalen.

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On our way to Storehanen. Selsteinen in the background – visited after Storehanen

From Storehanen, we crossed a long meadow and hiked up to Selsteinen (598m).

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On Selsteinen

We were now on our way back to the trailhead and at this point I didn’t know that I would be back up here several times the next two weeks. With a heavy load

Eventually, we reached Øyrahornet (417m) where we once again enjoyed the “bench view” …

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What a viewpoint!

…before cooling off in the Øyraelvi river.

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Karma wasn’t difficult when I pointed towards the river…

Trip statistics: 13,1km, 870 vertical meters, 3,5 hours

Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:

Rjåhornet (600m), Sollia (661m), June 14 2020

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Today’s route

Sunday: The final route in my documentation project was the Stemmedalen – Rjåhornet – Sollia route. It would be yet another long hike (relatively speaking) and I crossed my fingers for “getting away with it”.

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Heading out from Stemmedalen. Rjåhornet in the background

It was overcast weather, but it was still a warm day. I was a little worried about the lack of water for Karma along the way, but I assumed she would find “something liquid” in places I hadn’t thought about. And she did…

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North view from Rjåhornet

Eventually, we reached Rjåhornet and at least – the hardest climb was behind us.

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Arriving on Rjåhornet

Next stop was Sollia.

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Sollia (center) seen from Rjåhornet

What I learned on my way to Sollia that the paint on the sticks were for the most part OK on 3 sides and totally rubbed off on one side. So, when I’m done painting my house, I just have to get back up here and continue painting…

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Sollia ahead

And then we reached the top of Sollia. All routes in our route network (51km in total) had now been documented and photographed. I was *very happy* having completed this, getting back in sync with what we had put out there.

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Back on Sollia, 2nd time this week

On the way down from Sollia, we hiked off-trail down Høgsetdalen before rejoining the Stemmedalen – Rjåhornet route.

Trip statistics: 15,2km, 940 vertical meters, 4h:07m

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