Vikerfjellet, Forhatten, July 22-23 2020

Summer vacation, day 4 & 5

Continued from day 2 & 3

A tiny bit of the Helgeland coastline, seen from Vikerfjellet
Index
Date Peak/Place Height PF Location WCP
22.07.2020 Vikerheia 110m 32m Brønnøy, Norway WCP
22.07.2020 Vikerfjellet 145m 145m Brønnøy, Norway WCP
22.07.2020 Einvolltinden 105m 60m Brønnøy, Norway WCP
23.07.2020 Forhatten 174m 32m Brønnøy, Norway WCP

Vikerheia, Vikerfjellet, Einvolltinden, July 22 2020

Our route across Vikerfjellet

In the morning, I had an appointment at the Vet’s office in Brønnøysund. Karma would have her 13 stitches removed. 9 on her thigh and 4 on her paw. She was a little “mindful” about being in the Vet’s office, but like always – she behaved with grace. The stitches came out, one by one. The VET was impressed with the fact that she didn’t even move a single time.

Karma at the Vet’s office in Brønnøysund

Afterwards, we went to town to shop. I came out with a new pair of hiking boots and pants. The town was not overcrowded. This late in July, many of the visiting tourists had left already.

Shopping in Brønnøysund

It was a fairly nice weather day in Brønnøysund and we agreed to drive to Torget island to hike Vikerfjellet. Anne had not been to this top before and while there, mom and me also wanted to visit Einvolltinden – a cool hump in the outskirts of the Vikerfjellet “massif”.

Einvolltinden

I like Vikerfjellet for several reasons. I like hiking on the slabs and have a great coastal view, but also because parts of this mountain are quite rugged and routefinding isn’t always straightforward.

Parking wasn’t easy to find out here, so we drove up to a house and asked where it was possible to leave the car. Not to my surprise, we were welcome to leave the car by their house. They will hopefully remember us as polite people, asking nicely. If we had left the car alongside the road, we would have been “damned tourists” (disregarding the fact that my mom has a local registration number on her plate).

This mountain doesn’t require a trail and we headed straight up – off-trail.

Heading up towards Vikerheia

First, we reached the top of Vikerheia, which is just a small hump 0,4km south of the main top.

Mom, Anne and Karma on Vikerheia

Then it was time to figure out the route to Vikerfjellet. The natural route seemed to involve some loss of vertical gain and so I started to look down the steep section below the top – while mom was submitting protests. But I normally get my will through…

Mom – back in steep terrain

I previously mentioned rugged terrain. And we found some. It was quite fun looking around for a doable route ahead.

Rugged terrain on Vikerfjellet

I tried to keep up the “momentum” but got no support from the others…

Cloudberry temptations

Eventually we reached the top of Vikerfjellet and had a fantastic view towards Vega island.

On Vikerfjellet, with view towards Vega

And Anne got another mountain top in her “bag”.

On Vikerfjellet high point

The next stop was Einvolltinden and at first we followed the main path to the northeast until we went off-trail.

Through the wall…

After a slightly cumbersome forest descent, we were at the foot of Einvolltinden.

Einvolltinden

On our way upwards, Karma could finally satisfy her thirst.

Take your time…

And then Einvolltinden was “conquered” – a new top for all of us.

On top of Einvolltinden

We had a pretty nice view from this top!

Panorama from Einvolltinden

The descent down the south ridge was fairly steep, but offered no problems.

Going down Einvolltinden’s south ridge

Afterwards, we drove to Norsk Havbruksenter on Torget island and had dinner. The fish soup was quite nice but way too salty. All 3 of us agreed on this.

Norsk Havbruksenter on Torget island

Trip statistics: 4km, 235 vertical meters, 2h:09m

Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone) from the hike:

 

Forhatten, July 23 2020

Our Forhatten trip

The next day it was raining. Fortunately, it was only raining 2-3 days throughout our 3-week vacation, which made it tolerable. At least in retrospect.

Today, we drove to Sausvatn (my summer paradise when I was a child) to hike Forhatten (“the front hat”). It’s a fairly anonymous forest hill with a steep drop down to the main road, but it has a history to us.

Forhatten trailhead

The last conscious thing my dad ever did in life was to hike Kvennhatten (590m) – above Forhatten in 2003.

It was a hike he never should have taken on in his condition, but it was impossible to find someone that was willing to come with him. Not strange, given his condition after numerous brain strokes. So what do you do then? You go alone. I can understand the decision. It runs in the family.

He reached the top and very happy – he called my mom. Shocked as she was, she instructed him to call back when he was down. He never did and a rescue operation followed. In short, he got a heart attack from the strain and he never woke up again. As much as he loved Kvennhatten, he also loved Forhatten and my mom has named the cairn above the cliff “Eivinds varde” – after my dad.

Eivinds Varde on Forhatten

Once up there, I figured that we could also visit the high point – where none of us had been before.

On Forhatten’s high point

Afterwards, mom suggested we should visit “Steinhytta” (the stone cabin) in Kamfjellbotnet.

“Steinhytta”

The cabin was quite hidden away and I would never ever have seen it, if I didn’t know about it. Cozy as I’m sure it was for those who found shelter here, there was still a “draft”. And wet as we were, we didn’t stay long.

Inside “Steinhytta”

It was altogether a nice outing on a rainy day!

Trip statistics: 4km, 300 vertical meters, 1h:54m

Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:

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