2022 Week 20

Karma not well 🙁

Introducing Karma to … nothing

Index

Date Peak/Place Height PF Location WCP
17.05.2022 Ytrehornsnakken 554m 2m Volda, Norway
18.05.22 Rambjøra 132m 109m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
20.05.22 Øyrahornet 417m 42m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
20.05.22 Slettheia 553m 49m Herøy, M&R, Norway WCP
20.05.22 Sandvikshornet 352m 13m Herøy, M&R, Norway
21.05.22 Helgehornet 626m 545m Volda, Norway WCP
21.05.22 Høgtua (Åsen) 162m 27 Ørsta, Norway WCP
21.05.22 Indrehovdåsen (Høgåsen) 187m 66m Ørsta, Norway WCP
21.05.22 Ytrehovdåsen (Geitenakken) 170m 72m Ørsta, Norway WCP
22.05.22 Litlebøra 709m 86m Vanylven, Norway WCP
22.05.22 Storebøra 785m 702m Vanylven, Norway WCP

Rjoandeggi (1339m), Lauvhovden (815m), May 16 2022

Monday: See separate trip report.

Rjoandeggi summit ahead

Finnbunuten (1358m), May 17 2022

Tuesday: See separate trip report.

Celebrating Norway’s National Day on Finnbunuten on Vikafjell

Ytrehornsnakken (554m), May 17 2022

Our hike up and down Ytrehornsnakken

Tuesday: After skiing Finnbunuten on Vikafjell and after dropping Anne off in Sogndal, it was time to go home. I hadn’t been home for 2 weeks and looked forward to return to the normal routine – for a little while.

I enjoyed the drive. The weather was beautiful and there was hardly any traffic. Sogndal – Sunnmøre is clearly not the worst drive you can do in this country…

Passing Blånipa in Fjærland

Passing Grodås, I figured that I might as well give Karma a proper evening walk and decided to hike up to Ytrehornsnakken. It’s not really a top – more a viewpoint on the way to the Kviven mountain. But it’s a short, steep and nice walk – and with a good view.

Ytrehornsnakken

Karma wasn’t exactly ecstatic when she realized she was up for some additional vertical meters. She did a good bit of running on the ski-trip to Finnbunuten earlier in the day.

Come on, cheer up!

But eventually, she got into the usual rhythm and took the lead.

Yes, lead on please…

I met several hikers coming down the mountain. I stopped for a brief chat with most of them, but not the grumpy guy who informed me that dogs had to be on a leash. With the law in his hand, there’s no counter arguments. Not the fact that she is not further away that she would have been on leash. Not the fact that there are no animals up here. Not the fact that she doesn’t give a rat’s ass about sheep, cows, horses or what have you. Not the fact that when she sees people she fall in behind me. Nor the fact that she stays on the trail, and certainly not the fact that she is well trained and stopped taking off 9 years ago.

In Sogndal, a few days earlier she was on the lawn while I was in a phone call, partly keeping an eye on her. Along came a cat with a death wish. They were 1 meter apart and Karma was looking at me, waiting for approval to kill the cat. She didn’t get one and came back in pretty disappointed. That’s how I know that no one gets hurt on my watch.

On Ytrehornsnakken

On top was a young couple. Sweethearts. They gave me the look that only young people being disturbed can give. Clearly not in the age where “Hello” comes naturally. I didn’t pay them any notice, gave Karma her treats, took my pictures and left.   

View from Ytrehornsnakken

Trip statistics: 3km, 470 vertical meters, 1h:04m

Pictures (Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:

Rambjøra (132m), May 18 2022

Our hike across Rambjøra

Wednesday: My local forest isn’t as safe as I thought it was. I was too tired to hike a proper mountain top and just headed straight onto the Rambjøra trail after work. Karma was on fire, as this is her favorite hike – for reasons I don’t know.

Towards Rambjøra

Halfway up, she was OK. On top, her mouth was foaming. That scared me quite a bit, but other than that, she looked normal.

Holy crap! What happened to you?

Back home, things were clearly not right. She could not eat or drink. I fed her water with a spoon and called the Vet’s emergency number. They didn’t think it was serious enough to call us in, and so we just had to wait until the next day and see. I didn’t sleep well that night…

The next day (May 19th), we went to the Vet and Karma was sedated as the Vet had to look deep inside her mouth. The Vet concluded that her tongue was sore and slimy. She gave Karma pain killers and told us to be patient. Karma gradually came back to life during the afternoon but walking around the block was a huge effort. But at least now I had a syringe to feed her water with. I boiled a mixture of vegetables, and she was able to eat something too.

Trip statistics: 3,8km, 135 vertical meters, 50 mins

Øyrahornet (417m), Slettheia (552m), Sandvikhornet (352m), May 20 2022

Today’s hike

Friday: Karma had made good progress and was now able to drink by herself and even lick her nose. As I wasn’t sure if she was up for any walking, I picked a trailhead that I knew she really liked – The Coop store at Tjørvåg and the dog was on fire.

We followed the path to Sandvikskaret, and like always – Karma suggested that we should cross the river and get on the Øyrahornet path.

You’re not old, just yet…

I let her have it her way of course, and now we were heading up a foggy mountain.

Hmm…

But as we went up, I got a feeling that we might get above the fog. Which is unusual at this altitude. But we did (top picture)!

On Øyrahornet, with Slettheia in the background

I then decided to continue towards Slettheia so that I could inspect the sticks that I put there two years ago. They were all still standing, and the paint wasn’t half bad. I might do a “repainting round” in June. We’ll see.

Karma on Slettheia

It was tempting to do a full round around Øyradalen valley, but I found it more tempting to get back home for dinner. For the descent, I aimed for point 425m on the other side of the valley and then followed the marked path across Sandvikhornet and then down to Sandvikskaret.

Towards lake Øyravatnet and the ridge on the other side
Nice to see the local swans again!

It was really nice to see the dog eating like normal, but still doesn’t drink like normal. It’s going in the right direction, though. I think…

Trip statistics: 8,5km, 710 vertical meters, 2h:12m

Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:

Helgehornet (626m) & Hovdeåsene, May 21 2022

Our “classic” hike around lake Hovdevatnet

Saturday: To my despair, Karma was still not acting normally. She always drinks after eating, but not after the episode (whatever it was) on Rambjøra. So, one more round with the syringe, filled with the juice from boiling vegetables.

Today’s plan was to hike Helgehornet in Volda. If Karma looked up for it, we would do the hike across the Hovdeåsene hills also. That would be an acceptable round-trip hike in the light rain.

For the first time, we headed out from Vikabakkane by lake Hovdevatnet. After a little while, we got on to the same ol’, same ol’ forest road that we’ve done several times. But any variation helps…

Vikabakkane – our starting point

The rest of the hike to the top was uneventful. I was happy that we only felt raindrops. I seem to recall that the forecast promised more rain.

Helgehornet comes into view

After a steep uphill, we reached the top – my 18th visit.

Karma on Helgehornet

I was now curious what the rest of the hike would be like. Karma’s mouth was foaming again and I started to wonder if she wasn’t able to regulate the body temperature, as there was something clearly odd about her tongue.

Hovdeåsene – on the other side of lake Hovdevatnet

We headed down the south/southeast ridge and maybe I was spooking the dog, because I couldn’t quite read her body language. She seemed both eager to get moving and willing to sit down at the same time. But we couldn’t stay up here, so I just told her to keep moving.

Down by Håskjold, she was acting rather normal, and I decided to do the hike across the Hovdeåsene tops. I enjoy this forest route.

On the path across Hovdeåsene

Every now and then, we get some views also…

Lake Hovdevatnet. Helgehornet up to the left…

After visiting Høgetua and Indrehovdåsen, there was only Ytrehovdåsen between us and the car – which I started looking forward to reaching. My right leg was aching, for reasons I didn’t know.

Ytrehovdåsen ahead

Trip statistics: 11,8km, 810 vertical meters, 2h:54m

Litlebøra (709m), Storebøra (785m), May 22 2022

Our hike across Litlebøra and Storebøra

Sunday: No further progress on the Karma side, except that she seemed happy on the trail. So today, we went to Vanylven to hike across Litlebøra and Storebøra. I had never done a round-trip hike from lake Børevatnet. And I had never hiked across Trollryggen and up to the pass between Kvannskarhornet and Litlebøra.

On the road from Børevatnet, with Litlebøra and Storebøra above

There are some relatively new roads up here, and I spoke to a couple at Trollekloppa (them coming down from Kvannskarhornet), learning that the road was basically built for the cabin owners. With some spin-off effects for people taking a walk or biking along the road. Their argument was that they were quite old by now and driving to the cabin was very practical. I was thinking that if they can hike the nearby mountains, they could also walk the 2km to the cabin? But I didn’t say it.

Approaching Trollekloppa. There is a bridge across the lake here

It’s a difficult subject. While there are always many “good” reasons for destroying nature, we’re doing just that. In a scary pace. And now that there are roads up here, what’s next? Will the number of cabins explode? Heavy machinery day in and day out for years to come? Yes, I know what I sound like, but I stand for it.

In any case, I was happy to get onto the mountain path from Trollekloppa. I observed a group of children and adults coming down from Kvannskarhornet, and the couple I spoke to thank the new roads for their outdoor activities. Oh my…

Heading upwards from Trollekloppa

I decided to put the grumpiness aside and continued towards Litlebøra

Litlebøra

The view from the top was nice, except for the new roads…

View from Litlebøra

I gave Karma some treats and her mouth was foaming again. That wasn’t normal either, but she seemed very happy to be on the trail.

Karma on Litlebøra, with Storebøra in the background

We continued across Litlebøra and headed up Storebøra. This was my 6th visit to this top.

On top of Storebøra

After a short stay, we continued down the steep northwest ridge. I was considering if I should extend the hike with going across Tverrfjellet and Brandalsbrunene also but figured that my leg would be better off without.

Steep descent from Storebøra

So, we headed down to lake Børevatnet, followed the shore for a little while before getting on the path that took us back to the car. It was nice to pick up hiking in the Vanylven region again. There will more trips here in 2022…

By lake Børevatnet

Trip statistics: 9,8km, 565 vertical meters, 2h:38m

Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:

2 thoughts on “2022 Week 20

  1. Here in England farmers can legally shoot at dogs chasing their sheep but not their owners!The various dogs I’ve had,all no longer inhabitants of Earth, never showed any interest in sheep and where scared of larger beasts like cattle and horses.I once saw some idiot let a German Shepherd off the lead and it ran after some horses causing the horses to stampede across a field I and various other humans and dogs where in making it very dangerous to us and if I’d had a pistol on me I’d have probably shot the dog’s owner rather than the dog as it doesn’t know any better! Running horses and cattle are really dangerous unless you are sat in a tank!

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