Summer holiday, day 15 – Alstahaug
Index
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location |
| 18.07.22 | Vettfjellet | 244m | 152m | Alstahaug, Norway |
| 18.07.22 | Alstahaug, Kongshaugen, Haugsneset | 19m | 6m | Alstahaug, Norway |
Continued from day 14…
Vettfjellet
Monday: The forecast said it would rain most of the day, so the day before, mom, Anne and I decided to drive to Sandnessjøen and hike Vettfjellet – the small peak at the foot of the seven sister’s range.
My first visit here was in 2003, where Petter Bjørstad and I attempted to cross all seven sisters in one go. But because of the amount of snow and lack of daylight, we had to stop at five sisters. Two years later, I returned to also visit Stortinden and Kvasstinden. At that point, I didn’t even know that Vettfjellet existed.
We took the 8:50am ferry from Horn to Andalsvågen. After a 15-minute drive, we took the 09:50am ferry from Forvik to Tjøtta. It was raining cats and dogs. Then we drove to Søvika southwest of Sandnessjøen and found the Stortinden/Vettfjellet trailhead.
It wasn’t raining much in the beginning of the hike, but that changed.
The hike up Vettfjellet was easy enough. The terrain was mostly naked rock/slabs with occasional wet grass/mud in-between.
Mom was excited to be here, as she had a good view towards Blomsøya, where her mother came from. She said she would return here on a sunnier day.
We reached the top and after the mandatory picture, found shelter behind the building that looked like it belonged to the military.
Upon descent, we found the path descends to Søvikskardet and follows the valley back to the trailhead. It was a nice route, way less slippery than the slabs on the ridge.
Trip statistics: 5,2km, 255 vertical meters, 1h:47m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Alstahaug Kirke, Kongshaugen, Haugsneset
After the hike to Vettfjellet, we drove to Alstahaug as mom and Anne wanted to visit the medieval church and the Petter Dass Museum.
I had no interest in either and waited a long hour in the car. Afterwards, mom wanted to hike to Haugsneset – a hike Anne and I wasn’t too keen about but decided to join to keep her company.
The trail was perfectly good and muddy (after and during rain) and I was not in my best mood. This would certainly mean that it would be late before getting back home to Brønnøysund. We had some plans later on that we would have to cancel. But OK, mom wanted this hike and now we were here!
I thought Kongshaugen (19m) would be on mom’s agenda, but clearly not – as I found myself all alone up there and heard mom and Anne move on.
Eventually, we got to Haugsneset…
Back at the car, I still had a feeling it would be a long way home. Mom’s place was just some 45km to the south (straight line). And sure enough! We missed the 15:30 ferry from Tjøtta by 5 minutes. According to the schedule, the next ferry would leave 17:55 (!). But, after checking all possible ferry routes on the net, it seemed like there would be a 16:35 ferry. And there was! We were starving, but the ferry restaurant had closed and there was only muffins and chocolate left as self-serve purchases.
When we got to Andalsvågen, we could see the 17:30 ferry leave right in front of us. Why the HECK couldn’t they be synchronized? The next ferry didn’t leave until 19:40 and we had to spend two ultra-boring hours at this desolate ferry harbor. My hate for the Helgeland ferry system rose from 9 to 10.
We were back home around 20:30. It took a LONG day to reach this 200m+ top, but at least we got a new pf100 top!
Trip statistics: 4,3km, 90 vertical meters, 1h:05m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Continued on day 16…
