Sunday saved the week…
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | |
| 08.08.22 | Melshornet | 668m | 560m | Hareid, Norway | WCP |
| 09.08.22 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 10.08.22 | Hovdenakken | 474m | 176m | Hareid, Norway | WCP |
| 10.08.22 | Ramnefjellet | 444m | 76m | Hareid, Norway | WCP |
| 12.08.22 | Gyrinakken | 365m | 157m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 13.08.22 | Rjåhornet | 421m | 68m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 13.08.22 | Storevarden | 430m | 430m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 14.08.22 | Rundegga | 1615m | 255m | Stranda, Norway | – |
| 14.08.22 | Gryta | 1032m | 122m | Stryn, Norway | – |
Melshornet (668m), Aug 8 2022
Monday: Anne went back to Sogndal this morning, and there was no doubt that Karma was missing mommy. But after a while she came up and helped daddy get through the working day.
It felt somewhat hard to start another hiking week. But the dog has to be walked, and as you’ve guessed by now – I don’t like to walk the dog along streets. After digging for some inspiration, I decided to drive to Ulset and hike Melshornet.
The Ulset route is a route I both loved and hated a few years back when I considered myself to be quite fit for my age. Loved – because I was *almost* able to get to the top in 30 minutes. Hated – because the final hill was an absolute killer. Every time.
But the running days are over, and now I just find the route a bit boring. The good thing about it is that we don’t get exposed to so many ticks. I was pretty fed up with ticks by now, having found them on myself and the dog every day for the past 2 weeks.
Warm weather, but on the mountain the wind was quite fierce. It was a welcomed break to seek shelter behind the cairn and “man up” for taking “the southwest” head on.
There are variations to this route, but none that I considered today – because they would almost guaranteed mean more ticks.
Back at the car, someone had parked very close to me, leaving me very little room to get out. There were 3-4 available slots this other person could have taken, but no. It had to be the one closest to me. After jiggling the car back and forth ~10 times I was able to get out of there. I don’t want to brag about being a very considerate person, but I actually do think about these things when I park. And the next time, I will definitely turn the car around before I leave it…
Trip statistics: 6,8km, 565 vertical meters, 1h:47m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Huldrehornet (271m), Aug 9 2022
Tuesday: I didn’t find any inspiration for hiking today either. Maybe the rain had something to do with it, and besides – I wanted Karma to have a low-key hiking week. Maybe her shoulder would get back to normal.
In the end, I grabbed the lopper and went to my local forest – Huldrehornskogen – for trail maintenance. It’s been a few years since I had a go at this forest, and I figured the bushes had grown since then. They had…
I cut away a WHOLE LOT of bushes today. Not only those touching the trail, but the nearby juniper that attracts all sorts of weed and ticks…
Trip statistics: 2,5km, 250 vertical meters, 1h:56m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Hovdenakken (474m), Ramnefjellet (444m), Aug 10 2022
Wednesday: The plan was to go to one of the higher tops on the north side of Hareidlandet island. But when I got to “Eidet” (the pass between Ulsteinvik and Hareidsdalen) I got second thoughts. It was really windy and, in the horizon, I saw incoming rain. I needed to go a lower elevation, and with an exit plan.
I chose to hike Hovdenakken – and if doable – Ramnefjellet as part of a round trip hike. The route from the trailhead and to the foot of Hovdenakken was immensely wet. I’m talking soaking wet! But it wasn’t all that windy and there was still no rain. Upsides!
Things changed when I got on Hovdenakken SW ridge. The wind was really strong now, but it was in my back – so it was JUST windy.
The weather was OK to the north, west and east. But something bad was moving in from the south/southwest.
Being summer and all, the wind was really off the charts. The top wasn’t a place we wanted to stay for long, now that the rain was close. The combination of wind and rain is something us humans have clothes for, but the dogs are very exposed.
It was clear that we wouldn’t make it down before the rain came and so I decided to hike across Ramnefjellet also. If we get wet, we might as well get wet and get two tops instead of one…
Ramnefjellet was just as windy, but when the rain sat in, I had to take a pause behind a rock just to get a break from the terrible noise inside my hood.
It was pure delight to return to the car and get inside…
Trip statistics: 5,0km, 370 vertical meters, 1h:15m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Gyrinakken (365m), Aug 12 2022
Friday: It was still raining, and I decided to stay in the forest today. I drove to Vonheim to hike Gyrinakken. A route I tend to often do when it’s raining.
Karma seems to like this route. For the records, there are routes she doesn’t like. It’s not easy to understand what she considers being the difference.
Yesterday’s strong wind was history. Today we were just wet.
For descent, I chose to hike down to the Kart track. From there, we had to follow the main road back to the light trail (“Lysløype”) on Leikongeidet and back to the car via the forest road. We were totally soaking wet afterwards…
Trip statistics: 6,3km, 340 vertical meters, 1h:35m
Rjåhornet (421m), Storevarden (430m), Aug 13 2022
Saturday: Being on-call, I had to stay in the local region and chose to revisit the route from the Skagetåa trailhead (near Koparstad) on Nerlandsøya. But today, we wouldn’t go to Skagetåa but instead do a round-trip hike across Rjåhornet and Storevarden and descend to Koparstad.
The route up to lake Lemevatnet was just as steep as I remembered it to be.
From the lake, we followed the path up to Rjåhornet (421m).
The view to Skorpa island is always nice from Rjåhornet…
Next, we followed the path to the island high point Storevarden.
I really wanted sunshine but settled for the absence of rain.
On the way down to Koparstad, we came across a “crime scene”. I’m as far from being a crime scene forensic as you can get, but this profession also includes photography. And that’s where I came into the picture. At first glance, it seemed like a lamb – probably killed by an eagle. But, what do I know…
Heading down to Koparstad, we came across a whole lot of mushrooms in the forest…
Trip statistics: 7,4km, 510 vertical meters, 2h:05m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Rundegga (1615m), Aug 14 2022
Sunday: The trip report is found here, but this is a good opportunity to post the picture I took by lake Oppstrynsvatnet again. It’s not that often mother nature presents herself to me this way…
Gryta (1032m), Aug 14 2022
Sunday: After returning from Strynefjell and hiking Rundegga, I decided to go for one more hike. I was looking for a mountain that was high enough to be interesting (preferably > 1000m) and the hike short enough to leave Karma in the car. It was a warm day but as long as I could find shade for the car, it would be OK.
The answer was Gryta above Stryn. The slalom hill would take me straight onto the mountain path and I expected to be up within the hour and back before 1,5 hours had passed – based on previous hikes.
I found shade for Karma by the building at Stryn Skisenter and headed up the slalom hill. I should have hiked in t-shirt and shorts and not woollen sweater and pants. I had to take a couple of short breaks to prevent overheating.
Once on the mountain trail, I tried to keep the pace up, but I had to stop several times to gather strength. Fortunately, each stop only costed me 15-20 seconds.
The top was slightly “crowded” so I stopped for two pictures only.
Then I went down to the viewpoint above Stryn. This viewpoint is 320m S-SW of the summit.
I took a different route down the upper mountain and there is one passage that is fun and steep. But Karma had not had any problems the two times she went up this way.
I was back at the car 1h:28m after leaving it. Karma was very relaxed and comfortable. Back home, I had to check previous tracks from this mountain. I had been 5-10 minutes slower than the previous hikes (2016 and 2019) but I hadn’t hiked a 1600m mountain on beforehand then…
Trip statistics: 5,3km, 705 vertical meters, 1h:28m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
