My first hike from Engjasete
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 07.12.25 | Mælen | 974m | 31m | Sogndal, Norway | – | MAP |
Sunday: The first thing Anne thought about when she woke up this Sunday morning, was: “I’ve gotta go downtown and swim in the cold fjord, with the others”.
A little bit later, I drove down to pick her up.
During breakfast, we discussed where to go hiking. I proposed to hike Mælen from Engjasete. I had never hike from Engjasete before (Anne had) and Anne had never been on Mælen before (I had). Anne though this was good idea.
A little bit later, we headed out from Engjasete.
We liked the forest. The trail was nice.
But on our way to Orrasete, we could see the results of the Amy storm in October. So, we decided to take a different route.
We found a tractor road that we followed for a good while.
After a while, Mælen came into view. It would take us a bit of time to get there, though.
The sun was shining and our mood was *good*.
We liked the trail. A bit icy in places, but not a problem.
Then Kjeringi came into view. It was less than 2 months since we hiked Kjeringi from Huksdalen.
We met a woman coming down and we chatted with her. She told us that there were hunters on the mountain. After a while, we met 3 of the hunters. I don’t say hello to hunters unless they say hello to me first. Most of them hate hikers. At least when hunting. Anne said hello and didn’t get any reply. That’s why I don’t say hello first.
We were now aiming for Dalsbotnen, from where we planned to set a direct course for Mælen.
We had reached snow, and the snow didn’t carry our weight.
Of course, I volunteered to set the tracks, and Anne gave me kind words for my effort.
The sun was still shining and life was good!
We were now high on the mountain and looked forward to reaching the top.
Almost up…
And then we were up!
It was cold on top, but we had brought warm clothes and we could hang around as long as we wanted.
There was still a lot of mountain above us, but this was as high as we wanted to go today.
Eventually, it was time to head down.
We had to be careful. The snow was treacherous and Anne had a near-accident (not this one)
Instead of going back to Dalsbotnen, we sat a direct course down the mountain, having no idea what was ahead of us.
Fortunately, the terrain was easy enough and soon we were back on our ascent route.
Daylight was fading, but I didn’t expect the headlamp to come into play.
When we got back on our ascent route, we decided to skip the tractor road – which was icy – and instead took the forest path to Orresete. Rather than following the main path from Orresete back to Engjasete, we followed a deer track that took us back to the path we followed on our way up. This way, we didn’t have to deal with the fallen trees in the forest near Orresete.
We passed the hunters on our way down. They had shot a buck and had a heavy load. I felt sad for the buck.
After returning to Sogndal, we agreed to celebrate the nice hike by eating out at the Malin restaurant in Sogndal.
An celebrate, we did!
Trip statistics: 12,1km, 750 vertical meters, 3h:42m