Exploring the Kaupanger forest…
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 01.08.26 | Kyrkjedalshaug | 929m | 36m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Saturday: I enjoyed going bicycling with Anne the day before and hoped that she would join me for one last trip before I returned to Sunnmøre, the next day.
I was a bit bored of the same old bicycling routes and so I tried to be inventive. I recently had noticed a small forest top in the Kaupanger forest which a) had a name and b) I hadn’t been to. It would require a little bit of hiking, and I asked Anne if she was up to it (given her bad foot). She gave me thumbs up.
The top is called Kyrkjedalshaug and we decided to start from Hovland. This forest road isn’t all that steep and less brutal than other forest roads in the area.
It wasn’t clear what the weather would be like. We hoped for the best and planned for the worst. It had been raining until now, but hopefully, we would get a few hours without rain.
Anne’s E-bike allowed her to smile on pictures, although she claimed that she wasn’t using much power. On my normal bike, I wasn’t physically smiling, but I was indeed happy on the inside.
After 6km – at around 700m elevation, the gravel road ended and we continued along a tractor road…
… but only for a short while. Approx. 0,6km before the end of the tractor road in Svartedalen, we left our bikes and followed a vague path up the forest – not knowing where this path goes. But it made for a good start!
Anne guessed that the path ran up to Pikhaug, but it runs all the way up to the meadows near Kyrkjedalshaug.
It was nice to see the upper mountain, above the tree line. We hoped we could get some nice views.
After a little while, we were closing in on the top…
We had a good view towards lake Breisetevatnet and Storhaug – which we visited the day before.
According to the map, the high point is ~70m north of the trig. point and 1m higher.
It was fun to be up here. This is a part of the Kaupanger forest where haven’t spent much time in.
We didn’t stay for long. It seemed like the rain was on its way towards us…
And sure enough – the rain came…
As the rain had set in, we agreed to return the way we came, but when we got to Arnfinnstølen, it stopped raining. I suggested to Anne that we should bike towards Øydestølen and turn onto a tractor road (of uncertain quality) near Halvfar. This tractor road would take us to the forest road connecting to Goro and we could return to Hovland that way.
Anne was up for the “challenge” and the tractor road wasn’t bad at all and we had big fun!
On the road to Goro, we stopped by the bridge across Kaupangselvi river. Quite nice!
Then it was just to return to the car at Hovland…
Trip statistics: 3,7km on foot, 17,1km on bike, 850 vertical meters, 3h:18m
