Another day, another mountain. This time with a guide who lives locally and kept us entertained with facts, side trips and banter about the area and life in general. He’s a retired police officer, but retirement is different over there. He guides tourists around and volunteers at a local golf course along with other interests and activities like skiing and hiking (often at the same time since you have to hike up to ski down on many mountains). Not sitting in a rocking chair, that’s for sure!
Here’s a bridge that was built by local farmers to create a road for mail delivery and other stuff. They were basically compelled by the government to build the road and maintain it as well. Each man got a segment and it’s still used today by walkers, bikers and horse riders. Look ma, no mortar!
We also stopped by his boyhood home that is right near a sawmill first established by his grandfather. His nephew still works there and we joked with him to work faster! The house he lived in is in the process of being torn down to be replaced with something newer. It was a nice little neighborhood with some lovely houses and architecture. The stories and side trip really rounded out our knowledge of how life is in this part of Norway. Not much different from my life growing up.
I just loved the dappled light on the moss in some parts of the forest and although the light wasn’t the kindest (bluebird skies again!), I had to try. The guide couldn’t figure out what the heck I was seeing, but he got used to it after a while.
That’s a quick cell phone shot of the grassy bottom of the valley with those lovely little pines. Quite serene and we’d have a surprise visitor soon.
This is a little marsh and we saw an eagle fly up from either the bank or a small tree. It was the first time our guide had ever seen an eagle so close and he was thrilled. We’d see it and its mate later on from further up the mountain; oh how they soared and floated on the thermals. Pretty wonderful. I also have a more ‘arial’ view of the marsh from where we stopped for pancakes. Yes, pancakes!
Here are the ruins of more of those little herder huts used by young women while grazing animals for milk. It wasn’t terribly well positioned for photos, but I like having the two guys here for scale/reference. Can’t quite recall what they were talking about.
After a steep bit, we got to this relatively clear view to the mountains across the fjord and so I put together a 3-image pano to take it all in. Most of the time a lot of trees blocked the view so this is the only one I have of the fjord. Across those hills were a number of abandoned farms. Our guide also explained (sorry, I just can’t recall his name) that there is a ruined village nearby that is famous for burning a woman to death because they thought she was a witch. Like here in the US, such events in the past are cause for some shame and remorse here in Norway, too. Although you can hike to the village and also reach it by boat, we didn’t and I had to satisfy my abandonment itch with these photos of the old farms clear across the fjord.
There was a LOT of atmospheric haze to deal with and that caused strange color casts and I think I got it corrected ok in the shot above, but for this one I thought monochrome was a good choice.
A while later we found ourselves near the top of the mountain and we stopped for a snack. It was windy, but we had a bit of shelter behind a ledge.
Here’s the eagle marsh as seen from up above, probably the way the eagle sees it all the time.
See! Pancakes! Seriously. Our guide brought a camp stove and a bottle of batter his wife made along with some strawberry preserves she also made. A little finagling to keep the stove out of the wind and soon the skillet was full of batter and joy. Coffee, too. It was great. That’s my husband on the little mat enjoying the food.
Between batches of cakes, I took more time to explore the view and take some photos.
Back to pancakes and jam!
After a while we decided to head back and our guide snapped some shots of us along the way –
Can you hear my feet squishing? Come to find out the GoreTex membrane in my shoes had cracked or somehow else failed and I had very cold and wet feet for both of my mountain hikes. With all the melt water it’s a very runny trail and it was inevitable that I’d get soaked shoes. Oh well. When I got home I took advantage of a sale at REI to get myself some waterproof Asolo hiking shoes. They’re about twice the price of the not-so-waterproof Merrills and my experience with my first pair of Asolo boots gives me confidence I will stay dry for a lot longer. The sole was literally coming off the shoe and they still kept the water out. You get what you pay for.
Pretty snazzy huh? Pardon my very messy living room.
Anyway, one more Norway post from the island town of Alnes!
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