Posted on by Trish

Another December Walk – Furufjellet

Inspired by my walk yesterday, I set off for another walk today. Today’s walk was longer, an hour each way. The weather was also nicer today, with the sun shining and no precipitation while I was out walking. The temperature was about zero degrees Celsius, but I had warm winter clothes on and kept toasty warm. Much of the walk is uphill, so I generate a lot of heat when walking.

Today’s walk had four sections to it, each quite different walking. The first section is through the woods, then I cross Skarnsund Bridge which has a lot of vehicle traffic on it, then up a gravel (and icy) road, then into the woods again. The return is exactly the same route, but mostly downhill. I started shortly after 11 am and got home two hours later, not even completely exhausted.

Through the woods to the bridge

The first section of the walk is about 10 minutes of walking, first along a gravel road that gives access to about twelve cabins. I noticed immediately that one large tree had been cut down and remembered the day that I had heard the sound of a motor saw. At the end of the gravel road, there is a path that leads up to route 755 which crosses Skarnsund Bridge. We had frost in the night, so I had to be careful where I was walking and avoid icy patches. But after all the rain the last week, the streams were still running briskly, taking run-off water down to the fjord.

There is a small stream beside the road to several cabins.

Skarnsund Bridge

I don’t walk across the bridge nearly as much as I used to because there is much more traffic on it now and it can be a bit noisy. However, when I am on my own and not trying to hold a conversation with anyone, the noise doesn’t bother me nearly as much. One can notice the vibrations of a heavily loaded dump truck and large trucks can create quite a breeze as they whizz by at 80 km an hour. Today, there were both trucks and buses passing me, as well as cars.

The nice thing about the walk across the bridge is the views in several directions – back towards home, up the sound to mountains with snow cover, to the south where the sun is a bit above the horizon and out the fjord towards Trondheim.

Vangshylla as seen from Skarnsund Bridge. This picture also shows how little light there is here in the middle of the day (photo taken at 11:25), even when the sun is trying to shine.
Looking north from Skarnsund Bridge with Framverran on the left and the mountains of Sela in the background.
Looking south-west from Skarnsund Bridge with the sun just clearing the island of Ytterøy.
As I approach the Mosvik side of the bridge, I see both remnants of the ice that builds up on the hillside and a stream of freely flowing water. The temperature was about zero degrees Celsius, but water was running freely in many places.

Gravel road

At this time of year, gravel roads can be a bit of a challenge as they can be very icy, especially in the ruts of the car traffic. The one I took today has very little traffic, which is why I like to walk along it. It is also uphill so I get a lot of good exercise, both for my limbs and my heart and lungs.

This gravel road leads to some farms, some homes and some cabins. There is not a lot of traffic on it, so it is a nice road to walk along. Today there was one car that drove past me. The road has been sanded so I was careful to walk where it had been sanded. This road gives good exercise as I walk uphill for about half a kilometer.
A road not taken. The photo shows how the frost settles on the ground in open areas, but less so under trees.
Another road not taken.
I don’t imagine that this field gets much sunshine at this time of year. With lots of rain recently, rain water had collected and was now starting to freeze over. I am now high enough up that snow has fallen yesterday instead of rain. I am at about 120 meters over sea level at this point.

In the woods

This section of the walk is in a quiet section of forest on a steep slope. In the summer months, sheep can be found grazing here. Today the gate in the fence was open as the sheep have either been sent to the slaughter house or are in the barn for the winter months.

Now I’m off the road and into the woods again.
The gate is open so there are no sheep out at this time of year. In the summer one must keep gates closed so that grazing animals stay where they are supposed to be.
This part of the trail is not particularly steep. It seems to be well used, either by people or wild animals. Though there is some snow where there are openings in the trees, it was also quite soggy and damp..
This section of the trail was being used by a small stream.
One section of the trail that had puddles also showed that the temperature was right on freezing, with a thin sliver of ice on the water.
On either side of the trail, the hillside is steep. Looking up.
Looking down.
This point of the trail, called Furufjellet, the Pine Mountain, was the goal of today’s walk. At the top of the cliff are some pine trees. Pine trees often grow where the soil is very poor. Much of the forest around here is actually spruce or birch trees.
I don’t have the best camera for taking close-ups of birds. Can you see the woodpecker sitting on a branch? He was busy pecking away as I watched him. We regularly have woodpeckers that come to our bird feeding station, so it was nice to see one out in the woods.

I really enjoyed my walk today. Even with two hours of walking, I wasn’t exhausted, so I guess I’m in better shape than I think I’m in. When the sun shines during at least part of my walk, my spirits are lifted and I feel much better. As I got home again, the sky clouded over and there was less sunshine. At the time of writing this blog in the evening, we have started to get more snow.

Enjoy your walk today!

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