When I walk on my own, I often write blogs in my head, but they don’t all make it onto the computer. Today I was thinking about the weather and how I have always been fascinated by it.
When I went out for an hour’s walk today, it wasn’t raining when I left the house, but I knew it could. After several days of rain, I knew the ground would be soggy and wet, so I dressed in rain gear including gumboots. Gumboots mean that I don’t have to worry about the puddles on the paths in the woods.
The weather affects us all, and I often will check the weather forecast on my phone several times in the day, either to decide when to go out for a walk, what type of walk I will get and whether to stay indoors. I also use it to plan activities for later in the week. A heavy snowfall reduces how much I am willing to drive. Rain after freezing temperatures will make roads very slippery and dangerous. A promise of sunshine will improve my humor and get me outside quicker. Cold days are good days to bake and use the oven to add heat to the house. Warm days mean that I cook less and put less heat into the house from cooking. At this time of year, January, I think more about rain, snow and ice, than about it being too warm.
Again we have had quite a bit snow that has melted with the rain. When walking on paths in the woods, this means that the paths often become streams.
The path in the woods today was also serving as a stream. Water runs downhill to about the middle of the picture, from both the foreground and the background. The water drains off from the puddle in the middle of the picture, off to the right and on down the hillside to the fjord.I tried following the water upstream to see where it was coming from and found a small waterfall.Wherever the water was coming from, it was definitely going downhill.
There are many times when running water creates a problem, both for the environment and for humans and animals. Running water has considerable force and can damage things. Flooding can be a result when there is more water than the water channel will hold. With the climate changing all over the world, flooding is becoming more of a problem, especially where people have built their homes on a natural flood plain (the area that a river needs to have when there is more than normal amounts of water in it).
One of the effects of running water is to wash away the sand and small pebbles in the ruts of gravel roads. This road leads to three cabins but the rain and melting snow, on a slope, have washed away some of the gravel and sand.To avoid this kind of erosion on driveways and gravel roads, it is important to lead the water away from the ruts. Here on our own driveway, I have cut into the side of the gravel so that the water can run into the ditch on the left. It seems to be working well this winter.
On my walk today, the streams (as well as the pathways) were full of water.
A local stream as it comes out of the woods and crosses the beach at low tide. My intention had been to cross the stream on the beach, but the water was flowing so quickly and I would have to have put my feet on uncertain ground, that I changed my mind and crossed the stream where it went in a large pipe under the road.As you can see in this picture, there is at least one channel on the beach where the water is flowing very quickly and I was uncertain as to how deep the water was.
Eventually the sun came out, about the time I came out of the woods and down onto the beach. I was able to push back my hood and enjoy a bit of sunshine. The last bit of my walk is all uphill, so it went slowly as I was enjoying being outside, in the fresh air and the sunshine.
As I was thinking even more about weather, I noticed that while I had been experiencing rain, on the far side of the sound, and at higher levels, there had been snow on the tree tops.
On the far side of Skarnsund, there was a dusting of snow on the trees at the top of the hill. On the open fields of the farm at Duklett, there was still plenty of snow that had not melted, even though at sea level there was very little snow left.
Once home again, I decided to look and see what books we actually have about the weather and I found three (though there could be more that I didn’t find) from different time periods.
I found the subtitle of this book, published in 1960, very interesting – calling meteorology a young science.This Norwegian book about weather forecasting was published in 1982 and is a translation of a German book published in 1977.Published in 2005, this appears to be a translation of a book originally published in English in Australia. This book, titled, “The Weather” claims to be a “visual guide to meteorology” and has a lot of good pictures that illustrate the weather phenomenon discussed.
Today, it is easy to look up information about the weather on the internet, so I doubt if I would buy another book about the weather. How we get our weather information, both locally, or internationally, has improved immensely in the last ten years. The weather forecast that I can get on my telephone or computer will show when precipitation is expected, what the temperature mostly likely will be, wind direction and air pressure. The forecast for the next 24 hours is usually reasonably accurate. Bad storms are given a lot of publicity in news media so one can be prepared.
Today I was relatively lucky with the weather. I got out of the house while it wasn’t raining. Most of the rain came while I was in the woods, in the relative shelter of the trees. Once I was out at the beach, the sun came out. I managed to get out in one of the short breaks in the rain. At the moment of writing, it is raining again, almost constantly.
I hope you can get outdoors today too, no matter what the weather.
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.
Going for walks in December can be difficult for me. I actually don’t mind being out in the rain or the snow, but I dislike the wind. The problem is getting out of the house. Once I am outside with the appropriate clothes on, I enjoy being out in nature and the temperature is not very important.
The other challenge with getting out for walks in December is the short window for daylight in which to go for walks out in nature, away from houses and lighting. For example, today, the 19th of December, two days before the winter solstice, sunrise was at 10.03 and sunset was at 14.22. When it is cloudy, it doesn’t seem very bright outside at sunrise or sunset. When looking outside from a brightly lit house, it seems darker than it actually is, once you are outside.
Weather-wise, December this year has been very varied. At the beginning of the month, we had quite cold temperatures, down to -12 degrees Celsius. We had snow on the ground and sunshine during the few hours of daylight. Then about the 13th of the month, it warmed up to +8 degrees Celsius and started to rain a lot. The snow disappeared. The ground is soggy. Paths in the woods are small streams or large puddles.
Today I went for about an hour’s walk starting at 11:30. I took a walk that goes both on dirt roads, paved roads and forest trail. I put on rain trousers and rain jacket. Toque and mitts were also put on. I wore winter walking boots that kept my feet dry in spite of the soggy ground. I enjoyed myself as it is quite a while since I have been out for a walk in the woods.
My goal was to get to Bjønnbråtte, which is on a cliff top. First I follow some gravel roads which are very easy walking. As I climbed up the hill, it was noticeable that it had been trying to snow, rather than rain, as I got higher up. There wasn’t much, but the temperature must have been close to freezing point and I had to be careful that I didn’t slip.
Once I got into the woods, the trail was not only damp, but the stream was following it and there were large puddles to pick my way around. The walk to Bjønnbråtte is about 20 minutes from home.
Picture taken at 11:52, from Bjønnbråtte, looking towards Ytterøy. This is the end point of one of my favourite walks. This point is on a cliff that goes straight down to the water.
Today I decided to walk home via Sysvedalen and Vangshylla. At the bottom of Sysvedalen is a very small beach, used mostly for pulling small boats up on land to be stored there when not in use. It is a pebble beach, not sand. What attracted my attention today was the amount of seaweed that had been washed up on the beach. It has been quite stormy lately and today I was there at about high tide. Looking up the data about high tide, it was highest, at 307 cm, at about 11:50 which is quite a high tide for us. It was a full moon last night, which gives us quite high tides.
Looking south-west from the beach at Rotvollvika. Picture taken at 12:05, shortly after high tide. In the background is Ytterøy.Looking south-east from the same beach at Rotvollvika. This picture was also taken at 12:05.Taken from the road down to Vangshylla at 12:15. It was raining at the time and I was fascinated by the light in the sky.Taken from the road to Vangshylla at 12:15. Note the light in the sky and the ramps to the boats in the small boat harbour. It is high tide and you don’t have to walk very much downhill to get to the boats.As I continued on uphill, the sky to the north had the most light. This was caused by a break in the clouds though it was still raining where I was. The picture was taken at 12:21.
Once I was home again, I was glad that I had gone outside. I often wonder why I don’t get out more, as I really enjoy myself, even if it is raining. The weather forecast is for snow again, perhaps even tonight. I’ll just have to see what it is like tomorrow and make an effort to get outside again.
I hope you, my readers, are getting out for fresh air and exercise regularly. Don’t put it off, no matter the weather. Just find a terrain that suits you, dress for the weather and away you go. Remember the Scandinavian expression: “There is no such thing as bad weather”, but you do have to dress appropriately for the weather that you have.
Today’s walk with a girlfriend took us to a place neither of us had been to before. It took a bit to find the parking spot and we then started off from the car in the wrong direction, which just gave us a little bit more exercise.
The parking spot for two posts was well-marked once we were there. We will only do post 18 today. Post 19, a large rhododendron is best done at the end of May or June, when it is blooming. You will find that I have written a blog about it in 2020. http://trish.mclellan.no/2020/06/17/inderoy-walk-ordal-nature-reserve/The information board gave information about the Ørdal Nature Reserve which includes the famous rhododendron. We did not walk into the nature reserve but ended up just before the boundary into it. Looking at the map on the board, we are walking at the top end of the map.
The Norwegian word “bråttet” or “brottet” refers, I think, to an area that has been recently cleared of trees. These two spellings would be pronounced similarly, depending on one’s dialect. These terms have been used on the names of two walks this summer, both of which take the walker to a high point with a view as there are almost no tall trees in the way.
We were lucky today with a morning with sunshine, though the temperature was about 10 degrees Celsius in the shade. When we got to higher elevations and were in the sun, I was walking in just a t-shirt.
The first part of the walk was along a gravel road. We were walking downhill at the beginning of the walk, which means you get a bit of an uphill climb just before getting back to the car.We were walking in the shade so it was cool. We could also hear the farmer out cutting his grass and we had actually seen him when leaving the car.But we didn’t walk that far downhill before we came across signs telling us to head into the woods. Another time I would like to go the whole way to the Rhododendron, just to see how to get to Noremsbråttet from the other side of the hill. My telephone tells me that at home, Noremsbråttet is only 3 km away, though that would be in a straight line and trails never go in straight lines.
The walk, as usual, took us up and down slopes. Though on the trip to Noremsbråttet it was primarily uphill, we both experienced that there were uphill sections on the way back to the car as well. The area we were walking in today is on the side of the hill on the east side of Skarnsund where the slopes are quite steep.
Here is an example of the trail we were following. It is narrow and in places it was quite damp. We had a lot of rain last week and most nights there is quite a bit of dew. This picture is taken looking back from where we came.Though the trail was easy to follow and was marked well, it was not a very well-worn path. This trail is a bit out of the way, even for people living in Inderøy. Most of the human traffic would be in May or June when the rhododendron was blooming. By September, there are signs that many plants are getting ready for the winter ahead.Looking up the slope, you can see how steep it is on this side of the hill.Looking downhill the slope looks even steeper. But at this point along the trail there were lots of trees clinging to the side of the hill.We were now up high enough to get a bit of a view, but there were still quite a few trees obstructing the view. Here we see Framverran on the west side of Skarnsund.I knew that there were two trails to the rhododendron and this was the divide. We took the upper trail (“øvre sti”). The lower trail (“nedre sti”) to the right looked very unused and overgrown.Then suddenly we came out into the open and got some sunshine. Here you can see that the blueberry plants are going red and loosing their leaves. There were still lingon berries (“tyttebær”) to be found. Now it felt like there was a bit more level ground and the path continued straight ahead and we stayed in this open area the rest of the way to our goal.Then we climbed a bit more.We came across a picnic table. It looked quite new, but this wasn’t our goal. We still had to cross another few hundred meters and on another rise we found our goal. The dark band of trees in the distance would be primarily spruce trees and I think that they would be in Ørdal Nature Reserve. We didn’t go that far on this walk.We made it! Another 30 points on our app. My friend and I walk about the same amount so it is fun to find out how many points she has. She is a little ahead of me at the moment.The view was spectacular. We are looking across to Framverran on the Mosvik side of Skarnsund.Looking northwards to the hills of Steinkjer. No snow yet, but those hills will be some of the first ones to get snow in our area.The highlight of the pause at Noremsbråttet was watching the eagle soaring in circles and almost never having to move his wings. I didn’t feel that there was any wind where we were, but the steep slopes will give up-drafts that allow birds to soar. It was very difficult to get a good picture of the eagle as he was just too far away. At one point he came a bit closer to us, and a small flock of small birds hastily moved from one group of trees to another group considerable farther away from the eagle.
This is a walk that I would recommend. There are steep bits where one needs to hold on, but they are quite short. The view at the top is beautiful on a sunny day. There was a picnic table to sit at while taking a pause before heading back. We used about half an hour each way, so about an hour’s walking.
On the 10th of August we went for a walk to the island called Storholmen. Today we again parked at the Recycling Center in Utøy and walked the same path down to the fjord as we had on the previous walk to Storholmen (see the previous blog here). But instead of walking out to the island we continued along the path towards Undersåker.
Storholmen is on the left, still just attached to land and the other islands are now isolated. It was an incoming tide, so the causeway out to Storholmen had much less above the water on our return trip to the car than had been the case on our outward walk.
As you can see from this picture, the sky was quite cloudy. Though we usually go for our weekend walk on Sundays, we chose Saturday this week as the weather forecast was better for Saturday morning. I noticed that just as we arrived home again, it started to rain so it was good that we weren’t out any longer or any later in the day. The temperature was about 12 degrees Celsius, which I find a nice temperature for walking. There was no wind, not even down by the water.
It didn’t take us long to come out of the woods and follow a road towards the honey farm at Kvamsholmen. One of my son’s classmates grew up here, but the farm has now been taken over by Tonje Kvam.
This sign is in both Norwegian and English and explains the life cycle of a bee, who lives approximately 40 days. In the summer there can be up to 70 000 bees in a hive.We passed one house, or perhaps it is a cabin/summer house, and this pair of jeans was left out in the garden. I don’t think I would want to wear them again.Undersåker Bay – My daughter was friends with the girls that grew up on one of the Undersåker farms. The tide is out. We walked around this bay, crossed a stream and sat down at a picnic table on a rocky outcrop just to the left of the center of the picture.
We came to a stream that drains several hamlets in Utøy and the stream seemed to have different names depending on which farm it is closest too. The sign below explains that the stream has been used for various purposes over the centuries: in 1620 it was used to power a stream grinder; there was a sawmill in the 19th century and a cement foundry in 1930 which used sand from the beach as well as the water from the stream.
I reacted to the name on the sign, “Storfossen”, the great waterfall. Yes, we have had a lot of rain this week so there was a lot of water in the stream and it definitely was noisy as it journeyed down to the fjord. But I didn’t think it was so very large.Though I wasn’t able to measure the height of the falls, it seemed like about one or two meters at the most. After a week of rain, there was certainly lots of water in the stream.The wooden bridge felt quite slippery, but thankfully there was a railing to hold onto. The bridge is under the trees so it probably never dries out. There was certainly a lot of moss growing on it.A week of wet weather also made the paths a bit muddy. It was narrow here so I felt I had to walk quite cautiously.Suddenly I came out into the open and we were at our goal for our walk for today – Undersåker Bay.There was a picnic table to sit at while we took a well-deserved pause. The tide was out. Low tide had been at 9:12 about two hours before this picture was taken. So the water had already begun to rise.
The walk back to the car was just to turn around and go the same way back. We did make one little detour to a picnic place to see what the site offered.
In the background is the farm Kvamsholmen, and we decided to see what the “rasteplass” or picnic site had to offer.At first I thought these buildings might be boathouses, but they did not have easy access to the water, except at high tide. A boat would have to be carried down to the water. As my son explained, the building would be used for storage of things needed for a day down at the water’s edge, a grill, chairs, perhaps a table, and a small boat that could be carried by two people to the water’s edge. They all looked relatively new and in good condition.Undersåker Bay from a different angle. The goal of our walk had been on the far side of the bay, between the green fields on the left and the white house on the right.There were some interesting rock formations here as well.On our way back to the car, I noticed this older building. I notice the combination of stone foundations and wooden piles. The lower edges of the siding were showing signs of having been around for a while. I went around to the side of the building.The side of the building was open and I could see what was been stored inside, though I couldn’t put names to much.But then I found a sign about the building, that is probably from 1850-1910, so well over a hundred years old.
We had a good walk and used about 2 hours from leaving the car to getting back to it. But this also include a sit-down pause at Undersåker Bay and exploring a bit at Kvamsholmen farm. Because the car is parked at a higher elevation, the best exercise on the walk is getting back up the hill at the end of the walk. We were lucky with the weather and that made the walk all the more enjoyable.
Today, my girlfriend and I went for our usual Wednesday walk and we chose a walk we had not taken before. The walk up to Åsbrottet was a new Inderøy walk this year and neither of us had taken it before. I enjoyed the walk and we had some surprises along the way.
The information about the walk told us where to park our car and that the walk was 3.5 km long and would take us in a circle. We used about one and a half hours which included time to enjoy the walk, take lots of pictures and enjoy the views. We parked at Stavran, near farm buildings.
I think the farmer at Stavran uses John Deere tractors.
The trail
This was a newly marked trail this year and was well marked. There were only a very few places where we wondered where the trail went. There were many trails leading off the main trail, and I discovered that this was because we came back a different way than we went up the hill. (Of course, we were climbing a hill!)
I am going to show you some of the pictures from our walk, but not always in the order that they were taken. There were some very steep climbs, as we climbed up about 100 meters to the check-in point at Åsbrottet. There were pleasant areas in the trees and therefore out of the wind. There were a few areas where my hiking boots got damp, though that could have been mostly dew from the grass, but there were obvious signs that some areas would get quite muddy when it has be raining.
A lot of the walk was in fairly open areas, relatively recently logged. On this section of the trail we had quite a steep climb.Someone (or perhaps many people) had done quite a bit of work to make it a good trail, especially where there were damp or muddy sections.Some parts of the trail were through woodland.Most of the trail was quite easy to follow. This section looked like it had been around for quite a number of years, so not all sections of the trail were new.Twice we had to cross a fence and both times there were very good stiles to cross. The advantage of a stile is that the farmer doesn’t have to worry about hikers leaving gates open and cattle and sheep getting out of their pasture area. My girlfriend said that stiles over fences were quite new in Norway and certainly not very common. On the far side of the fence in the picture there had been large animals grazing, though we didn’t see any today.
The views
I always love walks where we get up high enough that there is a view over the trees. Living in a farming area, there is always the challenge of figuring out which farms one sees in the distance.
Having started at Stavran and having climbed the first steep section, we could see back to the road, farms in the distance and even farther away would be Levanger.A lot of the area we were walking through was quite open. The sky looked threatening in this picture, but we had no rain on our walk. In some places it was a bit windy, especially when out in the open, or on a hill top.This area had been logged a few years ago, but I’m not sure how long ago. Small plants and trees were starting to grow again. In the background you can see the forest that still exists.Eventually we got up high enough to see northwards towards Beitstad Fjord. The walk was getting very promising at this point.Follafoss on the far side of Beitstad Fjord, taken from Åsbrottet, the highest point of our walk.Looking towards Stokkan with Beitstad Fjord in the background. Notice the signs that tell us what is in that direction. We decided to walk to Farbuhøgda on our way back to Stavran.Looking south towards Trondheim Fjord, Utøy, Ytterøy and Levanger
The signs
When getting around an area one has not been hiking in before, one has to rely on the markings and good signs. On this walk, the signs were new and the different directions were marked at critical points.
The first sign tells us that there are two places we can get to on this trail, Åsbrottet, which is where we get points for a walk, and Farbuhøgda. (Høgda = high point)Åsbrottet was well marked and this is where we got our points. There was even a table to sit at to enjoy the view. It wasn’t really warm enough to sit today and there was also a wind blowing at the top that, though it kept the insects away, also encouraged us to keep on walking.As always, there are choices. We chose to go to Farbuhøgda, before returning to the car at Stavran. One could have a shorter walk by going directly to Stavran from here.Farbuhøgda had a grill, table and two benches to sit on. There was a fence around it, presumably to keep grazing animals and their excrement away from the picnic area.We came across this diving board into a little tern, Farbutjønna.It wasn’t a very big tern, but it must have been deep enough to dive into. Note the plastic bag in the foreground, which is tied to a rope which could be used by a swimmer to pull themselves out of the tern. The edge of the tern did not look like it was easy to find solid footing.Now it was time to go back to the car, though by following the path in the direction indicated, we walked farther than if we had just gone straight ahead which is where we had come up. It was longer, but not nearly as steep.
We both enjoyed the walk. It was cool enough (14 degrees Celsius) to enjoy the climbs without attracting a lot of insects. The breeze kept us cool and the insects away too. We used about 90 minutes and felt we had had some good exercise. This is a walk I would like to do again, but I have to do it early in the day when I have lots of energy.
This evening the three of us decided to go for a walk out to an island that can only be reached at low tide. A check of the tide tables yesterday evening indicated that low tide would be just before 8 pm. So we took off from home at 7 pm.
We chose to park near the recycling center in Utøy, which serves the whole municipality of Inderøy.
The recycling center for Inderøy municipality had just closed when we got there. There is parking off to the left for those who want to go for a walk. There is a ramp up to the upper level, so that garbage is thrown into the big blue bins from the top. Examples of what we would sort out is cardboard, metal and impregnated wood. The red bins to the left are for clothing. They are in the open area so accessible at all times for depositing used clothing.
We had about a one and a half kilometer walk to where we wanted to go, mostly downhill, through both open forest that had been recently logged and older forest.
This section of the walk was through old forest. It was cool and pleasant in the forest.We are almost down to sea level and we are going to walk out that causeway to Storholmen, the island you can see in this picture.. This is about as low as the tide goes. It was registered at 47 cm at 19:50 today, the 10th of August 2021.To the right of Storholmen is Kvamsholman, which is really two islands. These two islands are a habitat management area and are reserved for birds, in particular oyster catchers (tjeld), eider ducks (ærfugl) and two types of sea gulls.This information sign of the islands shows how Storholmen has a causeway out to it and Kvamsholmen is reserved for the birds. All the islands are isolated at high tide. The difference between high tide and low tide can be as much as three meters.The path out to Storholmen is easy to follow, though there is quite a bit of seaweed on either side. Some of the seaweed was quite slippery if you stepped on it. It was about 600 meters from the beach out to the island.I’m no expert on seaweed, so I can’t tell you what kind this is.A different kind of seaweed.In some places there were a lot of mussels as well. They would make good food for the sea birds that live here.Storholmen is a large rock in the fjord and is covered by a variety of vegetation, including trees and grasses.StorholmenKvamsholman as seen from Storholmen. Kvamsholman is about 200 meters from Storholmen.
We enjoyed our walk. The temperature was about 20 degrees Celsius, though it felt more when we were walking in the sun. We walked about 2 km each way and we walked the same route back to the car. The return to the car was a bit more strenuous as we now had to climb back up the hill. We were probably walking for about one hour. this is a walk that we take about once a year.
Today’s walk with a girlfriend was to a new place on our list of walks in Inderøy. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but as you will see in the pictures we got a nice surprise. The temperature was about 12 degrees Celsius, which I find a good walking temperature. There was some sunshine but also light cloud in the sky.
We parked at Røflo Lake which lies at about 188 meters above sea level. First we walked to Floåsen, which I have described in a previous blog (about Marsteinsvola). It is a very steep climb up to the check-in point for the walk, but there is a place to sit down and we both used the toilet that was available there.
You will note that at Floåsen it is 3.5 km to Marsteinsvola which I have written about in a previous blog. We came here to do our first check-in, then headed back the way we had come.
From the parking lot to Floåsen is about 1.5 km. There is no particular view at Floåsen, but it is an open area to sit and relax away from traffic and the noises of civilization. We then returned to the trail, the one we had come along and after about 100 meters we turned off to the find the new place, Aunan.
The app on our telephones told us that Aunan was about 600 meters away, but the app gives the distance in a straight line and doesn’t take into consideration that most trails have a lot of bends in them.
It is now August and there has been quite a lot of people on the trail, It was not difficult to see where we should go. This part of the trail is through forest. The trail had obviously been used by motorized traffic in previous years.As we climbed higher, it was obvious that there had been logging on this hillside recently. The trail was very steep at this point.
As I saw that the hillside had been logged, I realized that we would get some very good views from here. We were now at about 340 meters above sea level and about 160 meters above Røflo Lake. So we have had some good exercise.
This is Røflo Lake from above and our car is parked at the right of the lake, just behind some trees. In the background is more of Inderøy and on the left is Trondheim Fjord looking towards Trondheim.Looking westwards towards Trondheim Fjord and Trondheim in the distance. Levanger is on the left and Inderøy and Mosvik on the right.Leklemsvannet is a lake shared by Inderøy and Verdal. Finnheimen is located at the north end of the lake (see separate blog about Søråsen).Looking north with Steinkjer in the distance.The municipal center of Straumen is on the other side of the water, which is Borgenfjord.Time to go back down the hill to the car which is parked near Røflo Lake.
I enjoyed today’s walk. We walked about 4 km and used about one and a half hours including the pauses we took. This is a walk I would do again as the views are excellent.
On Saturday, the three of us met a couple at Solberg in Mosvik where we parked our cars and walked up to Vennes Lake.
Parking at Solberg means that we have driven up the hill, past quite a few farms. The blue lines on the map are ski trails in the winter, but we were going to take the red line, a trail up to a long, narrow lake.
The walk up to the lake takes about 25 minutes and goes through relatively open grazing areas with both sheep and cows. A lot of the walk is across bogs but a lot of planks have been put out and that made the walking very easy. It has also been a relatively dry summer so even if one stepped off the planks, for example, when meeting someone going in the opposite direction, it was not wet at all.
Crossing Naustmyra on planksBeside the map, there is some information about the lake. The lake is about 2.1 km long. There is trout and char in the lake but you have to have a fishing licence for Mosvik to go fishing. You may borrow the boats and the life vests, but please put things back where you got them.
The lake is 208 meters above sea level, but most of the height was driven in the car. There is some uphill walking, but nothing at all steep. It was 2 km from the car to the lake.
Vennesvatnet is long and narrow. We have walked 2 km from the parking area.The picnic area at the lake.
We were probably at the lake for about an hour. Having others than just ourselves to talk to, made the stay at the lake a bit longer than otherwise. There is a very nice picnic area.
We had some unusual visitors, that seem to come in our direction when they heard voices.
There was one dark cow who lead the group. She even waded through the water to come to where we were. The others followed her.She was very curious and came quite close to us. In the background you can see the brown ones following her lead. There were about six of them altogether.After a few minutes of staring at us, they moved on and we didn’t see them again.
The fun of going to Vennesvatnet is the availability of boats that can be taken out on the lake. We were five people. Two went out in a canoe and two went out in the row boat.
There is one canoe, one row boat and two kayaks available for anyone coming up to the lake.Getting a canoe ready to push into the lake.Two in a canoe.Then two more decided to take out the row boat. I stayed with our backpacks and telephones and took pictures.Two in a row boat.
The walk to Vennesvatnet is not a long walk, but it is a fun place to go to when there is something to do when you get there. Another group of three came after us and two girls took out the two kayaks. So the boats seem to be well used.
The radio mast is the goal for this walk. There was still a little way to go to get to it when I took this picture.
Saturday’s long walk was about 10 km and my walking companions were my husband and my son. Marsteinsvola is a hilltop that has a ham radio mast (among other things) and lies at 442 meters above sea level.
This walk was much longer than any of the three of us really enjoy. was that this was the But my son has his ham radio license and my husband is studying for his license, so I thought that going up to see the mast was a good goal for a walk. A new period of warm weather was being forecast when we were planning this walk the evening before, so it looked like we would have clear skies, it wouldn’t be too warm and hopefully there wouldn’t be too many insects. Well, read on to see what we experienced.
I will start with a map so that you can see the route that we took. We were able to take a round trip, meaning that we went up one trail and came down a different one. Only the half kilometer of road out to the parking lot was done on both parts of the walk.
This is the same map as for Finnheimen and Søråsen. The red lines are the main trails and parking is marked with a large P.
We parked at Røflo (2), near Inderøy’s main water source, Røflovatnet (188 meters above sea level). We walked along the north side of the lake and took the trail through Røfloskardet (280 meters above sea level). This was our first steep climb. At roughly the T on the map, we were able to check-in to the app on our phones and get 30 points for our efforts so far. We have now walked about 2.5 km, so about half way to our final destination.
We continued on uphill on the trail to Marsteinsvola (442 meters above sea level), a challenging climb with some very steep sections that got us older walkers puffing and panting and needing breaks to get our breathing and heart beat back to normal before continuing. The younger person got to the summit much quicker than his older parents. However, we got 50 points for our efforts when we got to the top. At the top we took a good break, drinking water and eating sandwiches so that we would have the energy to get back to our car.
We took the alternative route downhill that took us through Yssedalen/Ydsedalen (two spellings found on the walk) before heading west to Fløåsen (about 280 meters over sea level) where we got another 20 points. Here we took a sit-down pause before taking the final downhill section back to the parking lot at Røflo where we found our car still parked in the shade.
How long did this take? We left the car at about 10:30. I checked in at Stubbseteren at 11:15, so we used about 45 minutes on the first quarter of the walk. I checked in to Marsteinsvola at 12:10, perhaps 5 minutes after I got there, so we used a little more than one and a half hours from the car to the summit. We spent about half an hour at the top before heading back to the car. I checked in to Fløåsen at 13:34, so about one hour after we left the summit. We had a rest for at least 10 minutes and were back to the car at 14:00. So we used a little under one and a half hours to get back to the car. As usual, it takes a little less time to go downhill than uphill. For the round trip we used three and a half hours.
Norwegian vocabulary
A lot of the place names are actually based on words that refer to a type of place. Here are a list of some of the ones that we come across a lot in our walks in Inderøy You will find these on the map above. In Norwegian, nouns use an ending to show the definite article (the) that we put in front of a noun in English. The most common endings are -en, -et, -a.
bekken – the stream, the brook
berget – the mountain
dalen – the valley
haugen – the hill
heimen – the home
hytte – cabin; hytta – the cabin
myra/myran- the bog
seteren – the mountain farm, usually used only in the summer
skardet – the gorge
tjønna – the small lake
vatnet – the lake
vola/vollen – the embankment
åsen – the ridge
Norwegian has many dialects and this will be reflected in place names. The same word can have many spellings, and pronunciations, depending on what part of the country you are in.
The Trail
The nature of the trails that we were following varied. We started on a gravel road. We had sections that were obviously originally tractor roads, wide enough for three people to walk abreast. In some places we had lovely dry forest trails and unfortunately, this walk entails a lot of very swampy, wet ground. We all had good shoes on, a must on this hike.
The first half of a kilometer was along a gravel road. We are going to turn off to the right to start climbing uphill.We won’t be the only ones out here. This gate on the road marked the difference between “innmarka” (the farm’s cultivated land) and “utmarka” (the wild area where sheep would be left on their own for the summer). The gate must be kept closed and the signs give information about who to contact if one sees damaged animals and also general information about the advantages of having sheep on the hills (mainly they keep the trails free of tall grass and bushes). Dogs must be on a leash.We met this mother with her two youngsters near Stubbseteren.Our first hill to climb. The sheep are keeping the trail open and wide.Along one section of the trail we saw a lot of these small frogs hopping around on the trail. There were hundreds, if not thousands of them in the wet grass.The higher we climbed the narrower and rockier the trail became. However it was relatively cool in the forest.One of the bridges that crossed a stream, though there wasn’t much water in the stream today.On the return walk, we had several places where there were large planks placed across the bog. This both protects the hiker and the bog. The hikers stay on the planks, otherwise people are always trying to find a slightly drier crossing of boggy areas and the bog gets very muddy.A lot of the trails that we are following are prepared ski trails in the winter. On the map above, produced by the sports clubs of Verdal, the ski trails are marked in blue.
Stubbseteren
Do you see the building here with its grass/sod roof?
We often walk around this lake, Stubbsetertjønna, but today we just saw it from a distance and kept on going. Half of the lake is in the municipality of Inderøy (where we are standing) and the other half is in Steinkjer which is on the far side of the lake.
Marsteinsvola
This was the reason for taking this long walk, though I find the walk a bit too long for me now and there is a lot of swampy ground to cross. The top of this hill, though we are 442 meters above sea level, is quite wide at the top. The weather was hazy, but there were few places where one was high enough above the trees to see the view very well.
Marsteinsvola is also the meeting of three municipalities, Inderøy, Verdal and Steinkjer. Both Inderøy and Verdal have a lot of marked trails in the area, both for hikers and for skiers in the winter.
There are several small buildings at the top. The post boxes would each have a book you can write your name in, each book belonging to a different sports club.Here you can see part of the radio mast.The small shelter to the left was built recently and was divided into four quarters, so that four groups of people could sit on benches but be sheltered from the other groups. Unfortunately we met a lot of flies here at the top, so it was not pleasant to sit at all. I wandered around, trying to catch a bit of a breeze that would help keep the flies away from me. The sign is a map of the area so you can find your way downhill again.Looking north-east from the top with Leksdal Lake. The south end of the lake is in Verdal and the northern end, which is seen in this picture, is in Steinkjer.Looking towards Straumen in Inderøy, with Mosvik in the far distance.Looking west. The gap in the distance on the right is Trondheim Fjord with Levanger on the left of the gap and Mosvik on the right of the gap.
Fløåsen
Fløåsen was a farm before 1590 that was owned by the king. In 1728 it was sold and it changed hands regularly over the next two hundred years. In 1924 it was bought by the municipality of Røra. There are two main buildings here which are owned by Røra School. In 2008, the old cabin that was here burnt down, and the present building (see the next picture) was built in 2009 by volunteers. The cabin is open for everyone to use.Fløåsbua. This building is open for anyone to use. There is a small kitchen, sitting area and a toilet room inside.The picnic tables outside Fløåsbua were interestingly built. The seats folded up when not in use, so they wouldn’t get wet or covered with snow. They were easy to fold down when one wanted to sit.
Though a 10 km walk is much more than we usually do, we had a nice morning to do the walk. I probably won’t do this walk again for several years. I need a reason to take someone on this strenuous walk.
Røflo Lake, Inderøy’s main water source. It was sure nice to get back to the lake and know that our car was only a few hundred meters away.
