A nice forest hike on my way to Hemsedal
| Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location |
| Fjellsjøkampen | 812m | 109m | Hurdal, Norway |
Friday: After getting Anne to Årnes the day before, I started my journey back to Sunnmøre – the long way. But first, we visited a friend of mine from High School, also living in Årnes. We hadn’t seen each other in 20 years and it was a nice reunion. Her name was also Anne and the plain reason why we have kept in contact was that I dialed her – instead of my Anne – not too long ago.
My plan was to spend the weekend in Hemsedal and visit some of the mountains we had seen from Storhovda the day before. But first, it was time to walk the dog and this was a good opportunity to finally visit Fjellsjøkampen – formerly the highest top in Akershus county. But, after Akershus merged into the greater Viken county, Fjellsjøkampen is just “another forest top”.
From Årnes, I took many small roads before I got to the E6 and a bit later, got on the road towards Hurdal. From Hurdal, I followed the road toward Lygna before I got to the place where the Gjødingsetervegen toll road began (NOK 50,-). After some km on a gravel road, I got to the Gjødingsetra trailhead and parked the car.
We followed the gravel road 0,5km westbound until we reached the signpost marking the start of the forest trail.
The forest trail was well worn and kept us in the shade for a good while. I passed an elder couple with two sons and a bunch of dogs. The elder were not keeping a good pace and they asked me how far it was to the top. The signpost stated it was 2km to the top, and so I reckoned they had approx. 1,5km left to go. It didn’t seem that much at the time.
We reached the forest ridge and had to pass across one minor top and descend a bit before ascending the final hill up to the fire lookout tower that marked the top.
The steps were friendly enough to bring Karma all the way to the top – some 8m above the ground.
The views from the top weren’t too interesting, so our stay was short.
On the way down, I met the elder couple a bit after leaving the forest ridge, and they now had 0,8km left to the top. They seemed exhausted and I wondered if I should advise them to turn around. I didn’t. After all, they were in good hands by their sons who clearly had better insight than I had.
After returning to the car, I sat course for Hov (Søndre Land) to say hello to our close friends Eva and Bjørn – who were surprised to see only me on their doorstep. I didn’t stay there for too long and continued to Hemsedal and made a hotel reservation at Hotel Fanitullen along the way.
I reached Hemsedal late in the afternoon and weren’t too impressed by the Single Room standard. I mean, the room was OK, but I missed a table for my PC. Nor did they serve breakfast, due to rebuilding activities. But the price was OK – less than NOK 1000,- per night and I could always buy breakfast at the local grocery store. I tried to get dinner at the local Peppes Pizza restaurant, but gave up waiting in the “please wait to be seated” line. They had clearly more important things to do than welcoming new guests, and I was not the only one leaving the line.
Instead of enjoying a nice and warm pizza, I had a couple of dry sandwiches in the room, accompanied with some cold beers and looked forward to a BIG DAY in the Hemsedal mountains the day after…
Trip statistics: 5,2km, 360 vertical meters, 43 minutes
Pictures (Canon EOS RP / Iphone8) from the hike:
