Kjell's Trip to Blåfjell 2016: 2016

The 75-year old man managed a mountain trip also this year.

Bibbi and I left for Trondheim 26.06 and went sightseeing there from the Storsanden Camping, where we rented a cozy cabin with a view on the fjord. After two days we continued to Osen on the Fosen peninsula, where my sister Turid and brother-in-law Øystein lives at Sandviksberget. Always a pleasure to visit them. Two days later Bibbi returned to Oslo, while I first went to Namsos, where I met with my two friends Emil and Eigil. This has become a tradition. From Namsos I continued on the same day to Verdal, where I stayed overnight with my classmate from primary school Tor Jentoft and his wife Mari.

Verdal is on my road to Blåfjell via Sweden, with enormous stretches through no-man’s-land on the Swedish side. 3. July I was picked up by Christian on the Swedish side of the lake Gjevsjøen, who took me across the lake. There he took all my baggage and me on his new six-wheel ATV to the boathouse on the lake Livsjøen, where they let me use a boathouse for all my food and equipment. After two nights there I went across the lake by rowing boat and a kilometer up a river before I start my trek to the lake Holmtjønna.

Two trips in with heavy backpacks. I was better prepared this year, because I had trained with heavy packs filled with cans of water in the park near me here at Grorud.

Pack No. 1: 33 kgs and No2: 35 kgs, heavy enough for a greybeard.

It felt great to finally be in place in my paradise by Holmtjønna. However some of my pleasure was reduced by too much shitty weather. There was at times some blue sky, but I do not call it good weather when it is too cold and windy. There were two periods of one week each with horizontal rain and strong winds. The water level in the lake rose drastically and even covered some of the green vegetation on the shores. Fishing conditions worsened then, but I always caught enough for food. The two biggest fish I got this time was eight hgs each, long and slender. I prepared a lot of cured trout. (I believe I have explained how in a previous blog.) Always a delicacy. I also made a lot of blueberry jam. However, there was not much cloudberry this year. I did not see much wild life, only reindeer and ptarmigan.

I spent a lot of time inside my tent. It has a vestibule on each side, and I shifted my kitchen to the side sheltered from the wind. I was never bored, because I listened a lot to the radio and audiobooks on my iPod. Also I read several eBooks on my Kindle reader. This time I enjoyed several novels by David Baldacci, each with duration between 12 and 14 hours. It is cumbersome to spend so much time physically inactive in a cramped tent, but it helped that I have my set of exercises developed in cooperation with my physiotherapist. Outside the tent in all kinds of weather.

The days with better weather I spent drying sleeping bag, boots and clothes. And on half- og full-day fishing trips to nearby rivers and lakes. What makes the fish bite remains a mystery. One day I catch a lot of fish, the next zero.

I was not exactly run down by a lot of people. During the whole stay I met only three people, youths who spent one night at the lake. Even though I enjoy my own company, I always appreciate meeting people.

After having spent 50 days in a tent, I had enough, particularly because of the weather. I needed two trips also for the return. The last one was particularly hard, because I had miscalculated the weight of my backpack. 38.5 kgs was too much for an old man, so that the end of the trip was not particularly enjoyable. When I arrived at the boat, there was an especially heavy rainfall. So much so that the boat was half filled with water and I was totally drenched in spite of my professional Gortex rainwear.

I guess this was my last long-term stay at Holmtjønna. Both my strength and endurance were OK, but my balance problems were more serious. I have enjoyed the diagnosis vestibular neuritis since 2001, which has left the balance nerve in my right ear dead, resulting in a permanent feeling of dizziness. It has become more difficult to jump from stone to stone across a river with a heavy backpack, so I have decided to scale down a bit. Feels a bit sad, but it helps that I was offered a position next year as a hand at the Gjevsjøen mountain farm. This will allow me to stay in a cabin on a little lake six kilometers from the farm.

I show several photos from my campsite at Holmtjønna to underline its importance in the grand scheme of things.

The return to civilization was via a coffee stop at Tor’s place in Verdal and then back to Osen, where Turid and Øystein had picked a lot of red currant and red gooseberry. The latter is among my favorite berries.

After overnight in Osen I went to Trondheim, where I as usual visited with my old classmate Ole and his wife Turid. They served another great meal, heavily sprinkled with excellent red wine.

The return to Oslo went without a hitch.

As usual my trip entailed a kind of reset in my conception of the good life. It was a pleasure to discover that there was hot water on the tap, not to mention a good shower and a bed. Close to heavenly.

You may by now feel that my reports have become somewhat monotonous, with little variety. For me the greatest change has to do with ravages of old age. I refuse to accept this decay, even though I know that I have to. However, I am still convinced that these trips contribute to a slowing of the process. This to end on a positive note.