The Pilgrim's Progress, Part III

493 km down, 150 to go!

Right now I find myself in the town of Oppdal, a small community that appears to thrive on farming in the summer, and ski tourism in the winter. I've decided to take a rest day here, and I'm staying at the local youth hostel, nestled between two ski resorts which, as you might guess, are pretty much dead at the moment. Like most of the towns I've visited on my northward trek, not a whole lot is going on here.

But it's been an interesting week or so since I last posted. After leaving Lillehammer, I slogged through the neverending ascents and descents of the Gudbrandsdal valley, wandered through the open moorlands of the Dovrefjell plateau, and finally descended to the wide, flat Driva valley. Here are the highlights:

A couple days after leaving Lillehammer, it got unreasonably hot. I'm not sure what the actual high temperatures were, but they had to be approaching 90. So I'm trudging along the Losna river valley, sweating my ass off, when I see a group of people up on a cliff ahead. A (shouted) conversation ensuded that went something like this:

(unintelligible Norwegian phrase)
"I'm sorry, I don't speak Norsk very well."
(more unintelligible Norwegian speech)
"No, I mean I don't speak Norsk. I know English and German."
"Oh, where are you from?"
"The United States."
"USA?"
"Which state?"
"Minnesota."
"Oh, we were just talking about Minnesota. Would you like to come up
for a drink?"
"YES!!!"

So I turn up a driveway and am greeted by a group of about 8 Norwegians, all of them at least 65 years old. Turns out that they were Rotarians, and they were responsible for maintaining the Olav's Way trail through the Øyer kommune, so they were happy to meet an actual pilgrim using their section of the trail. Not only did they give me water, but they also fed me cake with fresh cream and strawberries, coffee cake, and homemade juice (from "solbære," literally, "sun berries," whatever those are). It was such a refreshing break from all the walking/roasting I'dbeen doing. The stop delayed me by about an hour and a half, though, so it was approaching 8:00 when I hit the road again for the last 7 km to Ringebu. In this region of Norway, 8:00 is apparently when the mosquitos come out. Oh. My. God. I have never seen so many mosquitos in my life. There was literally a cloud of them following me for at least 5 km. And since mosquitos had not been a problem up to that point, I had no insect repellant with me. So I basically walked as fast as I could (full-on sprinting at times), swatting my legs, arms, and neck with my hat. It was exhausting, and I'm sure I looked ridiculous running through the woods, flailing about like a maniac. And despite my best efforts, I still got bit about 50 times. Not fun.

The next day was much better. I stayed at an ancient farm called Sygard Grytting, which has been under continuous ownership of the Grytting family since the 13th century. To top it off, I slept in the oldest buidling on the farm, an actual, original pilgrim lodge that was built around 1300. Trondheim-bound pilgrims stayed there as early as 700 years ago! Additionally, it is known that Norwegian King Magnus Magnusson stayed there in 1311. That's some serious history.

A couple days later, I had an encounter with a moose. I was walking through a rocky pine forest, and just as I crested a ridge, I heard a rustle up hill. That's when I saw, about 20 feet from me, a fully-grown female moose. She took off down the hill right away, so I wasn't able to take a picture, but it was a cool experience!

That night, for the first time, I met some other people who were hiking Olav's Way. I wouldn't call them pilgrims, per se, as only one was making the full Oslo -> Trondheim journey, and she was having the bulk of her gear carried ahead by car each day (instead of carrying it on her back). The American hiking community calls this "slack packing." But maybe I should cut her a break since she appeared to be around 70 years old. Anyways, everyone in the group was Norwegian, at least 50 years old, and most didn't speak English very well, so we didn't have much in common. Nevertheless, we stuck together for about a day and a half. An especially nice part was when we all sat down to a traditional rømmegrøt dinner at Budsjord Gard. Rømmegrøt, I am told, is made by boiling sour cream and adding flour, producing a sort of porridge. You sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top and eat it with a spoon. I had my doubts about it, but it was actually quite good.

I spent the last two days hiking through the Dovrefjell region, which is definitely near the top of my "coolest places I have visited" list. It's basically a huge plateau flanked by mountain peaks on all sides. Once you get in the middle of it, it's wide open moorland as far as the eye can see. The wind just howls up there. It's one of those places that gives you a real feeling of isolation, when you can't help but stop and think, "man, I am really OUT THERE!" I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

So those have been the goings on of the past week. I'm basically in the home stretch now, and I'd guess that I'll be in Trondheim within 5 or 6 days. Once the pilgrimmage has come to an end, I'll be able to do a proper blog post (w/ pictures) and plan my next move.

See you in Trondheim!