Mountain vacation 2008. August 11th

The main activity while vacationing at the cabin is, as I'm sure everyone's guessed, hiking. The national park offers some of the best hiking terrain in the country, although not suited to everyone ... in Norwegian we differentiate between 'low mountain' areas and 'high mountain' areas, and Rondane definitely qualifies as the latter. Among the peaks of the Rondane massif there are no less than ten that are above 2000 meters. And there is certainly no shortage of smaller peaks either. :-) The terrain is sometimes quite difficult. It is a ruggedly beautiful area, although it's a beauty that may take some getting used to. A sort of desolate and rather lonely beauty ... but it does have its appeal and it certainly is a place to inspire visitors with the majesty of nature.

The weather during our weeklong visit was ... OK, perfectly acceptable, but not anything memorable. We had one day with really good weather. :-) Generally though the weather was just fine for hiking ... not too cool, not too warm, some sun, some clouds, some rain, but rarely if ever heavy rain. Good hiking weather.

There are some hikes that I just always have to go on while I'm at the cabin. On Monday, August 11th, my mother and I set off on one of these. We were joined by Mille, my mother's cousin, who was vacationing at her own family's cabin a few minutes up the side of the valley from ours. The goal of the hike was an old and sadly rather ramshackle place called Musvollseter ('seter' being the Norwegian word for 'shieling'). It's about an hour, hour and a half's walk along an old cart road. A very pleasant hike and one I just have to take every year. :-)

Many of the buildings in this place have been quite beautiful at one point, but sadly there's been little or no maintenance over many decades ... so of course they are getting more and more shabby every year. :-( It's still a lovely place though, but it's so sad to see it when you know how beautiful it could have been.

My mother and me on the front steps of the main house.

My mother and her cousin.

A view of mount Musvollkampen from the shieling. (Remember this peak, it will make many reappearances. :-)

A view away from the shieling, down towards the Atna valley (where Solvang farm is).

A view of mount Svulten from the shieling. This peak (which my friend Anne Ida and I climbed last summer - whew!!) stands behind our cabin, sort of sits at our back. :-)

Yeah, we had some rain going back. ;-)

Some views of the path. Parts of the way it's permanently flooded ... all these little brooks and rivulets are taking it over as it's basically not maintained on any level at all. :-(

Mount Musvollkampen is on the left in this picture.

A couple of little brooks cross the path 'properly', ie, they have been led under the road and covered over with stone tiles. Many and many a year ago. :-)