Day 66 – 1 Sep, 1 km SE of Skaekerdalshytta to 500m S of Bellinstua Hut

(31.5 km, total 1725 km, 11h 15m, 0730 to 1845)

I had another interrupted sleep and it seemed like I woke up every time I wanted to turn over. Part of that is because it was really cold and when I moved cold air tried to sneak into my sleeping bag. The good thing is because there was a nice breeze all night I had no condensation.

It was cold to start as the sun had not climbed high enough to reach the valley. I was in my wind jacket and had my gloves on. It was a cloudless blue sky.

The trail was a real mixture with lots of small ups and downs and alternating between rock, swamp, dry dirt track and boggy dirt track. There were lots of lakes and the vegetation was short (hip height) shrubs with a few patches of taller trees.

Along this track I passed the 1700 km marker.

I dropped down out of the hills into a forested area and crossed the Tverraa River by a wide bridge.

From this bridge there was boardwalk on and off for the next 2 km. I have not seen such a long stretch of boardwalk in Norway.

Yuck, boardwalk

n the boardwalk I met two men, one older and one younger. The older man had two dogs on a lead an the younger one had 5 or 6, they were moving around too much to count. They were carrying in supplies to their hut in preparation for Grouse hunting season which starts in two weeks. I am glad I will not be around for that. The older man couldn’t believe I had been wearing shorts the whole way.

I passed a private hut and now the boardwalk stopped.

It was a steady climb now up into the open and over a hill called Reinsmyhoggda.

From the top it was a steep downhill slide in the swamps, over a gravel road and through some muddy forest out to the main road.

There was an information sign and a picnic bench made out of large stone slabs. I had lunch here.

Now was a quick 3.5 km walk on a gravel road. Just short of my turnoff there were three guys on the deck of their cabin and I talked with them for a while. They were pretty effusive for Norwegians but they had been drinking spirits since 0900. They gave me some dried Moose to try and it was nice. I spent about 10 minutes talking to them before continuing on.

I turned right down a smaller gravel road to a small lake then followed the signs into the forest firstly on a vehicle track then through a stream and over a large bridge on another stream only a couple of meters away. Not sure why there was no bridge on the first stream.

Now the track turned away from Lake Veresvatnet and started the 2.5 km climb up a series of swamps, some I only sank a couple of cm and some to ankle height.

When I finished climbing I was in swamp around the side of the hill then climbing some more, still in swamps. This trail seemed to just be marker poles placed in swamps. Unlike normal there were more of the deeper swamps. Now it was ups and downs – still in swamps.

I was feeling tired and I am not sure if it is several nights of interrupted sleep, my cold or the constant swamp walking today. The swamps sap your energy as not only is there nothing to push yourself forward against but you expend energy breaking the suction of the mud when lifting your foot. At one of many rest stops I finally spotted a couple of blueberries and picked them. I had no blueberries for breakfast yesterday as I did not see any and today there were very few.

After passing a few more lakes there was an area with nothing to track progress, it all seemed the same though there was a patch with slightly drier track.

Finally I came to the intersection and turned right following the sign for the hut. My plan was to find a stream to fill up with water then find a campsite in the trees. I passed a couple of horrible looking sludge trickles then found a small stream with greenish water but it tasted fine and it had come through a swamp which is a big filter.

Now I was looking for a flat spot in trees. I saw a hut ahead and went to it thinking it was the DNT but it was a private hut. There was a beautiful Vizsla Dog and two friendly guys so we chatted for a bit and they showed my where the hut was. I walked past Bellinstua Hut and found a nice spot in the trees just a few hundred meters away. Looking at the time the last 10 km is the slowest I have walked. 4 ½ hours on a well marked track. This is what swamp does.
I washed my shoes, gaiters, socks and legs in the stream and got into my night routine.

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