25.-28.4.16

Canoeing, climbing, cycling

Finally the spring has fully arrived and it’s time to start with thee fun summer activities!.. With snow..? It was time for our Canoeing, climbing, cycling combination week. We arrived a little North from TrollAktiv at the Kylefjord. The first two days of the week were all about canoeing across the Fjord and staying one night in an improvised shelter on an island. Adam and Line were the most experienced canoers in our group and gave us a short introduction on the different techniques (forward, backward and J-stroke are the most important ones). The weather forecast predicted rainfall and when we got into the canoes and began our trip it started snowing. Canoeing in the snow, this was an experience no one in the group had ever made before, not even Len. I can’t think of any words to describe this feeling in the right way, so I’m just going to leave some pictures here, enjoy!

I was in a canoe with my Norwegian brother King Julian as he made some canoeing experiences when he was in Canada (you probably can read about this one in his blog). I’ve been in a canoe once before on a stream which was deepest at probably 1,5m so you can’t really call this experience. The route was chosen by us and Len only restricted this a little by saying that we always have to stay close to the coastline. Obviously, this isn’t precise enough for everyone and so we ended up having one extra canoe that always remained a safety distance to all the others by staying away from the coastline. Good job guys! I would excuse that, if their explanation (“we want to fish and we won’t catch any at the coastline”) would’ve led to at least one fish during those two days. Instead the only thing they brought up was a lot of useless seaweed. After some time, a few of the guys had to realize that the temperature was still pretty low and we had lot of cold feet in the group, but luckily we were being warned by Max and took some good hiking boots with us.

We arrived on the island which should be our home for the night and after exploring the small area we decided to use the idea the previous group had. They built a shelter using wood logs, branches and moss. So Line, Julian and I only had to adjust and improve the shelter with exchanging some of the branches, making it a little bigger and using a tarp to cover it. In the end we had a really good looking and comfy big shelter for the three of us. The snowfall had stopped for some hours while we were building our home, but it started again in the evening. So we decided to eat inside and then quickly jump in our sleeping bags. When I crawled out of the shelter on the next day, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The snow hadn’t stopped during the night and the island looked like a winter-wonderland.

We were a little bit sad to have to leave this luxurious shelter behind after only one night, but with the sun also our motivation to get onto the Fjord again rose. The rest of the way was a nice and easy paddle to the dam where we left the Fjord again, with a short period of wind and bigger waves. One more time, our favourite learning method applied when Chris and Jonas got stuck on a rock that was just close underneath the water. The man in the front is responsible for the power and for spotting obstacles soon enough, the man in the back takes the steering part. We learned another lesson when we reached the end of the Fjord and continued on the river. When paddling on rivers, always stay to the outside of a turn, because there you find the fastest water flow.

In the early afternoon, we arrived at the dam and walked along the wild waters to TrollAktiv. Fast and huge amounts of white water are pretty spectacular. And we learned some interesting facts on how to kayak in wild rivers. We also had the opportunity to go rafting this river all together, but no one really wanted to. At TrollAktiv Julian and I tried the local bike park instead which offered some nice and easy trails to ride. And once again had to realise that a 29” MTB is a little bit too big for a pump track.

In the late afternoon we sat together with the group to celebrate Adam’s birthday. Len gave us an interesting theoretical group challenge: Imagine you just survived a plane crash in Canada, 100 kilometres away from the last contact to civilization. Then you get a list of materials that are in the plane and you have to think about which ones to take. Unfortunately Len didn’t have it on paper and didn’t remember everything. Nevertheless, it’s a task that I definitely want to figure out, but not with this group, because some people just have to speak immediately every damn time. Stop and think before you speak, or just shut up completely for five minutes, thank you!

In the evening I went climbing with Mike and Julian on the brand new climbing tower. So new, that the grips weren’t retightened yet and some were turning. That’s why we had some thrilling climbing action there.

The next day we decided not to go rock climbing because of the weather forecast. Instead we cycled the whole way back to Kristiansand. 75km of easy and relatively flat streets and wide dirt tracks. Everyone had the skill to do it in a good pace, but not everyone had the motivation. I tried to motivate the slower ones, but soon gave up as I didn’t see any chance. Sometimes it just doesn’t work, you can cycle slower and slower, they’ll always stay behind you. So after a few more tries to get everyone motivated we just gave up, cycled in our own speed to have some fun and stopped every now and then to wait for the rest.

During the lunch break at a water power station, the group cohesion was so good, that when Jonas went close to the water, we all screamed that he shouldn’t jump. The group which did this trip the week before had a few technical bike problems on their way and we were afraid that this could happen to us as well. For 70 kilometres everything went good and just as we thought we made it without one problems, Mikes pedal decided to fall off. I’ve never seen something like that. This and the fish laying on the road were the most spectacular events on our way. Crazy Norway got me once again.

Recapitulating, we had a nice short trip, with the good decision to cycle home on Wednesday so we could enjoy our warm flats and the comfortable beds.