This was a physically and mentally demanding trip all the way around. It started off with canoeing for two days and making camp on and island during the night. Doesn’t sound so bad, right? Well I wore really shitty, cheap, plastic waterproof clothing and it ended up ripping all over the place, so by the time we got to the second day, my waterproofs were all in a bunch of separate pieces! But we’ll get back to that later.
I figured I’d get hot while we were canoeing so I just went in basketball shorts and a t-shirt under my waterproofs. This wasn’t too bad at first, until the sun disappeared and the wind and rain started. Not only were our hands and bodies freezing from the rain, the wind was really strong and added an extra chill to our body…and an extra foot of water in our boat courtesy of the waves. We were canoeing down a fjord, which is a pretty still body of water, there isn’t any current. But with the wind, all the sudden there were waves everywhere and they kept entering our boat. It also kept trying to push us in the wrong direction and pushed my arm muscles to the limit to try and keep us from turning. By the time we got to the island we were so thankful. The rain had stopped by then but the wind had gotten worse so it was pretty treacharous.
We went around the island and our teacher explained to us about the different types of moss, what is edible, where some good places to make shelter would be and why. A few others and I really wanted to build something because the island had so much dead wood on it so we made a killer fort! And it worked too, except for one part in the middle had a leak so one person’s bag got completely soaked through during the night, but the rest of us stayed dry.
The wind got even worse on the next day and we ended up having to call it quits early and have someone come and pick us up. The wind was so strong that when we left our heavy backpacks on the dock, the wind was pushing them towards the edge. It actually rolled mine over and sent my water bottle and glove that I had pinned underneath it flying off the dock. Luckily my glove landed in the very last canoe so that taught me that for now on to always just take the extra 15 seconds and pack things back in my bag.
We stayed overnight at TrollAktiv and it was really nice, but the next morning we started the first day of our cycling trip and it was hell. We didn’t even go too far, about 2okm, but my pelvic bone was crying out for murder. I eventually tried sitting on my jacket and that helped a little bit. I was so relieved when we got to the climbing spot that we were going to stay the night at. We had lunch and then set up the ropes and gear for climbing. Most of the people in my group had climbed on their own before and actually owned climbing shoes however, I did not so I had to climb in my tennis shoes which was rough.
If you don’t want to hear about feminine issues then please skip to the next paragraph. I had started my period that morning so the cramps weren’t helping with the cycling, but when I went to change my tampon after all of the climbing, I realized that I made a mistake when I inserted it and I forgot to pull out the string….so it was all stuck up inside of me. This led to a 15 minute long finagling and panicking on my part, hoping that no one would come by and see and praying that I’d be able to get it out…and I did. But I made myself an oath then and their that it’d never happen again and to always remember to pull the string on those shitty Norwegian tampons. Man I sure missed the kind back from the US. Anyways…
We made a bonfire that night and I slept in my hammock for the first time and it was actually super comfortable. I was really warm and it was actually my first night of solid sleep I have ever had since I’ve been camping. I’ll definitely sleep this way in the future, it definitely beats the hard ground.
The next day consisted of 65km of cycling and it was the worst day every. I was in so much pain and I couldn’t get the hang of using the 24+ gears on my bike. I’ve never used a bike like that before, so there was a big learning curve for me. I couldn’t help but tearing up at some parts and even crying a bit towards the end because of how painful it was and how I was doing so shitty compared to everyone else. It took every last drop of gumption I had to continue on and bike back to the university. There were so many times that I wanted to just give up and quit, but I didn’t want to be labelled as a quitter by everyone else, and I knew that it would only be a temporary pain, nothing was bleeding or broken. And if I could make it through the hell hike with Caitlin then I could definitely make it on this bike ride from hell.
After this trip I have decided that I don’t really want to get a mountain bike like I had planned. Maybe a super nice and comfy one for leisure, but I hated going up hills on that mountain bike and definitely don’t want one for sport/exercise. I’m glad I figured it out her and not after I had already bought a bike.