Mountain to fjord

I had just had a terrible sunday with missed flights and lost bags from two weeks at home so I was super tired when we got to our starting point. I was still excited about doing canoeing since I really enjoy being on the water but I haven’t gone paddling for this long before so I was excited. The excitement died a little when we were learning about all the different paddle strokes I didn’t realise how much technique it goes into paddling but we had a few tries to practice and that helped. I started being in the back and there you are mostly responsible for steering and you can use the different paddle strokes to make the canoe go the way you want. The weather was really strange, almost no wind but fog and snowing so it created this cold but beautiful almost magical atmosphere around us.

 
I wasn’t that cold though until I loaned someone my mittens since I had an extra set but I loaned my better ones for rain so I got cold fingers but I kept thinking that at least my feet were warm and dry. Lesson that I learned in the beginning when I loaned someone my woolen socks that had gotten his wet that you should ALWAYS have extra mittens and socks since you never know when you or your group members need them.

We paddled to an island where we put up shelters for the night. We found a really good place where the ground was even, on top of a hill, and there were trees around us to shelter us from the wind. Me, Jill, Adam and Mike were together in one shelter with Chris, Adrian and Jonas in a shelter next to us. We had originally tried to be all together but with a lot of people trying to get their ideas heard it just became a mess. This night was definitely the best night so far. We spent the evening in our sleeping bags just talking because it kept snowing was nice and warm during the night so I slept the whole night. When we woke up it was like winter wonderland, everything was covered in snow. And my jacket that I had hanged up was a little frozen.

This day it was a little windy but still had went alright. The view from the canoe was great and we had a great time talking, singing and making fun of each other. We canoed in all types of weather, with snow, wind, waves, still water and sun. Which was great because we could feel how challenging it is if there are wind and waves so we had to work hard to keep us on Mike had a good pace going, good control and we worked really well together when paddling.

We stayed the night at Troll Aktiv and after some discussion due to weather conditions, we had to decide if we should continue as planned and cycle to a climbing place and stay the night there or to cycle the whole way to Kristiansand and see if we could climb another day. As a group we decided to cycle the whole way figuring it was the best decision. Well the trip was about 90km long and so much harder than I ever expected. I thought I cycled a fair amount during summers, and I have been on two or three day trips outside of Reykjavík to Úlfljótsvatn but that was nothing compared to this trip.
For starters my cycling bag didn’t make it to Troll Aktiv so I got to put my food into Jill’s bag and we were going divide carrying the bag between us. The weight of the bag wasn’t a problem for me but rather the size because it was a little too long so when I was looking forward my helmet kept hitting the bag and that just made it annoying.
It got better after our stuff got divided into other bags so it wasn’t as stuffed as before so I could look forward easily.

The first half of the trip was alright, sometimes I thought it was difficult to hold the same speed all the time. But I just kept singing in my head to try to keep the tempo and speaking to the person next to me. When we were about half we and were taking a break at the hydro power plant my ass was just done. I was having a hard time concentrating on biking but I sat on my mittens and that gave me some energy to keep going for a bit.
Things got a little more difficult when we started getting more hills to bike up, I just couldn’t keep up with the others going up. I would start around everyone or at the front and then when going up they would just speed past me. That was really hard on my spirit since I was really tired and hurting and I kept trying to keep up with everyone but at every hill I would lose them. So when we got to the city I was feeling pretty down but still determined to finish off the trip. When we finally got to the university I had mixed feelings, I was super proud of myself for finishing and not breaking down or giving up with everything hurting. For a few days I didn’t even want to look at a bicycle but then later I think with the right cycle pants and a more comfortable seat I could see myself do something similar.
The canoe part was amazing and definitely something I want to do again!