The mountain to fjord trip was probably my favorite trip so far this year!  It was just a very chill trip.  We left Monday morning and took a bus up to Bygland which is about 2 hours north of Kristiansand where I live.  Once we arrived in Bygland we met our teacher Len, who had a trailer full of canoes for us.  So we unloaded all of the canoes into the fjord and played for a little in the water.  Then Len taught us some basic fundamentals on different and efficient ways to turn the canoe and how to paddle which was helpful for me because I have never canoed before this trip.

 

The day was absolutely beautiful outside.  Then sun was shining, it wasn’t windy, and of course the birds were singing!  We were told to wear our wool underwear and waterproofs while we were in the canoe but once we paddled to our first destination most of us changed into shorts and a no sleeve shirt.  Throughout the day we had different people lead the group and take us to an island on the map of Len’s choice.  I was Len’s partner in the canoe the first day which was pretty fun.  He kept telling me that he was so strong that his one paddle counteracted my 3 paddle strokes.  I challenged him and said that every time I paddled we were in first place and originally he told me that we wanted to be in 3^rd or 4^thplace.

Then I told him that the next day I would be in a different canoe and if my canoe beat his canoe that he would have to drag my bike all the way back to Kristiansand instead of me riding 70k back and vice versa if he won.  Needless to say I wasn’t planning on racing him because I sure did not want to lose.

 

 

We traveled about 9km the first day then we camped on an island only using our tarps and our canoe if we choose to use the canoe at all.

In the evening we fished and some of the guys decided to go for a little dip in the fjord.  We made a pretty big camp fire on the beach that night; it was so hot I had to keep leaving it multiple times just to cool off.  That night was probably one of the best nights of sleep I’ve had, it was so warm and we woke up to the sun rising which made it really easy to get out of bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our breakfast we left for our canoeing once again.  We were about 10km away from Troll Aktiv which was where we were going to stay that night.  On our way we practiced turning in an eddy.

 

An eddy is a river feature that forms downstream of an obstruction in the water and the water is flowing in the opposite direction from the rest of the river. During our practice Jais and Daniel’s canoe capsized while they were in the eddy.

This wouldn’t be a huge deal if it was mid summer and the water was warm, but unfortunately the water was freezing so we had to act fast to get the two out of the water.  Flurin and I went to rescue that capsized canoe and drag it over to shore.

 

 

While the other canoes worked on getting Jais and Daniel out of the Fjord and into dry clothes.  Luckily nothing was lost in the end and we were only left with two soaked backpacks and one broken camera.

When we arrived to Troll Aktiv we dropped our gear in the cabin and then had the opportunity to go white water rafting. Our guide for the rafting trip was really good and helped us catch some really good waves.  Needless to say we were soaked at the end of trip, and if that wasn’t enough he gave us the opportunity to jump off one of the rocks and into the water which was pretty fun, and freezing!

 

The next morning we all got fitted for our bikes, than it was time for a 20k bike ride to a rock climbing place where we would climb for the rest of the day.  The morning was really chill and Len took us to a bakery, one of the best in town, he said.

 

Then we went to the grocery store where if you find anything out of date in the store, the store will give you store credit for that item.  So a couple of the guys found some out of date stuff, and then bought ice cream for everyone which was pretty cute.

 

 

 

 

Climbing was really enjoyable that day.  Len showed us how to rig up top rope routes in case we want to show others how to climb, or if we want to climb on our own sometime.

 

 

 

 

We set up four routes to climb and we each climbed them all, and then took a little break for lunch.  The day was really hot and a lot of us went swimming in the fjord which wasn’t as cold as the fjord the previous day.  Then Len showed us how to set up abseils, which is where you belay yourself down from a cliff.  We did a 20meter abseil which was pretty scary at first but in the end very fun!

 

The evening was so nice that we only used our bivy bags.  Jais and I slept on the little beach, and Len slept in his little hammock not too far away from us.  It was pretty fun before we went to bed; Len was telling us all sorts of stories about Norway and his young army days.  He is a really good story teller and has a ton of stories to tell, so we stayed up pretty late with him and then once again had a great night of sleep.

 

In the morning we had our big 70km bike ride back to Kristiansand.  I never usually ride bikes in Nebraska and I am not very good at riding bikes, so I had practiced the weeks before riding bikes just to get ready for this trip, that I was most certainly dreading.  The morning flew by, as Len kept on making little stops to teach us about the history of the area.

Before I knew it we only had 35km until we reached Kristiansand.  The last 10km were probably the hardest for me.  I was so tired and as we started to get closer to the city there started to be more people and more traffic which was a little trickier for me since I was not use to riding a bike.  When we finally reached Kristiansand I felt so accomplished!  The whole week prior to this trip I had been dreading riding the bike so far, and only hoping that I could make it.  And now the trip was over, it was the best trip by far, everyone on the trip was a really good time to hang out with and we had beautiful weather!