A Sunny Ending

Gjendesheim - Oskampen

Three years ago, my dad and I took a trip to Norway. When you've got family abroad, you just end up going to their place and never anywhere else, so it was time to finally see more of Norway than Oslo. We met up in Bergen. I hopped on the back of his motorcycle, and we zipped around for two weeks. There was one place in particular he wanted me to see called "Sikkilsdalseter," an old farmhouse surrounded by beautiful rolling hills he had visited as a kid.

I loved the place, and just by accident, three years later, I happened to spot it on the map when looking at where the Jotunheimen trail would take us next. "Omg, we have to go there," I yelled. "You're going to love it." My two hiking buddies were absolutely fine with my suggestion after hearing they served breakfast and beers, so we packed our things and started hiking. (Fun fact: The Queen of Norway is also pretty fond of this Sikkilsdalseter place and built her summer vacation home right next to it.) We passed by a campsite and a little shop where we loaded up on essentials like cheese and crackers and ice cream before heading into the woods. After a steep ascent and countless little river crossings, we had lunch by a beautiful lake. We had been hiking through such cold weather for the past two weeks that lying in the sun in shorts and sports bras felt amazing.

Sikkilsdalseter is famous for breeding horses, and you know why when you see the animals. They are gorgeous big working horses, and they're everywhere around the property and super curious and friendly, so they'll come right up to you. We lost all concept of time and ended up petting them for 40 minutes before making it to Sikkilsdalseter, where we enjoyed the best beer in the world while watching the sunset. The next day, we climbed another hill and reached the highest point of the Jotunheimen trail, which is only 1525 meters. Despite it not being high, the landscape is unreal, and you can see for miles and miles. At times, it felt like we were somewhere in Africa rather than in Scandinavia. Lukas was starting to have problems with his right knee, and it got bad quickly, so we decided to make it a short day and stay at a beautiful hut called Oskampen. Go there if you can. It's a perfect little Norwegian hut, and anyone with a DNT key can use it. Of course, we didn't have a DNT key, but we were lucky that a German couple—who had a key—decided to stay there. Ha! So Laura whipped up one of her famous 'let's just throw everything into one pot' dinners, and we were glad to be inside and not out in the cold night.

And there it was. Our last day on the trail. The day I had been dreading all week. I didn't want it to end. I just wanted to keep going. All morning, I hiked far behind the other two, trying to soak up every scent, every view, and every movement. When would I be doing this again? How long would I have to go back to work to be able to head out again on a thru-hike? Where would I go? I didn't and I still don't have the answer to that, but I know it won't be long.

We did it!