Skjækerdalshytta - Setertjønnhytta - Brenta Stuggu - second week of September 2015

Hello again!

In the last weeks I did not feel inspired to post anything at all, maybe cause I have been more into socialising than in the tales about the wanderings of the lone-wolf ( or bear  :) ), but as I watched the pictures I took, once more, I could feel the exitement again and here we go: some pictures and thoughts about my beautiful walk trough the Blåfjella-Skjækerfjella-National-park. Currently I am guest at a friends house in the Årdal kommune and since my walk I have met some new people and met some I already knew in the beginning of the year.

In this second week I rarely met people in the National-park and so I was very alone and very happy to be included into the nature, meeting animals like reindeer, moose and sheep. Sometimes small reindeer-collectors-helikopters were passing by along the lines of the lake and trough the valley and one or two high-flying commercial planes could be heard. The rest was silence.
From Skjækerdalshytta I went north between the river and the mountainslope until I met the bridge build on an former dam - the Skjækerdammen - and crossed the river in western direction.

Skjækerdammen

From here the poorly marked route leads uphill to a plateau on the eastside of the lake Skjækervatne. I was happy to leave the swampy terrain and to come up here. On the plateau I saw my first reindeer - an all white one.

plateau on the eastside of the lake Skjækervatnet heading towards
Lågvassbua

Reindeer-area - its kind of hard to take a picture of them, they always stay some hundred meters away from humans

In this area many routes meet and in summer most of the visitors pass by here, so the routes are marked very well, to keep orientation easy. One attraction is the geographical midpoint of Norway.

Norges geografiske midtpunkt - Norway's geographical midpoint

shovel to dig out Norway's geographical midpoint in winter :)

Setertjønnhytta

Finally - the Setertjønnhytta - since this hut is used much more often than the other NTT-huts in this area, it is properly equipped with food but not so lovley as other huts I saw. I stayed one night and started my trip to Gaundalen mountain-farm on totally non-marked routes. From here on you have to have card and compass and/or GPS. Sometimes you can see the route and some footprints but most of the time you have to choose the path inside the terrain by yourself. No paths or hints anymore. This was not as easy as I thought and after leaving Setertjønnhytta, it took me one day to make something like four or five kilometrers. The swanp was more serious here, once I sank in with my right leg up to to my ass, but I could free myself quickly with the help of my walkingstick. Plus I did not get wet at all - exept the feet - for my heavy-duty-outdoorwork-rain-protection-trousers and the outdoor-gaiters (garments worn over the shoe and lower pants leg) which kept myself astonishingly dry, of course a great comfort outdoors.

swamp-area at Skjeldbreien

no marked route anymore - from Setertjønnhytta to Brenta Stuggu

I knew from my map that there was a hut at Storbrenta at the northeast end of  the lake Skjækervatnet and I surrendered to the fact that I would not make more then some kilometers this day - so I decided to visit this hut which I assumed to be closed, to at least take some dry firewood there and set up my camp in some decent distance to that hut on the banks of the lake. I met the little river near the hut a little to much south of a bridge I saw on the card. I could see the hut already - it felt as noone was there and I went to look for the brigde. For the last hour of my walk this evening I heard some voices and I tried not to meet their owners, cause I thought I would not want to meet these loud people - later I found out, that they used this shouting to drive the sheep in the right direction and for localization purpose among themselves. That was why I met the river a bit too much in the south. But at the little river I suddenly met a group of teenagers with fishing equipment and talked to them. They told me about the bridge and said I should go see the people owning the hut - they would propably invite me in. I walked the last meters - trough te bush - to the bridge, which was a private bridge with fences around to block and control a sheep flock - and there I met in perfect timing - some very friendly adults. It was Peter and Pia, a sheepfarmers couple, accompanied by another guy. They invited me in and suddenly - coming from the silence of the aloneness - I found myself in a beautifully crowded, large logcabin full of teenagers and other friendly adults. It turned out there was Peter and Pia, plus Gunnar-with-the-dogs which are offical sheepfarmers, Thømø - an uncle of Pia from Finland, plus a bunch of students of agriculture from Snåsa and their teacher, who were all collaborating in collecting the sheeps and their lambs after the summer inside of the nationalpark as volounteers.
The place was packed with people - the adults had their beds in two little rooms and the teenagers slept on top of that rooms under the roof. Party-vibes! They quickly integrated me into their togetherness and at the end of the evening I was successfully highjacked by these lovley people to volounteer at the collecting of the lambs next days. Peter and Pia, who do not own the logcabin alone but share it with other sheepfarmers gave everything - in a very relaxed and friendly manner - to make these days as attractive and exitig for everyone participating in the big work to collect the sheep, which were spread all over the area. Breakfast and dinner for fiveteen people - no problem. The teenagers were allowed to have some drinks - they did not misuse this previlege and they were allowed to party on into nighttimes and noone told them to be quiet or so. It was amazing - such a togetherness. Two days later then "the old man" (a legendary, over 80 years old guy - a former Oberst of the Army and passionate mountain-dweller) came to visit and a younger friend of Peter&Pia with his Kids. There was the old Gunnar-with-the-dogs (older than 70 years) with his shepard-dogs and an then for some hours an other Gunnar with his 13 year old daughter coming from an even higher mountainplateau in East-Skjæker driving a flock of their sheep with extraordinary endurance down to the collecting area neat Brenta Stuggu. I met people from 8 to older than 80 there. It was so amazing - it was great.

Brenta Stuggu - a sheepfarmers hut - packed with 15 people who collectively worked together to collect the sheep and lambs inside the nationalpark

pancakes with blueberries in the morning - no problem with this tool!

glacial terrain near the hill Grønhaugen north-east of Skjækervatnet

 

This stone lying there since the last ice-age is called "Amudsen" because of his nose :)

Peter, Gunnar&Dogs and me crossing the little river

best weather! sun in september - a beautiful late summer

Out in this beautiful area Peter and Pia told me so many things I wanted to know, about bears and eagles killing their sheep about "the Lapps" (Sami people) and their Reindeer, about hunting and sheepbuissiness. I as a friend of the bear was very happy to hear that they expierineced a bear-plague (hehe!) - which of course they do not think of as funny at all. Since here in Nord-Trøndelag the hunt for bears is rigidly forbidden, same as the hunt for eagles. (heavy, heavy, big eagles, baby, I saw one fly with his/her young one, after Gunnar-with-the-dogs reported their sighting on the walkie talkie). So Peter and Pia somehow, although they are not at all fearfull people, fear that the age of sheepfarming in the wild areas of Skjæker could be over after hundreds of years of sheepfarming! They have to do other things to make money anyway and they are successful people which do not depend on the meat, but this old conflict of wildlife versus sheepfarmers is there, but it is not unsolveable, in my opinion. So I am with the bear and eagle, bu I am also with the thousands of years of sheeptradition as I helped this shepards on a voluntary basis. What the bear took from Peter&Pia - I was giving back in form of work and togetherness.I love the humans, the bears, the eagles, the reindeer, the Norwegian and the "lazy" ;) (hehe) "helicopter-lapps". Alltogeher they have a paradise up there - I tell you!

The days with Peter&Pia, Gunnar-with-the-dogs and all the rest of dedicated people have been so intensive and so full of work and fun, dozens of kilometres a day, running, tricking the sheep, jumping up- and downhill, resting, laughing, partying (...and Aquavit, Vodka and my Scotch and no hangover!)  ...fun, fun, and more fun and talks&jokes - so that I kind of forgot to make pictures or videos. The videos I shot are all shit, cause I had to stop each of them because of i.e. a mothersheep and some lambs nearly managed to escape and things like that, walkie talkies yelling and shepards shouting out - everyone was fully concentrated to catch ALL of the sheep, so I had to focus on that. It has been so intense. It made me soooo happy. I have been so heartfully re-invited for next Septembers sheep collection and been dealt with in such a friendly manner - I can say: I love Skjæker!


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