Bergen is the 2nd largest city in Norway. It is the gateway to the fiords. And Goretex rain jackets are a necessity. We quickly learned just to leave it on when going outside. If it isn’t currently raining, it will be soon. We never did figure out the difference between a 0% forecast of rain and 100%. They looked the same to us.
We only had one day in Bergen and I really wanted to take a break from the city and go hiking. Bergen is home to a classic Nordic loop, Vidden. Starts with a cable car ride to 2000 feet and the summit of Ulriken at 2100 feet. The tallest point for miles.
The loop finishes at the tram car which returns you to downtown. Along the way, adventurous hikers can tuck in Blamanen, the high point on the other end of the ridge.
Derek and I started off getting on the tram instead of the cable car. Opps. No big deal, we would do it in reverse. The skies were cloudy but the sun was working on popping out. Forecast was for no rain until the evening.
We took a quick stop at the top of the tram for pictures of Bergen. And then headed off.
We started in the trees, lakes, and moss. There is no swimming or camping in this area to keep all running water potable.
We hiked out of the forest and into the alpine zone on a very well maintained trail. Our hike was only 8 miles but the guidebook estimated it to take 5-6 hours. We did the first mile in just over 20 minutes. What would we do with the rest of the afternoon?
We quickly reached the alpine zone and our first side trip to the summit of Blamanen. We hiked along beautiful tarns and waterfalls. A high alpine meadow.
Our path was not the best, full of slick mud and water crossings. Then I noticed something in the distance. Was that a rock Cairn?
Our summit had not 1 but 2 of these enormous cairns. Beautifully constructed. One must have been 15 feet tall.
Our weather quickly took a turn for the worse and it started to rain. Then the wind kicked up (and I mean wind). Then the rain got really hard, basically a thunderstorm. This was not in the forecast.
We quickly headed down a better path which went to Ulriken. I held my umbrella like an Easter bonnet to try and shed some of the water.
Soon encountered some trail cairns. I read that the Nordic alpine zone tends to have rock cairns so you can find the trail in the fog.
The rain quickly stopped, then the wind eased, next the sun came back out. We were back on good trail making good time on our loop hike.
The trail signage was excellent.
Then the rain started again and the trail deteriorated into a wet bed of sharp rocks. This slowed us down a bit.
The next trail sign showed we were getting further from Ulriken. What turn did we miss? We pulled out my gps with Topo (what did we ever do without it?) and found that there were 3 loop routes to Ulriken. Since we were standing at the middle loop, we decided to take it.
Within a half mile, the rain had stopped, the sun came out, but the trail had become a mix of mud, wet rock, and stream crossings. Soon we cross through a meadow valley and started heading up to the ridge line.
Then we saw a cairn. The first of at least 50 that marked the ridge run to the Ulriken summit. They looked like columns on a Great Wall.
Then came all the people who were doing the loop in the correct direction.
Then came the rain, then the wind, then the fog. The trail basically stayed the same. It was slow and tedious as we carefully moved through the wet rock and horribly slippery mud.
After an hour, Derek announced that we had covered another kilometer. “A kilometer! Only 1 kilometer! That is less than a mile. How is that possible?” I knew I was moving slow in my tennis shoes but I didn’t risk going any faster. I had already fallen in the mud twice.
Then the sun came out so we decided it was time for a snack.
Then the wind and the rain came together with a vengeance. We looked to the emergency shelters they had everywhere but couldn’t figure out how to use them. So onward we went, following the cairns into the abyss.
“Am I hearing bells? Who has bells? Maybe one of the trail runners.” No, it was sheep. Little groups of them. They were scratching on the cairns.
“Odd place to find sheep. Who do they belong to? Must be that house. Odd place to find a house? Talk about living off the grid.”
After what seemed like hours (maybe because it was), we could see the summit in the distance. A whopping 2100 feet. Only 100 feet higher than we had been for the last 2 hours.
Then the trail split into 3, and somehow we ended up on the wrong fork. There was no way either of us was going down without visiting the summit first. We discussed back tracking because it was the right thing to do. But I had just crossed a mud hole where I had mistaken mud for a rock and buried my leg to almost my knee. I was very lucky to get out of there with my shoe still on.
Instead we opted to cut cross country. It was heather, we were 100 feet below the summit. How bad could it be?
It was a bog. It was like hiking on a sponge. The surface looked solid but was not. With every step you could feel the water completely circulate through your toes. At least my shoes were getting clean.
We reached the summit in a heavy rain and wind. Derek was very optimistic that if we just hung out for 5 minutes the sun would come out. So we stood under my umbrella (yes, it was still in one piece) and ate homemade Belgium chocolates that I had purchased a few days back.
And yes, the rain stopped, the wind blew harder, the fog rolled through, and then there it was, Bergen. The sun never did come out but this was close enough.
The cable car was 100 feet below us so we quickly hurried down hoping that the hadn’t closed for the night.
There were people still arriving just to take pictures and then return to the safety of their cars. So we joined them for a quick picture…
… and then hurried into the car before they closed for the night.
When we hit the street, we found out why everyone hikes in the other direction. The buses to town stop running a 6pm. We would have to walk the mile and a half to our hotel room. At least it wasn’t raining… for now.
Side note: Last night we arrived Stockholm and there was a Norwegian girl staying at our AirBnb. She is a doctor in the northern most city in the world. She said weather reports mean nothing in Norway. The locals don’t even look at them. They just go out.