Norge Midt section 3: Royrvik to Holden

In July and August 2023, I hiked for four straight weeks and 825 km in Norway between Sulitjelma, County Nordland and As i Tydal, County Trondelag. I broke the route down into four sections based on time criteria with the associated part-day break and resupply. This is the story of my third week on the trail when I walked from Royrvik town to Holden farm.

Week 3 is bound to be the key section of this trip. It will concentrate most of the off-trail in long stretches where I don’t really know what to expect other than it will be passable but no idea at what price. If nothing else, it will be slower going and I’ll be more vulnerable to rough weather conditions. I’ll also be mostly away from the hut network. It feels exciting and daunting in similar amounts.

For the time being, it’s Monday morning and I need to wait until 9 AM for the supermarket to open so no need for the usual early wake-up call. By the time I finish breakfast, it’s already wet outside and the forecast is for occasionally heavy, sustained rain throughout the day. Very tough conditions but I have a plan.

The initial 18 km south of Royrvik are easy walking on dirt and tarmac roads, just before climbing to a highland, off-trail section. This latter has all the potential for disaster in the current conditions. Shopping and packing will take a good part of the morning though so it makes all the sense to plan for a short day and make camp in a sheltered spot before climbing into the unknown.

With this in mind, I wear my poncho to walk to the grocery under the rain. It’s a sizeable supermarket for a relatively small town but I guess it services a wider area. Beware of avoiding getting to town on a Friday late evening though, you’d need to wait until Monday for a resupply!

There is a post office counter inside so I take the chance to send away my used paper maps. Nice touch about the freeze-dried food option, which saves the search for some dinner-worthy meal I can cook quick in a pot of limited size. Other than that, I can easily find all the usual staples.

There will be a reasonably good chance for another resupply but only 3 days into the section so I don’t plan on using it. In fact, there won’t be another for the rest of the trip but by the end of week 3 I’ll be in the hut network again in a region where most huts have a pantry room so my idea is to survive to trip’s end by using the limited options in the huts together with my leftovers from Royrvik.

Even with the prospect of the favorable terrain, it takes some courage to put the pack on and step out of the Limingen Gjestegard so I wait for a lull in the rain and wave goodbye to the welcoming scene of my last 24 h.

After an initial bit on the main road, the route takes a parallel gravel track. I almost miss the former, it had very little traffic and I could keep my feet just mildly wet. The track soon turns into a wet mess where my feet go back to the usual soaked. I know it’s a fact of Norway hiking but still a bummer after some town time.

I get ocassional views of Limingen lake, one of the largest fresh water lakes in Norway.

Eventually I go down to the main road again at a junction where a fork turns west bound for the outer world. It’s a virtually deserted road on a Monday afternoon that I need to follow for a few km to the base of the hills where the road enters a tunnel and I leave it for the off-trail highlands.

In strong disagreement with the forecast, the rain has pretty much stopped and I can have a moody, yet easy hike up the road to the tunnel entrance, where I take a side into the last of the birch trees to find a dry spot for the tent.

There will be some heavy rain later but I’ll be comfortably installed by then. Rainy weather shows the value in a workable tent porch:

The forecast for the following day is still sketchy but less dramatic. It’s overcast in the morning but at least it’s not raining and I get ready for a low-light kind of day. Right from camp, I need to climb onto the highlands. It’s cross country over grass and rock and I’m particularly relieved that there’s no mist or rain, either of which would make things difficult. In their absence, it’s just slow progress over rough terrain across beautiful landscapes dotted with lakes.

It’s about 13 km before the route takes me down and, without much vegetation or marsh struggle, straight onto a farm area at the end of a gravel road which I need to use all the way down onto the main road I had used out of Royrvik the day before. It’s rather narrow and undeveloped but still the main one in the area.

Motor traffic is extremely low and the scenery is nice, particularly while the road borders giant Tunnsjoen, the other big lake in the region.

It’s about 15 km where the NPL¹ route that I’m following has been traced over the tarmac. Looking at the topo maps, I could think of another highland section that would have saved a few of the 15 but most likely at the cost of a rough way out across dense conifer woods and I trust the route designers chose the lesser evil.

The road is the only option in an area where water has taken over most of the lower land and there’s only a bridged, narrow passage between big lakes before the final push onto Skorovatn, which happens to be an actual town, albeit small and where the very limited services are all hosted in a building that’s closed and deserted when I get there by 6 PM. Never mind, my plan includes Skorovatn and the DNT² hut in town, the first one in many days and the last one I’ll meet before the end of the week. If only for that, I had planned to stay indoors for the night.

It’s a front country hut with running water and wired power. By the time I get there, clouds have broken and it’s even sunny at times, what am I doing indoors in such conditions? Other than the disaster plan I was carrying from Royrvik, which included a Skorovatn stay, the thing is the wind has picked up to worrying speeds, even in the sheltered town location so I feel righteously fine inside.

What’s more, the forecast is for very strong wind the following day. Norwegian weather takes no breaks.

I can certainly feel the breeze when I step out by 7 AM. It’s a long and remote highland ahead that will take the whole day. The initial 12 km are on trail, the remaining 20 cross-country. The vibe feels bright despite the dark clouds dominating the scene. The easterly wind is powerful but manageable as I climb along west-facing slopes that offer some partial protection. It’s often difficult to show the wind in a still picture and my best efforts at that were this waves is a small tarn and the waterfalls being blown upwards:

It’s a shame about this wind because the day is a memorable one otherwise as the route goes across this huge upland of rock and grass dotted with lakes all over the place. It’s really beautiful and the off-trail course makes it feel more remote than it probably is. The highlands of Nesafjella.

At some point though it blows so hard that it knocks me down. With the wind in my face, I can barely move forward and I start to worry about the rest of the day. I can’t think of any real progress in these conditions. Funny how the wind works anyway because as soon as I leave the summit area I was traversing, it eases enough to be bearable, even if I’m still windward and the topography is rather smooth.

My impression is that the wind has eased somewhat and it was about time because the route takes me over a secondary summit in very exposed terrain where I would have suffered some major beating. It’s still blowing hard but I can stand.

As I start the climb down, it feels like victory of the relieved kind. I can see far away and recognize the big lakes at the far end where I’ll hit a farm area and I can also scout all the cross country terrain that I’ll need to go through to get there. I’m aware it’ll be hard work but apparently nothing I haven’t done before. I was wrong.

There were obstacles I couldn’t see from above. In fact, I couldn’t see those gullies until I was on the very edge. A series of sharp cuts that I needed to go across with no way around. They weren’t that deep, about 10 m average, but the walls were climbing terrain. I had to scout carefully for a weak point to go down and a matching one to go up again hoping it was the last one, only to find another shortly after. At some point, I lost my patience and made a poor choice that almost cost me a bad fall. Good decision making is key and this was a good reminder.

Eventually, I reach lower land and more familiar terrain, the usual mix of woods and marsh. This is known hardship and I feel comfortable with it. Victory again.

I get to the dead-end of a dirt road that gives access to some winter ski routes in the area. I could push to the farm areas ahead but I reason it’d be easier and more private to camp before that so I find a dry spot in a clearing in the conifer woods. The wind seems long forgotten but I’d be well sheltered anyway. There was some beautiful light that I take as my reward after a very tough day on the trail.

Day 4 out of Royrvik starts quiet and beautiful with the usual mix of clouds and clearings and some lovely light as I do quick progress on the dirt road that soon turns into tarmac as I reach the farms on the shore of Skjeldbreitvatnet. The valley bottom is a series of lakes and connecting rivers and I need to reach the main east-west road to find a bridge across. Relaxing times with easy walking for a while.

Once across the valley, I need to leave the road straight away into the woods, thus entering the longest off-trail stretch in the trip where I’ll be traversing Blafjell-Skjaerkerfjell National Park. It’ll be two full days before I meet a trail again.

Skjaerkerfjell is huge, it’ll be 4 full days across the park, most of it off-trail and my beacon at the time is Holden farm, where I’ll temporarily get off the park limits and find a DNT hut where I plan to take some break.

I’ve heard some warnings about the difficulty of Skjaekerfjell but nothing specific other than the boggy terrain. I argue it shouldn’t be much worse than anything I’ve already met. I’d be more weary of tricky topography, which is not often an issue in Norway unless you’re actually looking for it but can still happen, even in micro-amounts, like I just suffered the previous afternoon. Actually, the biggest obstacle in Norway, and particularly in these relatively lowland areas, is the rivers but it’s clear from the map that the route has been specifically set up to use existing bridges over the main flows. I wonder about an alternate route closer to the local watershed that should be drier while avoiding valley visits. Such alternate wouldn’t be any longer but it’d be more remote and exposed with no shelter options. With rain in the short-term forecast, I prefer to trust the designers and stick to the standard route.

The approach to Skjaekerfjell is the well-known chore of woods and marsh to tackle with patience. There are many clouds but that’s no news, clouds are almost always there in some form or another, and rain is not expected until the following day. Actually, sunshine wins for a while.

The route takes me to a weak point in a ridgeline leading into Almdalen across the Skjaekerfjell border.

The Alma river in that valley is too big to ford but there’s a bridge a few km downstream. The bridge is in the middle of nowhere as far as access trails, of which there are none, but I guess it’s a key infrastructure to communicate both sides. Here is where I could have turned upstream instead, looking for the higher fells and going around the headwaters of the Alma. The map shows some steep terrain over that way that might be difficult, might not but I’ll never know. What I did know is the route downstream was seriously tough.

It was about 7 km along the hillside and it was about choosing the right bench. My feeling at the time is I not always did the best choice. At some point, I found myself on a course to the valley floor, which was probably a bad place to make progress, and needed to backtrack. Pissed of with the idea, I scouted the steep hillside to find a viable way straight up to regain the correct bench, some 50 vertical meters higher.

Trying to amend one mistake by committing another is always a bad idea. I saved the backtracking at the price of a sketchy climb over an occasionally unstable, consistent 50 deg slope. I wasn’t happy even when I was over with it.

Eventually, I came down to river level at the bridge area. It was indeed bad terrain for walking, very rocky and thick with vegetation. Right before the crossing, there was this private hut that I could not access. Hut and bridge location were surely related.

The opposite side of Almdalen was a breeze in comparison, still off-trail but just the usual, gentle uphill over grassy terrain and I took an emotional break while dragging my tired body for a few more miles until I went by the perfect, dry and grassy bench and set up for the day. Dusk was spectacular.

The following day, the clouds are still there.

Rain is expected anytime after mid-morning even though my recalling is it shouldn’t be of the non-stop kind. It’s looking certainly gloomy as I go across Bukvasfjellet, down some Pyrenean-worthy slopes and along high moorland before the smooth relief allows views of Lurudalen and the Gresamoen farm.

If I trust the maps, it’s a giant marsh down there. The route goes down to meet the access dirt road where it crosses the river over a wooden, vehicle worthy bridge.

On the opposite side of the river, there’s the farm buildings in Gresamoen. I’ve been through remote farms before, some on this very trip, but I think none as much as this one. It’s a hell of a lot of miles west over a dirt road to get out of here and into any other built area. The Blafjell-Skjaekerfjell National Park limits have been traced so they just skip the farm. At the time I go through the place, it seems empty. I see nobody and no open doors. Rain starts falling gently and I take a lunch break on a shed porch.

Rain is intermittent and I resume the hike over marshy terrain along a bit of faint trail that helps with the lush bits. It’s good to find the way out onto higher ground where progress will be easier.

Afternoon and evening goes across endless moorland, often under the rain. Here is where I’d miss a marked route to help with the route finding when dealing with stuff is least welcome. Cross-country, it’s not possible to just keep your head down and keep going.

By late evening, clouds break and I get some welcome light. Showers are still around and I get a rainbow.

I come down to this mix of trees and marsh around the tree line and find a dry spot to enjoy dusk around the pine trees. I’m only 4 km from rejoining the trail network.

By now, it’s been a while since I could last check the weather forecast but if I trust the latest update rain is expected again the following morning so I do a very early wake-up call to try to reach a catalogued trail for the first time in two days before it starts pissing down.

It’s only a partial success and I get wet again soon after departure but by 8 AM I spot my first cairn this side of the big void.

It’s overcast and rainy but even if there’s not much difference in the actual walking, once I’m on trail it’s so much easier to follow the route and I feel like nothing can go wrong now, at least not before I get to my next planned station in Holden Farm, some 20 km away.

Such is my disappointment when I realize there’s still one cross-country section and I really need to swallow this one. Looking at the terrain, I feared a bad fight with wet vegetation but in the end there was always a way through and it wasn’t that bad. Eventually, I got to the shore of Langvatnet and a well marked trail, at last.

Holden is a working farm with no land vehicle access but the location somehow feels less remote than Gresamoen did the day before. May be the ongoing activity or the now improving weather but also that it’s closer to the road network even if it’s across the lake and the Swedish border. One of the buildings is a DNT hut. It’s mid-afternoon and I’m not moving anymore today.

It’ll be time for a much needed break after my toughest hiking week in a long time. Gear drying, general assault to the pantry room and some quality time by the lake or the fireplace.

Final week of the trip awaits.

1. Norge Pa Langs, Along Norway
2. Den Norske Turistforening, Norwegian Hiking Association