Once Upon a Certain Hike...

“Boy, my car sure is driving a lot slower with all these Americans in it!”… and thus began another Sabbath afternoon hike with Robbie...

Sabbaths here at EBS generally consist of church, a great meal, and inevitably… a hike. Seriously…what would Sabbath be without a trip into the great out-of-doors?! (…boy I love that word… “out-of-doors”… it just sounds so…liberating… ;-) So far, every Sabbath that we have been here at EBS, a small group of us have managed to get out on a hike up some mountain…

First it was the mountain behind the school - A brisk, up-hill climb, following no trail in particular…(at least as far as I could tell…). To enhance the viewing possibilities from the top, a few of us climbed up some trees… thus providing the ideal target for some well aimed snowballs, (your’s truly receiving a sound smack in the head by one from Robbie…).

Coming down the hill was a blast! There were still large patches of snow on the ground; so as Robbie and Ricky led the way, leaping as far and as fast as they could, I ran along behind, trying to land in their footprints… ending in catastrophe on more then one occasion. (…ever tried making a snow angel face-down?) :-P At one point when I was in the lead, I came running to a small cliff and without thinking, leaped off. (Note to friends: It is seldom if ever wise to put Shannon in the lead… some of you already know this from experience…) The somersault and landing that ensued from my un-calculated leap was phenomenal… I’m not sure how far I slid, but when I finally came to a stop I was laughing so hard I had trouble getting up for a second, (I wasn’t the only one laughing of course… Ricky and Robbie were right behind, and had witnessed the whole event...).

The next mountain we hiked was up near Fredheim; at the top of which was some sort of cell phone tower, (which to me looked more akin to a Chinese Pagoda). This mountain too was covered in large patches of snow, ideal for leaping into. My only dilemma was that, as the hike progressed, I somehow managed to acquire a reputation for finding the path of most resistance. While the others were sinking only a few inches into the snow, I would take two steps and then sink up to my knee in a hole! After one such occurrence, Martina put it nicely by saying, “I love following you Shannon, because I know exactly where NOT to step!” ;-)

As usual, from the top there was an incredible view… you could see for miles. After exploring around a bit, we found the climbers log and wrote our names in it - “Shannon T. was here from GA, USA! ;-) ” Then it was back down again.

Once more, we searched for as many snow-leaping opportunities as possible. Cliff after cliff saw us go flailing over the edge, into the snow below… and while the others managed to land in fairly shallow spots, due to form Shannon would land in the deepest spot available and sink to her waist nearly EVERY TIME! (don’t ask me how I managed…) FINALLY Allie came leaping off, after one of my sinking episodes, and sunk almost to her armpits!!! lol (he who laughs last, laughs best…)

Our next hike was up a mountain not far down the road from the school. The trail started out as a nice road, slowly winding its way up the hillside. Then we broke off the main road, and began making our way up a narrower path… then we broke off the narrower path and began forging our own trail… and eventually we ended up bouldering the last little bit. Upon reaching the top, we found an interesting looking tepee shaped thing, and a big post with the climbers log attached to it. One more mountain – “Shannon T. was here from GA, USA! ;-) ”

Now bear with me, but we’re going to take a little detour from the hiking theme here for a second… because you see, that night after we got back from the hike, something monumental occurred in my life… for the very first time ever, I tried brown cheese…. and OMW!!!!! THAT STUFF IS INCREDABLE!!! I don’t know how on EARTH I survived these…what… nineteen? years of my life without it!... well, I mean, I do know… but still… I never would have guessed that goats could make something that tasted that good! (for those of you die-hard vegans who nearly passed out, yes – brown cheese is made with goat’s milk, and yes – Shannon ate it…[don’t worry though, she’s still mostly vegan… and besides… we don’t have brown cheese in the states…].)

That first encounter with brown cheese opened up a whole new world of tantalizing opportunities for my taste buds – brown cheese plain, brown cheese on crackers, brown cheese on toast, brown cheese with jam, brown cheese with honey, brown cheese with honey and peanuts… the possibilities were endless… (ok, so maybe the brown cheese and Marmite did serve to be pretty conclusive… “yuck”…) Anyhoo, I must say, the Norwegians have it made… and if you ever come to Norway you have GOT to try some of the stuff…either that or come to my house right after I get back… (I plan on bringing home a block or two… or three… ;-) … now back to the hikes…

(boy, do I get sidetracked easily or what!...)

Our last major hike was two weekends ago. Robbie had invited Ricky, Allie, and me up to his parents house for the weekend; so on Friday afternoon, along with Martina, we loaded up the car and took off. The ride was fairly uneventful, (I say fairly due to the fact that Robbie was driving…), and we reached his place in one piece by mid-afternoon. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting a tour of the buildings and property, and then going in for a yummy supper; after which everyone pulled out their instruments for a fun song service.

The next morning, after another incredible meal, we packed up some sack lunches (brown cheese and raspberry jam sandwiches for me!) and our gear, got in the car, and took off for our next mountain. This mountain has supposedly the best view in all of Norway… From the top you can see 1/6th of the whole country.

We arrived at the base around eleven am. and started climbing… or post-holing I should say… there was still a good amount of snow on the mountain. Once again my incredible honing skills came into play… “step… step… sink. step… step… step… sink. step… step… sink…” I was beginning to see a pattern… or maybe that was just my imagination… Anyhow, I was doing pretty good, discovering one deep hole after the next, (don’t ask me how I managed it… guess it must have been one of those hidden talents… wish it could have stayed that way…) Then, as if to spite me, Mimi (Robbie’s dog) would go prancing gaily by on all fours… “hmmm… I wonder if four legs would be more effective…‘sink’… never mind… two’s about all I can handle…” I can honestly say that was the first time in my life I ever wished to be a dog… (don’t worry, the feeling didn’t last too long...)

As we continued on up the mountain the view grew increasingly spectacular. I was amazed by how far you could see! The snow-capped mountains looked as though they were straight out of a picture book… it almost didn’t feel real… The climb grew increasingly steep, and at one point you had to jam the toe of your boot hard into the snow and lean into the hill-side to keep from slipping backwards. This I managed to accomplish without too much in the line of catastrophes.

Upon nearing the top, I was amazed to see how many people were up there! Someone commented on the fact to Robbie, and he proceeded to inform us that for about $60 you could take an elevator, that went inside the mountain, up to the top… my calm reply went something along the lines of, “a WHAT?!?! You’re kidding me!…You mean to tell me they have an ELEVATOR that goes to the top of this mountain?! What’s the world coming too?!?!?!” (Just you wait… next thing you know they’ll have one going up Everest - $1,000 to ride the elevator to the top of Mt. Everest… people these days…) Yes sir, not only was there an elevator at the top, as well as the big tower thing that you could see from the bottom of the mountain; but there was also a gift shop where you could purchase hot drinks, junk food, and touristy knick knack’s to carry back down with you. They had thought of everything… even to the outhouse that you had to pay 10 kroners to use. I guess a lot of people come to this mountain to ski and snowboard, so instead of hiking to the top, they just park at the bottom and take the elevator up. Either way, it was still weird to be standing on the top of this mountain in all your winter hiking gear, and have someone walk past you in their tight little jeans and high-heeled boots, smoking away on a cigarette… There was this urge inside of me to go up to someone and be like, “Excuse me ma’am, but are you lost?” Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t speak the language…

Anyhow, the view from the top was phenomenal… I wouldn’t question that you could see 1/6th of Norway from up there… (and no, that was not a derogatory comment about the size of Norway… you really could see for miles… ;-)

The hike… or I should say – slide back down was ten times as much fun as the climb up! Most of us had on slick, waterproof pants… and if that wasn’t fast enough for you, Robbie had brought along some plastic bags. We would trudge through the snow to a nice long, unobstructed run, (..there were multiple large patches of exposed rocks to avoid…) and one by one we would sit down and shove off, flying down the hillside…

This had gone on for about half an hour, when we came across the most incredible run… it was actually a cliff, (covered in snow of course)… but when you stood at the top of the run, you couldn’t see over the edge! We had come to the conclusion that the first person to go down a run always went the slowest, (the path would get slicker as more people went down it), so seeing as Allie wasn’t to hip on going down at all, Robbie volunteered her to go first... He took her back a little ways from the edge, and sat her down at the just right distance (like I said, Allie wasn’t too hip on going…). Then he proceeded to push her, so that she could get up enough speed… lol The take-off went something to the tune of, “Ok, that’s fast enough… that’s good now!... Robbie slow down!!... No more Robbie!!!... ROBBIEEEeeee…” and then she was gone… over the edge. We were reassured that she was still alive by her screams that were echoing across the hillside… but still… she was one of my best friends… I crept cautiously over to the edge, just verify… Sure enough!… there she was, blazing down the hillside! (so much for the going slow part…) As she neared the bottom, she glided slowly to a stop… nice choice... (wouldn’t want to run into that big rock pile just beyond…). Then it was Martina’s turn, then mine, then Robbie’s, then Ricky’s… then some of us decided we just had to do it again… so it was back to the top of the run, (Allie stayed down at the bottom to video us…) This time, seeing as I thought I could handle a little more speed, I decided to use a bag… (this would again prove to be one of those leap before you look decisions…)… Martina went down first, and then it was my turn… “You want me to push you?”, Robbie asked, as I trudged over to where the run began… “Um, sure…maybe not quite so fast since I’m using the bag this time…” Unfortunately all I think Robbie heard was the, “Um, sure” part… and before I knew what was happening, I was rapidly approaching the edge… then I was gone... The ride that ensued was unbelievable… Combining the slant of the hill, and the speed at which I was going… physics came into play, and my body ricocheted off the snow; sailing up in the air, and then slamming back down again (so much for the bag… suffice to say, my speed was sufficient without it at this point...). Steering kind of went out the window as well… (there was so much snow blowing in my face I couldn’t see to steer…never mind that fact that my body wasn’t on the ground half the time.) …and the scream?... it was lodged thoroughly in the back of my throat… didn’t come out until I was nearly at the bottom. As I glided slowly to a stop, my scream morphed into a fit of hysterical laughter… I just lay there for a while…(Later I found out that Robbie and Ricky had watched my whole descent from up top and were dying laughing the whole time…)

After the others had made it to where we were waiting, we continued on down the hill, sliding whenever possible. The bags were proving to be pretty effective, except for the fact that occasionally they would slide out from underneath you… so Robbie had a genius streak and created… the diaper. This was where you tore two holes in the bottom, opposite corners of your bag, and stepped into the bag, putting your legs through the holes. Classy huh? Robbie and Ricky stepped into their bags with no problems, and took off down the hill… Then it was my turn… but I was having difficulties with my bag… Allie and Martine giggled as they watched me struggle… “They obviously don’t have hips…”, I dryly remarked as I strained to get my bag pulled up without ripping it. The resulting fashion statement was one I highly do not recommend trying, and it was with great relief that I found my bag mostly ripped apart by the time I slid to a halt where the guys were waiting.

Seeing as our downward course had taken us in a slightly different direction than that of our upward course, we ended up coming out on the road nearly a mile from where we had parked. This was okay though as Robbie and Mimi both have an endless supply of energy… :-P so while they took off running to get the car, we started slowly down the road. With each step we took, I could feel the water sloshing around in my boot…we were soaked through and through… but by the looks on our faces, anyone could tell that we were also very satisfied… there’s just this feeling that you get when you conquer something like that… I don’t know how to describe it, but if you’ve ever done something like that then you know what it feels like.

We drove back that afternoon, and arrived to find company at the house waiting for us… KIDS! YES!!! Boy, did I ever feel right at home… The rest of the evening we had a blast chatting, looking at pictures, eating supper, playing instruments, singing song, having tickling wars on the living room floor, etc… it was great.

The next morning we got up and took off on another hike. (we were determined to make the most of this weekend away! lol) Today’s hike was not necessarily up any one mountain in particular, (although we did eventually come to the top of one and call it good), but around and over and up and through a series of connected hills. The weather, unlike the day before, was bordering on hot… thus making life pretty miserable for some of the more intelligent ones amongst our group who had chosen to wear all black. So when half way up the first hill, we came across a waterfall with a nice pool below… the boys were like, “Alrighty everyone! We’re all going in!!!” Robbie and Ricky went first… waded in the pool, ducked under the waterfall, and came flying back out making a whole bunch of noise! lol It was pretty funny… but then it was my turn. I took two steps into the water… then turned around and jumped right back out! “BOY this water’s COLD! Where’s it coming from?” To which Robbie replied, “Oh, it’s basically just freshly melted snow from up in the mountains…” “I guess SO!” Then with a few quick steps I jumped back into the pool, swam under the waterfall, and came flying back out. lol It was exhilarating to say the least.

After that, I was very thankful that I had chosen to wear all black that day. ;-) I was also very thankful that our hike had just begun, and we had plenty of time to dry out.

We continued on up through the hills, coming across occasional patches of snow here and there. We also discovered some of last years berries still on the bushes that grew all over the ground, but from the smell of them I ventured to guess that they were probably not the safest things to be eating… one could end up pretty soused. They did leave pretty pink track in the snow though, when you walked over them.

We finally came to this one hilltop where you could see the mountain we had climbed the day before, as well as the one we had climbed at Fredheim. We decided to call that good, seeing as it was already two in the afternoon, and we were getting hungry. We found a nice little alcove in the rock that was sheltered from the wind, but facing the sun, and sat down to eat lunch. Robbie had brought vegan vanilla pudding, trail mix, apples, and some kind of candy that I had never had before called marzipan. It was all very good… By the time we finished the wind had died down, so we decided to go lie out in the sun and take a nap. The sun felt soooo good, and the ground was not all that bad, except for the fact that you had to be somewhat cautions when moving around for fear of being dyed with potent pink berry juice.

Before we knew it, an hour and a half had slipped away thus pleasantly occupied. We grudging decided that it would probably be best if we were to start making some effort toward the general vicinity of the car…

The trip down was fast and fun. We ran the whole first steep section, leaping madly down the hillside. (it’s a wonder no one sprained an ankle…) Then as the trail evened out, we slowed down our pace.

Next the boys came up with the terrific idea of trying to see how many times we could cross over the stream that followed alongside the trail… so we went back, and forth, and back, and forth, trying to find one good crossing place, and then another to go back to the very side we had just come from…(the whole thing seemed pretty pointless to me…) This continued on until someone finally noticed the time and decided we needed to quit goofing around. Then it was back on the trail, and not long after we reached the parking lot.

As I sat in the car on the way back, contemplating our journey; I couldn’t help but feel that same sense of accomplishment. I had done something today that I had never done before… and it hadn’t been easy! lol We were all pretty drained. But still… it was that feeling again… that feeling where you’d do it all over again despite the scratches, and bruises, and sore muscles, and bright red sunburns… that feeling that I just can’t seem to be able to describe… but that you know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever felt it. ;-) This is why I keep doing it… I mean, why else do we kill our bodies if not to make life a little more enjoyable?…

-Shannon