Hill hike II – Nattmålsfjellet
Today I decided to hike up another small mountain. It is called Nattmålsfjellet and is 296 m high. As Trehørningen it is on the island of Kvaløya.
I park my car and soon I am out in nature in Northern Norway. High mountains, covered with snow. Open birch woodland, the birches still bare. Small lakes and ponds, halfway covered with snow and ice. Small mud bogs with wet patches. And views of the fjords and the open sea. All under a blue sky with temperatures above 10 °C.
While this pond looks freezing cold, it is inhabited by common frogs. They have already spawned and large clumps of frogspawn are floating in the water.
It does not take long and I am on the summit, marked by an impressive cairn that looks half as high as the mountain itself.
I decide to take another way down. This brings me near the village Ersfjordbotn, but I stay above to follow a track that leads around Nattmålsfjellet which brings me back to my car. Before I leave the village behind I pass this artefact that clearly shows that I’m hiking in nature but not in the wilderness. Someone had mounted a satellite antenna on a small ledge. The cable leads downwards, probably to one of the houses.
First the track leads through some wet mud bogs but then it winds through an open landscape with views of the boggy grasslands below and the snowy mountains above.
After seven kilometres, I am back at the car. Elevation gain and loss – round 330 m.
Side dishes
After the hike I drive further west to the lake Kattfjordvatnet. Most of it is still covered with ice, but I don’t think it will stay long. Even the snow line rises with each day. This however is no argument for the locals to stop doing alpine ski tours and they always seem to find a snowy patch by the car, to avoid carrying up their skis. Meanwhile, cross-country skiers have now switched to roller skis and use the roads. Other locals walk their dogs or run downhill on the muddy path happily chatting to each other.
Then I take the car to Ersfjordbotn and stopped at the gravel car park at the viewpoint, apparently the only one in the village. I was too lazy to walk to the waterfall but at least I took a photo of the fjord Ersfjorden which faces directly west.
On my way back home I make another stop in Eidkjosen and take a walk uphill to Lomvatnet.
