This morning I hiked Tindstinden after breakfast; 3-3.5 hrs/5.5km/457m elevation. I have to admit it was a real push to do it, I was so sore but wanted to cross this one off the list before I left Sørvågen. I had heard it was quite exposed and could be scary but thought I’d be fine as I’m generally not afraid of heights. I was wrong!! I’ve never been on a hike like that with just sheer drops on either side. The trail was stable, but the vertigo got me good. I had to admit defeat just shy of the summit. It was disappointing not to finish but I knew if I went up any further I’d have a really tough time coming down especially since I had only seen one other person on the trail. After the hike I had a quick shower and grabbed the bus to Reine to check-in to my next hotel. It’s even more stunning here, Reine is beautiful! I had a nice sauna and relaxed before exploring around town and grabbing dinner. I’m off to kayak tomorrow which will be sweet relief for my legs!
Side note on safety – the little red and black device attached to my backpack strap is an InReach Mini. I bought it for the SOS feature, which I can trigger with one button even if I don’t have reception (it goes to a global center which then coordinates with local search and rescue based on my GPS). Another thing I love about it is the pre-programmed messages I can send without needing reception, so I can check in with Steven and let him know I’m ok. Steven is my “mission control” – I always let him know what hike I’m doing, when I start and when I finish, in addition to random check-ins either by text or via the InReach. A new feature I’ve been playing around with is having the InReach drop “breadcrumbs” every 10 minutes, and it plots them on a map that Steven can access online so if he doesn’t hear from me he can see exactly where I am. The only downside is that I find the time and distance tracking wildly inaccurate, so I’d still need to use a Fitbit or some other app to properly track that. I’ll investigate why the stats are so off some other time, but for all the safety stuff it works great! I bring my InReach on almost every hike at home since there is rarely cell service on the trails, Norway has been a mix of having/not having service. Anyways, on to the next stop – Reine!
Girl you’re brave