Gold Key Goals

Sæteren Gård was an easy weekend "hike" for us: 2 km over a somewhat uphill gravel road, and that was it! The path in was busier than any other hike we've been on because the area is very kid friendly and many young families visit on the weekends.


We prefer more private cabin areas with a little less foot traffic so I don't know that we'll be visiting here again in the future but it's very kid-friendly so I can see the appeal!

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As always, there were plenty of geese and seagulls around to welcome us to the island. The area around the ferry terminal was a bit boring. Mostly flat open areas. But once we walked a bit further we come to a playground, beach, and what is clearly a very popular camping area (note to potential campers: it didn't look like you'd have much privacy there).


The DNT cabin is just past the beach (if you look really closely you can see a few tents on the other side of the bay there). You need a special key to get in and the windows on the main floor were boarded shut so it was impossible for us to get a good look in. There's a waffle stand about 50 metres from the cabin but to my disappointment it was closed when we were there. Thankfully we brought our own snacks. It's a nice spot for a picnic and definitely less popular than Hovedøya, though there is also less to see on the island.

It's possible to rent kayaks from DNT and I think that'd make for an awesome weekend trip. But even though the cabin is a bit removed from the beach and the camping areas, I think I'd want a spot with a little more privacy for a weekend trip. A++ for ease of access from downtown though!

Myrseter was the last of three cabins visited for my birthday trip. The building is part of a farm built in the 1700's. The main farmhouse is no longer standing but what is now the DNT cabin used to be a working building on Østre Rud farm. The old building consisted of two rooms: a working room and a second cold and dark room to store the milk, butter, and cheese that was made. (More info here in Norwegian.)



The building itself is right beside Drømmen but we were so tired that we didn't get down to see it until our second day there. Some of the wood on the front patio behind the gate had rotted out but hopefully that has been fixed by now! All the beds are in an open area on the second floor and there is no way to get from the second floor to the first without going outside, which I imagine is not ideal in the winter.


We opted to take the gravel road on our way home because it had rained so much that 10km in the woods was not going to be fun. It poured rain for part of our walk out but eventually the sky cleared and the sun came out long enough for us to take a break to pick some wild strawberries.

All in all, we had a great weekend. We need to do two night trips more often!

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I've mentioned Olav Thon on this blog a few times before. I first heard of the Thon name from seeing Thon hotels around Oslo and during a visit to Tømtehytta, I happened to find a book about Olav Thon and his contributions to the trekking association. What I came to learn was that he is a very, very wealthy 93 year old man who loves hats, colour blocking, and DNT. Olav's contributions to DNT cabin life have taken a few of my cabin stays to the next level. And I too love cabin trips, hats, and power clashing, so it was only natural to dress up as him for Hallowe'en.

© EvenFoto.no (CC BY 3.0) - http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/thonproperty/images/olav-thon-453727

The costume itself was pretty simple to put together: blazer, baggy collared shirt, necktie, and toque. I also wore wool socks pulled up over my pants and opted for hiking boots when we went out. Props included an issue of Fjell og Vidde, DNT's member publication, and some play money.

Most people were able to guess who I was when given a hint, so I'd say the costume was a success! Happy Hallowe'en!

The hike into Øvresaga was lovely. That is, after we got past the first few kilometres where we just walked alongside the road. The fall colours in the forest were beautiful and we made ourselves at home atop of a hill overlooking the lake for lunch. There was a cabin nearby so we may have technically been eating in their backyard but we didn't mind and they didn't seem to either.


On our hike into the Øvresaga I was extremely pleased to see that there were still (small) blueberries to be found! Whoever said you can't pick blueberries in October wasn't trying hard enough. Østmarka is a blueberry gold mine. (And a beautiful place to hike in the fall.)


We didn't stay at the cabin for very long in order to catch the bus home at a reasonable hour. At a glance it seemed like an average cabin with a two bedrooms and a canoe that can be borrowed if you're staying overnight. The water was super calm that day -- great conditions for a paddle if we had had time! We hiked back along the roads instead of the trail to cut back on travel time. But to our dismay, we didn't stand far enough out of the shelter and the bus drove right by us. The next bus didn't come for another hour and we weren't exactly dressed for standing around.


To add insult to injury, there was nothing to do around the bus stop. No cafes, no points of interest, just a bunch of houses and a lake. Walking to the nearest station was a bit of a crap shoot. Some of the stops on the way in seemed basically as good as getting dropped off in the forest. At least here we could get away from the main road and still be near civilization. We managed to catch the next bus and have been vigilant about being very visible at bus stops since!

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To the best of my knowledge, that statement is true. Or at least it was true on July 1, 2016 when we finally made it to Presthytta and crushed all former records with documented evidence. Not that it was a competition.



Luckily a sign to Presthytta caught out attention: only 1 km to go! Surely it couldn't be up the dirt road to the left? That road looked like it had been recently dug up. Skeptical, we followed the trail. It was mostly a bulldozed path of mud and fallen trees in an otherwise relatively clear area. We stopped when we came to a very steep hill that had effectively turned into a river/waterfall of sorts with all the runoff. We caught our breath and climbed up thinking surely the cabin was at the top. Nope. The runoff stopped but the bulldozed path continued.


We went higher, and higher, thinking it would be over every hill and it wasn't. And, where were the blazes? After following the bulldozed path through the woods, we hit blue blazes again. What path had we been following? Should we follow the blazes left (up another hill) or right (into the forest)? 1 km? How inaccurate was the sign we passed? We decided it wasn't worth it to go up any more hills and took a right. We followed the path until we found ourselves back at the abandoned barn and the sign for Presthytta that said 1km to go. Then we had an important decision to make: should we try again?


We did. We followed the blazes very carefully and came once more to the waterfall. But we weren't going up that hill again until we found a blue blaze. Finally we found what we were looking for, in the forest along a small path through the grass beside our muddy "trail". Soon we were at Presthytta and the rain poured down. We took shelter in the cabin and played Yahtzee while we waited for it to ease up. I won against all other recorded games by a pretty respectable margin while eating a Kvikk Lunsj. My spirits were completely restored. The rain stopped and we went back to Drømmen.

Presthytta had been hard to find but it had an amazing fireplace inside and the outhouse was less buggy than the one at Drømmen. It was a bit bigger than I prefer and even though there is a living room, all the beds are in the same room as the kitchen. But there were tons of raspberry bushes outside. Too bad for me they weren't ripe for the picking!

For the record, looking at the map with less tired eyes, the bulldozed path was a municipal boundary clearing between Hole and Ringerike. That's a mistake I won't be making twice!

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We made a fire, put on dry socks, and sat down to eat with plans to visit the other nearby cabins in the coming days. Looking through the cabin log book it seems like this is a fairly popular spot and we heard from some friends that they had been a few weeks after us and seen our entry! Not hard to see why it's popular -- the location is great (save the mosquitoes) and the cabin is super cute, private and recently renovated (it's also accessible by a nearby road instead of the hiking trail).

More to come on the other cabins we visited in the following weeks!

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All in all, it was a great mid-week trip! If I were to do it again, the only thing I'd do differently would be to reverse our hike to take the long way in and the short way out so that we might have had the energy to visit the lookout on the shorter side of the hike.

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The Tømte cabins are not far from the city and a popular place to visit. We went to the "little" Tømtehytta mid-week so that we'd have the place to ourselves (the "big" Tømtehytta is right beside the little one but on a Wednesday in June nobody had made any reservations at either except us). We left after work and didn't get to the trail head until around 8pm but there is lots of sun in the summer and we had a few hours of daylight ahead of us.

From the bus stop, a sign notes that are two ways to get to the cabin, one is 7.5km and the other is 3.5. We chose the 3.5km route based on the fact that it was "steeper, but also 4km shorter". What the sign did not mention was that the route we chose was substantially steeper than the alternative. (Not pictured because that was not a fun time.) When we finally had just 500m left to go, the switchbacks started.


Eventually we made it and it was so worth it. This is another cabin that has been renovated with funding from Olav Thon's DNT Foundation and it was at this point I became an Olav Thon super-fan. There was not one, but two couches, as well as a guitar, rocking chair, and cow-print footstool. Plus at least 10 decorative pillows and a loft space for sleeping. AND new ikea cabinets in the kitchen and a brand spanking new outhouse with a poured cement foundation. We lived the dream cabin life for one night and loved every minute of it.

The next day we popped over to the "big" Tømtehytta and took the longer route back, but more on that next week. If we were to do this trip again, I'd take the 7.5km route in. It's also uphill but much less gruelling. On the way out (in the 3.5 km stretch) there is a side hike you can do to a nearby look-off. For us, having walked up that path already, we were not prepared to hike back down (and then up) those switchbacks to see it. Maybe another time!

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Last we left off we were exploring the cabins in the Palace park. In addition to Hovinkoia, one of the super modern sleeping cabins from Skåpet was there. I didn't have great photos of the cabin from when we first saw it in June and was surprised to find that it was still in the palace park in mid-September since they were supposed to come down at the start of the month. It was too dark for photos when I made this discovery so I went back this past Friday to get some better ones. Unfortunately my city bike met a tram track at a bad angle on the way down to the palace and I got knocked off the bike. I broke a bone in my wrist and have got a cast for the next 12 weeks! Sad to say that cabin trips have been put on hold while I recover but I will still be posting about our past trips in the coming weeks.

Since I didn't get any new photos of the cabin, you'll have to settle for this two minute promo video by the firm that designed them. Pre-cast we were seriously considering making a visit out to see them "in real life" because they look amazing but they were all booked up. It's not hard to imagine why!

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In June we had a very special visitor from Canada come to stay with us and we did all sorts of things, including visit the palace park. This year the Queen and King are celebrating their 25th year as reigning monarchs and the palace park was turned into "The Jubilee Park" for the festivities. Turns out the Queen is a huge supporter of DNT and the Jubilee Park featured not one but two DNT cabins! (These will be the easiest cabins I ever visit...)


The older of the two cabins, Hovinkoia, opened in 1937. It was DNT's 5th unstaffed cabin, and their first forest cabin equipped for "self-catering". This style of cabin became popular with DNT in the 50's but at the time Hovinkoia was built nearly all of DNT's cabins were staffed lodges and small stone mountain cabins. I'd say now the opposite is true and the majority of cabins are unstaffed "self-serve" cabins.


Before it was moved to the Jubilee Park, Hovinkoia lived about 2 hours north-west of Oslo. Now that the summer is over, the cabin will retire at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History and in few years a new cabin will open in its original spot.

The other cabin that was in the Jubilee Park was super modern and even though we've already seen it we may have to make a point to check it out in the wilderness because it looks amazing. More to come!

Update (September 20/16)
In case you're wondering what's involved in moving a cabin, I was at the palace this evening and it looks like it's a pretty big ordeal!

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A few months after our visit to Smedmyrkoia, the same group of us headed to Spikertjernhytta with modest expectations. To our surprise the cabin had been redecorated since the photos were last updated online and we were happy to enjoy the improved decor!


Spikertjernhytta is a serviced cabin in the front with space to stay for DNT members in the back. We didn't realize the DNT portion was part of the same building so it took us a few minutes to figure out where we would be sleeping, exactly. There was nobody around when we visited in mid-April but I imagine it's a popular spot in the winter when waffles are being served.



Outside the cabin there is an great outdoor fire pit with lots of space to sit and a lake that could have been good for fishing, had it not been covered in an inch of ice. Inside the cabin there is a radio (a surprise luxury!) and we thoroughly enjoyed all of Norway's top hits, on repeat, on P4 while cooking dinner.

We had a great weekend lazing around the porch, and then lazing around the fire pit (with wool blankets), and then lazing around inside and playing card games once it got dark. Highly recommend!

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Dølerud is an old cabin from the 1800's that opened through DNT in November 2015 after being renovated with funds from Norwegian hat superstar hotel magnate Olav Thon. It is not too far into Østmarka (the part of the greenbelt east of the city), which makes it an excellent candidate for a day trip.

We went in early April, just as the ski season was ending. We started at Skullerudstua and stopped to eat lunch at Rundvannet (lake). Having eaten, we continued on our way and hiked uphill a bit before coming to a really steep descent within a kilometre or two of the cabin. The photo doesn't quite do it justice. We had to hold on to the trees to navigate our way down.


The rest of the trail was relatively flat. When we got to the cabin, it was still boarded up for winter. We didn't open the window coverings so it was dark but the cabin was really nice inside. Dølerud was my first visit to an "Olav Thon cabin" and I had no idea that the comfort of not one but two couches was within the realm of the possible. The outhouse was also new and fancy (read: clean). A huge improvement over some others we've visited.


After lazing around on the couches for a while we went home the same way we came but stuck to the gravel road when the marked trail pointed back to the forest, as to avoid the steep hill we had come down.

If you're planning a trip to Dølerud there are a few things you should know:

1. Dølerud is close enough to the city to have cell service, 
2. There were some passer-by's in the short time we were there so you might expect some visitors if you are staying overnight, and
3. Østmarka is full of blueberry bushes that are ripe for the picking in June/July through to September. 

Plan accordingly!

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In the morning we had a visit from a Skogfanten (child cabin collector) while we were cleaning up and getting ready to head out. Kids under 13 can visit cabins in Oslo marka (greenbelt) and get a prize for every 5 they visit up to a maximum of 20 cabins (there are 25 or so cabins in Oslo marka).

Our ski home was quick and painless...no thoughts of a Red Cross scooter rescue this time!

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I am not the best skier, but I thought I could manage the 8km trip to Kobberhaughytta because it was mostly downhill. In this I failed to realize two things:

1.  Skiing downhill on cross-country skiis is not as easy as one might think, and 
2.  Skiing downhill one way often means skiing uphill on the way back.

After a long trek I finally thought I saw the cabin straight ahead through the forest. I did not. Instead, the cabin was up a steep 200m hill. But nobody told me visiting 100 cabins would be easy. I told myself that I could pay to stay overnight if I really needed to.

Last we left off, we were in Møre and Romsdal and had hiked into Feskarbua. The next day we took a quick hike over to Langdalsbu. Langdalsbu is a serviced cabin and a popular ski destination for kids (or so I've heard). Unfortunately when we visited it was closed.


From what I could see by peeking inside the windows, it would be a place that I would love visit for a waffle (but let's be real, I'd happily eat a waffle almost anywhere).


With the cabin closed there wasn't much for us to see or do and we didn't have too much daylight left so we didn't stay long. Our hike home was uncomfortable because we packed clothes for a ski in -5ºC and we found ourselves hiking in -10ºC. These things can happen when you don't spend enough time planning your trip (one can also find themselves scraping ice off a windshield with a credit card in such circumstances). Thankfully the hike out wasn't too far.
We'll head back in this direction another time time we're in the area to check out Oskarbua, the small cabin beside Feskarbua. What do you want to bet they share a toilet...

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Cabin rating: ★★★★☆
Transport there and back: Car. Parking available a bit past Skaret
More details at ut.no

We were in Møre and Romsdal for a New Year's Eve wedding and thought we'd get in a cabin visit for good measure while we were there. Our plan was to ski into Feskarbua and return home the next day. It had been a bit warm so we weren't sure what the conditions would be like but we were fairly sure skiing would be possible.


We were wrong. Most of the trail had no snow and where there was anything it was mostly ice. We had to leave the skis with the car and hike in. That went just fine and we were there a bit before sun down. The cabin was freezing cold but very small and it started to warm up soon after we got a fire going. By the time we had made dinner it was quite comfortable.


The cabin wasn't as well equipped as the cabins in Oslo but it was clean and had all the necessities. Our stay was uneventful but two things stand out in my mind:

1.  It was 4º in the cabin when we woke up. This wasn't surprising but it was still a shock to the body. 
2. The toilet was a tall bucket with a lid on top. Need I say more?

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Tip: Feskarbua uses a special key that needs to be picked up at Skaret turistsenter. When we got to Skaret it was closed for the holidays and we had to call and make alternative arrangements on the fly. Check the hours for Skaret ahead of time!