Gold Key Goals

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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