In July I was lucky enough to have my folks and friends come visit me here in Eastern Norway for a few weeks of outdoor adventuring. Seeing as they had driven all the way out from the UK with a trailer loaded with open canoes, we thought it would be a good idea to get out on some water somewhere.
Previously I had come to Norway with pals from university, armed with small creek boats and a questionable desire to paddle steep whitewater and float off big waterfalls. Therefore I was a bit unsure of where might be suitable for some nice open canoe tripping. However, following some digging through our combined collection of maps and accumulated Scandanavian National Parks leaflets, we found a wee flyer titled '
Med Kano i Rogen - Långfjellet - Femundsmarka', which had been given to us from friends who had been out open boating in Sweden some years ago. The first thing we saw was a whole network of lakes and streams amongst forest and mountains... perfect!
Harder to see, however, was how to get in there. We could see roads to the Southern and Northern shores of Lake Femund, but also a track in from Tännäs to Kärinsjövallen in Sweden. By linking up a dozen or so lakes with rivers and portages, an East to West through-trip looked pretty good to go. Distance looked like it would take about five days, so we packed up a weeks worth of food, went shopping for some new fishing lures, and headed up the road to put on.
Here are a few photos: I'll let you work out the route... ;-)
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| Med Kano i Rogen - Långfjellet - Femundsmarka |
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| All the best canoe trips begin with a portage... right? | | |
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| So many places I want to live. |
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| Out into the water.. |
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| Hipster heaven? Yes, that is two aero-presses. |
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| Meeting the residents. |
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| Chop, chop, chop. |
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| Old pine and the suitably toxic coloured Letharia vulpina / Wolf's Lichen - once used to lace reindeer carcasses to poison wolves and foxes.. |
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| Collecting treasures from around the campsite. Can you identify what they are? |
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| Down by the fireside. |
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| Saturday Night Out. |
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| Paddling through a field of Mare's Tails. |
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| Morna! |
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| More pretty lakes... |
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| ... and cabins I want to stay in. |
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| Hats at lunch. |
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| Leaving the woods and suddenly feeling small and exposed out on the wide waters and under the big skies of Lake Rogan. |
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| Yawn. |
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| Captain Pugwash and his first mate. |
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| "Harry Potter Rock" |
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| Another nice camp spot. |
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| Time for a coffee? |
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| Attempting to catch some breakfast.. |
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| I think we found the sweet-spot: amongst the old pines and big boulders on the shores of Rogan |
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| It would have been nice if he caught some trout for lunch... |
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| Old timer McKeown: paddles from lake to lake in search of the next
campfire to hang around, telling stories to anyone willing to keep his
mug topped up with whisky... |
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| Sundowners down by the river. |
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| Dave skipping a portage. |
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| Picking up the pace into the Røa River. |
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| Shall we carry round this one? |
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| Just a wee bit of rain. |
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| Røa. |
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| Looking west to red skies above the Røa |
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| Approaching the big, windy waters of the Femund! |
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| A warm cup of tea outside the 'ferry terminal' on Lake Femund - waiting for a ride. |
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| Hitching a lift aboard the Femund II to the road end at Synnervika. Beats paddling in the wind and rain - sells waffles too! |
Ben :-)
