7:50am: a gorgeous morning to start our epic trek
Tracks: who needs 'em?? The start of our journey begins with (unexpected) ungroomed trails.
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We broke trail all the way to the Birkebeinerloypet, only to find that the most famous trail in all of Norway had not yet been groomed . . . . so we turned west, in search of groomed tracks and a new "epic tour" route . . .
We find groomed tracks that lead us to the very top of our map, Hornsjo . . . .
And boy, are these tracks GORGEOUS!!! There is also very little wind, and the sun is bright, the snow sparkling diamonds.
At the top of the tour, on our way to Pallastova: Sam, Robby, Atay
Sam Kapala, Robby Cuthbert, Alex Taylor, and I had been planning a real adventure, the furthest any of us had ever skiied in our lives: 106km. We planned to start at 7:30am and ski all the way to Rena, the start of the Birkebeiner, 50km away. Then we planned to ski the whole Birkebeiner race trail, another 56 km, from Rena to Lillehammer, and catch a bus back to Natrudstilen. But after breaking trail in shin-deep powder for the first 20km we reached the Birkebeiner trail only to be disappointed in finding an ungroomed track!! So, instead, we planned a different epic tour on Robby's suggestion: to hit all the outer edges of our trail maps: From Natrudstilen, all the way east to Ljosheim and north-east to Kvarsted-Saetra, North to Hornsjo, north-west to Pallastova, and home. Only, when I left the three boys at a cafe in Nordsetter where they stopped for a Waffle break I made it home only to find later that they continued their journey west to Lillehammer, the Birkebeiner stadium, before ending their journey with a 20km uphill climb all the way home to South-central Natrudstilen: a HUGE 100km ski tour!!! Congratulations Sam, Robby, Atay!
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