The Finstad/Nygaard family has just returned from their annual wilderness vacation. This year the trip took them to the area around Grønningen and Langvatnet with the Snåsa Mountain Board.  Here you will see a glimpse of what happened this year.

Text and photo: Gudmund Nygaard.

Up to now all of the annual trips have involved heavy backpacks and hiking boots. This year we decided to travel on water. Packrafts were our vessels of choice, which are inflatable packable rubber boats. Before we set off on our journey we of course needed to test out the rafts.

Here we are soon ready for the departure to from Grønningen into the Snåsafjell area.

After rigging and packing, the boats were finally on the water and ready for departure.

Along the way we paddled past the Shulzhytta cabin at Grønningen.

After having paddled the first few kilometers we were finally ready for the trips first overland ferry. After a pause, the plan was to come up to lake Langvatnet.

Once we reached our days destination we set up camp and cooked up dinner.

The view from camp.

We were so satisfied with the first camping spot that we decided to use it as a base for a couple of days.

A deck of cards is essential when traveling in the wilderness.

Out fishing.

With an air temperature of 25 C, and 20 C water temps, the fish weren’t exactly cooperating.

But we tried just as hard!

Eventually we did end up catching fish. Sindre and Vetle were very satisfied with finding an antler from a young reindeer buck.

Setting the evening mood.

All water going vessels must be baptized and receive a name. Here you see “Veltebelte”, “Barbara”, “Olga” and “Elvegris” at sea.

Finally we caught more fish!

Sindre poses with a portion of the catch.

Finally we can eat fish instead of noodles for a couple of days.

The fish must be prepared before you eat it.

The whole group was in agreeance that fried fish tasted much better than noodles for lunch!

It was very warm for the entire week. Sindre wasn’t very happy that the chocolate turned to liquid in the bag.

The boats are rigged up and ready for the next leg of the journey.

This is an excellent way to cover longer distances, especially in such nice warm weather. No worn out legs, sore shoulders, or stiff backs.

Vetle and Gudmund moved into the “penthouse apartment”, while Eli and Sindre slept in the “basement”.

Mom makes some food in the “kitchen”.

A short sum up of the trip:

We had an unbelievably nice week in Snåsa Mountains. The warm weather we had made the conditions for swimming much better than for fishing. But, we did catch fish!

An entire week without phones, I-pads, TV, news, etc., is good for the mind and soul, both for young and old. There is always plenty to do and see. Fishing, climbing trees, swimming, hiking, reading a book, and simply being out on a trip in the mountains.

We were pretty excited to see how it worked with the journey on the water. The fact that we each had our own individual pack raft made things much easier. The kids mostly paddled on their own, but when we covered longer distances the hooked up to the adults for a tow. In this type of boat you sit very stable so you don’t need to worry about holding your balance. The light weight of the boats makes them very easy to move around, for example between to different lakes. It was a relief that we didn’t need to hike around with a heavy backpack in 25 C heat! We are definitely going to set out on more adventures with the boats. Another plus is that these boats are very packable and easy to take with you either in the car or in a backpack.

We only saw a couple of other hikers on the entire trip, and we had the feeling that we truly had the place to ourselves. One of the high points was when we saw a fish eagle catch a fish at a very short distance from us. Unfortunately we weren’t quick enough with the cameras.

Here you see the whole group, including Sindre Nygaard (8 yrs), Vetle Nygaard (11 yrs), Eli Finstad, and Gundmund Nygaard.

A more detailed view on the trip in the form of a film will come this fall.