Nordmarka High Five!
Friday evening, Fredrik Alfredsson and me ran into the forest from Frognerseteren and made good progress to Kikut and further. The weather was perfect, the ground pretty dried up and the forest was green and beautiful. Nordmarka offers tough and technical trails and this loop is not an exception. If you follow the original GPX, you are in for a long run and quite some hours out.
We had our first stop at Katnosa where we went and made our instant meals, dried our socks and put on our headlamps. After Katnosa, it started to get dark and we went into the night in a good rythm following the trails up and down. At this time of year, it never gets really black dark unless you are in the deep forest, there will always be some hint of light in the horizon. The moon was large and beautiful and gave us some nice views, but we nevertheless got tired and sleepy during the dark hours. On some of the places we had to climb or pass by quite some trees which have fallen down during the storms, and both in the dark and daylight we were in for a good obstacle course. The sun rose about the time we reached the first peak Helgjehaugen (706 masl) and we turned off the headlamps on the way down. Peak 2nd and 3rd, Lamannshaugen (705 masl) and Svarttjernshøgda (716 masl), are in close distance and done quite quick. With the exception of some random bushwacking, the trails are also easy in these parts. Before reaching the next peak, the trail pass by the beautiful, yet never ending, platou Pershusfjellet and we made a stop at DNT Sinnerdammen for some more instant meals. The sun started to warm, and we were in for a warm and nice day. Towards Ringkollen, the fourth peak (702 masl) we got some easy km on gravel. Ringkollen is the most beauiful peak of all, and with nice trails going down we got some energy back and had a fun and speedy run for some time. But the trip is tough and tiresome, the trails quite technical and somewhere between peak 4 and 5 the energy has a tendency to vain. It feels like endless trails, on roots, rocks and passing by fallen trails before the final peak Oppkurven (702 masl) emerges. Happy to have made all 5, we have a 10 minutes nap in the sun and continue on the trails heading back towards Frognerseteren. When the farm road emerges and turnes into gravel road around 90 km we are quite happy to get som flat ground under our feet and the trotting turns into a speed run on tired legs. With almost 10 km of speed we take it slow the last 5 km up the hills to Frognerseteren and arrive happy and tired at the finish line. What a trip! Beautful, but challening and tiresome. You definitely need to have som patience and grit to finish it, but the reward is worth it!