Norway 4: The Musk Ox Trail

   The two hour drive heading south to Dovrevegen was mostly uneventful.  Only one or two vistas of any interest, but there was nowhere to pull over.  I chose the Kongvoll lodge area because the musk ox trail starts right across the street.  When I read about the potential to see musk ox, I could not resist trying.  The closest anything else is thirty minutes away, so I chose to go for just one night.  The weather reports had gone back and forth between rain and not rain, but eventually settled on a small chance of rain.

  The trail begins at a nearby defunct train station and begins a slow ascent up the mountain.

I encountered this dead rodent(shrew?) on the way up.

  Once on top, I continued on the path to the right, which continued upward toward a beautiful area with great views on all sides.  Unfortunately, it began to rain lightly, so I put my rain jacket over my short sleeved shirt, protecting my cameras underneath.  I continued a bit past the hiking trail, trying to spot any musk ox and also taking pictures from different perspectives.  I put my cameras away at this point and went back toward the trail.

I took a phone picture of this rock, because I don't recall seeing many rocks like this on my travels.

  Having not seen any musk ox yet, and with there being plenty of time left in the day, I decided to go off the hiking trail, following a clear trail on the ground leading toward the mountains.  After a little while, I ran into a couple.  I asked them if they had seen any musk ox and then pointed into the distance, on the top half of a local mountain.  They counted off the snow spots in order to communicate the location.  

  This next picture was taken on the initial ascent, and so this view was perpendicular to my initial hike.  I put a circle around the rough area that I had to ascend to.  I began to travel direct, and off trail, in order to reach it.  This first took me down into the valley, crossing a stream, and then up the mountain.  The ground ranged from thick grass to rocks and shrubs.  It was all quite wet.

    I honestly wasn't even sure if I was in the right area, because cell phone pics using the 10x zoom was not showing me anything definitively, and while looking up the mountain, the angle didn't reveal anything to me.  Once I got close enough, I used my camera zoom to locate some antlers, and I felt great relief.  I got as close as I felt comfortable being, and then laid down in the grass to take pictures. 

  It was raining lightly, and once I realized just how much it was raining, I had to use the sweater in my backpack to dry my lens and camera, and had to put it away.  I was nearing the three hour mark in my hike, had used all of my water, my pants and shoes were soaked through, and the rain was falling steadily.  Therefore, I decided to begin my way back.  As I was about to leave, the musk ox began running around a bit with each other.

  In retrospect, I wish that I had spent more time hanging around them, even with the rain and the circumstances being what they were.  If it were sunny, I would have stayed and watched them for much longer, and I would have moved closer for more photos.  In any case, I did what I did, and so that is that.

  Following the gps with my download hiking map, I made my way down the mountain.  I took one small tumble, and gave myself a small gash below my right eye.  I felt it happen, but I couldn't see anything with my camera phone in selfie mode at the time.  I took what I thought was a shortcut.  Unfortunately the arrow that my gps was showing, was inaccurate.  I couldn't recalibrate it, and continued on a path on the ground that I thought was leading in the right direction.  I encountered a man with two children.  Once they had past me bit a little bit, I decided to double check my directions with them.  They were headed where I was supposed to be headed, so I quickly changed course and joined them, retracing my route a bit before correcting.  

  By this time, the sun was beginning to come out, and I took out my camera again.  I took pictures on the way down.

  The total hike clocked in at just over four hours, perhaps making it the third longest hike in my life, after Yakushima, Japan and Zagori mountains, Greece.  

This is the front view of my hotel, the only complex in the area.

  Below is the view of the hiking map, with red being the Alltrails hike and the blue being a rough approximation of my modifications.