Category: coastal

I recall questioning Florida hiking guru Sandra Friend when she insisted we include Okeechobee on our list of the best hikes in North America.

Over 110mi long. Circling the second largest freshwater lake entirely inside the United States. It sounded a little … flat.

OK. I’m convinced after reading her recent trip report.

Why Sandra loves the Big O:

… Hiking this section of the Florida Trail introduced me to a part of Florida I previously knew little about, and to a lake I’d only ever seen in the distance from the dike at John Stretch Park. I watched anglers putter into the locks with a boatful of catfish, and duck hunters slide their fast boats past with nary a duck on board. I learned the rhythm of the sugar cane harvest, and could spot white pelicans soaring over the endless blue. I learned the calls of the blue-winged teal and the smooth-billed ani, and discovered that sandhill cranes like to hang out around lone cattle. And I discovered that I liked being away from the normal flow of life for nine days, rising before sunrise to catch the colorful morning glow from every conceivable angle. Sure, there’s no shade. And it’s flat, except when you have to go down the dike. But it’s a different take on Florida, a quiet refuge from the humming cities on either coast—and you’ll never lack for fresh water to filter. …

Read Sandra’s trip report – Florida Hikes! | The Best of Hiking in Florida | Hike, Day, Big, Lake, Trail

Florida Hikes is a quality site. Sandra a terrific writer.

The Big O is an ideal destination when most of the rest of the North American hikes are frozen.

Sandra has many Florida hiking guidebooks on Amazon.

I cannot find much information on-line regarding the Aurland Trail in Norway.

I understand 30,000 hikers a year walk sections between Vassbygdi, Geiteryggen and further toward Hallingdal on an old East – West trail.

I enjoyed a well written trip report by Kathleen Hill Zichy. Part of her Travels with Wally series. (Wally is a Kiwi hiking guide.)

The hikes were spectacular and strenuous. Wally provided encouragement and a bit of light-hearted humor in an accent both charming and perplexing. Certain expressions had to be repeated several times before I could decipher them. He frequently powered out on the trail and then looped back to find the rest of us. As I was the least experienced hiker, Wally was elected by his co-leaders to the position of my guardian. He did so in a gentle and unobtrusive way that did not mark me as a quivering novice but gave me a little boost in confidence when I was facing a major drop-off or was lagging behind on the downhill.

I had never seen so much rock. We scrambled, stumbled, mumbled, crawled, held on by our fingernails as we slid over cliffs on the British Route, desperately clutching the famous cable-and hoping fervently that our insurance was paid up. At the bottom of the cliff after that hair-raising slide, we were greeted by a small party of Norwegian hikers. An older woman in that group with hair pulled back and greying at the temples asked me what I thought of my descent down the cable. “There’s nothing like that in Manhattan,” I replied. “We usually take the elevator.”

“This is the toughest hiking trail in all of Norway,” she informed me. Her statement was confirmed within minutes when we encountered a man with his head wrapped in bloody bandages, being led to the end of the trail by two fellow backpackers. …

The Long Trip Home: Archives

Unfortunately, the natural environment there has been much affected by hydroelectric development:

… the great waterfalls in the Aurlandsdalen have been silenced. The standing waves, spray and mist from the rapids and waterfalls has been substantially reduced. Due to diversion through tunnels, the water level in the river gorges is drastically reduced; dams restrain the thundering inferno that filled the gorges before the development. There are impacts beyond the loss of scenic beauty as well. The Aurlandselvi river is no longer one of the finest salmon rivers in Norway. Farmers no longer drive cattle, pigs and goats to spend the summer at Østerbø and Stemberdalen. The pack horses, formerly a common sight in the valley, as Jon Fimreite and Knut Sønnerheim among others transported provisions and supplies to Steinbergdalshytta and Østerbø, have become part of history.

Aurlandsdalen has become like the most of the other valleys, characterized by traffic, tourists and gradual urbanisation. Only the remote Nesbø-Vassbygdi region remains mostly undisturbed, if one ignores the strong reduction in the water flow in the Aurlandselvi and the visible stretch of highway between Berdalstunnellen (Berdal tunnel) and Nesbøtunnellen (Nesbø tunnel) visible in the hillside from the path at Heimrebø.

Power development and environmental impacts – Wikipedia

There are plenty of pretty pictures tagged Aurland on flickr. Here’s my favourite:

Aurland downtown – larger original on flickr – Tom (Aurland resident)

related post – WOW – Aurland Lookout, Norway