Luk

We saw this sleepingbag for dogs in a shop in Geilo? Unfortunately they only had the small model in fjellcolors and we need the large version. Has anyone got some experience with this bag? Cheers, Luk

During our first week we had lots of rain and one morning some fresh snow at +/- 1250m The second week was much better with the beginning of beautiful autumn colors. On the ordinary bridges we didn't have any problems, as was to be expected. Due to some changes in the planned route, we didn't pass any suspensionbridge. Those will be for next year. Cheers, Luk

tonight we're leaving for Kinsarvik. It seems we'll bring some rain with us for the next 10 days or so. Hope we'le do fine crossing those bridges. Thanks for all useful reactions. Cheers, Luk

during the summer of 2008 I walked from sulitjelma to stalualoktagrna (virrihaure lake). from there we asked a local to bring us to the other side of the lake so we could walk into rago national park. this works quite well. you may opt to follow the southern shore of the lake on foot, but then you have to cross some rivers. on some maps there is a bridge mentionned, but for what I've understood this bridge has been destroyed en not been rebuild yet. I wouldn't try to walk from rago towards virrihaure. I don't think there is much chance to find someone to transport you to the other side of the lake. Cheers, Luk

I was there during the summer of 2008. Some German people I've met there mentioned that particularly in the south, south west side of the northern lake (bjøllåvann) there are some good spots to fish (and to catch some delicious ones) you may want to climb to the 1099 spot, just south of krukkistua. from there you should have a nice view. depending on how much time you have, I also liked the path from saltfjellstua till bukhaugbua. this way you can also walk to bjollavasstua. Fishingcontions should be fine in this river as well. In the area, I liked gratadal most. (we followed this valley from beiardalen towards glomfjord). Cheers, Luk

If I understand correctly what's written above, it is forbidden to take your dog in a swedish national park while it is allowed in others. In France dog's are not allowed in any national park. In Belgium some very popular nature area's are stricktly forbidden for dogs... I think the situation can be worse than it is in Sweden.... Luk

Thanks for this very useful reaction. So, what I've learned : we should have two ropes to assist/guide him together with a suitable harness. we use a ruffwear palisades pack for our dog. Do you think the harness of this pack should be sufficient? we're two so one of us can call the dog to the other side of the bridge while the other can make sure he doesn't go too fast... this should be easier in helping him up and down the ladders as well. which route did you walk on hardangervidda? did you pass some places that you would recommend or that you would avoid when you go back to hardangervidda some other time? Cheers, Luk

well, let's hope garu won't have any problems on his first hiking tour in Norway. Problem is dat he is not used to swim and especially not in cold streaming water. we don't have similar rivers here in Belgium unfortunately. If I remember correctly, some of the rivers we'll cross using summer bridges, can have a (very) strong current (e.g, the river enterig the lake near Finse which we shall cross when we come from tverrbrennstua. "edit : this should be rembesdalseter" If you let your dog swim acros those rivers, do you attach hime to a rope or something in order to help him? Luk

Thanks Ruggen for your information on the busses so, if I understand this correctly, our dog is welcome on the bus but we should pay max 40NOK Thanks Basso1 for your suggestion on our planned route. we've chosen this route because we'ld like to cut our hikingtrip in two. halfway we get back to our car so we don't have to carry food, gas, ... for the whole trip. The reason why we'ld start in kinsarvik is because this way we start by using public transport and after our trip, we come back to our car. This way we don't have any stress catching a bus. We intend to sart sunday afternoon from kinsarvik and climb some 500m. on monday we'll continue our climb and we'll camp somewhere halfway between stavaly and torehytta. If someone has some usefull tips and tricks on how to pass summerbridges with a large dog... they are very welcome. Suggestions about our route are welcome as well. Perhaps I should mention that we'ld like to end our tour where we've parked our car so the route suggested should be a loop or it should be possible to take a bus/train in the beginning after which we can walk back to our car. Cheers, Luk

Hi from august 22 till september 3 we're making a tour on hardangervidda. we plan to park our car near liseth and take the bus to kinsarvik. we'll walk from kinsarvik to liseth passing harteigen and a round around hardangerjokullen. we'll probably camp along the route and won't sleep in the DNT cabins. (any other suggestions for a route on the vidda are welcome as well) We have two questions. is it possible to take our dog on the bus from liseth to kinsarvik? does anybody know where we can find some timetables for this trip? on the other hand, we're trying to find out the best way to cross summerbridges with our dog. Garu (beauceron) weighs about 32-35kg so I cannot jus put him in my pocket to get up and off the bridges. any usefull tips are very welcome. Cheers, Luk Looking forward to yet another visit to Norway Hopefully next year we'll move permanently to Norway

Thanks for al these reactions. I guess we first have to look for the right equipment (like sleepingbag, cover, ...) Even is the dog sleeps outside, it seldon gets under freezing point here in Belgium where I live. So going on a winterhike somewhere where temperatures drop till -15 and colder at night will be a large difference for te dog. Cheers, Luk

Hi Last 2 winters we, my girlfriend and I, have spend several weeks in the mountains. During the day we did some distance by snowshooing. the nights we spend in a tent. Temperatures dropped to about -12°C inside the tent. This winter, we would like to do the same. Hence we have a 2 year old dog (beauceron) now, we're looking for advice on how to get into such an adventure. Do we need any special equipement for the dog, how can we keep the dog warm enough during the nights, how much should we increase his daily ration of food, etc. I hope some of you have experience with these kinds of camping trips and I'm looking forward to get interesting suggestions. Cordially, Luk

Thanks for the information. I've contacted padjelanta.com but so far I didn't get any reaction. on http://www.nallo2.se/images/div/padjekarta01.jpg I saw there is a bridge south of the lake, so it would be possible to walk besides the lake. On the swedish fjällkarta this bridge is not mentioned. Can anyone confirm whether there is a bridge or not? Luk

Hey From 12 till 29 july we would like to walk across saltfjellet, sulitjelma towards rago national park. For this an option would be to go from Sulitjelma north east towards Staloluoktastugorna following the nordkallotleden. From Staloluoktastugorna we would like to cross virihaure lake by boat if this is possible. From Alasguotida we would then cross the border again, in order to finish our trip in ovre kvarv. Now, can anybody inform me whether it is possible to cross virihaure lake by boat and if not, are there other suggestions. Are there other options to combine a trip through saltfjellet and rago national park? many thanks in advance Luk

thx for both replies. the lack of accomodation won't be a problem hence I plan to camp during this trip (with the cabins as backup when the weather is too bad for a longer period). Given the high snowlevels in the south part of the vidda, would it be wise to change the direction of my trip, walking north to south instead of south to north? Luk