Kelsey's Adventures: Gråkallen

Gråkallen is the highest peak in the Trondheim area, standing 551 meters (1,808 feet). It can be easily identified from a distance because of the two large spheres at its summit. Emily, Sam and I decided to take my new tent for a test run and check out this mountain. We knew our goal was to reach the spheres on top but we hadn't really thought twice about what they were. Maybe they were massive sculptures or perhaps signal towers of some sort. They were our goal.

Emily and I getting ready to depart

Sam and Emily started in Moholt Studentby and I met up with them at the traffic circle near Gløshaugen. From there we started our three hour hike to the summit of Gråkallen. About six minutes later, Emily realized she forgot the hot dogs. But we pressed on, hoping to pass a Rema on our travels. We got to see a lot of the city that we did not normally hang out in, some very nice neighborhoods and the industrial part. It was a lovely hike, with water, bread, cheese and chocolate for energy. We ran into Simon, Geert and Katarina who had gone up for the day and had a nice chat with them. They informed us we had a long ways to go. We thanked them and continued on. Just before we actually started hiking the mountain, we saw the deep blue of a Rema sign. We would eat after all! We picked up a bag of chips and ham along with our pølse. Actually, if one thing about this trip was planned well, it was definitely the food. We did not mess around.

When we reached that last bit of the mountain, we looked up and wondered why there were lights all over the place and then recognized the familiar forms of lift towers. It was a ski area! And below us, where the terrain was flatter, lights were scattered on what must have been nordic trails. We reached the peak around six thirty and we were struck by the weirdness of the place. Emily thought it looked like a war zone or something. There were a lot of camouflaged buildings and wire fences.

But then we did not think much about it and just found a nice mossy place to set up camp. The view was spectacular of the Fjord and of Trondheim.

Trondheim and the fjord from our camp site

I am setting up the tent for its premier

Emily, Sam and I

We had a convenient bench

Now, my tent is a two person tent but we were hoping to be able to squeeze in a third. We set it up and it looked perfect. We would be cozy but all the parts seemed to be there and it looked great.

Emily and Sam snack before dinner

The temperature fell pretty quickly so we layered up in long underwear, hats, gloves, and down. We found a very convenient picnic table and cooked a delicious meal on one of our one-use-barbecues (12 NOK - thats like $2.50! - and it came with charcoal). We started with s'mores while we had flames. Then moved on to our hot dogs with grilled bread and finally hot cappuccinos.

Here is our little picnic bench

Emily starting us off with s'mores

Sam, excited for the American treat

Mine is burnt

Who says a watched pot never boils?

There was still some light so we thought we'd explore the area, maybe check out what the fences and structures were all about. We came to a place with a beautiful view of the sunset over the fjord. It was pretty amazing.

This was before we realized that we probably weren't allowed to build a fire

And then Sam asked about the pile of rocks a ways in front of us, and didn't it look like a little hut or something? We went and checked it out and sure enough it was a bunker surrounded by a wall of rocks. There was a tiny door, held shut by some rocks which we moved so we could look inside. There was a stove and a small wooden bed. It was getting dark and we were too scared to actually go in very far. There were wires running from the shelter, perhaps radio wires? When we looked carefully, we saw quite a few of these bunkers.

There were signs on the fences that said 1914 on them. I told Sam to take a picture of the sign and she abruptly said NO! There was a sign against photographs and I think she was nervous someone might have been watching us from a window of one of the bunkers. The mountain obviously would have been a good military look out. We looked in another lookout window and saw a very cold looking cement room. The place seemed very unpleasant. We were pretty spooked and kept scaring each other. Then we walked very close together back to our camp site which had seemed very friendly before but now we weren't so sure. But we put all of our stuff in the tent and cuddled in our sleeping bags and felt much safer.

A little while after we had stopped talking and I had just begun to fall asleep, Emily asked us if we were sure we didn't hear footsteps outside. We all got pretty scared but then were actually too lazy to do anything about it. It was really cool to see all of that stuff. It made for a very exciting adventure.

The morning was cold and the sun eventually broke through the clouds. I cooked first (on our next grill) and made a nice breakfast sandwich. Sam made a grilled cheese but before Emily's eggs cooked, the coals had cooled way down and all she had was a yellow and white mess. So she made a warm bread and partially-melted cheese sandwich. I really lucked out.