Pulpit Rock

24 May 2013

Today was my second storybook day in Norway.  It ranks right up there with 17^th of May as far as fairytale days go in one’s life.  It was quite another story for our friends back home, as Kaleb checked his email this morning first thing when he woke up, only to find out the I-5 bridge had collapsed.  My brain spent most of the morning trying to comprehend just what that will mean for our little town of Mt. Vernon.  It was not the kind of news I expected to get on such an otherwise lovely day.

For many years now both Kory and I have wanted to hike Norway’s most famous and most traveled hiking path, up to Preikostolen (above - I'm the one on the left in white), otherwise known as Pulpit Rock.  It’s a huge flat piece of rock that juts out over the fjord, 3,000 feet below – straight down.  It’s more than freaky even just to look at it in photos, but we just had to see it for ourselves, since it’s one of those “when in Norway, do as the Norwegians do” kind of things.  The only problem is, it’s a two-day drive from our condo, so it’s a real destination kind of place.

Since we were going to be in Southern Norway anyway, I kind of planned that we’d swing by the area outside of Stavanger where this rock sits, so if the weather was right, we could hike the trail – two to three hours up and two hours down and then cross that item off our bucket list.  Today was the day we did just that.

We were up at six this morning in Arendal in order to make the six-hour drive to Preikostolen by noon.  We had breakfast with Kory’s cousin and wife and a bit more chit chat than we expected so we didn’t get to the trailhead until 12:50. 

I’m the slowest hiker I know, so when they said it would take two hours, I expected it would take me four.   I was a bit nervous about getting back down before dark with our late start, but I guess that was all the motivation I needed to keep moving.  The trail went nearly straight up at times, then leveled out somewhat, then up again and level.  It’s been well maintained and even today it was being worked on by Sherpa’s from Nepal, building steps up through one high canyon, so we had to go around the knoll, rather than over it.  It was a lot of walking, hiking, crawling on hands and knees and I’m about as tired as a person can be after such a thing, but it was so worth it.  We all wondered who in the world figured out how to get to the final destination since it was such a complicated and far from direct trail.

I made Kory and Kaleb agree to not go anywhere near the edge of that rock as I was sure I’d have a heart attack if they did.  It’s bad enough there is a huge crack right down the middle of it which means someday it will fall in the drink, and I’m sure glad I won’t be on it that day. (Those are my Hallelujah Boys above.)

We were not only blessed with perfect weather – in the 60s and blue skies, but with very few people coming and going.  Considering there are over 200,000 people on that trail every year, I’d be surprised today if there were even a hundred.  It made it so much nicer not only when walking, but also when we were on the rock itself, as some photos I’ve seen of it, it gets pretty crowded.  People like to stand on the edge or hang their feet over.  Most crawl to the edge and lay on their stomach to peer over the side.  We didn’t do any of that foolishness as just being on it and making the hike up and back was all the accomplishment I needed to brag about. (Kaleb is standing in the crack which goes right across the rock so someday it WILL fall down.)

I can hardly move a muscle at this point, but I’m so thankful we made it and no one got hurt.  We had to drive an hour to our cabin for the night, and I couldn’t even do that as we have a stick shift and lifting up my leg to push in the clutch was more strength than I had.  I’m glad Kory held out.

We are on the budget travel plan these days so we are staying in a cute little cottage by the sea, rather than the fancy spa hotel next door.  It has all we need, which mostly is just a bed for a good night’s rest, but the idea of having a massage right now is pretty tempting.  The sunset was gorgeous as we walked down to the harbor and watched it disappear behind the mountain and we couldn’t be more pleased with how this day ended, began, or played out.  Tomorrow I might be singing a different tune as I’m sure my body will go into revolt and not want to move a muscle, but at least I’ll have good memories and lots of photos to bring a smile to my face.  Hallelujah!