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Decompressing at the Stick

August 1, 2025

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After all of the planning, and then the actual event itself, we were ready to put our feet up. So we did.

The Stick with Göran, Anne, Noelie, Lisa, Rhine and April—hosted by the newly married McGraws! Late May is perfection at the beach. No people.

Oh yeah, the dogs came too. We rented a huge vehicle in Pittsburgh to cart everyone and all their stuff down.

Now back to those feet…

About the only complication was figuring out the state of the improperly-installed dishwasher. We built our own sign to signify state. It was good in theory. LOL.

As always, cooking was an important part of our beach time. Romey and Lisa made a delicious meal indeed.

The dogs felt left out.

The view from the porch leads to inner peace.

We did make a few cocktails.

Tranquility…unless you are a ball.

Just add more olives.

Starts like this…

Ends up like this. Thanks John and Joan!

13.8 Miles in the Mountains of Norway in Skarvheimem

October 1, 2017

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The rockslide helped. Our original plan was to start hiking just down the road from the Skarvheimem cabin and walk 19km (11.8 miles) along the river bed. Just a few km in, a change of plans due to trail damage had us hike up over a ridge instead. This added 3.2km longwise and a whole bunch of vertical. The distance was not the issue, as you may imagine! Here is a photo documentary of the walk.

Morning view from the cabin

Ready to hike?

We started at a little restaurant/camp area where we ended up (8 hours later) having dinner. Getting started was a thing. By 10:30, we were walking.

Stopping for photo opportunities was a must. We had more cameras than people on our hike. Good news: the tripod actually got used!

 

 

The valley hike was very pretty, but in the end we were really glad we had to hike up over the ridge.

Don’t get too close to the edge!

Lunch break. We were joined by many lemmings

There was some wind at the top of the cliff.

And then it was down, down, down. Hard on the knees. The trail was so steep that in places metal cables had been installed. Those were a good thing.

Waterfalls, rock-covered trail, going up when you should be going down, and never quite getting to the water were all things. The wind was impressive when it was funneled up the valley and concentrated into tight eddies.

 

 

 

The sun peeked out occasionally with spectacular long yellow light.

 

Finally a road. The pace sped up as a taxi was summoned. We made it back in time for dinner, though walking up the three stairs to the restaurant was not easy!

This hike is among the most beautiful I have ever experienced. More is in order.