Kongevegen: Maristova – Kyrkjestølen
Kongevegen fascinated me since I first heard about it. I started read about this trail after my June’s trip to Borgund. I put it as a one of the most desireable destination point on my hiking list.I had to wait for return to Borgund area since October. And I still had a doubt that maybe Queen’s Sonja Hiking Trail was better choice. Reading about Kongevegen I found out that whole route has over 100 kilometers and it takes about 5-6 days to run all of it. Good news are that you can take it in phases as the trail crosses in several places road E16. Most interesting for me were short trails called Vindhellvegen and Galdane.
But driving 300 kilometers and spend 5 hours at the car only for few kilometers walk was like a bad joke, so I decided to add one more trail to my plans. I kept my eye on 11 km road between Maristova and Kyrkjestølen. Now, my trip started to get the meaning. To manage this, I needed two days. I decided to go on Friday afternoon, just after work and sleep into the car at Maristova (I found the parking lot near Maristova Hotel, close to the trail, using Google Street View). On Saturday I planned go to Kyrkjestølen and back and spend another night into the car. Sunday I could use for Vindhellvegen, Galdane and back home.
Origin of King’s Road take us to 1790 when the road was establish. But even earlier there were some paths, which locals used to travel from place to place. Decision to build the road over the mountains was associated with enormous economic and organizational effort. The road connected east and west of Norway and two cities: Oslo and Bergen. We can learn about it reading info boards located along the route. In 2009 Norwegian Public Road Administration started with project to re-establish and revitalise this road for use by hikers. This year (2017) King’s Road acros Filefjell was awarded european prize for Cultural Heritage.
I wondered about the weather, because previous weekend brought rain which flooded south of Norway. Many lost their homes, roads were closed and trains couldn’t go on track. Fortunately place I was going avoided such extremely weather. And the nearest weekend supposed to be nice and shiny (but a little cold).
According to my plans, I was ready and packed and I could go straight when I finished the work on Friday. I reached Maristova in the evening. There were dark, cold and rain, when I stopped near the Maristova Hotel. I unfolded rear seats, slipped into the slipping bag and fall asleep.
I took warm blanket and during the night I had to wear polar jacket but even this didn’t help me much. There were damn cold. After 3 am I gave up and started to prepare for my hiking trip. First, I wanted to go at 6 or 7 to avoid walking in the dark, but now the only way to warm up was marching. I took flashlight, backpack and just after 4 am I went towards the trail.
There were still dark, cold and rainy. The slope was steep and very soon I lost my breath. I realized that there is no rain falling but snow with rain and the surround terrain is already covered by thin layer of white.
Later, the slope become more gently and I left the trees behind. I was on the plateau. Wind throwed the snow on my back but there were moments of calm when I could see the moon and stars. Road goes straight. I could see it in the moonlight as white, long line. I felt like I was on another planet. There were no trees, only low bushes and heathers, all covered by snow.
I get to the border stone from 1794, which was once the point between Bergen and Akerhus county. Soon, the sky became lighter and snow definitely stopped. During the walk I passed by some info boards, but they were mostly covered by ice, so I couldn’t read them.
Finally, the road went down and led me through birch wood, the bridge over the river and along some cottages. From the distance I could see E16 road and the pyramid-shaped of church at Kyrkjestølen, which I recognized from Google Street View. It means I was almost at place. It was totally suprising, because I didn’t feel in my feet that I made those 11 km already (10,7 to be honest). I was even wondering to go up on one of the mountain over Kyrkjestølen in addition.
But first I crossed the E16 road and came to the church. I read on the board that this is Church of St. Thomas and it was erected instead old stave church from XI century. There were many miraculous healers in this place, so the church became destination point of the pilgrims. Even now, I could see trails around the temple signed as Pilgrim Trail. New church was built in 1971.
I climbed up on the mountain behind Church of St. Thomas and I will describe this another time. Let’s back to my Kongevegen trip.
After almost an hour to spend for climbing, the sun shined very nice and pretty. My return way even if I walked the same way, was more excited. I could see more that first time. For example, I saw some small animals (field mouse or marmot) running on the road and hiding in the holes under stones. There were also two foxes running away, when I approached.
I was fascinated by the road and how straight it is. It was like they built it use some huge ruler. Of course, on the map it looks different, but at the place, when you see the straight line of the road behind you and before, it looks just amazing.
When I started descending to Maristova, I discovered how steep the hill is. The couple hours earlier, in the dark I couldn’t figure out that this part of the route is so hard. One of the info board says that this part of trail is called Jacob’s Ladder as it seems to lead straight to heaven.
Soon I reached Maristova and my car. I read also about Maristova Lodge on another info board near the Hotel. First lodge (inn) was erected here in XIV century and it means that there was the first mountain lodge in Norway. During the time, the building was moderated and visited by king’s family and famous persons. The lodge burned down in 1976 and new hotel was built in its place. As I could see, new hotel didn’t change since it was opened.
I realized that the trip took me less time I planned and I have still some hours to organize. I thought that maybe good idea is to take another trip: one of those I kept for another day. But this one you can read in next entry.
This post was originally published 2017-10-13 on https://kraina-trolli.pl.
