A delightful stroll after the craziness of Kjeragbolten!
With a long drive at the end of the day after our hike up Kjeragbolten, we still got up and at things early, arriving at the trailhead for Preikestolen around 8. We were prepared for the worst but turns out, there’s a reason that the cruise ships do day trips to Preikestolen. It’s a very groomed trail, particularly early on, with lots of steps but none of the hand-over-hand chain climbing from yesterday. We had lovely wooden bridges to keep us out of the muddy bits and even the rock faces we needed to climb were gentle slopes in comparison to Kjeragbolten. The climb was about 4km and took us around two hours before we reached the cliff, jutting out into the fjord on three sides. The views were stunning. Kjeragbolten is tucked back a bit from the lake so we only saw a small bit of it but with Preikestolen, we could see so much more, including the ferry, which looked so small. But that makes sense, we were 600 meters up. We had made great timing, especially given that Kjeragbolten took us longer than people said it should and after a rest and some snacks, we made our way back down. Total time - 4 1/2 hours, including our break. I broke my poles out almost immediately, having learned my lesson but the ol’ knee was still cranky by the end of the hike. But it was a great hike to have after such a strenuous one the day before. I think Penny would have loved it and likely would have been able to do the whole thing without a problem. She probably could have done Kjeragbolten, too, but let’s be honest - once she hit that meadow with the sheep, she would have just waved us on ahead and told us to grab her on the way out.
Then it was into the car for the 3 hour drive to Odda, our base for two nights while we tackle the pinnacle of the hiking portion of the trip - Trolltunga! It’s going to be an early start - breakfast starts at the hotel at 5:45 and we plan to be there right when we starts so that we can be at the parking lot by 6:30. Trolltunga is expected to take between 10 and 12 hours but given how this knee is doing, 12 is looking far more likely than 10.
