Alpine Ecology Trip!

Hello!

How are you? Are classes about to start in Canada? Have a good September long weekend!

Here's an update on what I've been doing for the last week and a half.

Saturday Aug. 21

I had a long and frustrating day of alpine ecology classes. (Yes, on a Saturday! The course ends by the end of September so we have a lot of classes packed into a short time.) I was frustrated that I didn't know what to expect from this course in advance. For example, it was tricky to buy a book I needed, because I only found out about it on Friday, and we had classes all day Friday and Saturday, and libraries and stores are closed in the evening and Sunday, and then our trip left early Monday. I solved this problem by leaving class early and found 1 bookstore that was open.

In the evening I went swimming in a lake in the forest behind Breisås. It is a bit over a half hour, mostly uphill run for me to get there. The trail is quite wet and muddy and has lots of roots and rocks. I am really really really excited to have a lake for swimming so close to where I live.

Sunday Aug. 22

In the morning I went for a hike up a hill/moutain called Bruskor with two friends. (It is a peak right next to Høyreslass, where I went last Wednesday.) The weather was great today. There was a nice view of Bø and the surrounding valleys and mountains.

View of Bø from Bruskor.

In the late afternoon a lot of friends came over and we made crepes with blueberry sauce!

Monday, Aug. 23

I had to get up early to leave for a field trip for Alpine Ecology. Unfortunately, there was a problem with our transport and we ended up leave at 10am instead of 7am. According to others, the whole day was rather unfortunate because we had a few more problems, but I actually had a GREAT time today. I was really excited about all the awesome places we drove through. I'll list them here:

• Seljord lake: about 20 minutes from Bø there is a deep and beautiful lake where a sea monster named Selma is rumored to live.
• Morgedal: this is a famous place in the development of skiing. Sondre Norheim, the 'father of modern skiing', lived here. I was surprised by how steep and rocky the hills/mountains in the area were.
• Skinnarbu: the Norwegian Wild Reindeer Centre located at the south part of Hardangervidda. Hardangervidda is a high mountain plateau that has a large (3500 km2) national park and herd of wild reindeer. We had some interesting presentations about reindeer physiology, GPS tracking and human development of Hardangervidda.
• Rjukan: this is a town on a huge steep hill leading down from the plateau. The history of its hydroelectric plant is interesting.
• Before we could get to the next interesting point, the bus broke down and we had to wait for another one to come.
• The towns Geilo and Fagernes.
• Beitostølen!!! From what I could see from the road, there was a ski resort and a lot of buildings that had sports stores on the ground level and hotels above.
  

The road were very curvy. I don't think I've every driven on as many switchbacks in one day as I have today! Because of the delays, we couldn't get to our destination today and stayed in Valdresflya hostel (apparently the hostel at the highest altitude in northern Europe). It was cozy and we got to eat typical Norwegian food.

View from the bus driving through Valdresflya.

Tuesday, Aug. 24- Thursday, Aug. 26

It was pouring rain the first day. I really appreciated my dry socks and grippy shoes on the walk to Øvre Heimdalsvatnet, a lake where there is a research station. (Some simple cabins on the east end of the lake.) The whole area is in the low alpine zone (no trees).

At Heimdal we collected data on rodent, grouse, and fish populations. We set out and checked mouse traps. We caught a lot of rodents this year. For the grouse, we walked along trying to scare them up off the ground and then count them. The fish we caught in nets. Then we dissected them, and then we ate them for dinner! We saw some domesticated reindeer (and cows and sheep).

Domesticated reindeer.

Dissecting fish. (To get otoliths.)

Cabins we stayed in.

View when looking for willow grouse.

Friday, Aug. 27

We hiked out and drove in the bus again to go to Langedrag animal park to see wolves, lynx, arctic fox, reindeer, and moose. There was a great interpreter who explained and demonstrated how she communicates with wolves and lynx. We got to fed the arctic fox, reindeer, and moose.

Reindeer.

Arctic foxes.

Langedrag view.

Lynx.

Moose.

Then we took the train to Finse. (Map.) There was great scenery on the train ride. We stayed in Finsehytta. The first night it was really crowded (it's a popular tourist destination for cycling) and people were sleeping on the floor all over the place!

Our room (about 25 people).

(I hope you don't mind that I keep linking to Wikipedia. It does a better and more thorough job of explaining what/where these places I go are then I would if I wrote about them here. It also saves me a lot of time! Sorry!)

Saturday, Aug. 28 - Monday, Aug. 30

We spent three full days at Finse and studied plants. Each day we went for long walks in the mountains. We stopped often to identify plants and collect data from quadrants and transects. The main challenge was to learn/memorize the Latin names of every plant we found. It is really hard (for me. I don't have much of a background in plant biology...). After getting back from the walks, we spent a few hours practicing identifying plants which the leaders had collected. The first day I was overwhelmed by how much I had to learn, but by the the second and third day I was surprised by how much I could remember. (Just think of how much I'd learn if I had 14 hours of school every day!)

The first day we walked to the glacier Hardangerjøkulen.
.Scenery from in front of Hardangerjøkulen.

The next day we hiked around and to a peak. It was a cold day, with rain and snow!

Collecting plant data along a transect, with Finse in the background.

We had to clear away the snow to look at the plants!

It's me, and I'm cold!

Here I am the next day, and I'm a bit warmer!

Hardangerjøkulen in the distance.

Group picture on the summit of Sankt Pål (about 1700m)

A view from Sankt Pål.

Can you identify this?

In the evenings there was some partying at Finse. The teachers drank beer together with the students, which seemed unusual to me.

I enjoyed getting to know the other students (international and Norwegian), teachers, and other travelers I met during this trip! I got to practice speaking more Norwegian than when I was in Bø.

The highlight for me was getting to see so much beautiful scenery. I think I could happily spend a month just staring out the window of a bus or train with a stack of maps and guide books about language, plants, animals, geography in my lap! (With hiking or something added in there.)

Tuesday, Aug. 31

We drove back from Finse. It took most of the day. Again the scenery was beautiful, and we drove a different route than on the way there.

In the evening I went swimming in Åsterjønn, the lake near Breisås. It was a great way to get rid of the traveling-all-day feeling and to celebrate the end the summer! (Yeah, in my head the last day of August is the end of summer.) I hope I can go a few more times before it gets too chilly.

Wednesday, Sept. 1

Right back to Alpine Ecology lectures this morning. In the afternoon/evening I worked on writing this blog entry, bought food, went to a yoga class, and house cleaned.

Thursday, Sept. 2

Alpine Ecology lectures all morning again.

The teacher passed around a dead owl so that we could look at how it has asymmetrical ears.

He also brought a dead domesticated arctic fox to point out features that identify it as a domesticated and not wild one.

Cool!

Well, goodbye until next time!