Estimated net time	2-2½ hours
Difficulty	No difficulties. The whole route runs on road and path. There are sections where the path is very vague, but it is well marked with red poles.
Drinking water	There are a couple of semi-reliable sources of running water along the route.
GSM coverage	Coverage throughout the route (May 2011).
Parking	Room for a couple of cars at trail head, but this is a turning place for cars so be sensible.
Start height	230 metres
Vertical metres	440 metres for the roundtrip.
Trip distance	6.8 km
GPS-file	X
Map		Google Interactive Map
Route photo	Parking and trail head for Hogden, at Vinsrygg.

From the round about in Stryn where roads 15 and 60 intersect, drive road 60 in the direction of Stranda, for 3.9 km. Turn right where signed for Vinsrygg and drive 1.4 km. Follow the signs left for Vinsrygg and drive another 2.0 km to where a toll road starts. You can park on the left hand side of the road, but note that this is a turning place so make sure you allow also larger cars to be able to turn around.

Start walking by following the toll road north. After 1.1 km, in a flat section, a forest road turns left. You will find a map here, displayed on a sign board. Head up this forest road, but leave it after 20 metres and follow the path marked by red plastic poles. The first pole, attached to a tree, is also visible down from the road. Follow the well marked path through the spruce forest. When you get to a crossing forest road continue on the path on the other side of the road. This road will take you all the way up to the large mast and building at Svarstadveten. You will find a registration book inside a post box on the Svarstadveten building.

From the building at Svarstadveten continue north-west, across Svarstadveten's summit. The path is very vague, but exceptionally well signed with wooden poles painted red. Follow this path north to Hogden. The summit is marked by a trigonometric point marker. From the summit continue on the path, towards east. At the end of the flat summit ridge you will find a registration point, approximately 500 metres from the summit. At this point the path makes a sharp left before continuing east. Follow the path down to a forest road. Cross the forest road and continue on the path on the other side of the road. Further down you meet another forest road, and this time you turn left and follow the forest road down to the road coming up from Vinsrygg. Turn right when you meet this road and follow it back to your car.

27. May 2011

I had promised Sigurd to go skiing at Stryn summer ski-centre once it opened for the season, and this year the opening date was set to 27th May. We left Brattvåg after work, and the team also included Sigurd's friends Andreas and Ole-Jørgen. We arrived our base at Folven camping a little before 19:00, and since the weather was OK-ish I decided to go for a short hike while the boys were entertaining themselves with their skate boards.

I had set my eyes on Hogden since it would allow me to stay away from snow (I actually had to cross a couple of patches), and I hoped I would stay below the low clouds (I almost did). Since I hadn't bought a map of the area I knew I would rely on locals to give me directions, if I wasn't to mess around for "hours", so my first stop was at a kiosk in Stryn. Here I obtained sufficient information to get me close to trail head. My second source of information was a man out with his pram, but he spoke the same dialect as me, and wasn't terribly well known in the area. Anyway, his advice proved to be correct, which I got confirmed by a local farmer whom I made contact with at trail head. He was also able to give me details about the route I should follow.

I hiked up the toll road, rehearsing the route description given by the farmer, but when I got to a point where a map of the area, including showing paths, and decided to ignore the advice I had been given and instead trust my understanding of the map. This would allow me to visit both Svarstadveten and Hogden, and give me a round trip. This worked out well, but the hike turned out to be a bit longer than I had planned, so I wasn't back to Folven before close to 22:00. But the boys were still out with their skate boards, and probably hadn't offered me much of a thought.
Photos 27.05.2011