| Rekdalshesten and
Urfjellet from Eikedalen Rekdalshesten Urfjellet |
| Estimated net time | 2-2½ hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties. |
| Drinking water | Access to running water from the creek running down from the saddle towards trail head. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage only from the saddle and up. |
| Parking | Room for several cars at trail head. |
| Start height | 388 metres |
| Vertical metres | 510 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 6.0 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
|
| Route photo |
Drive to the intersection of roads 659 and 661 by Eidet (Tennfjord). Turn right and drive 2.1 km towards Vatne. Turn left and and drive road 661 towards Vestnes for 16.8 km. Here you will find a mountain road on your right hand side, heading uphill in a south-east direction. Follow this mountain road, which is of variable quality, for 2.6 km until the road ends. Park here.
You will now see both Rekdalshesten and Urfjellet towards north-east, and you should aim for the saddle between the two mountains. It can be difficult to find the path the first few tens of metres from the car, but you will soon find the good path that runs on the left hand side of the small creek that comes down from the saddle. Follow this path up to the saddle, and then north-east to the eastern side of Rekdalshesten. Wherever the path forks, follow the left leg. The path continues north towards the view point at the north-east corner of Rekdalshesten, but at around altitude 730 metres, just before you get to a small lake/moor, you turn left and head west towards Rekdalshesten's summit. The summit is not marked in any way. From here it is worth continuing across to point 778, out to your south-west, in order to enjoy the views of the coast and the islands. This point is marked by a small cairn.
From point 778 at Rekdalshesten head straight towards the highest point of Urfjellet, located out on the left (east) hand side viewed from Rekdalshesten. From Urfjellet's summit head west across its plateau, and then down towards north and north-west to re-join the path leading up to the saddle. From here follow the path back to the car.
Rekdalshesten and Urfjellet had been on the agenda for quite a while, and this Saturday seemed like an excellent day for paying these mountains a visit; I had to be back in Brattvåg by 12:00 in order to watch Sigurd's football match with the 13 year olds, and since Elisabeth wanted to come along the idea of a long drive was out of the question.
We left home just before 9am, and drove relatively quickly towards Vestrefjorden. Along the east shore of Vestrefjorden we expected to find some kind of signs for Eikedalen, and an unexpected one suddenly appeared; we saw a red wreck of a car next to the road and I immediately remembered this car from a photo I had seen in the book "Til fjells i Vestnes". A quick check in the mentioned book confirmed that this was indeed the mountain road we were looking for.
After having parked the car and packed the rucksack we headed up towards the saddle between Rekdalshesten and Urfjellet, and then up to Rekdalshesten's plateau. When we got up to the plateau we where uncertain about the location of the highest point. We first headed across to what we later found out was the actual summit, but from here I was convinced that the point 778 on the maps was higher. When I got across to point 778 I was still sure that this was the highest point. However, both the maps and my GPS readings shows that point 778 is not the summit of Rekdalshesten.
From Rekdalshesten we had a good view of Urfjellet, and we both agreed that the left most point of the Urfjellet plateau had to be the highest point, in accordance with the maps. We therefore headed across to this point in a straight line. From the Urfjellet summit we head west across the plateau and stopped to enjoy the fine views and the splendid autumn colours of the vegetation. Then back down to the car, picking some cranberries as we were descending.