| Søtefjellet from
Midtsæter Søtefjellet |
| Estimated net time | 4-5 hours | ||
| Difficulty |
No difficulties. The route follows a forest road at the beginning and then a good path. The path is a little boggy early on during wet periods. Closer to the summit the path is a bit vague in places. |
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| Drinking water | Nothing reliable along the route, except the small stream at trail head. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (June 2010). | ||
| Parking | Room for a few cars around trail head. | ||
| Start height | 220 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 870 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 12.5 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Bergen drive road E39 south towards Os, and then into Osøyro centre. Follow road 552 towards Hatvik, and continue 1.2 km on 552 after you have crossed the bridge across Oselva river in Osøyro centre. Turn left here, where signed for "Lønningdal" and "Samnanger", and continue 9.9 km. Then turn left, following sign for "Øvredal". Drive another 700 metres and turn left onto the road called "Midtsætervegen". Follow this road 1.7 km. You will now see an old metal gate on the left hand side of the road, leading onto a forest road across the fields. Either park on the right hand side of the road or somewhere else nearby.
Start walking by crossing the gate and follow the forest road up above the barn a little to the left. The forest road runs uphill and south-west for 400 metres to a flat section. Here you will see a sign to the right for "Midtsæterfjellet". Turn right here and follow this path through the forest and then along the south ridge of Midtsæterfjellet. You will find a registration point at here.
From Midtsæterfjellet proceed north. First descend a little and then climb up to Rindafjellet, where you find another registration point. Then descend again and climb Sauskolten. From here stay right (east) of the small lakes and proceed north to Søtefjellet, following the south ridge of Søtefjellet to its summit. The summit is marked by yet another registration point.
The descent is best done by reversing the ascent route.
Another week at our Hagavik factory, and this Tuesday was indeed a nice evening. I therefore decided to do a slightly longer hike, and Søtefjellet seemed to serve well as a fine outing.
I only had a brief description of the route, but found the trail head straight away. However, I didn't follow the forest road uphill but cut across the fields, towards the forest. When I got close to the forest I noticed a forest road further north, so I decided to return to the car and try this forest road instead. When I got back to the car my phone rang, making me slow down and partly stop, which in turn slowed me so much that by the time I got to the forest road a car appeared on the road. Luckily I hung up my phone call and asked the drive for directions to the Midtsæterfjellet-Søtefjellet ridge. He pointed me back down to my initial route, but told me to follow this forest road until I got to the path through the forest. I thanked him and this time I was confident I would find a good route.
From above the forest the hike was a pure joy, with a warming sun, good views, and fine terrain for fast hiking. At Midtsæterfjellet I signed the registration book, but skipped the one at Rindafjellet. And at Sauskolten I lost the path at one point, but this didn't matter much since the terrain is easy and the direction is obvious. And finally I lost the path again when ascending Søtefjellet, ending up having to ascend it slightly from east, but again it didn't make much difference.
The views from the summit was a little degraded by some haze, but in general Søtefjellet was a nice place to be this evening.
