Sommerpraten med KNT 2026

Vårt andre intervju er med Sarah og Francis Michaud fra Canada, deres tur til Fjordruta var høydepunktet med deres ferietur til Norge. Vi treftes på Storfiskhytta i juni, intervjuet ble gjort på e-post etter at turen deres var ferdig. Det ble publisert på norsk på Facebook, her kommer originalen. 

First of all, we’d like to get to know you a little better. Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi, we are Francis Michaud and Sarah Michaud. We are from Victoria, BC, Canada. British-Columbia (BC) is in many ways quite similar to Norway, lots of mountains by the sea. We enjoy a lot of different outdoors activities: hiking, camping, cycling, sailing etc. Francis is an instructor of economics and mathematics at Pearson College UWC (United World College). Sarah is a scientist and project manager who currently works for the provincial government of British-Columbia. Outside of outdoor activities, we also enjoy crafting and playing board games.

Since we met at a DNT cabin, I assume you have a fairly strong interest in outdoor life. How did that interest develop?

In my case, Francis, my outdoor interest just developed when I was in my late teens. A friend invited me for a 3 day hiking and camping trip in the mountains in Quebec. I really enjoyed the meditative state that hiking provides. The worries of everyday life disappear and you concentrate on the next objective: climbing to that ridge, getting to the next fork in the trail etc. After that, I decided to travel in Canada (Canada is a big country) and lived in the Rocky Mountains where I got to experience the various challenges of high mountains. Sarah was always interested in outdoor activities, but she only started hiking at around 25 years old, when we met. She just didn't know many people who were interested in outdoor activities and found it daunting to go alone. Furthermore, she used to live in Canada's breadbasket (Saskatchewan). Where outdoors activities are less easy to access. 

Many of us enjoy spending several days hiking in the mountains, but we often have other outdoor interests as well. How about you? What other outdoor activities do you enjoy?

The answers above already address this quite a bit. We love cycling, that's probably our most common outdoor activity. I also enjoy sailing a lot. At Pearson College, where I work, I also participate in the sailing program. Twice a week I get on the water and learn with the kids how to sail. I hope to someday have my own accreditations so I can be a sailing instructor. I used to rock climb a lot, but my shoulders don't allow me to climb anymore. One of Sarah's favourite activity is to forage for either food (mushrooms) or crafting supplies (making dye for sewing etc.).

You hiked a longer section of Fjordruta – our DNT SignaTUR route between Kristiansund and Halsa. Could you tell us a bit about the trip?

We started the route by flying to Kristiansund from Bergen. The flight was interesting, and probably said a lot about the nature of labour in Kristiansund: Sarah was the only woman on the flight. We spent one day in Kristiansund exploring the city and the parks. We went to Lille, a small bistro, it was our last meal before multiple days of hiking, and we wanted to make sure we had a nice meal. We highly recommend you visit the restaurant, it was our favourite culinary experience in Norway (better than any restaurants in Bergen or Trondheim). 
The next day, we took a bus to the airport and walked to the Seivika-Tommervag ferry terminal. We took the ferry and hiked from the ferry to Trollstua. Sarah only ever got to camp in Canada, and she was extremely impressed by the quality, cleanliness and beauty of the hut.
On day 2, we climbed up Jurtinden and down the mountain pass to Gullsteinvollen. It was now our second day of hiking, and we only met another group of 3 hikers. There was a little bit of rain, but the day was overall quite nice.
On day three, we hiked to Imarbu. This hike was quite uneventful as quite a bit of the day is spent on or near roads.

 
On day four, we hiked from Imarbu to Nersetra. The hike is more difficult than it first appears because of all the marshes and muddy terrain. The day was very warm, so I chose to wear shorts. It turned out to be a bad decision as we found a lot of ticks on me at the end of the day. I wore pants for the rest of our hike! Nersetra was my favourite hut, I really like how small the kitchen is. It feels cozy. There was also big chocolate bars in the pantry. We bought one and proceeded to eat all of it in minutes.
On day five, we hiked up Vardfjellet and enjoyed the view a little bit. Since Jurtinden we hadn't had many views from the top of a mountain and it was nice to enjoy the sceneries of Norway from this vantage point. There is a long (5km) section of the trail on the road a bit before Aure. This was probably our most disliked part of the trail. I would recommend that anyone doing the Fjordruta tries to take a bus to avoid this section. We understand the need to use the road to connect the trails, but we didn't feel safe walking in the tunnels on a road with fast traffic. We then finished our day hiking to Rovangen once we made it back on the trail. This section of the trail was beautiful. Although it was very hot, we were glad that there was plenty of water along the way.  This was the hardest day of our hike and we were very glad when we arrived at Rovangen. It was also a great hut right beside a lake. This is where we met the next group of hikers on the trail, a German couple with their kid. We were very disappointed that there wasn't any pasta in the pantry so we couldn't make Spaghetti, which we had been talking about all day.
The next day we hiked from Rovangen to Storfiskhytta. This was the most beautiful day on the portion of the Fjordruta that we did. We highly recommend that section. Storfiskhytta was also a great hut for how remote and desolate it feels. This was probably due to the weather and the wind, but we really felt far from everything. This was also the busiest night as 4 groups were sharing the hut.
The next day we went to Solliahytta and it was quite rainy. We were soaked and got quite cold on the plateau near Snorfjellet. It was a great day anyways, especially since we knew that we would be in a warm cabin when we arrived at the cabin and we could dry our gear with a nice fire. I was also glad to experience some Norway rain. For our day 8, our last day, we simply hiked out to Vinjeora and took a bus to Trondheim.

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about hiking all or part of the Fjordruta for the first time?

I would advise you to wear long pants if you dislike ticks. Despite getting many on one day, we didn't find a single tick on days where we wore long clothing. I would also advise to have great waterproof footwear. My boots were old and I spent every single day of the hike with wet feet. Fortunately, I could dry my feet and boots in the cabin, but it didn't take long before getting wet again. I think the most surprising thing to me was just how much water the soil retains in the section of the Fjordruta that we did. You are at relatively high altitude, and the soil is still full of water. Bring good waterproof boots! I would also recommend not to carry too much food. We carried 5 days of food but the pantries are quite well stocked. I would just carry 2 days of food in case the pantries are running low or I don't like the food at a cabin. In Canada, when you hike there is never any food anywhere that you can get/buy. You have to be self-sufficient when you go in the backcountry. Norway is a lot more forgiving in that way, there will be food, fishing equipment etc. at the huts you visit. Finally, take some time at some of the huts for day hikes. We only traverse the whole thing, but the huts are very comfortable and there are some nice hikes around them that you can easily do in a day and have a bit of a rest. For example, I really wish I got to hike up Skarven, a mountain near Gullsteinvollen. There were other hikes that looked nice but that we had to avoid because we hike through every day.

KNT’s cabins have been a key focus area for the association for many years. Now that you have stayed in several of them, could you share your experience of using the cabins? And how did you find the trails between them?

The cabins are definitely a highlight for someone coming from Canada/North America. Most of the time when we hike or go in the backcountry we have to carry everything that we need. That includes a tent (there are no cabins to sleep in), all of our food, toilet paper etc. The cabins made the hiking quite enjoyable and reduced a lot of the stress linked to hiking in the rain/cold. In Canada, if your tent/sleeping bags get cold while you are in the backcountry, you will have a miserable time. With the cabins in Norway, you can just enjoy the day knowing that you can make a fire and dry everything during the night. The cabins are also very well maintained, clean and comfortable. One recommendation would be to have cleared prices for the pantry. Many times we were just guessing at the price of some items. We felt bad when we thought we might be buying less than the cost of an item. The app helped a lot with that, but we didn't always have connection at the cabins. A hard copy of the current price list would be nice. Even better would be a price written directly on the boxes. This could be easy to implement for some of the items that come in big boxes and would reduce uncertainty when paying. This is compounded by the fact that the items you have in Norway are often quite different from the items in Canada.

The trails between the cabins were very nice. The section on the roads can get long/annoying at times. However, we understand the need for these sections. I would just recommend that people use public transportation to avoid the longest sections on road. I would prefer to go to a fun short hike in the wood when I get to a cabin rather than spending too much time on the road.

The Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT) offers fantastic opportunities all across Norway. Do you have any recommendations for other destinations? 

The Fjordruta was our only longer hike in Norway. We went up Ulriken in Bergen and that was really nice also, but it doesn't compare.

How did you first become familiar with DNT, and are you aware of any of the other activities and services the organisation offers?

We just looked online honestly. We also have 2 friends from Norway that helped us with some of the planning and the school I work with has students from 100 different countries (200 students total). Some of the students from Norway were really happy to help me navigate any questions I had.

Do you have any other plans for this summer?

We are now back in Canada and have many plans for shorter hikes around where we live in British-Columbia. We want to hike 60-40, flower ridge and we are considering doing the Juan De Fuca trail, the Kludahk trail or the Sunshine Coast trail. If you want to visit Canada, you should take a look at these trails or the West Coast Trail. They are great trails and the Sunshine Coast trail even has small cabins (a shack compared to Norway's cabins). You will experience something different from Norway, a real feeling of isolation and remoteness as some of these trails like the West Coast Trail take you very far from any human settlements (you can be multiple days away from the closest human settlement). Unfortunately, the trails are so popular that you better plan your trip very well in advance as the number of permits are quite limited.

To round off our summer chat, we’d love to know: what is one special item you always bring with you on a hike?

I'm the wrong person to ask! I try to travel as lite as possible. My wife thinks it's a flaw! My wife always carries her very heavy camera with her. I also always carry a water pump with me. You never know when you will run out of water and it's amazing to be able to make perfect drinking water out of any puddle. We really enjoyed our water pump on our way to Rovangen this time around as we ran out of water about half way through the day (it was very warm).

-------

Først ute i sommerpraten 2026 er to av våre ildsjeler i foreningen, Brynhild og Hans Gujord. Vi møttes på hytta deres som ligger 150 meter unna Fjordruta-stien, og en halvtimes gange fra Grytbakksetra som de har et svært nært forhold til.

 

Brynhild og Hans - dere er kjente navn for mange av oss frivillige, men nå vil vi gjerne la flere bli litt kjent med dere. Kan dere gi en liten presentasjon av dere selv?

Vi er et ektepar i slutten av 70 åra som bor på Halsanaustan. Der har vi bodd siden 1974 da vi flyttet fra Kristiansund. Hans er fra Kristiansund og Brynhild er fra Halsa. Der har vi drevet en bensinstasjon og hatt drosjeløyve etter Brynhilds foreldre. Etter hvert ble det slutt på drosjekjøring og Brynhild fikk jobb i bank og med regnskap. Bensinstasjonen ble også etter hvert oppløst og Hans fikk jobb i et mekanisk firma.

Som aktive i turistforeningen, så regner vi med at dere har en grunnleggende interesse for friluftsliv. Hva har skapt denne interessen hos dere?

Vi har bestandig vært friluftsmennesker og det ble en ny tidsperiode når vi kom inn i normal arbeidstid. Foreldrene til Hans var friluftsfolk og hadde hytte i Bæverdalen, hvor de tilbrakte store deler av sommerferien. Hytta ligg en times gange fra Grytbakksetra der Hans lærte seg å svømme i badekulpen som liten gutt.

Hvordan ble dere involvert i KNT?

Når Fjordruta ble en realitet ble Hans med i en gruppe for indre del av Fjordruta. Vi deltok i arbeidet med bygging av hytter og etablering av stier. Det ble også naturlig at vi tok jobben som tilsyn på Grytbakksetra. Hans har også vært styremedlem i foreningen i mange år. 

Hvilke frivilligoppgaver gjør dere, og hva er det beste med å være frivillige i turistforeningen?

Foruten å være tilsyn på Grytbakksetra, med oppgavene der, så har vi deltatt på flere dugnader på andre hytter, vi synes det er et givende arbeid der vi treffer mange nye hyggelige mennesker. Vi er blitt en del av KNT-familien.

Vi regner med at det har vært mange opplevelser gjennom årene som frivillige. Har dere et spesielt minne eller en opplevelse dere vil trekke frem?

En artig opplevelse på Grytbakksetra var da vi var der for å tømme doet. Til stede var det to søstre fra Nederland som snakket om drømmen om å være tilsyn på en turisthytte. Men når Hans kom trillende ned trappa med dodunken da vart det brått slutt på drømmen 😂

Det er ikke alle oppgaver som er like artig som frivillig med andre ord, men dere har holdt på med dette i en årrekke - så vi regner med at det er mye positivt som har gjort at dere har stått på slik. Hva vil dere si til noen som vurderer å bli frivillig?

Frivillig arbeid er svært givende og anbefales på det sterkeste!

Dere nevner at dere har besøkt flere av hyttene på dugnad. Har dere også besøkt KNTs hytter som "vanlige gjester"?

Brynhild har vært som gjest på alle hyttene i Fjordruta i lag med 6 damer som kaller seg for fjelldamene. De har brukt flere år på å gjennomføre alle turene, hvert år har 2 hytter blitt besøkt. Alle er imponerte over standaren på hyttene og turene har gitt gode minner for livet.

Er det en DNT-hytte eller et område dere er spesielt glade i?

Skal vi prioritere et område som vi er spesielt glad i så kan vi ikke gå forbi Bæverdalsfjella med Skjortfjellet, Dyrstolen og Varfjellet. På vinterstid så er det et eldorado for den som liker å gå på ski.

Som avslutning på sommerpraten vil gjerne vite en spesiell ting som dere alltid har med i sekken på tur? 

Vi har alltid førstehjelpspakke og vannflaske i sekken. I Brynhilds sin sekk så ligger det bestandig flere plastikkposer i tilfelle vi er så heldig å finne molter. Det er utenkelig å finne bær og ikke ha noe å plukke i.

Takk for en hyggelig prat og fortsatt god sommer! 😊