Distance: 15.9km (631.1km).
The night turned out to be rather chilly, even with a little extra clothing on the body. Still, I slept pretty well. Waking up to a familiar sound outside, the rain has arrived during the morning hours.
A rainy start of the day from Olskastet.
Prepares breakfast, wraps me in my sleeping bag while I eat it. With the knowledge that I have a short day ahead of me again, I use a lot of time in the morning. Maybe with a little hope that it will stop raining. It does not. I walk.
Path through wet ferns and vegetation.
Olskjelda is right next door, now as wet as the surrounding landscape. Olskastet has got its name for a specific reason. Here the horse of St. Olav must have made a throw (kast), which led to the hoof leaving a mark in the rock. If you want to see the mark after the horse now, you have to tear up the road that passes by.
Green everywhere, the path barely visible.
The sad weather outside makes it feel like a good decision to walk far yesterday and shorter today. Even the cows look a little shabby where they stand and squint at me in the rain as I pass. The hike itself is pleasant enough, given the circumstances, albeit somewhat soft and muddy on the ground. The cows have seen their average to contribute a little there too.
On the road to Løkken Verk.
The rain, on the other hand, should turn out not to last forever. Some distance into the pedestrian and bicycle path towards Løkken Verk, it looks as if the sky has got tired of the rain, and suddenly blue spots appear over me. That is the most eventful thing that happens on the four kilometres into the centre of Løkken Verk.
From Okla Industrimuseum, what a life it must have been working in the mines.
This is thus not the most eventful stage towards Trondheim, without it being a short hike I do not know exactly what I can expect of this day. Therefore, I have to fill it with other experiences.
Liljehaug that the pilegrim path passes by.
In Løkken Verk, there is a mumbling around the tables at Bergmannskroa and I get to take off my rainwear. And once I have entered, it is appropriate to have a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.
What then can you do here in Løkken Verk if you have plenty of time?
Waymarker with lichen on.
You can take the Thamshavn line (Thamshavnbanen). This is a railway line that runs from here and down to Thamshavn and which was originally built to transport pyrite that was excavated from the mines of Orkla here. Now this is a museum railway. Unfortunately, the railway is now closed for the season.
On a good path after Løkken Verk.
You can visit Gammelgruva (the old mine). It can attract over 800km of tunnels after 333 years of mining. And it all started almost randomly in 1654, ten years after a local tailor happened to come across copper ore. Since then, mining became an adventure and the origin of what became the Orkla Group. The mine is supposed to be the most colourful in Norway. Unfortunately, the mine is now closed for the season.
No train in sight, crossing over Thamshavnbanen.
But I can visit the Orkla Industrial Museum, it is open. Here you can both see old train carriages from the Thamshavn line, as well as read about and see photos from the mining operations. I especially like the picture they have of the size of the ore deposit in comparison to Nidaros Cathedral.
View from Skulmoveien.
Tina is also in the museum. Another pilgrimage acquaintance of the fleeting type for me (but that is entirely my own fault). She is not unexpectedly also from Germany. Had got a room at Bergmannskroa and could tell me that she thought it was cold with -5 at night on Dovrefjell. I understand her well.
Leirdalen, an abandoned farmhouse.
The guidebook states that you can just as well skip the section of the route that you reach about two kilometres after Løkken Verk. You get an easier kilometre and save yourself a cumbersome route. I am glad I went the route, saved myself from the road. Think it was a nice little trip, it was not too badly overgrown. At the very beginning you pass a small white house, with the word Liljehaug standing in large red letters. I was really wondering about this, the closest thing that gives an explanation of the name is this: https://reflekser.blogspot.com/2009/11/norge-noget-der-ligner-midnatssol.html (you have to use Google translate or similar on this page).
Leirdalen valley down towards Malmplassen.
I can safely cross the Thamshavn line, I know there will be no train passing now. Then it goes upwards, and the pilgrim path offers some views again. There are a few quiet few kilometres on a gravel road until I see an abandoned farmhouse lying on the edge of a field. Abandoned houses have always fascinated me (and many others), I am always wondering the stories behind these houses.
Malmplassen with the smelter, information signs and a waymarker that can tell us that now we have only 61km left to go.
The trail goes steeply down Leirdalen and you come to Malmplassen. To the right are the remains of the old smelter. According to the mining operations at Løkken Verk, there was a need for a smelting hut, for which a river with a high water flow and with rich forest nearby is required. They found it here. The melting ended in 1844. I eat my lunch on the bench next door, 61km away from Nidaros.
Svorkmo.
All the time I have tried to waste time, however, has not led to me running out of it. From here it is not a long walk until I arrive at Gumdal Gård and the day is basically still young, but I need to buy food for the evening. A short distance away is Svorkmo village centre, so the course is set away from the trail for a while.
Svorkmo station on the Thamshavnbanen line.
Has a beer at the Italian restaurant in the centre (Milan) before I shop. Svorkmo was the original terminus of the Thamshavn line, and the plans were for the ore to be transported from the mines by cable car. In the end, the course was extended to Løkken Verk. On the way back I take a short trip to the train station.
Nice light over Orkdal.
Nice light over the landscape on the last part of the hike today. After the cool night in Olskastet, it feels good to arrive at Gumdal Gård and the pleasant pilgrim hostel there (even though the weather became nice eventually). Here, the farmer on the farm has turned a loft and mastua into pleasant shelter for pilgrims who pass by in their last days towards Trondheim. Should you arrive empty of food, the hosts can offer good spring rolls.
Inside the pilgrim hostel at Gumdal Gård.
It is impossible to get away from the fact that Nidaros is anow lmost right on the doorstep, two days away. And it is also impossible to get away from the fact that the hike has mostly been a good experience. Today was more or less a parenthesis on the hike but was saved by the stay at this place which seems like the desire of a local farmer to give something back to the pilgrims he has seen walk by more or less tired in their final days to Trondheim.
A happy and satisfied pilgrim with spring rolls at Gumdal farm.
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