While we were in Bergen, we stayed at an Airbnb that was right near Mount Ulriken, the highest mountain in Bergen. We wanted to hike The Vidden Trail that goes from Mount Ulriken to Mount Floyen. From the photos we saw, it was 8 miles filled with stunning landscapes and even tons of goats. It was foggy pretty much everyday we were in Bergen, so we waited until the last possible day for the hike. Turns out, maybe it wasn’t our best idea!

Looking up the mountain that morning – perfect hiking weather right?!

When we woke up that morning, we saw that not only was it foggy outside (surprise!) but it was even foggier than normal towards the top of the mountain. We made sure to pack some ponchos in our backpack and went on our way. Disclaimer.. from the start, Albert thought it wasn’t a good idea for the hike.. but somehow I convinced him otherwise. Since we had a long hike across the mountains, we figured we might as well take the cable car to the top instead of hiking up. A small handful of people had the same idea as us. As the cable car got closer and closer to the top of the mountain, we saw how foggy it really was at the top. Once we got off, we went to the lookout point where you would normally be able to see Bergen below and we couldn’t see anything!

Up the cable car!

Pretty much sums up how Albert felt about hiking in the fog..

This was would have been the perfect landmark – if we could see it!

Despite our better judgement, we decided to start the hike. A few other people started at the same time as us. We were greeted by goats right away! We could hear them in the distance and quickly came up to them. They had no fear coming up to us – I was more afraid of them than they were of us. The hike wasn’t much of a path, but more of a guideline. There were occasional signs and columns showing the direction to go in, and there wasn’t much of a trail to follow. Most of the time we were climbing up and down rocky landscape, hoping we were headed in the right direction since we couldn’t see too far in front of us. Normally, you would be able to see the signs and columns from far away, making it easy to head in the right direction, but the fog kept them hidden from us.

Goats in the distance!

Baaa!

A sign showing us in the right direction!

Into the fog..

After thirty minutes or so, we realized that the people who started at the same time as us had turned back. We kept going, and occasionally came across others who were hiking as well. We started to see small lakes and adorable little cabins on the hiking trail. They were eerie and ominous in a way.  I can’t even imagine how it would have looked in person without the fog! I had an idea, since I saw some photos beforehand. At one point, it started to rain and got even foggier. It was insane how foggy it was – it felt like we were on another planet!

Ten points if you can see the cabin in the distance

Ta-da!

Beautiful lake!

Eventually after about an hour or so of hiking, we decided to turn back and head back to the cable car of Mount Ulriken. Right around that time, we encountered a woman who was hiking on her own a little bit behind us. She said she came to Bergen and wanted to be able to tell her family she did something crazy and slightly ridiculous, so she was planning on finishing the terribly rainy and foggy hike to Mount Floyen! We took a photo of her and she took a photo of us. We wished her luck and headed back to Mount Ulriken, and she continued in the opposite direction.

Action shot of us getting rained on!

As we were heading back, we got slightly off track. We must have missed a turn somewhere, and eventually we were heading down the side of the mountain – which we didn’t want to do! After trying to retrace our steps and head back in the right direction, we ended up getting even more lost. Luckily, after some time we came across a group of locals who hiked up Mount Ulriken and were planning on hiking to Mount Floyen. It was a couple and the woman’s parents. The couple said they did the hike pretty often, so we asked them if they could point us in the direction towards the cable car. We walked with them for a while, and it turned out we were more off track than we thought! They went out of their way for us and brought us pretty close to the cable car. We thanked them, and wished them a great hike!

Hmm, which way to go?!

Up, up and away!

We walked a little bit further, and still couldn’t see where the cable cars were until we were right there. It stopped raining for the most part, so we took our ponchos off and of course, I took some jumping photos. We took the cable car down, and there were even less people around than when we first got to the mountain.

So close..yet so foggy

Excited that we finally made it back!

No poncho, no problem!

In the end, although it probably wasn’t the best idea to go on the hike, it’s still a great and funny memory. We want to go back to Norway again one day, so hopefully we will hike the entire Vidden Trail – this time on a sunny day! Bergen, we’ll be back!