GBDL 1: Berkåk to Meslo Farm

We began what we hope is a six-day walk along the Gudbrandsdalsleden from Berkåk to the Meslo farm accommodations in Skjerve.

An easy, pleasant walk with some uphill and downhill and mostly well marked.

General observations about the way from our experience:

1. The path is well-marked in most places. Waymarkers are often placed after where I wanted to see them, but there were few places where we had to spend more than a minute looking for one.

2. Reserve your accommodation ahead of time, especially if you’re in a group.

3. I brought cash to pay the private places and am glad I did. They all accept Vipps payments, it this isn’t available to non-residents.

4. We brought light sleeping bag liners, which was fine most places we stayed, but I’d recommend bringing a summer sleeping bag — something rated to about 10 degrees C. It will be fine most places and you don’t have to worry about places with no heat or even sleeping in a shelter if need be. Most night it got down to about 8 degrees C.

5. It seems quite safe. We met lots of women traveling alone and none had any scary stories.

6. I wore minimalist shoes (Xero Mesa trail) and did fine with them, though it’s important to note we didn’t do the mountainous section. My feet got wet many days but they dry out quickly. The wet day, from Gumdal to Skaun, I put in my sandals (Xero Trail z) and was glad I did. That day the only way you could have dry feet would be by wearing rubber boots. I thought my feet might get cold — they do so very easily — but they were fine while walking.

7. Pack light!! I ended up carrying things I didn’t use once and regretted bringing them.

8. With a couple of exceptions, which I’ve made a note of, we followed the official trail, I.e. following the waymarkers. Other tracks i found so not, at least as the path is marked in 2022.

9. The yr.no weather app is far more accurate than any other we tried.