Text: Vibeke C Strømmen

Photos: Vibeke C Strømmen & Martin Fossen

August 2, 2018. We are in Trondheim after a great summer. The heat has decreased a bit and it is a cloudy day. There are only a few days left until Vibeke goes under the knife for an ankle surgery, so we would end the canoe and summer season with a canoe trip.

Launching of the canoe.

It is a well-known fact that the Nidelv river flows through the city of Trondheim. The river starts in Selbusjøen which is a large lake lying between Selbu and Klæbu. At Brøttem we found a rental place, so we rented a canoe. Lucky as we were we got dog care for this particular trip and that was nice.

Blue dot: Launching of canoes and the rental place.

Red dot: Moose safari.

Yellow dot: Dam.

We loaded the canoe with the few things we needed and set out on the water. We are at the southern end of Lake Selbusjøen where it narrows and becomes a river. It is no wind and the river is flat. As outdoor enthusiasts, we also do geocaching, a very nice hobby of looking for boxes hidden in the terrain and logging them. On the opposite bank from where we set out, there is a cache. So we went ashore, but we had no luck and did not find the cache. It often happens that they are gone. So we set out again and just slid calmly down.

After a while we took off the main river to the right. We had not studied any map beforehand, but become very curious about what we would experience if we took a detour from the natural road. In the distance we suddenly spotted a large dark figure. MOOSE! He had spotted us and was just staring. We stared back and tried to take good pictures, but the zoom on a mobile is not much to brag about. We slid slowly but surely closer, but in the end he walked away. The water here led us up to a small outlet from a small river that comes down from Brugnmarka. There was little water here and we stepped out and ate some lunch. After the meal we tried to paddle into the area the moose had been on the banks of. There was a lot of reeds here, but it was a narrow canal to paddle in. Exciting, but ended way too fast. So we had to paddle out again.

Lunchbreak.

Out on the Nidelv river itself, we paddled further down. We knew we were going to get to a small area with high stone walls on both sides and quite deep water. There is a narrow bridge over this area which is notoriously challenging in winter. After this area we followed the river down until we could get no further. Here there will be change in the terrain that would have made us speed down a large waterfall. It is now dammed up.

We paddled back and were visited by rain. So the trip was short but nice.