t.z. | Friday, 21 July 2017
OK, I have to admit I am wimp. Camping in a tent with a few degrees above freezing in rainy weather isn´t exactly my cup of ice-tea. The fishing sucks too in such conditions. Not an insect, apart from the annoying mozzies and no-see-ums in sight. well, no-see-ums aren´t visible either - they just itch. All that and no fish put´s me off … off as in “renting a hut”.
Hut´s are nice really. Warm shelters with cast iron stoves. I like these old cast iron stoves. They are very cool, cool as in warm. So one can sit inside, enjoy a cup of coffee and watch the storm outside ... and watch the wildlife. Yesterday I had a visit of Thelma and Louise, two moose cows. They stayed around the house for quite a while. However, they seemed very careful and always checking what´s going on. Maybe there was a bear or a wolverine after them?
To escape the storm I rented a hut by a beautiful little river. The river was unusually high for the time of the year. Everything seems a bit late this year, even the the snow melt. Lot´s of water coming down. A tea coloured mix of snowmelt and rain. 
I went out last night as they rain calmed down. I had an intermediate line and a few streamers with me to see what I could make of the situation. I fished for an hour and gave up after I just lost a medium sized trout. The winds were very strong. It blew with something like 8m/s - a pretty hefty gale in technical terms. The river looked very dark and unfriendly, in a beautiful way. Hard to describe. It´s the light of cloudy northern summer midnight.
In this special light of the northern “summers” midnight I went back to the hut. Everything was a bit weird. Already when standing in the river I felt observed. I couldn´t hear or see any human or animals, but I had the very distinct feeling of being watched. I started to get goosebumps. I somehow felt “lost”, even though the next farmhouse was just a 2 hour walk away.
Quickly I made it back to the hut. For the proper drama and the heck of the whole scene I ran up the stairs and slammed the door behind me and locked it. I looked out all windows to see if the bear was coming after me. Or was it a wolverine maybe? Must have been a bear. I was sure ….
I got out of the waders and hung them in the drying room and sat down with a coffee realising I had managed to psyche myself up. The trolls had gotten me. No wonder looking at the conditions and the date - july 13. - a Thursday, but hey - close enough. :-)
I managed to take a pic of the troll and optimised it in photoshop ...
P.S. - the scary bit is that trolls make it into politics around here. The Norwegian government has again allowed to shoot wolves. People have them in their heads and push hard for having them shot. Crazy in the literal sense. They need to get the trolls out of their heads … period.