I’m not sure if Norway is a hiking destination. I know that people visit the Lofoten Islands archipelago to hike and climb mountains, but I question if they do so where I recently found myself, in Unstad. Unstad is barely a town of a dozen or so houses and is known as a surfing beach. The problem I encountered was that there were no waves during my visit—at all. None. The beach looked like a lakeshore, and with that, there were no other surfers there to at least commiserate with. Aside from the handful of locals in Unstad, the place was empty. And without waves, there was nothing to do. So, with a few days of 24 hour daylight to burn before leaving the islands and in an effort to fend off cabin fever, I decided to do some hiking.
I am not a hiker. I don’t own hiking boots and have little-to-no experience in navigating trails. That being said, I’m relatively fit, and was quite bored and up for a challenge, so I decided to take to the hills.