E6 Between Alta and Olderfjord – July 1, 2016
Today’s Miles: 17.5

Total Miles: 188.4

I mistake the first marker for a bit of red paint smeared on a fence post. Then I find a second red tipped post, then a rock with a faded red T. The E1 stretches in front of me, the trail heading from Nordkapp to Sicily, the one that got this whole idea started in my head.

I stop and stare at the red paint, expecting to feel something for it like I feel for the famous white blazes of the Appalachian Trail. But it’s just paint on a rock now. It doesn’t mean anything yet. I haven’t poured enough of myself into it. 

I walk along it for a while, sometimes following the markers, sometimes drifting away from them. After a mile or so, I turn the trail and say goodbye.

“I’ll be back in a week,” I say.

I need to go west toward the nearest road, to hitch a ride to Nordkapp and Knivskjelodden, Europe’s other northern points, to connect my steps from there with my steps from Kinnarodden before turning south.

“Why does Europe have so many northernmost points?” I wonder as I slog through bogs toward the distant road. “You would think there would be just one.”