I will call this a hike.

This year has been a big fat fail when it comes to my hiking and biking goals. This year will have to be written off as the year we moved from one continent to another and who has time for frivolous activities such as going on hikes and taking long bike rides when they have a household to pack up and unpack and figure out all those mundane and terrifying logistics that come along with an intercontinental move?

 

But this Saturday seemed like a good day for getting out of the house. Dave and I opted to leave the dogs and kids at home and we took a long walk around our very own Lyngby Lake.

We’ve lived in Lyngby for about six months now and this lake’s been here all along but for some reason, we never managed to take a walk around it. Why not????

Coming from Seattle I like to compare every average-sized lake to Greenlake. Greenlake is just about the right size for a walk. It’s 2.8 miles (or 4.5 km). Lyngby Lake, by looking at it, looks a lot bigger. But as we walked around, I ran Strava to see how long the walk was. Although I started it a bit early, before we got to the lake and stopped it a little late, it seems that Lyngby Lake is actually about the same size as Greenlake!

Unlike Greenlake though, it feels very deserted. We encountered a few runners, a few people walking their dogs and even a few people on their mountain bikes, but for the most part, the traffic around the lake is low.

The reason for this, I believe, is the rough trail. It’s not like this all around the lake, but the north shore is very swampy. It looks like the trail and the swamp had a fight here and the swamp definitely won.

Needless to say, getting through these parts was a challenge. One that I accepted and ended up losing.

At one point I was trying to get around a huge, deep puddle and stepped on what looked like a muddy shore with solid ground beneath. Unfortunately, there was no solid anything beneath the mud! I sunk about knee-deep…

I considered giving up at this point, but the trail was calling me and I decided to just not bother with the mud on my clothes. We kept going!

Notice how there’s this muted reflection on the water here. Parts of the lake were frozen and looked amazing. Getting over this bridge was a nightmare though because it was covered with a layer of ice.

Most of the trail around the lake, especially the north shore, is wild and serene.

At the western tip of the lake, there’s a canal that connects Lyngby Lake with Bagsværd Lake. Bagsværd is a bit larger and I’m saving this walk for another day. But here, at the tip of the lake, you can take a peek at the Danish White House. This is Marienborg, the home of the Danish Prime Minister (currently occupied by Lars Løkke Rasmussen). It’s almost like the Danish head of State and I are neighbors!

The southern shore is a bit more developed, with the center of town 3 kilometers (less than 2 miles) away.

Lots of kayaking done here in the summer. Not so much during the winter.

The city’s Folkeparken has the rather provocative bronze sculpture by Helen Schou, Morgengry.

Despite being covered in mud, I really enjoyed this walk around the Lyngby Lake.

3.5 hiking miles (5.6 km), 72 ft of – a-hem – elevation (22 m)

YTD Hiking Miles: 31.6