This EFFEKT project is about an hour south of Copenhagen in a forest of mostly beech and oak trees. It's part of an adventure park that includes zip lines and glamping, so it's more of a curated experience than I had anticipated but it is well worth the trip. The tower is visible from the freeway but then disappears into the forest until you walk the several kilometer long boardwalk to it. And it is something to behold.
The ramp makes twelve revolutions around three beech trees. In the middle of the tower, the form pinches and the clearance lowers as if you are among the branches in the crown of a tree. The walk up is as much about the view into the center trees and people across the way as it is about the view from the top. I liked the section in the tree canopy the most where you are really in the transition from the shaded forest to the sunny skies.
I was also amazed by how easy and meditative it was to walk up. The ramp is very gradual so dogs, strollers, and people of all ages alike could experience it together. It was a fairly crowded day during Efterårsferien, autumn vacation, so there was a consistent stream of people all flowing up and down together, except for one dog who apparently didn't mind going up but then refused to go down (I also thought it felt steeper going down).
At first I thought the continuous boardwalk was an unnecessary detachment from nature but once I accepted its role in protecting the forest from hundreds of people a day it was actually a more relaxing walk through the woods than when I search for solitude. I found myself questioning what my definition of hiking really is and why we usually try to enjoy it alone. This wasn't strenuous so it seemed more like the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, forest bathing.
We finished with some pandekager, pancakes; all in all a great day!
