Summer 2009

The summer of 2009 I decided to go on a biking trip to end all biking trips. It was a dream I had since… well, the year before, when I thought of it while doing some bike riding in my area! I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go, but I knew it had to be in Norway, in some of the mountain areas.

After having checked out a few possibilities, and listened to some war stories of other bikers, I decided to split the trip into two main attractions: Rallarvegen and Sognefjellsveien, two beautiful mountain roads in Norway. The first is the road that was used during the construction of the railroad from Oslo to Bergen, and can not be traveled by car. The second road is Norway’s highest mountain pass, maxing out at 1434 meters above sea level. Needless to say, I was a bit concerned about my physical shape.

With me on the trip I had one of my good friends from college, Broen. We wanted to make the trip an authentic “outdoor” trip, so we planned to bring all the food we would need, with some small restockings on the way. We both made sure to have bikes with strong luggage support on the back so that we could use bike bags and didn’t have to carry our stuff on our backs the whole time.

Rallarvegen

We started by taking the train to Haugastøl, the beginning of Rallarvegen. This was the easy part of the trip, hehe… From here on it would be mostly uphill until reaching Finse.

This part consisted mostly of sparse forest until we reached the tree border after about two hours. Even though it was uphill, this was actually a very nice ride, since the weather was cool and dry, and we were not tired yet. We got to see the train to Bergen pass several times, but apart from that and exactly two other people, it was just us and the mountain.

As we started to reach higher altitudes, the wind started blowing quite heavily, and the rain also picked up considerably. I remember feeling a bit lost that evening while we were searching for a camping spot in the lonely, barren landscape.

We eventually found one, and I thanked myself for buying such a sturdy tent, because the wind was really heavy; the kind of wind that can knock you over. Sleeping was a bit of a challenge, since the wind made the whole experience incredibly noisy. I also discovered what kind of crazy tricks the mind can play on you sometimes. I heard all kinds of weird sounds during that storm: People screaming for help, lots of animal sounds and even a concert! It was all in my head of course, but hearing the wind howling, combined with being just a little bit nervous (we were alone on a mountain with a storm and no help nearby, after all), really brings out the worst in your imagination.

The next day, the weather had calmed down considerably and we were in a good mood. To our surprise they were selling waffles at a cabin not far from our tenting spot, so we started the day by having breakfast there.

Our next target was Finse, which is one of the few villages in Norway that is reachable by train only, and not by car. After Finse the railroad went into a tunnel, and we wouldn’t see it again for a while. What we could see was the old railroad, which made some quite impressing twists and turns in the landscape. I can see why they built the tunnel, because that old railroad must have been really dangerous in bad weather.

Rallarvegen then passed its highest point at 1300-something meters and we started going downhill, which was a welcome change of pace. It didn’t take long before we left the barren mountain landscape and started seeing trees again. At Myrdal, where the train from Oslo meets the train from Flåm, we decided to camp, and continue down to Flåm the next day.

Going down from Myrdal the next day invited to an incredibly steep experience, and we were forced to get off our bikes and continue down on foot, which is quite heavy when the bike is loaded with luggage. At the bottom of the steep part, we finally rejoined with a road that has cars (and civilization) and going down the rest from there was a breeze.

After we reached Flåm, we decided to have dinner there at a restaurant, since we were quite tired of dried food bags. I think neither the waiters nor guests were very happy to have two dirty, badly dressed, not-showered-for-days type of guys eating in the restaurant, hehe! I felt a little out of place…

We continued to Aurland to sleep, which is not far from Flåm, but this proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated, because all possible pieces of land was owned by somebody. When we finally thought we had found a good spot, some angry farmers came along and chased us outta there! In the end we slept in a spot which must have been private property too, but at least we weren’t caught this time!

Sognefjellsveien

This then took us to the next part of the trip, which was to climb the 1400 meters that are Sognefjellsveien, crossing over Jotunheimen from southwest to northeast. Rallarvegen, which is in reality mostly downhill would be easy compared to Sognefjellsveien. Good thing my friends adviced me to buy a good pair of padded bikeshorts for the ride… To get to the beginning of Sognefjellsveien, we took boats and busses from Aurland to Skjolden. All of a sudden it started going uphill, and we wouldn’t see a single downhill part again until the next day.

While doing the endless uphill cycling the next day, a motorbiker pulled up beside me and slowed down to my speed. For a moment I was wondering what he wanted, but then he turned his head slowly and said one word: “Respect”. And then he drove off! I felt pretty good after that!

I didn’t have a chance to actually sit on my bike while doing all the climbing though, so for me the trip consisted of a fair bit of walking. When we passed Turtagrø, we met a German biker going in the opposite direction, who had biked all the way from Oslo, and would continue all the way to Bergen. Impressive!

Almost exactly when we passed 1300 meters, the weather suddenly got a lot worse, after having seen even some sun. It got really windy and rainy, worse than the first day, and we were both getting tired and cold. When we happened to see a hotel on the top of the mountain, we took the offer and slept there instead of outside. We could no longer say we slept outside the whole trip, but it was definitely worth it, because the next day we could start fresh with dry equipment.

We spent the next days leaving the bikes behind and doing some walking in the mountains instead. After having put up the tent, we walked a little more and crossed a river on the way. However, when going back, we discovered that it wasn’t possible to cross the river in the opposite direction. We went all the way up the river without being able to cross, and in the end, we had to walk for an extra two hours, because we had to walk around an entire lake to cross. Note to self: Make sure you can also get back when crossing a river!

After fetching our bikes, we started on the going downhill part, and since we were on a real road this time, it went really quickly on the bikes. We spent our last night in the tent in the forests near Lom, before we finally ended our trip in Otta the next day, tired, but satisfied. A trip to recommend!

PS! Check out our guide to dried foods! We wrote down how good each meal was and we’ll give you our recommendations here.