Misc. trips on bike, Nov 28 – Dec 4 2016

Inflammation in a heel ;(

Plantar Fasciitis – it happens to me every now and then. Guess it goes with the hiking trade. It struck like lightning on Nov 29 and by Dec 4 (as I am writing this), I’m still confined to the bike. It’s not too bad. At least I am not injured, and it’s even nice to do some trips on the bike. Here’s a few pictures from last week’s trips..

Nov 28 2016: Ulsteindalen – Bugardsmyrane (Ulstein, 7,6km)

I ended up here, as a colleague questioned if I would be able to bike up the steep hill from the waterworks building and up to lake Litlevatnet. It’s things like this that really triggers me, and I had to find out. The hill was steep, but fairly easy. Unfortunately, ice on the very last end of the hill prevented me from completing the hill in one push. From Litlevatnet, Karma and I continued to the south end of the lake, descended to Bugardsmyrane and Skeide before returning to Ulsteindalen.

 

Nov 29 2016:  The floodlit trail at Leikong (Herøy, 6,7km)

This is a nice bike trip on a good forest road, leading to the floodlit trail near Leikongsætra.

 

Nov 30 2016:  Across Fjelle (Herøy, 10,2km)

This trip went along the old road between Haddal and Eidet (between Ulsteinvik and Hareid). I drove to Moldskred and biked (with Karma) up to the north end of lake Hammarstøylsvatnet. There was a lot of snow on the road after passing Fjelle (the road is not ploughed from here), but I just managed to bike up the last hill.

 

Dec 1 2016:  Bugardsmyrane – Ulsteindalen (Ulstein, 9,6km)

This was the same route I did 3 days earlier, but in the opposite direction. The main goal was to see if I was able to bike up the two ultra-steep hills from Bugardsmyrane and up to lake Litlevatnet. I almost pulled off the first hill, but accidentaly hit the gear shift and lost my balance. The second hill went well, and I can’t wait to get back to do the whole hill in one push.

At Litlevatnet, I followed a mountain path to a small lake below Skeidsnakken. This was a dead end for biking and I went back to the mountain road and descended Ulsteindalen and continued to the school at Skeide, where I had parked the car.

 

 

Dec 3 2016:  Skardsbøfjellet (Sogndal, 10,9km)

I biked up to the power plant on top of Skardsbøfjellet, from the beginning of the mountain service road – on the Sogndal side of the mountain. The first part was extremely icy, but I still managed to bike 99% of the icy road until I hit snow and better conditions. The descent was fun back to the icy part, where I had to be quite careful.

 

Dec 4 2016:  Skardsbøfjellet (Sogndal, 17,6km)

I drove to Fardal and parked my car there. Then I biked up the Øvstedalen road. Most of the route was free of snow and ice. At the start of the mountain service road (Mannsverk, 360m), the road was pure ice all the way up. If it hadn’t been for slightly crispy ice at the side of the road, I would have had no chance at all. But again, I managed to bike 99% of the road.

It was much warmer today, so what was firm snow yesterday, was a soaky mess today. The descent on the other side was very, very careful. Once down, I continued to Anne’s place at Stedjeåsen, and then she drove me back to Fardal so I could pick up my car.

Main lesson learned: buy studded tires!

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