2020 Week 21

Bike week

Tops and places visited:

Peak	Height	PF	Location	WCP
Bike: Selseng – Sogndal	–	–	Sogndal, Norway
Bike: Sogndal – Solvorn	–	–	Sogndal, Norway
Bike: Kaupangerskogen	–	–	Sogndal, Norway
Bike/hike: Tingastad	–	–	Sogndal, Norway
Stedjeåsen	624m	121m	Sogndal, Norway	WCP
Bike: Fatlafossen	–	–	Sogndal, Norway
Bike: Hafslo – Sogndal	–	–	Sogndal, Norway

Bike trip: Selseng – Åberge – Sogndal, May 18 2020

Monday: I felt much better, but to stay on the safe side, I decided to only some easy bike trips this week. Just to make sure I didn’t overdo anything and had start from scratch again. In hindsight, it was a good idea, but I have to admit that this week was a step up from “easy bike trip”. It was a good week, but unfortunately, I had to start from scratch again the week after…

Today, Anne went on a ski-trip from Selseng – heading for the valley beyond Anestølen, taking Karma with her. This is part of her job as a Park Ranger. She actually gets *paid* for this!

When she got back, I asked her if she could drive me up to Selseng, from where I would bike back to Sogndal. I figured it would be “fun” that we both started at the same place, but going in different directions – one on skis and the other on a bike.

The bike trip from Selseng to Sogndal would surely qualify as an “easy bike trip”, as it’s mostly downhill and some flats.

I enjoyed myself. The landscape was beautiful. Normally, I drive my car through the Sogndalsdalen valley – not noticing all the details.

In normal circumstances, I would probably have been skiing in one of these mountains. It could have been depressing to think about, but I didn’t let it sink in. I believe that when one door closes, another one opens up. Like, when was the last time I stopped to smell the flowers?

Rather than trundling into Sogndal, I decided to bike up to Åberge, as I wanted to enjoy the nice viewpoint above Sogndal.

From Åberge, I went into terrain bike mode and biked down to the forest path to Røvhaugane before continuing down to the bridge.

From the bridge, I biked the nice Fjordstien path before the final uphill to Anne’s place.

Trip statistics: 24,1km, 310 vertical meters, 1h:34m

Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:

Bike trip: Sogndal – Solvårn via Årøy, May 19 2020

Tuesday: Yesterday repeated itself – Anne took Karma on a ski-trip – this time to Fåbergstølsgrandane in Jostedalen, while I decided to go for yet another bike trip. The plan was to bike from Sogndal to Solvorn, and that Anne would come and pick me up there.

Anne and Karma waited for me by Barsnesfjorden when I was on my way out from Sogndal.

Anne told me that they had an awesome trip – in the outskirts of the Jostedalsbreen glacier. Today, they were starting really early to avoid the soft snow that was a bit of a struggle near Anestølen the day before.

I continued along the main road along Barnesfjorden until I got to Årøy. Then I got on the old trail up the forest – really happy about being back on a trail again.

The path then got too steep and rocky for biking, but eventually I reached the top of the forest and had a nice view towards lake Hafslovatnet. There would for the most part be only downhill from here to Solvorn.

I took the old gravel road down to Solvorn and concluded that my trip was officially over when I reached the Urnes ferry.

Then I called Anne and went up to some good friends of ours. Their garden is beautiful, and I wished the bumblebee could have stuck around for 3 more seconds so that I could get my camera ready…

Back in Sogndal, it was time for barbecue. Happy days!

Trip statistics: 19,5km, 470 vertical meters, 2h:06m

Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:

 

Bike trip: Kaupanger – Kvitebergholten – Kaupanger, May 20 2020

Wednesday: I realized that I wasn’t really taking it easy. Yesterday’s 470 vertical meters is perhaps a little over the top when you’ve been sick for weeks. Plus the ~20km bike trip. But, I felt much better and hoped that I could get away with it. I didn’t…

Anne went on another job trip – this time to Fjærland, taking Karma with her.

But as the Fjærland trip didn’t involve a lot of walking, I decided to bring Karma on my planned bike trip in the afternoon. I was working full time (and then some) but fortunately, these May evenings were long, warm and sunny.

I drove to Kaupanger and had some kind of a plan when we started out. The plan was adjustable, all depending on how warm it would be for Karma.

We headed up the Festingsdalen road for a bit, then crossed under highway 5 and got on the tractor road network where you could be biking all day.

My plan was to connect from one tractor road network to another. Which meant that I might have to carry the bike for a short while. And just before I got to the point where the tractor roads don’t connect, I discovered Kvitebergholten – an amazing viewpoint!

I had a superb view toward Bleia, and shook my head over the idea that people have actually skied down these couloirs…

After carrying the bike from one tractor road network to another, I was back on the wheels. But time was flying and I knew that Anne was hoping I would return so that we could have dinner in a somewhat normal time. So I decided to take the shortest route down to Kaupanger, which meant biking some narrow paths for a while.

Eventually, we reached the tractor road again – taking us down to the bridge across highway 5. From here, we followed back roads for a while, but had to do the final part along the main Kaupanger road. It was a really nice trip!

Trip statistics: 14,2km, 600 vertical meters, 2h:15m

Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:

 

Hike to Tingastad and bike trip Haukåsen – Sogndal, May 21 2020

Thursday: Today, on Ascension day,  I would be joining Anne on a work trip to Tingastad – a pearl by the Sognefjord and a protected area. Her mission was to plan where to put up signposts – at a later time, access via boat.

Along on the trip was Anne-May – a long time friend of Anne. I was dropped off ~1km before the airport and biked the 4,4km road to Haukåsen where I rejoined the others.

We followed the tractor road towards Byttejuvskamben for 1km before reaching the path that would take us almost 500 vertical meters down to the Sognefjord.

Along the way, we stopped several times to take the Klarelvi river into view.

The path runs through steep terrain, but is visible enough to follow easily. The lower part of the path is partly marked.

And then we reached the old farm at Tingastad.

After looking around for a while, it was time for lunch!

After lunch, Karma and I went over to the old sawmill.

But Karma wasn’t able to come all the way, due to a scary “bridge”.

The sawmill was an impressive sight. I tried to picture how life was down here, back in the days, but I struggled. Eventually, I returned to Karma and then to the others.

As I planned to bike all the way back to Sogndal, I left early. After a long hike up the steep mountainside, I returned to the bike and decided to take a different forest road than the one I followed earlier. Perhaps that wasn’t such a good decision…

From the Sogndal airport, I followed the main road until I reached the tractor road to Rud. I followed this road past Rudsgilet and returned to the main road 5km later. Then I just cross the road and followed the Hasleggi path, where I was in for some real terrain biking…

My next stop was Eide, down by Eidsfjorden.

From Eide, I had to carry the bike uphill for 0,7km before I got on the forest trail leading to Vikane and Kjørnes.

The trail to Vikane is really nice to ride on a bike. Mostly downhill and not too bumpy.

At Kjørnes, Sogndal came into view and I concluded that I had seriously violated my “taking it easy this week” promise. At least, I was glad that it wasn’t too far to go…

Trip statistics: 29,6km on bike, 4,4km on foot, 1080 vertical meters, 5h:43m

Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:

Stedjeåsen, May 22 2020

Friday: As a) it was raining and b) I felt a bit rotten, I decided to do an easy hike up to Stedjeåsen. But not along the normal route. I had some “pieces” that needed to be connected, related to newly discovered paths in the Stedjeåsen forest.

The first path went in the wrong direction (downhill), and so we had to go off-trail in order to advance up the forest.

Then I discovered a path that I wasn’t sure who was maintaining – humans or the local deer.

Eventually, we came to the viewpoint that I discovered on a previous hike and from the normal path was just minutes away.

I was happy to see that the amount of snow was seriously reduced since the last time I was here…

We returned along the normal route.

And by the looks of it – Karma was having a very active week – perhaps well above average.

Trip statistics: 5,5km, 580 vertical meters, 1h:40m

Bike trip: Sogndal – Fatlafossen – Sogndal, May 23 2020

Saturday: This was not such a good day. I felt like I was returning to sick mode, and officially announced to Anne that I would be taking it really easy today. Which I did! I drove to the southern end of Fatlatunnelen and biked really slow to the north end of the tunnel – walking the dog at the same time.

There was a rain shower on Sognefjorden. I hope that it wouldn’t come our way. It was cool to look at, though.

We reached the other side of the tunnel, and enjoyed the view towards the Fatlafossen waterfall. Well, I know I did. Can’t say if Karma did. Don’t think so.

But one thing’s for sure. The next time I return to Sogndal, I’ll be hiking up along this waterfall – hoping to get some nice pictures.

Trip statistics: 5,5km, 580 vertical meters, 1h:40m

Pictures (Iphone8) from the trip:

Bike trip: Straumane (Hafslo) – Sogndal, May 24 2020

Sunday: Although I didn’t feel like “top of the world”, I wanted one final bike trip before the week was over. I asked Anne to drive me up to Straumane by lake Hafslovatnet and have a short walk with me before I went biking back to Sogndal.

This is also a protected area, and for the sake of the birds nesting, dogs have to be on a leash. And just to be clear – Karma was on a leash – except when we took the pictures. I don’t think that a leash makes a photo better and it’s somewhat unpractical when jumping rocks. Not that she has to be on a leash – she’s well trained and wouldn’t leave my side even if a bird, deer or a cat was standing a few meters away. But, we want to send the right signal to other hikers.

Straumane is a beautiful area. No doubt about that…

I took Karma to jump some rocks in the river. Normally, she has perfect timing in everything she does, but she got tricked by something floating in the river, which certainly didn’t carry her weight…

Then Anne left, taking Karma with her, and I was on my way on my bike…

I biked around lake Hafslovatnet, but just before Osen, I got on a tractor road that I hadn’t biked or hiked before.

Eventually, this road connected me to the Okleviki – Årøy trail that I had biked earlier in the week.

Back in Sogndal, I took a detour via Sogndalselvi river. There was LOTS of water in motion, although not record mountains.

Afterwards, I biked up to Anne’s place where we enjoyed yet another barbecue dinner…

Trip statistics: 27,5km on bike, 2,1m on foot, 460 vertical meters, 2h:50m

Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip: