The first biking week…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 12.08.24 | Hasundhornet | 533m | 93m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 13.08.24 | Biking, Dragsund | – | – | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 14.08.24 | Biking, Moltudalen | – | – | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 15.08.24 | Biking, Voldnes | – | – | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 16.08.24 | Biking, Fosnavåg | – | – | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 17.08.24 | Biking, Mosætra | – | – | Ørsta, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 18.08.24 | Biking, Mosvatnet | – | – | Ulstein/Hareid, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 18.08.24 | Biking, Aspvika | – | – | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Hasundhornet (533m), Aug 12 2024
Monday: The knee problem persisted and if it hadn’t been for the nice weather, I would probably not have gone hiking today. Most mountains were out of the question, as I had to avoid steep hillsides. But I figured I could always drag myself up to Hasundhornet.
Meanwhile, I could fantasize about reaching the higher tops again…
Painful as it was, it was a true delight to be out on such a wonderful afternoon!
Of course I shouldn’t have, but I chose the longest roundtrip route.
I had parked approx. halfway between the two trails up to Hasundhornet. Less time on the road when coming off the mountain.
And then we were up!
It’s always nice to be on Hasundhornet. Too bad it doesn’t have a prominence of 100m or more. It’s lacking 7 meters from being a “fully qualified mountain top”. For those who care about that…
I admit that I do…
For descent, we followed the gravel road. I was thinking to myself that it would be nice to have a bike. At this point, I didn’t know that I would be biking for the next couple of weeks…
It would clearly be some time until I could hike the higher mountains again.
On top, I met Martin and Maria. They were out E-biking. That looked nice…
Trip statistics: 5,7km, 265 vertical meters, 1h:02m
Djupvikvatnet, Dragsund, Aug 13 2024
Tuesday: The only way I could walk the dog this afternoon was on a bike. At first, we followed the road along lake Djupvikvatnet.
I resisted the temptation to hike up to Djupvikhaugen. It would be 100% on bike today.
On our way back home, we took a detour via Dragsund. Karma seemed happy about keeping a higher pace than normal.
Trip statistics: 6,1km on bike, 140 vertical meters, 3h:50m
Moltudalen, Aug 14 2024
Wednesday: Today, I got an appointment with a Chiropractor. He concluded that my knee had big problems but couldn’t say much more. He suggested that I should switch to biking for a while and see how it went.
After work, I drove up to Moltudalen and the biked the boring 2km up to lake Mørkevatnet. Karma stopped by all the trails (Storehanen, Selsteinen and Brandtua) before she realized that there wouldn’t be any mountain tops today.
The 2km back to the trailhead was still just as boring and Karma didn’t show any enthusiasm about being here. So, when we reached the car, I left her in it and went for one more trip.
I then biked to the road end by lake Storevatnet, and back. The goal was to do at least 10km on bike. Which is not a lot, but I had to work out a technique for my knee, and besides, my butt was aching (from the seat). It had been a long time since I had been bike .
Trip statistics: 11,5km on bike, 280 vertical meters, 1h:09m
Vonheim, Voldnes, Aug 15 2024
Thursday: After work, I drove to Vonheim to bike on the forest trail that we normally follow when we go to Gyrinakken. Karma was disappointed when she understood that we were NOT going to Gyrinakken.
Then we went up to the lit trail (Lysløypa) and Karma was not happy. But she came along for one round and then we went back to the car.
Again, I left her in the car and biked to Voldnes and back.
Trip statistics: 16,2km on bike, 360 vertical meters, 1h:30m
Eggesbønes, Fosnavåg, Aug 16 2024
Friday: Now I had two more problems. Every morning, I woke up with tension headache. What was that all about? I mean, I’ve had a problem with stiff muscles and trigger points my entire adult life, but this was something else. This didn’t seem to come from the neck, and not my back.
I was able to shake it off through self-massage and stretching and was able to work as normal.
But what concerned me more, was that I had gotten some strange pain in my stomach. I was able to get an appointment with a Doctor and asked him to do “first line support”, in other words – to rule out anything that would seem critical. He dismissed me and told me to come back if the problem continued.
This afternoon, I drove to Eggesbønes to bike across Heida. I like this route.
However, the loop was a bit short and so we extended it by a detour to Fosnavåg.
This turned out to be a somewhat long hike for Karma and when we returned to the car, I decided to let her rest while I went for an extra trip.
Trip statistics: 10,3km on bike, 390 vertical meters, 1h:18m
Mosætra, Aug 17 2024
Saturday: I was running out of nice places to bike in my local area and drove to Ørsta to bike to Mosætra (330m). The only problem was that it was raining cats and dogs.
Just minutes after heading out along the Setrevegen road, I noticed the Daleteigane signpost and got curious. This was just great! A route I didn’t know about and that I could bike!
I enjoyed myself big time and Karma had access to water. She’s in need for more water than she used to, especially in the beginning of a trip.
I had to push the bike up a path in order to get back on the road. The final hill was hard, but eventually we reached the upper valley.
At Mosætra, we crossed the river (on a bridge) and went over to the Vallasætra side.
It had been quite a number of years since I drove the road on the west side of the valley, and as such – it was nice to be back.
I also discovered a path that I might just want to check out one day…
The part along the paved road wasn’t very exciting. But all in all, a very nice trip!
Trip statistics: 11,9km on bike, 370 vertical meters, 1h:39m
Mosvatnet, Aug 18 2024
Sunday: The weather wasn’t nice this Sunday morning, and I was wondering what I was willing to expose myself to. In the end, I landed on driving to Bugarden, bike up “Mørdarbakken” (murder hill) and see what could happen next.
“Mørdarbakken” is a bit of a strange name. It’s Swedish-ish + Norwegian. In Sweden, the don’t typically use ‘ø’ and used ‘ö’ instead. The Swedish name for this hill would be called “Mördarbacken”. In Norwegian, this hill would be called “Morderbakken”. I’m not sure why I went “all out” on the name of this hill, but there it is…
I wasn’t able to bike up the entire hill, basically because I hadn’t warmed up. I’ve done it before, so I know I can.
But now what? The weather was still stable, so why not try to bike all the way to lake Mosvatnet (460m).
When we got to lake Mosvatnet, I checked how easy or difficult it was to bike up to Sarshornet. I gave up after a few minutes. With an E-bike or a fat-bike, this would have been an easier task.
And then came the rain, as we were turning back. I only had light raingear but hadn’t really factored in the speed and the static position. At the bottom of the hill, I was freezing cold. I have doctored the below picture, trying to illustrate how cold I was. If you have no idea what I’m trying to do here, it’s a scene from the movie Dumb & Dumber.
My second goal with the Photoshop work was to check if Hollywood is following my blog. I am happy to un-doctor the picture if they send me a friendly notice. I doubt they will, but who knows.
Incredibly enough, a long time ago, I discovered my name associated with an article about the movie Brokeback Mountain. At first glance, I didn’t have a clue about the relation.
But then there was a picture without the article text. Still, I had no idea about the relation to my name.
But then I figured it out. The background was a photo I took in Yellowstone!!!
I don’t know who did the Photoshopping and I don’t care. I just had a good laugh.
OK, back to the present. I was so cold, and I needed to get warm again, quickly! I decided that I would probably reach the hill to Skarpeidet before I “entered Hypothermia”. On top of that hill, I felt somewhat warm again.
From Skarpeidet, we followed the road down to the water works building and then along Vikemarka, back to Bugarden.
Trip statistics: 13,8km on bike, 530 vertical meters, 1h:58m
Dragsund, Aspvika, Aug 18 2024
Sunday: In the evening, I went for a solo bike trip. I was clearly on a roll now, thinking I was clever with all this biking. In reality, I wasn’t. More about that in the next report…
First, I biked to Dragsund, but that felt a little bit too short.
Then I biked to Aspvika and returned home frozen, for the 2nd time today.
In the evening, I tried to reflect on my situation. My knee was still aching like crazy even if I hadn’t been hiking. The stomach pain was still there and now I had more of less a constant headache. All in all, I was slightly concerned, yet knowing that this was *nothing* compared to people with real problems. So, better keep a positive attitude…
Trip statistics: 15,8km on bike, 200 vertical meters, 0h:51m