Mixed biking and hiking
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 19.05.25 | Storehaugfjellet | 1173m | 990m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 20.05.25 | Veten (Vetleholten) | 632m | 184m | Gloppen, Norway | MAP | |
| 21.05.25 | Gyrinakken | 365m | 157m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 22.05.25 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 23.05.25 | Nørdbergsheida | 509m | 75m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 24.05.25 | Hasundhornet | 533m | 93m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 25.05.25 | Litlebøra | 709m | 86m | Vanylven, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 25.05.25 | Storebøra | 785m | 702m | Vanylven, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 25.05.25 | Leikongeidet | 160m | 0m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | – | MAP |
| 25.05.25 | Myrvåg/Tovågen | – | – | Herøy, M&R, Norway | – | MAP |
Storehaugfjellet (1173m), May 19 2025
Monday: The week started with the same gorgeous weather that we had in the weekend (in Sogndal). After my working day, I got started on the bunch of logs that Anne had brought in today. After my 4-hour session the day before, the technique was optimized and I got the logs cut, chopped and stacked within 2,5 hours.
It was getting late in the afternoon and Anne was already thinking about dinner, but I needed to clear my head first. I drove to Sogndal airport Haukåsen to bike to Lingesetefjellet. The last part towards the top is on foot.
But on my way up the forest road, I got more interested in Storehaugfjellet. It’s the same road in the beginning, and the road forks after 2,4km. I had told Anne I was going to Lingesetefjellet, but I could justify changing the plans, as I would have to descend Lingesetefjellet on foot, while on Storehaugfjellet, I could just get on my bike and blast down. It would probably not cost me any extra in time.
My back was stiff and sore after two days of wood work, and 670 vertical meters on bike was not what my back needed. The mountain service road was particularly brutal today. I was grinding my teeth and put in the hard work needed to get up the mountain. It was 23 deg. C. at the trailhead when I left it, just before 6pm.
The road was not completely free of snow, and I had to get off the bike a couple of times.
When I reached the top, all of the hard work was forgotten, and I could now enjoy the views and look forward to the descent.
I enjoy biking down a smooth gravel road, but this mountain road was rougher, with crushed rock. I could not ride as fast as I wanted. But downhill is downhill and I certainly didn’t complain.
Trip statistics: 11,9km on bike, 670 vertical meters, 1h:29m.
Veten (632m), May 20 2025
Tuesday: On our way home from Sogndal, I was determined to trick Karma into coming along on a hike with me. For this to work, a whole bunch of criteria would have to be met. A gentle start and shade were two important parameters. I chose to revisit Veten near Sandane. We hadn’t been there since 2020 and I hoped that Karma wouldn’t remember the route and go – oh, boring!
I drove up the toll road from Valborgkleiva above Sandane (fare NOK 70,- at the time) and parked where the road forks, 0,4km before Sagevadet.
She started out, seemingly interested. But then she stopped and looked at me. Are we sure about this?
But she didn’t just quit on me and turn around.
I tried to be as positive as I possibly could be, happy as a clam. I hope that gave her motivation to carry on. At least, the start of the route wasn’t very steep, and she got a chance to warm up.
Walking behind her, I could see how stiff she was, from the Spondylosis in her lower back. But I hoped that she was just stiff and not in pain. She’s on a serious pain killer programme and I do hope they deliver on their promises.
It didn’t take long before I went – wow! This forest is so darn green and beautiful. Then I realized that the green color was strongly emphasized by my sunglasses, but even after I took them off, I found the forest very beautiful. I was surprised by why I realized this just now. I have hiked this route at least 5 times before.
Eventually, we passed the point of no return which is impossible to explain, but it’s that point in time where I’m not worried that Karma would turn around. She even took the lead every now and then.
The route to the top (3km) felt longer than I had assumed it would be. We didn’t pick the longest route, but not the shortest either. We were facing 400 vertical meters to the top and piecing all the ups and downs together, ascent and descent – 500 vertical meters..
It was nice to reach the top, because I expected to see a “different” dog, on our way down.
Like always, we took the path down to lake Røsskleivvatnet.
And yes, I had a different dog ahead of me. She looked 5 years old. Whether it was the downhill or because she was all warmed up, I don’t know. Probably a combination.
The descent was very enjoyable. More and more, Karma looked like herself and the distance between us grew. That’s always a good sign. Not that I ever let her out my sight and control…
So, this was a positive experience, but being back home, I don’t expect her to be very willing on the local trails that she knows so well. Time will show, but I do cherish these walks that I can no longer take for granted.
As for her behaviour – I am by no means an expert in anything related to dogs, but I have a theory. If there is an interesting scent on the trail, that overrides everything. If Anne and I (hence: family) are together, that also overrides everything. But if it’s only me, she’s now very, very picky on what she wants to do. This all changed after the Uterus was removed. But shortly after, the Spondylosis was discovered. Maybe it’s a combination of changes in the psychology and physiology. I just don’t know…
Trip statistics: 7,3km, 500 vertical meters, 1h:59m.
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Gyrinakken (365m), May 21 2025
Wednesday: The weather was not good, and I felt absolutely no inspiration to go hiking. But, in the end I decided to – finally – hike from Seljeset – above Skoge on Gurskøya. The natural target would be Gyrinakken, but on the map, the path from Seljeset just ended somewhere in the forest.
I had a pretty good feeling about Karma today. Poor kiddo, in addition to all the other struggles (huge surgeries and Spondylosis) she also has a bad skin problem. She has an infection in her ears (looks pretty bad) and I’m treating them with advice from the Vet. It’s looking a bit better. But, she seemed quite positive during my working day, and this hike would: a) start with a downhill, b) be a place she’s never been before and c) no apparent steep terrain in close proximity.
She started out looking like 5 years old. Wow! There must have been a fascinating scent on the tractor road going to lake Klipevatnet.
After a while, the tractor road ended where the map said it would. But as I had suspected, there was a deer track in the direction of Rosskar. This track was of huge interest to Karma.
The weather – a mix of sunshine, rain and hail. As it should be. You can’t really appreciate summer until you know what you’re moving away from…
I briefly thought about going to Aretuva instead, but decided to stick with Gyrinakken.
Karma was just walking on, glueing her nose to the ground.
When it was time to go off-trail and aim for the ridge leading to Gyrinakken, there were no protests or no hesitation.
The ridge was a little bit cumbersome, but overall OK.
The rain just made the colors even more stunning.
When we reached the top, I decided that our stay would be short, as there was a massive rain shower moving in.
We descended along the path leading to the Kart track. The weather was quite miserable now and suddenly they started shooting from the shooting range at Løkmyra. Karma was not happy. Me neither.
We followed the main road down towards Seljeset until we could follow a tractor road, going parallel to the main road.
All in all, very nice to see Karma like I’m used to seeing her!
Trip statistics: 5,8km, 320 vertical meters, 1h:30m.
Rjåhornet (600m), May 22 2025
Thursday: I didn’t really have time to go hiking this afternoon. It would the last day with my Caddy Maxi that has served me so well since 2017. This was Caddy Maxi #2. Someone wrecked the first one (collision). So what kind of car would I be transitioning into? An electrical car, surely? Nah, Caddy Maxi for the 3rd time and I wanted to clean up #2 before handing it over to the salesman tomorrow.
But Karma seemed to be in a good mood and when I went down to start on the car, she thought I was going hiking and came along. I decided to find out if she was willing or not and decided to go for Rjåhornet from Leikong. I assumed she would turn around and then I could continue cleaning the car.
At the critical time – as the uphill began, sheep came after us. Karma doesn’t like sheep, and I could swear I heard the F-word.
I didn’t plan the sheep, but my next move was to go in a different direction than what she expected. I think that made her forget about any plans to protest and she was wondering where I was going.
I expected to find a path up the forest, but didn’t find any. I must have gotten that wrong. So, we went off-trail for a little while, which was very positive for Karma. She never turns down a good off-trail hike.
When we finally found the path, she wasn’t so sure about this anymore and stopped. I didn’t notice and kept on going. When I turned around and didn’t see her, I called for her and she came along. There were no more protests.
At the next fork, I let her decide. She chose the least travelled path, which was fine by me.
Eventually, we got to Bakkehornet, which is the “halfway mark” to Rjåhornet.
She didn’t display any distress from her back problem and looked quite normal to me. Maybe that’s how it is when she has warmed up. It’s hard to imagine how the Spondylosis affects her without CT or MRI. I can just try to interpret the signals she is sending and right now, the signal pointed up the mountain…
The weather was OK, but the wind was really cold. And out in Voldsfjorden, rain showers blocked the view towards the higher mountains. That was totally fine, as long as the showers kept their distance.
We had a good time on the mountain. I didn’t expect to be hiking this afternoon, so this was clearly a bonus. And Karma was going back and forth, checking out whatever needed checking.
The building on top gave us shelter from the cold wind while Karma was enjoying her treats.
The route down had to be a different one, of course. So, we started out by going off-trail. Karma loved that!
When we got to Bakkehornet, we continued down the normal route to Leikong.
When we got back home, it was past 6pm and I had so much to work to do on the car. At 9pm, I was happy with its appearance and looked forward to dinner…
Trip statistics: 6,5km, 610 vertical meters, 1h:49m.
Nørdbergsheida, Kloven (509m), May 23 2025
Friday: This was a very good day. I started working 6am, had no meetings and devoted my entire day to documenting my software development for the past months.
Well, not the entire day. I had to go to Ørsta, hand off my old Caddy and get a brand new one, with all of the modern standards…
I was a very happy dude when I drove back home 2 hours later. Everything got sorted on the spot, all the apps updated, insurance, road authorities, etc.
Back home, I continued to document my work until 4pm and was quite satisfied with the work. Now, it was time for a hike and when I put my trail running shoes on, Karma came down. Like clockwork.
She was quite confused when she entered the car. It was the same (more or less) car, the same cage, the same pillows, the same blanket but the smell was totally different.
I decided to drive to Gjerdsvika and hike Nørdbergsheida. I was betting on that Karma didn’t remember this trailhead very well and became interested. She did!
She looked surprisingly OK. Old, but OK. I am starting to wonder if the Spondylosis isn’t the reason why she recently didn’t want to hike for an entire week. She’s had a bad ear infection. That’s getting better now. And the VET warned me that the new pain killers (for the Spondylosis) would make her unsteady. Yup, I could sign off on that.
So, maybe things were getting better? She quite looked like herself again but even if it was just temporary, it made me very happy.
The most important sign is if she is trailing or leading. Trailing is not good. That means something. Not sure what, but it’s not good. Leading is good, and she was – for the most part – leading on.
Eventually, we were closing in on the top. The “annoying” thing about this top is that the high point is on the south side of lake Klovvatnet, but that’s not where the interesting views are. So, I always “have to” visit both tops.
This is not really a serious complaint 😉
I love the view towards the lakes. Little did I know that Anne, Karma and I would be hiking this entire valley, from Leikongeidet to Gjerdsvika, a week later.
My little hero was seemingly looking forward to the downhill part of the hike…
Once the top was visited, we could get going. For descent, we would hike across Høgehornet and Vatthornet. Karma seemed to know this route quite well. We’ve done it a number of times before…
Too bad it isn’t possible to get into the valley, by walking below Nørdbergsheida. It’s too steep. On the other side of the lake, the boulder is awful.
Rather than following the gravel road down to Gjerdsvika, we took our usual shortcut along the pipeline. Karma knows this route quite well too…
I truly, truly appreciate a day like this, when everything is just alright, from beginning to end!
Trip statistics: 8,4km, 600 vertical meters, 2h:04m.
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Hasundhornet (533m), May 24 2025
Saturday: I had an errand in Ørsta and figured we could hike Melshornet (809m) afterwards. With Karma having good days, I took it for granted that we would be standing on top today.
We started out from Helgatun, and the dog was on fire from the get-go. I was thinking – wow – she really makes me look slow.
After 2-300m, she stopped, turned around and ran back to the car. What the heck just happened?
But OK. I didn’t want to push her. We drove back home, but I stopped in Ringstaddalen to see if she wanted to hike Blåtind. She wouldn’t even leave the parking lot.
After a while, I had to go out and get my daily 500+ vertical meters, but today, I felt for getting them on a bike. I drove to Hareidsdalen, to the golf course and sat out to bike to the top of Hasundhornet.
After a couple of minutes, I felt raindrops. OK – this would clearly be a cold bike trip.
But it didn’t rain a whole lot. I wasn’t all that wet when I – finally – got to the top of Hasundhornet, after a 500 vertical meter ascent. And then it stopped raining.
It felt a little boring to take the same route back, and so I biked the hiking trail along lake Hammarstøylsvatnet, before descending the service road down to lake Snipsøyrvatnet. It was an OK, forgettable trip.
Back home, Karma came rushing down the stairs and I decided to walk her – on my bike. She was galloping down the street. So much for any physical constraints…
We crossed the main road, and I was thinking that I could get her up to Djupvikhaugen – or something. But suddenly, she turned around. Okay. She knows best…
Trip statistics: 17,5km on bike, 530 vertical meters, 1h:41m.
Litlebøra (709m), Storebøra (785m), May 25 2025
Sunday: I wanted to get off the islands and decided to do a hike to Storebøra in Vanylven.
We drove up the mountain road and parked at 400m elevation. Karma seemed happy to get out of the car and for a minute, I actually thought this would go quite well.
But, after one minute she just turned around and was determined to return to the car. I blocked her way and told her that I wanted to understand this situation a bit better. I would force her to walk for 10 minutes, and if nothing changed, we would turn back around. I just wanted to see if I could spot any specific distress. Like limping.
She continued walking but kept looking back at me. I gave it 5 more minutes. If she kept doing that, we would turn around, but I had a feeling she would resume to normal before that.
As I had guessed, she soon stopped looking back on me and focused on the terrain instead. I watched her walk closely. Was the Spondylosis affecting her? She looked pretty normal to me. Oh well, the Vet and I will have an interesting discussion about this…
On our way to Litlebøra, a man came from our right and crossed a couple of meters ahead of us. I had looked forward to a quick chat with a fellow hiker, but he didn’t even look our way. Oh well…
The plan was to hike to Storebøra and return via Litlebøra, but now I changed the plan. We would go to Litlebøra first.
On top of Litlebøra, Karma laid down. That’s unusual. Maybe she just felt tired. I haven’t really taken into consideration that she is getting quite old. But this was just a test. From here on, she is free to decide whether she wants to come along or not.
The forecast promised rain in the afternoon. So far, it was looking OK and I assumed that we would be back in the car before the rain came.
We moved on towards Storebøra.
We were about to catch up with the man that passed us earlier. I was thinking about if I should say something other than “hello” and leave the rest up to him. But right then, he left the path and began walking down towards Grøtnipa. OK, then…
Karma laid down on top of Storebøra as well. She didn’t seem to have a lot of “mojo” today. But I guessed that she would be up for an off-trail return route, via Grøtnipa.
After a few minutes, we left the top and aimed for Grøtnipa. I didn’t think I’ve ever been to that (modest) top. Karma seemed to enjoy the off-trail route, and more and more looked like her usual self, checking out this and that.
When we left Grøtnipa, I could feel raindrops.
And in the final hill above the trailhead, the rain came. But we hadn’t gotten wet by the time we reached the car.
Trip statistics: 6,3km, 540 vertical meters, 1h:44m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Bike trip to Leikongeidet, May 25 2025
Sunday: After returning home from Vanylven, it had stopped raining, but the sky was dark. It was only a matter of time before we would get more rain. I decided to spend that time with a bike trip.
Leikongeidet seemed like a good destination. I biked up Leikongbakken and returned via «Lysløypa». In the forest, it started to rain again, but the first major shower came when I was back home.
Trip statistics: 17,4km on bike, 350 vertical meters, 1h:00m
Myrvåg/Tovågen, May 25 2025
Sunday: I took Karma out for the evening walk, and I assumed that she would only do the usual 0,4km round when she’s not up for exploring the larger neighbourhood.
But she seemed to have a little energy to spare and was following/taking the lead in the direction of Dragsund. I had no faith in that she would do the entire round and sure enough, at Møre Skule – she wanted to shortcut through the schoolyard. Fine.
We stopped by the football cage at MYFO, but there weren’t any balls lying around.
Then we went down to Tovågen. I could see that Karma was quite tired by now, but she seemed to enjoy the walk.
It felt altogether a bit like a “lazy day”, but the total vertical count of the day was 990m!
Trip statistics: 3,8km, 100 vertical meters, 0h:54m
