Local stuff. And some biking…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 17.06.25 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 17.06.25 | Djupvikhaugen | 98m | 29m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | – | MAP |
| 18.06.25 | Høgåsen | 240m | 240m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 19.06.25 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 19.06.25 | Djupvikhaugen | 98m | 29m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | – | MAP |
| 20.06.25 | Gyrinakken | 365m | 157m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 21.06.25 | Heidakollen (Galten) | 570m | 71m | Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 21.06.25 | Kornbergveten | 577m | 139m | Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 21.06.25 | Hasundhornet | 533m | 93m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 22.06.25 | Around Gurskøya | – | – | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | – | MAP |
| 22.06.25 | Rotarystien | 50m | 0m | Hareid, Norway | – | MAP |
Ball cage, Jun 22 2025
Monday: Travel day, Sogndal to Sunnmøre. I was so tired when I got back home that going for a hike was simply out of the question. Instead, I drove directly to the local ball cage, where Karma got pleasantly surprised.
She is getting quite old, but it didn’t look that way today.
Her eyes are not as they used to be either, but she’s definitely not blind yet!
We had good fun before I was happy to call it a day…
Rjåhornet (600m), Djupvikhaugen (98m), Jun 17 2025
Tuesday: After work, I didn’t have the heart to wake up Karma, in deep sleep. I decided to do a hike to Rjåhornet but took the bike up to lake Stemmedalsvatnet. It was raining and I didn’t really feel any inspiration. I just felt the discipline come into play. Ordnung muss sein.
I was quite wet when I reached the top. I took a stroll around the building and headed back down. It was nice to have the bike awaiting. That saved me for a boring walk back to the car.
Then I drove home and picked up Karma. She went bananas. I drove to the Djupvikhaugen trailhead, and she could now choose between going up Djupvikhaugen or follow the gravel road back home. She chose the hill.
On top, I realized I had forgotten treats. That was tough to explain.
For the first time, I had the courage to bike all the way down. For pros, the route is a laugh but not for an old fart like me, having forgotten the helmet back home.
We then took the gravel road back home, I picked up the helmet and went to pick up the car – not along the shortest route possible. A good start to the week!
Rjåhornet: 4,6km on foot, 1,6km on bike, 600 vertical meters, 1h:27m
Djupvikhaugen: 7,9km on bike, 155 vertical meters, 0h:51m
Høgåsen (240m) + biking, Jun 18 2025
Wednesday: My working day was from 6am to 4:30pm, non-stop and I was dead meat when I finally called for a break. It was pouring down outside and so I settled for a quiet evening in the house, fixing things that needed fixing, etc.
But after dinner in the evening, I got too restless. I had to go out and do something!
Even if it was pouring down, these were rain showers – meaning there were breaks in-between. I had a good feeling that when it was raining all around, Dimnøya could be in the clear. I’ve seen that before.
So, I took Karma and drove to Dimnøya to hike Høgåsen. She wasn’t in the mood for walking, but I asked her to come along on this one. And she did.
We reached the top without rain, which was all I could ask for!
The question was – would it rain on our way down?
It did. We took a slightly different route – away from the forest – which would have sheltered us from the rain. Bad call.
Back at the car, it had stopped raining, and I decided to take the bike for a ride around the island. If I were lucky, I would be back before the next rain shower. It is only a 9km+ round.
Unfortunately, it started to rain after 3 minutes but I decided to go ahead with the trip. I was soaking wet from top to bottom when I arrived back at the car, 30 minutes after leaving.
Høgåsen: 3,9km, 230 vertical meters, 0h:56m
Around Dimnøya: 9,4km on bike, 120 vertical meters, 0h:30m
Rjåhornet (600m), Djupvikhaugen (98m), Jun 19 2025
Thursday: After rain all day, it finally stopped, and I decided to do a repetition of Tuesday’s activity. First, I hiked solo to Rjåhornet, from Leikong.
It was a slow hike. I was tired. Too much activity, too much work and too little sleep was getting to me.
It was very nice to reach the top, not only because now there was only downhill left, but also because Rjåhornet was the only top for miles around, without fog on top.
Then I went home, picked up Karma and we went up to Djupvikhaugen. Again, I took the bike.
Now that I had solved (on Tuesday) the only biking problem on the route down, I was so looking forward to the descent. It seems that biking is firing up Karma. She’s running so happy ahead of me.
Unfortunately, there was a woman with a dog on their way up and I wasn’t able to prevent Karma from giving this young dog “a Ferguson”. If you don’t get the meaning, then it’s a reference to Sir Alex Ferguson and his reputation of giving “hair dryer” messages to his players.
The woman – who just had moved to our neighbourhood – was totally cool with it, and we had a nice talk. Karma had certainly made an “impression” on the young dog, who walked around, eager to make contact, but too scared to actually try.
Rjåhornet: 6,6km, 620 vertical meters, 1h:37m
Djupvikhaugen: 8,1km on bike, 160 vertical meters, 0h:55m
Gyrinakken (365m) + biking, Jun 20 2025
Friday: After work, and in-between rain showers, I drove up to Leikongeidet to see if Karma would be interested in the new gravel trail they’re building. She was, for like 60 seconds.
300 meters later, she was fed up and there was no point in continuing.
I decided to give it one more tries and drove to Kleppefurene. Maybe she would be interested in the forest trail towards Gyrinakken. She was!
But after a little while, she seemed to lose interest. I could tell by the number of times she was looking at me. But all of sudden, she picked up a scent and didn’t look back.
She came along all the way to the top and I was happy.
The rain came and went, but I was determined to get some additional vertical meters on the bike afterwards.
On our way back to Kleppefurene, we took the path via Brendeåsen. I could tell that Karma liked that. If we take the same route down a mountain, she is trailing. But if we take a different route, she is leading.
Back at the car, I left Karma in it and took the bike for a ride. First, down to Leikong, then up Leikongbakken and back down again via “Lysløypa”. I was wet to the bone, but very happy that I got my daily dose of vertical meters, and some extra too.
Leikongeidet: 0,6km, 40 vertical meters, 0h:11m
Gyrinakken: 5km on foot, 8,4km on bike, 590 vertical meters, 1h:53m
Galten (570m), Kornbergveten (577m), Jun 21 2025
Saturday: What a weird day. I was up before 8am, walked the dog, enjoyed my breakfast and then I just fell apart. I was so tired that I didn’t see how I could face the day. Which was too bad, as I had lots of plans. I just had to go back to bed.
Once in bed, I couldn’t sleep but I was too tired to get up. What the heck was going on? Around 11am I forced myself out of bed and felt a little better. I decided to just get on with the planned outdoor activities and took the 1:10pm ferry from Volda to Folkestad.
I wanted to give Karma a hike in easy terrain and the route to Galten offered just that. This is a very popular hike. But Karma didn’t even want to get out of the car! That’s a first.
I had to command her out of the car and the only thing in her head was to get back in. I said – “listen, if you’re not up for a hike, that’s OK. But at least give me the courtesy of walking 5 minutes”.
She listened to daddy and while she didn’t radiate any enthusiasm, she made no effort to turn around. Again – once she gets going, she gets going.
It doesn’t take long to get on the ridge, and I looked forward to a revisit on Galten. It’s been 5 years since the last time we were here.
It only took us 38 minutes to reach Heidakollen/Galten. Mainly because it’s a short hike, not because we were walking fast.
While I was taking my regular set of pictures, a young girl arrived on top. I told her that we were leaving now, but if she wanted, I could take pictures of her. She appreciated that. Afterwards, she proposed to take a picture of Karma and me. I appreciated that.
Karma and this young girl got along just swell. She was a Veterinary student and liked dogs. I gave her a short pitch about Karma’s struggles this year, like – your future is summarized quite well in this dog.
I wanted to proceed to Kornbergveten, and as Karma had rested, she continued with enthusiasm.
It was a nice walk over to Veten and Karma’s nose was constantly glued to the ground.
Now, I had to figured out what to do next.
Traditionally, we have descended to Løndalen and followed the roads back to Blåfjellsvegen, but I wasn’t really in road mood today. And I bet Karma wasn’t either.
When Karma understood that we would be going back the same way, her enthusiasm went out the window. I had to fix that and went immediately off-trail. Her enthusiasm was quickly restored.
I hated the terrain, but Karma loved it. I watched her closely, to make sure she didn’t come across a nest. She gives clear signals a whole minute before she “arrives at the scene”. Her tail is wagging and her whole body language changes. It gives me enough time to intercept. There will be no killing on my watch!
Eventually, I had enough of the off-trail terrain, and we went back to Galten. The weather and the light were better now. There were people on top, and I could have asked them to take a picture of us, but I didn’t bother. It’s not like I’m planning to hold a photo exhibition anytime soon…
We were lucky with respect to the ferry, which came in at the same time as we did, and we caught the 4:20pm departure.
Trip statistics: 8,8km, 545 vertical meters, 2h:26m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Hasundhornet (533m), Jun 21 2025
Saturday: As I skipped hiking on Monday, I had 500 vertical meters to catch up with during the week. After the hike to Galten and Kornbergveten, I was back “on plan” but as it was such a nice afternoon, I decided to go for yet another bike trip from Haddal and up to Hasundhornet. In shorts!
What I love most about my new bike, is that it’s easier to find a gear that gives momentum but doesn’t feel hard. So, the ride up Ringstaddalen felt like a cruise.
The hard part is the mountain trail from the Fjelle road and to the top. There are a few steep sections where I have to go the very lowest gear, but it’s really hard to keep the balance. Even if I go two gears up and stand up, the back wheel is spinning. If I go even higher, I’m not able to make it up.
It’s nice with a little bit of struggle. It makes the descent so much more fun.
There were no one at the top, this late in the afternoon. The only car at the trailhead was a German RV who was most likely here to camp. It’s a new phenomenon. The parking lots for hiking is being filled up by foreign RVs, wild camping.
I’ll be a little careful casting stones, though – having wild camped an entire summer vacation in northern Norway – back in the year of Covid – 2020. It was the first – and probably the last – time we’ve rented a RV for our vacation. I’m more happy with renting cabins – putting real money into the local communities.
Anyway – time for the descent – the dessert. I only had one goal – besides having big fun – and that was to reach 50km/h. I did that, passing Moldskred in Ringstaddalen. That one hill was just steep enough to get me to 52km/h (note: I have wide, off-trail tires, so there is a limit…)
Trip statistics: 18,9km on bike, 535 vertical meters, 1h:18m
Around Gurskøya on bike, Jun 22 2025
Sunday: I felt very tired this morning too, but rather it letting get a grip on me, I decided to go biking. I always feel much better when the body is all warmed up. I decided to go for a 50km trip around Gurskøy island, mostly to reach 100km on bike for the 3rd week in a row. I won’t let that become a new goal, though. But I do enjoy the biking.
The question was – where was the forecasted rain? It surely didn’t look like it would rain anytime soon and immediately after breakfast, I left the house.
I took on the Leikongbakken hill first. It would feel better having no more hills left to do. I wasn’t on this trip for the vertical meters.
It wasn’t too windy either. I reached 52km/h on my way down to Skogevatnet but realized that I didn’t have the guts to bring it up to 55 – which would have been the maximum for my bike – in that hill. Beyond 52, I feel I lose control, and I don’t find those 3km to be worth potential hospital time. I know I’m a “chicken”, but I’ll live with it.
Down by the Gursken fjord, I met my buddy Bjørn Skoge – on a local bike trip. We had a nice chat. A 17-minute chat to be quite precise…
It was nice to be biking against Gjøneset without a wall of wind against me. I had an average speed of 22km/h on the 7km leg from Sætre to Gjøneset, and it didn’t feel like it costed me anything.
On my way to Gjerdsvika, I decided to take the Sædalen route. Maybe I was in it for the vertical meters after all…
It was another tough climb, but this route would “earn me” more than 200 vertical meters. So – all worth it.
From Moltu and back home, I had a nice flow. I knew that the usual route wouldn’t be quite 50km, so I extended the trip by biking to Dragsund and then back home. The only drops of rain came when I was chatting with Bjørn. But once I got inside the house, the heavens opened up.
As for the vertical meters, it’s interesting. There are two notable hills on this route, giving in total around 400 vertical meters. That’s not even half of the total vertical meters, so where does the rest come from? A little bit here, a little bit there. I make sure that I don’t trust the GPS track on trips like this, so I spent a good 20 minutes plotting the route in hoydedata.no to get as exact number as possible.
Trip statistics: 50,4km on bike, 830 vertical meters, 3h:21m
Rotarystien, Hareid, Jun 22 2025
Sunday: I was tired after the bike trip around the island and decided to rest for an hour. I am not sure if it was a good or bad idea. Good – in terms of recovery. Bad – as I feel my body needs weeks of recovery and as soon as I tell the body “let’s do some resting”, it tends to shut down everything and getting back up is almost impossible.
But I wanted to give the dog a walk and drove to Hareidsdalen to hike the nice Rotarystien path. Again, the dog didn’t want to leave the car, and once out of the car, her primary focus was to get back in. It was just like yesterday. “But give it at least a try, please?”
OK, she decided to walk a little. Then she checked with me if that was enough. But the worst thing for her spondylosis is inactivity (at least that’s what I have been told) so I urged her to come along on this trip. She did.
After a little while, she looked willing enough. A bit tired, perhaps – but willing.
The route to Hareid was actually longer than I remembered it to be. And after 3,1km – at “Vadet”, I decided that we should head back – along Kvitholvegen.
The poor old dog looked tired. We’re moving towards closing time, unfortunately. But whether that’s 2 or 12 or 22 months, remains to be seen.
Trip statistics: 5,9km on bike, 70 vertical meters, 0h:56m
