Hjerkinn - Bergen Part 5

July 18: Ål to Haugastøl (50 km + some extra)
After last night’s pouring rain, I definitely don’t regret taking a cabin! I think our guest was pretty glad to be indoors as well...

The morning was also very, very wet, so we took our sweet time getting ready, and we managed to wait long enough that we had a dry beginning. We had a pretty good start as far as following cycling route 4 - a very lovely flat section of gravel along the water. The terrain rolled a bit, and the signage got a bit worse... we actually found a note from Johannes (who stayed with us last night) on the way indicating what he thought the correct route was!

The path took a hard swing uphill, and the gravel was so soft that I again had to give the trailer to Dražen in order for us to hope to progress. We climbed and climbed and reached the railway line at an apparently defunct station, where we saw a paved road heading down and a forest road above the rail line. We chose the paved road and lost more or less all our elevation... and ended up at Rv7. The busy road wasn’t very appealing, so we cycled up and tried to figure out if we could get to the higher road. We really didn’t any way to cross the tracks, though, so we headed back down and tried a few of the dirt roads on the side. A man we met on one of those roads suggested that there was indeed a way across. So... we headed up again! On the way, we met a family out for a walk - and they said that the crossing had been removed because it was unsafe. So we headed down, I took the trailer, and we rode Rv7 after all. We were pretty frustrated at this point, and the slog uphill (because Rv7 also has to reach back up to the rail line!) in the sun and humid weather after all the rain was pretty tough.

The remaining 10km or so to Geilo were not particularly exciting, but an ice cream and getting back on the cycling path were really nice. Our main activity in Geiro was buying groceries, and we are now quite well-supplied (I hope!). The weather was looking a bit threatening, but we chose to continue on to Haugastøl in order to get some hiking possibilities tomorrow. We were on Rv7 once the cycling path ended, but the traffic was a bit lighter than before.

The road was pretty hilly - we only needed to gain a net of 200 m, but we climbed and descended quite a bit along the way. The rain and wind eventually caught up with us and I was really running out of gas by the time we had passed the first lake. Fortunately, we had gained most of the required elevation and it was on a few more km to Haugastøl. We are spoiling ourselves with another indoor night (and pizza!) in a shared room with lots of interesting people. The only problem is that the design of this place is a bit strange... no toilet paper holders, one sink for some 40 people, no paper towel... not sure what they were thinking!

At least the forest roads were pretty nice - but I was apparently so frustrated that this is the only picture I took!

July 19th: Haugastøl-Finse (28 km) and hike to Blåisen (12 km round trip)
It was a beautiful sunny morning and a perfect day to start on the famous (and popular!) Rallarvegen. After a generous breakfast buffet (where does Dražen put all of that food?) we started along the road which was used for building the railway and is now maintained as a bike path. So far, it is a wide and very good gravel road, and rolls mostly gently (though I did make use of the lowest gear a few times to get the trailer over a short hill) through high mountain terrain.

The start of Rallarvegen

The railway line is often just nearby, so train sightings are also fun! We moseyed along enjoying the views and taking lots of pictures of the hills, the glaciers, small waterfalls... and took a few breaks to walk over swinging bridges and support a little cafe. It’s a fantastic bike path - really nice to use, great views, and a few informative signs regarding the history and engineering of the railway line. It’s also great to see lots of people out using it.

Passenger train at Finse

When we reached Finse, we took a long break to cook the rice & veggies we were supposed to make yesterday, and then got ourselves checked in at the cabin and organized for the walk to Blåisen glacier. The weather has been terrific and it’s a fairly easy (and very pretty) hike, so we had a nice relaxing day (and now we’re just about to meet Aaron at the train station - looking forward to seeing him and sharing a bit of the adventure!).

This is the river in drought conditions - not sure what it looks like in a normal year!