Nordic Cycle Trip - Post #13

I fixed my laptop charger thing! The problem was that the stupid prong adapter is a Chinese piece of garbage and it wasn't making a solid connection. Bent a little metal, fixed. So here we go, after i review where i left off ...

I walked around Oslo a little after i checked in at the hostel. I usually make expanding circles around my home base so i can keep track of where home is and avoid getting lost. I was half looking for something to eat, half just wasting time, half just seeing the city. Yes, three halves. Get over it. I'm never going to say i was one-third blah blah. Somewhere in the city i found this guy:

I think i had heard something about "the tiger" when i was searching the internet for things to see or do. But i had no idea it would be THIS big. there were a lot of people around so i didn't get a picture of myself with him, or try to climb on his back like i did with a lion in Brussels.

So i kept walking around some more. Passed a Subway, a McDonald's, and a TGIF. I kind of have a habit of eating at McDonald's when i travel, but was trying to make an effort to avoid it for you all. It's surely a comfort thing. You know the food is going to be what you expect though i have no idea how to say "no pickles or onions" in any language but English. Why don't they teach you "pickles" in high school Spanish? Eventually i found a grocery store and fell into my other international food rut of bread,fruit, and beer. They don't seem to sell cold beer over here so i had to go with a coke instead.

I actually got two of everything but saved the second nectarine for the next morning

And then i went to bed; at around 10. I'm trying to figure out how long i was awake, but i can't do it. I came up with 31 hours but that doesn't seem right. From 6am PDT to 10pm UTC+1, anyone? Anyway, i should have been super exhausted and slept like crazy. It was so dang hot in that room though! I forgot to mention it last time but I stayed at the Anker Hostel (http://www.ankerhostel.no/en/); it was okay. Not being able to sleep, i gave up trying at around 4am. I packed up my things and loaded the bike. I added more air to the tires because there was barely enough on the ride from the airport, every time i hit a little bump i could hear my bike cry a little. I took my time so it was around 5am when i actually left.

My route was going to take me back the way i came, to Lillestrom and then west.. Here's a map:

I wanted to get as close to Karlstad as i could, but i didn't really know how i'd do. i had hoped that the beginning of the ride would be familiar since it was just backwards from the day before. But that didn't work out so well. I got lost several times and wasted a lot of time stopping to check my phone every couple minutes to make sure i was going the way Google wanted me to. I eventually made it to Lillestrom and things got WAY easier. Riding on bike paths seems nice; they're away from cars, they go places you want to go, they're easy to follow. They're none of those things. Bike paths (at least in cities) are terrible. I could complain about them for paragraphs but i'll resist for now. The only good thing about those bike paths (and not actually being able to follow them) was that i found this sign:

giggle

When i got onto rt. 22 at Lillestrom everything opened up. there were no unnecessary bike path hills, no worrying about where to turn. All i had to do was ride the road. After about 20 miles (not counting all the u-turns and the stuff my bike computer spazzed out on) i got to Fetsund. There was a weird thing in the road and i wanted to check the map so i took a brief break for some breakfast (that other nectarine and a granola bar). While i was eating i heard a 'ping' noise and saw that my speedometer sensor was laying on the ground. Apparently the rubber band holding it on gave out. Pretty darn convenient it happened while i was stopped! I couldn't find the rubber band but me, being the preparedness master that i am, rigged up this fix:

I always carry some string with me. Wrapped it over the hook bits, used a surgeon's knot to keep it tight then
followed up as a square knot of sorts. I Cut the ends so they'd meet back up and melted them together.
It's stayed perfectly since then

Break over, i got back to riding. I wish i could remember what the riding was like. I know it was nice to ride on a road, but there were a heck of a lot of hills that i was not expecting. Big hills. Long hills. After another 20 miles or so i reached Bjorkelangen and stopped for another rest and a water refill at a gas station. While i was taking a break a car pulled up next to me and asked where i was coming from. I told him Oslo and he seemed surprised i had gotten that far by 8:30 or whatever time it was. I told him it was about 3-3.5 hours and then he was surprised that i started that early!

The next 20 miles were the ones i was anxious to see. If you look closely at the map above there's a right turn that takes me to Skillingmark. I had looked at this road many times in Google Maps. It's a different line that the other roads, and looking at the satellite images i couldn't tell if it was paved or gravel. If it wasn't paved then i'd have quite a number of additional miles to go up to Skotterud then down to where the two roads meet again in Amotfors. This is what i saw when i got to the road:

Gravel :(

I was pretty bummed. but then i turned around and opposite that intersection was this:

Pretty darn scenic if you ask me

So, to Skotterud i went. Keeping with my 'break every twenty miles' routine i stopped at a gas station in Vestmarka for a cheeseburger. I ordered the small one (though it was still quite big) but i couldn't finish it. Two other cyclists rode up while i was eating. I think they pointed at my teddy bear but they didn't speak to me and i didn't try to talk to them (they were old and sorta weird looking). I took off before they did and never saw them again. There were SO MANY hills; big long ones. My legs could do it, barely. I'd shift to the easiest gear and sing to myself "just keep pedaling, just keep pedaling". I also found myself talking to Girl Bear and Cookie Monster. I'd tell them how steep each hill was and why i was going so slow, how far it was to the top, that i had already shifted up to the easiest gear i had. I may be crazy, but i never had to stop on a hill. No, that's a lie. There was a section of road just after Bjorkelangen that seemed slightly more treacherous than the rest. There were blind turns with a railing on my side. There was a bike trail on the left. Taking it was a terrible idea. That stupid bike trail went up this short, but super steep hill that i could not do. I got off and walked the bike up the 30 yards or whatever it was.

Anyway, Skotterud and then on to Sweden! It was somewhere around here that i saw a moose! It was on one of those 'watch out for moose here' signs. I think it was around 11:30 or so when i got near the Swedish border. Right before the border there was a RV campground and i decided to pull over for a rest. Exhausted from the super long first day and then not sleeping well, i actually tried to take a nap. It wasn't really a nap because there were ants crawling around so every few minutes i had to brush one away. I was there for at least a couple hours. When i left, these 3 boys waved to me and yelled something. I couldn't understand if it was good or bad, but i waved back anyway.

I guess i should have expected this, it being Europe and with everything that didn't happen at customs when i landed in Norway, but i was expecting to have to show someone my passport when i crossed the border, or at least have to explain why i was on a bicycle. Nope. Just rode on through. Sometime after crossing the border a car passed me with a large teddy bear waving at me from the open window. I smiled and waved back :)

Rt. 61 from the border to Arvika was probably the most uncomfortable i felt riding all day long. There was hardly any shoulder (maybe 12" at most) and there was a lot of traffic going both ways, including large trucks. Nothing happened, but there was one point where the tiny shoulder was especially horrible, a truck was passing me and there was a car coming the other direction so the truck couldn't move over at all. Not the situation. But like i said, nothing happened. I just held on tight and tried to get as close to the crappy shoulder without getting a wheel turned. Eventually i did make it to Arvika, i think it was just before 7pm. The grocery store i found was about to close but i managed to get some food; a banana, some Haribo, an orange ice pop, a roll, and a yogurt. Everything tasted fantastic but that orange ice pop was so good that i actually went back inside to get another. They didn't have any cold drinks, which i found annoying, but there was a gas station right next door so i headed there next for more water and a Fanta. #fantaisWAYbetterineurope

After the gas station my butt was pretty sore from the 100 miles on the day. Even with the breaks i took my butt still hurt and my big toes were going a little numb. I thought i'd take it a little easy, and i had already put my walking shoes on to go in the stores, so i took a walk through the town to relax a little. By the time i got to the other side i must have decided that that was it. I hit over 100 miles and it was going to get dark soon. It was time to find somewhere to hide for the night. It didn't take very long to find a good enough place, it was just an open farm field that seemed only accessible by some weird trails that no one would use. The ground was dry clumpy dirt though. It was a pain to walk on, let alone guide a bicycle laden with a ton of gear. i eventually got to the back of the field and set up the bivy sack, here. Even though i had cooled down with the walk across town i was still pretty sweaty and trying to go to sleep was uncomfortable. It was really nice to get away from the mosquitoes and biting flies though! So off to bed i went, i think it was around 10. What a super long second day. What a super long two days.

One last thing. I said earlier that i saw a moose, on a sign. Well, that is true but a few miles later i saw a real one:


I thought i was a lot closer to it than it seems, maybe the camera makes it look further away. It was huge, and impressive looking. It's a shame the sun is where it is and you can kind of only see a silhouette.