The Emerald Ribbon

After a few trial runs earlier it was once again time for a proper bikepacking trip. Originally Joe and I had tried to find a weekend where both would be available, but no such luck this time around.

My plan was to bike the Emerald Ribbon http://www.emeraldribbon.no/ starting early on saturday morning and returning back early sunday in time for planned family activities.

My chosen weekend was also the day when the traditional bikerace from Bergen to Voss takes place and the area  next to Grieghallen was bustling with lycraclad racers, eager to start on the 170 km journey   http://www.bergenck.no/defaultBV.aspx?pageId=206

However this years event was marked by a tragic accident with a fatal casualty. A rider somehow fell over the railing in a sharp turn and landed about 50 meters below, on the railroad tracks. Our thoughts go to those  who are left behind.

My railwayjourney was delayed because of this accident, but eventually I ended up at my starting point, Evanger. I made a mental notice to be really careful going downhill on sometimes slippery tarmac.

A few last provisions were bought at the local supermarket and off I went. The route starts off easy enough, winding through meadows and small forests for a few kilometres, before the big climb starts. A german registered car drove past me with two river kayaks on the roof, and I saw them again next to a big waterfall.. They were suiting up and from the looks of it were going to do a drop in that 20-30 meter waterfall. Not my cup of tea, but the river further downstream looked nice for packrafting.-

Nice old engineering.

You got mail.

The route takes you over the Nesheimmountain at about 700 metres above sealevel. Which meant I had a nice climbing session ahead of me. Too bad visibility got lousy as I ascended into the mist and fog.

I think the view below is really nice. Maybe next time.

There was still snow at the top and fairly chilly conditions, so no long breaks.

Thankfully, after every climb there is a downhill. Keeping in mind this mornings accident, I took it easy going downhill.

On the other side of the mountain you follow the Teigsdal river, which is well known for its trout population.
http://www.eksingedalen.no/en. The locals cultivate the river and surely next time I will bring my fishing gear. August seems to be the prime time, so maybe later in the summer.

Teigsdal river.

I took my time rolling gently downhill and was impressed by how well kept the houses and farms seemed to be, and it always brings a smile to my face to see newborn lamb bouncing around on wobbly feet. Since I could not find any really nice camping sites up in the valley I decided to go down to the fjord and have a look there.

Eidslandet.

The road by the fjord also passes through a few tunnels, the first one being totally dark with no lights whatsoever. Interesting experience. I had brought my Petzl Tikka just for this section, but as expected it did not create daylight out of darkness with its meager 40 lumen output. Thankfully there were a few holes in the wall intermittently, giving illumination.

Tunnel with a view.

 Not long after I found a nice place to camp and pitched my tarp the Glenn Charles way http://thetravelingvagabond.com/

 Dinner was eaten and then it started to rain. And it did not stop until the next evening. Seems like most of my bikepacking trips are plagued by shitty weather.. http://thunderinthenight.blogspot.no/2012/10/glued-to-our-groove.html. Ah well, it was only for one night, and it is always nice to practice wet weather techniques.

The next morning I was eager to reach the train that departs from Stanghelle at 11 and took off around 9 am. The weather was, well, wet, but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the bikeride along the fjord. Plenty of nice waterfalls, scenery and tourist attactions along the way. I will certainly come back to Skipshelleren with my family. This is a stone age settlement, approximately 7000 years old. http://www.skipshelleren.no/

I arrived at Stanghelle with time to spare, and once again made a note to self to do this more often.

Thanks to M for giving me some time off.


/odd


 

On yer bikes

The weather this summer has not been the greatest. I guess Joe, Beni and Marco can vouch for that..
The first couple of weeks of our family holiday consisted mainly of rain, wind and fog. If we did not have a 4 month old baby, we would probably jump on a plane and fly south, to warmer climates. Ah well, we stuck with it and when we arrived back in Bergen for our second half of holiday, temperatures were higher and that yellow thing in the sky could be seen more often.
Being back in Bergen also meant that I had all my toys at my disposal again, and with a little negotiation I could land a bikepacking deal. It had been far to long since I had my Fargo out on an overnighter.

As this would be a short overnighter I chose to explore the island of Askøy, just north of where we live. I had read on some forums about mountainbikepotential/routes in a forest on this island, and set course for this forest. I packed and got ready and left about 8 pm, so not excactly an alpine start to this trip.

Salsa Fargo and Hurtigruten in the background

The first part of the route I had biked a few times before, but it was nice to be rolling along with a complete bikepackingkit. The Salsa Fargo works superbly for this.

Complete bikepacking setup

My route would be on the east coast of the island, as the roads here have less traffic, and offer nice views of the sea. Weatherwise this was one fine evening, and I took great pleasure riding along in my new Rab Meco 120 short sleeve shirt. This shirt impressed my with its fit, long tail for bikeriding, how quickly it dried and, last but not least, according to my wife, the gray colour suits me :)

I was in no rush so I stopped by a few places that looked interesting, as this communal recreation spot
http://www.bof.no/Omrader/Askoy/009_solnes.htm

It was here I decided to take the obligatory "bike in forground and something else in the background" pictures and my dear Fargo was almost swallowed by King Neptune. I propped it up nicely along the concrete wall , stepped back to take a picture and to my dismay could see my bike slowly tipping and waving goodbye to its owner. My swift recovery was worthy of an olympic medal...

After a successful rescue, and the obligatory look around to see if anyone had seen this daft biker, the damage report was thankfully only a few minor scratches and some ripped handlebar tape. And a bruised ego.

I guess there is a reason on most bikepackingpictures the bike is laying on the ground...

Anyways, I continued along the scenic route I had chosen and soon left the tarmac in favor of the last stretch on gravel to where I would look around for a spot to camp. Using google maps (what an amazing time we live in with such technology at our disposal..) I had noticed a small lake called Fjellvannet which looked promising. Btw Fjellvannet (Mountain Lake) is an odd name for a lake 53 meters above sealevel, if you ask me...

My originally planned site looked a bit boring so I kept on riding, and, literally, just around the corner, I found a really nice spot to pitch my tarp. Offering flat ground, access to running water and the lake itself, it fit the bill as a perfect campsite. Seemed to be plenty of fish here as well, so next time I will bring my Tenkara rod.

The rest of the evening was spent tinkering around setting up my good old Integral Designs Siltarp 2 in bikepacking mode, eating, reading and generally enjoying myself. Tips and tricks on how to do this courtesy of The Traveling Vagabond http://thetravelingvagabond.com/tips-techniques/2011/12/14/tarps-tarps-more-tarps.html

Next time I will bring my Tenkara rod

I woke up during the night to the familiar sound of rain, but come morning, the sun was shining again, and I readyfied myself for some technical riding. I had no idea what it would look like, and truth be told, the tracks here were above my skillevel. Steep, rocky and rather muddy. Perhaps not terrain for a mountainbike novice. Ah well, if I ever attend the Iditarod Trail in some distant future, I guess some experience pushing bikes in bad conditions is handy :)

Morning mist

An easy section

After a short de-tour to another recreation area, Kollevågen to check out the spot where I camped last summer on a kayaktrip, I headed back to our home and started a new day with my family.

Pardon the soggy pitch..

Summer holiday, ain`t it grand!

Bikepacking

Spring is approaching.
Well, sort of.
So today I though I would share my bikepacking setup with you, in anticipation of great things/trips to come.

I used to have a road bike and a mountain bike. The mountain bike I had for years and pretty much all I did with it was to commute to work. The road bike was purchased on a whim as many of my friends got into racing and touring bikes, so I thought I would join them. Sad thing is, it never got much use.

So, after reading about the Salsa Fargo on sites like http://yetirides.blogspot.com/ and http://www.frontageroads.com/ I couldn`t help but think that this could be the one bike I was looking for (more info here http://salsacycles.com/bikes/fargo/) An all-round bike, which may not be the best in class at anything, but which does not do a bad job either. Which is very similar to my NDK Explorer kayak, by the way.

It also helped that I wanted to reduce the number of items in my possession. Two bikes out,one in.

So far, I really like the Fargo. It is really comfortable to ride, that steel frame and those big 29" wheels make for a pleasent journey. I have commuted to work, ridden singletracks and longer training runs, and it works nicely for all of these endeavours.

But, there is one dicipline where this bike should excel.
Bikepacking.

I had never heard of that word until it popped up in my research on the Salsa Fargo.

It resonates so very well with my ambition to have at my disposal the best tools for environmentally friendly human-powered transportation, be it on land or at sea. Aka bike and packraft :)

As I want to use this bike for lightweight bikepacking I wanted to kit it out with a frame bag, seat bag etc instead of the usual suspects, the bike panniers.

After a bit of research I ended up ordering a Revelate Designs Harness bag with an extra pocket for the handlebar. This would allow me to use drybags of various sizes ( I have a bucketload of drybags due to my seakayaking background) and also to have a quick and easy way of attaching my packraft to my bike. I am happy to report that my Denali Llama fits like a glove on my Woodchipper bar. Sweet!

My other bags I got from Porcelain Rocket. Scott has made three bags for me.
First of all a custom made frame bag, called the El Gilberto.

This bag has a horizontally divided compartment on the right hand side to make it easier to segregate gear. This inner divider can also be un-velcroed to make one, big inner if that should suit your gear better.  The upper compartement may also be divided into three seperate compartements by a bit of velcro magic.The inside is bright yellow to make it easier to find stuff.

The El Gilberto also has a small opening, top front, to accommodate a hydration bladder hose.

The left hand side has one big pocket for maps or thin stuff.

The velcro used to attach the bag to the frame, by the way, is supersticky and takes a bit of strength to handle.

My other bag of choice is the Booster Rocket seatbag. My Salsa Fargo has the Thudbuster seat post and this seat bag works fine with it. It has a capacity of between 6 and 13 liters.

Thirdly I received a top tube bag.

All of this stuff, both Revelate Designs and Porcelain Rocket, seems burly and really well made.
More photos here.

The next step is to sort out some packing system, and go biking!