Almost Dalen --> Helle

June 27, 2023

Another Road Closure, but worth the wait

I woke up early before my 6:15 alarm. I had to get to the Highway 450 road closure between 7:00 and 8:00am if I wanted to get through the construction zone and continue to Dalen. It was cold and wet, but the rain had let up. At this point all my belongings were damp. Either from rain or condensation overnight. I packed up, and put on my still damp bike kit. By the time I rolled out of camp it was 7:00 on the dot. I had plenty of time to make it through the construction zone.

After a quick descent down to Dalen, I needed to eat. I had skipped dinner the night before as I had planned to eat in Dalen and camp there. When I got into town around 7:30, the only thing open was a grocery store. I gathered an assortment of food items and ate them on a park bench outside the store entrance. I had draped my clothes over my bike in an attempt to dry them before hitting the road again. Why carry extra water weight up a 2000ft ascent if I didn't have to?

After eating about 200NOK worth of groceries, I started to climb up the other side of the highway 450 out of Dalen. After an hour cranking up steep hairpin turns, I made it to the top of the plateau. However I was greeted with another road closed sign (this was not showing on google maps).

I pulled off on the shoulder of the road and assessed my options. After some extensive googling, I found a website showing all road condition notices in Norway. It is on the official Noway transit website, but it isn't easy to find:

https://dit.vegvesen.no/

This showed a similar situation as yesterdays road closure. There where 2 hours a day when traffic was allowed through: between 7:00-8:00am, and 4:00-5:00pm. Thankfully it was still early enough that I would have no trouble making it to the closure point before 4pm.

While I was researching this, two other cars pulled over next to me, also having their daily plans foiled. One couple from Germany, and one woman from the Netherlands. Both were impatient and decided to take a long detour around the closure. The Danish woman, however, assured me that the road would be worth riding. It left an impression on her when she had been there 40 years prior. She applauded me for climbing the hairpins from Dalen on my bike, and said it would be a shame to turn back now and have all that climbing be for nothing.

I continued climbing onto the high subalpine plateau. Snowcapped mountains rose around me, as I pedaled through a pygmy birch tree forest. The trees must have just recently leafed out because they were such a bright shade of green they didn't look real.

Around the middle of the plateau, I took an extended break at Hallbjønnsekken. This is a huge ski lodge, and very popular in the winter time. On a June weekday, however, it was deserted. When I arrived, it was just me, and one woman behind the counter, who I assume to be the owner or manager of the place. She went over the limited menu with me, and she reccomended their Nowegian meatball special. I ordered that along with a homemade pastry and called it lunch. After eating lunch, she was nice enough to let me use their washer and dryer to properly clean and dry my clothes. I stayed inside and read a picture book about backcountry skiing in Norway. Many of the passes I had biked up in the days prior were mentioned in it.

At 3:00 I left Hallbjønnsekken so I could get to the road closure by 4:00. I only had a one hour window that I could not miss. Sure enough, I made it to the closure by 3:50. There was a group of cars, motorcycles, and bike tourers waiting at the closure to pass through. I spoke to people from Estonia and Lithuania who were driving, as well as a group of bike tourers from Norway. The bike tourers commented on how little stuff I had. They all had large pannier racks.

The descent from Lake Bjørnevatn to Valle was steep and fun. What was even better was the knowledge that I was leaving the big climbs behind for good. The rest of the route would follow Cycle Route 2, along the canyon bottom of Otra River all the way to Kristiansand.

After cruising for an hour along the Otra River, I called it a night at the Helle campground. This campground is quite rustic by Norwegian standards, but still nice. The campground was quite literally in the owner's backyard along the Otra river. The owner had a couple acres of strawberries planted on his property, and was selling baskets of strawberries for 60NOK each. I bought one and it was delicious. 19 Hours of daylight make for sweet berries I guess. The first Norwegian produce I have had on the trip. The showers were coin operated, and thankfully a generous campground patron offered me one of his 20NOK coins to use. This was the first time in Norway I had seen physical currency being used. The kitchen was built into an old shipping container, and I used it to prepare sandwiches from ingredients I had bought at a grocery store. Thankfully this afternoon has been warm and dry, so my gear has dried out.

Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 327 miles (526 km)

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Mark SoggeUnder "normal" conditions, your day today might have been a real bummer. But since it was an improvement over yesterday, it actually sounded pretty good! Way to make it through the tough parts and days, Erik!!
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