June 26, 2023
Sauland --> Almost Dalen
The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry
I am writing this as the rain is pounding down on my rainfly. What a day! I woke up nice and late (around 8:30) at the cheapest hotel I could find in Sauland. It cost around 800NOK. I felt like treating myself since I am nursing a cold. The room came with free breakfast so I headed over to the kitchen. The owner of the hotel came out with fresh baked bread, and a full spread of cold cuts, cheese, a poached egg, and vegetables. There was also a bar with muesli, apple cider, and coffee.
It was unfortunately, not all you can eat, so I couldn't pull my money saving trick of eating a days worth of calories at breakfast. Oh well. It was quite delicious though.
As I left the hotel, I had the wind at my back. The first few kilometers were fairly flat. I passed by a honey and currant juice stand on the side of the road. I was shocked: it was entirely self-serve, with a credit card kiosk and everything. It was honor system, but there was a security camera.
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I bought a 700ml bottle of "Sun Berry" juice (black currant), and drank about half of it there. It tasted like a more tart pommegranate juice. I stashed the rest of the bottle in my jersey's back pocket and kept riding. A few kilometers down the road, I approached a nice lakeside park. I stopped to use the restroom (which was the most high-tech public restroom I've ever seen), and drank the rest of my juice there.
As I left the park, I stopped a little later at a "Joker" convenience store to get some more ibprofen (just in case). The cashier chatted with me, and thought it was cool I was from California. He told me he has a second home in Florida and lived there for 13 years. He is not the first Norwegian I have heard on this trip talk about Florida. I guess it makes sense that people from an arctic country would think the tropical part of the US is nice. I said I was impressed with Norway, and he responded that he isn't impressed by it: he likes how "laid back" people in the US are.
As I left the store, I had a short climb, and then a 1000 meter climb ahead of me. The short climb was through the Ambjørndalen Valley, bypassing the newly opened Mælefjell tunnel. This valley is of historical importance, and has long served as a transportation route into the Telemark valley. Descending into Flatdal, I stopped at a scenic viewpoint with a plaque telling an old Norse mythology about the Flatdal valley.
The next climb was 1000m of ass kicking. The first bit was on road, but then komoot led me down a sketchy double track dirt road to the top of a plateau where Lake Gjevarvatn is. The road had a gate at the entrance, but no signage saying it was closed. In fact there was a sign for a hiking trail 3 kilometers down the road. I decided to follow komoot and take the road up. It was a fairly constant 10% slope, but it was slow going due to the rough rocks, downed trees, and occasional cattle gates. It followed the steep walls of a canyon, and there were still unmelted patches of snow lingering in the shade.
At the top of the road, there was a locked gate, that had a road closed sign facing the other direction of where I came. I hoisted my bike over the fence and kept going. Once on the subalpine plateau, the lake came into view. Many small vacation cabins dotted the landscape, and sheep were grazing freely.
The road became more of an actual road. I was almost about to descend from the plateau to Dalen when the rain started. At 3:50 on the dot, with no warning, an east-coast style torrential downpour started. It happened so fast I was soaked before I could get my rain gear on. The drops were so large they stung like airsoft BBs through my bike jersey as I rode.
As I neared the final descent into Dale, I saw a construction sign on the side of highway 450. It read "road closed, except for 7-8 and 15-16. I messed up the conversion to AM/PM time and thought the road would be open 5:00-6:00pm. After descending about 1000ft, I came across the road closure sign, and realized my mistake. I could hear road crews working downhill, so I didn't even try to go past the sign.
I had 2 options: go back uphill, and take a 60km detour to Dalen, or find somewhere to camp the night and go through during the morning opening from 7:00-8:00. I chose the latter. Thankfully, I found a deserted gravel parking lot that looked like it had just been graded.
Today's ride: 54 miles (87 km)
Total: 271 miles (436 km)
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