Figure 8 On A Bike

View from the train

Round 2 of our transatlantic travel started with a flight to London , but in a nice change of pace our flight left late on a Tuesday afternoon instead of early in the morning. I got to replace some broken gauges for my ears, and even convinced Susan to run a few more laps at the Norris Hill in an effort to scrounge up training time in the face of a hectic travel schedule. Luckily we had enough time left over to shower before squeezing into a metal tube for hours. With the white Subaru crammed full of us and our dedicated entourage of bags, Susan's dad drove us to Eppley and said a sweet goodbye to Maureen. Uneventful flights took us through Chicago and then to London and none of us managed to get much sleep in the accelerated overnight schedule of the plane. All our bags rolled off the carousel and Susan wrangled the heavy grey backpack while I plopped the bright purple giant suitcase (courtesy of Scott's parents) on the floor and Maureen shouldered her own load. Grateful not...

Some nice young bros at Ballater Hostel had made us a little insecure about our priorities, asking us "Do you only do sports? Or do you ever see any castles, or do anything cultural?", so we decided it'd be worth it to spend a few days checking out the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Our timetable didn't allow us to bike all the way from Ballater to Edinburgh (nor did our fatigue), so first it was back to Aberdeen and then onto a train bound south. Applying our hard-won real-world knowledge, we decided NOT to take the entire Deeside Way back to Aberdeen , sticking to the paved roads for the parts of the bike trail that we knew would be particularly rough and hilly. However, because it's simply not allowed for us to go too long without seeing a bike mechanic, Susan's fork broke AGAIN. The same front rack that had so many problems broke another bolt - but the top one this time! At first it seemed like maybe it was better that the other bolt broke... until we...

Waking up in Aberdeen we enjoyed the hotel breakfast for the second time (since that was our dinner), re-organized all our bags after the flight, and got on the bikes probably a little late, as if it was just another day with nothing new. Of course a lot of things *were* different; the culture shock started right away as we had to continually remind ourselves to ride on the left side of the road, adding extra confusion as we tried to interpret intermittent bike lanes and signs directing us on and off the sidewalk. We had a bunch of errands to do and supplies to get in order to be properly situated in a new country (it's hard to cook on the far end when you can't fly with stove gas or a lighter, and Norwegian climbing guidebooks aren't much help in Scotland). Any sense of "same-old same-old" definitely shattered when we arrived at the Asda (supermarket) and had to dodge waves of uniformed adolescents rolling through the snack and take-away sections, since a nearby...

We left Flatanger campground , excited by the prospect of not sharing a kitchen that night. We started the bike ride back to the junction already fairly tired from climbing but the biking went smooth and quick all things considered. It kind of helps when you know the route and about where you will camp that night. We set up camp at a beautiful spot by the water with a bench and a big fire pit. We had some time so we did some yoga on the beach and skipped some rocks at sunset. It was an incredibly calm evening and we appreciated it all the more due to the recent chaos camping. Pretty riding back from Flatanger

From Sandnessjøen we started with mostly flat and good weather biking. We stopped at a really old church (Alstahaug church, built in 1150) and looked inside at the deep walls designed to keep out the cold and tried to remember Christian symbolism as we stared at the art behind the altar. From the church, I sped down the road fleeing allergies as Norwegians cleaned out their barns. I felt mighty proud of myself for catching up and passing the e-bike tour group. I got to the next ferry in Tjøtta and it looked about ready to leave but the worker told me they were waiting 10 minutes. Ben just made it, literally biking onto the ferry right before they closed the ramp. So satisfying! We rode on, past a sculpture landscape art installation that was a little underwhelming, but also impressive for the work that must have gone into it once you thought about it. A little too much to interpret in this artwork

It was finally time to move on from Lofoten and our experience on Vågakallen/Nordryggen dictated that we needed to drop the plan of climbing Stetind (Norway's national Mountain). It was a much harder grade and more elevation. So...based on how Vågakallen went we decided to not become a rescue story. In order to get off of Lofoten we either needed to bike what we had already biked or do some public bus shenanigans again. So we anxiously waited at a bus stop, asked the driver, (Wait is that the same driver that Ben was aggressively befuddled at a few weeks ago!?), and loaded the bags and away we went back to Leknes. The bus was running very behind so we assumed we would miss the connecting bus from Leknes to Moskenes, but the next one had waited for our late bus. Quick unload the bikes, the bags, reload the bikes, the bags, success we made it! This driver tried to aggressively make up the time lost and an RV clipped off one of the side mirrors along the way. A little stressfu...

It was finally time to reach the fabled Lofoten archipelago, a promised-land of world-class climbing! Waking up at Trollskåla, the first step was to bike to Melbu and snatch some groceries before we caught the next ferry. The morning was gray and groggy (and the ocean smelled like sulfur?) and my allergies had finally also made it across the Atlantic. I was cranky at Susan in the grocery store, trying not to scratch my eyes out, so she gave me an antihistamine and sent me to a bakery for pastries and coffee. We were in much better moods getting on the boat. A nice guy from Finland gave us some stickers and told us how he bikes about 150 - 200 km a day and has done this route 3 times now. Nice... will you take some of our bags? Views just after getting off the ferry

July 9th started off on Senja with a slow morning and a slow uphill. We happened to see Bent driving in (he is easy to spot in a conspicuous neon green zombie apocalypse SUV) as we slowly pedaled back up the tunnel. After the tunnel there was still more hill, we made it up a pretty long hill and at the top we talked to some other bike packers from Switzerland who were battling the same flies we'd fought the other day. They looked like they had been doing this for a while and were very friendly. There was a lovely ride downhill with views of Segla Mountain and then another tunnel. Views of the other side of Segla mountain