2010-05-28 60 10

Fri 28 May 2010 in 60,10: 60.0259435, 10.3695397 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

On the rear side of a hill, near the old road to/from Bergen, near Kleivstua. Today's battleship location is: D 1

Participants

• relet and Trusty the bicycle.

Plans

I decided to take advantage of the long summer days (we don't have any midnight sun, but we still have the midnight not-so-dark nights) to tackle this one after work. As on some of the weekends, I had the car to my disposal. Given that the hash was merely some 15km away, and I always wanted to try the cycle paths towards Oslo, I decided to cycle instead. And so I grabbed my geohashing bag after work, had a quick look at the caches in the area (gosh! there are many!), then packed some extra maps for orienteering, and stopped myself before packing any more gear just to challenge the longness of the daylight. I left from home at about 5pm.

Expedition

• Plans: Cycle there.

Hmm. I just realize that I still haven't tried the new beta of the hashdroid. I'll have to do that tomorrow. -- relet @60.1564,10.2555 16:35, 28 Mai 2010 (GMT+02:00)

Yes, that was still in the middle of my ambitious packing plans. I started to cycle towards Oslo, along the national cycleway number 1. It mostly follows the highway, with a few, well signed out sidetracks through the larger towns. The weather was wonderful, and cycling was easy.

• Beautiful cyclepaths so far. I am just standing under the highway, and it is totally quiet. -- relet @60.0640,10.2996 17:28, 28 Mai 2010 (GMT+02:00)

Once I had reached Sundvollen, I had to get up the mountain at Kleivstua. I had done that on foot on the previous weekend. Hence, I knew that this large, but winding road would mean a bit of a climb. True enough, there were motivational messages of the cycle race kind sprayed on the road, and posters advertised the cycle bus coming here on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. I usually have a bit of fun when meeting other cyclists in high-tech gear on high-tech bikes, because they quickly realize that it only helps so much. It's still mostly your own weight you are heaving up the mountain.

• Cruising is useful, not only when you have the wind on fore, but also to get up the steeper hills. -- relet @60.0682,10.3315 17:51, 28 Mai 2010 (GMT+02:00)

Having reached the top, with a few photography stops on the way, I realized I was on a royal road.

• I am on the royal road to Bergen. Or from Bergen, rather. Woo! -- relet @60.0309,10.3468 18:32, 28 Mai 2010 (GMT+02:00)

That was not actually surprising, since the viewpoints here are called 'King's view', 'Queen's view' and 'Crown prince's view'. But that did tell me also that this would be a nice way to cycle if I actually wanted to go all the way to Oslo some time. I eventually reached a hiking track/ski run in the vicinity of the hash.

• Now on foot. The valley is ringing from the sheep's bells. I just hope this path leads where I want it to. -- relet @60.0283,10.3611 18:46, 28 Mai 2010 (GMT+02:00)

• The ground flollops under my feet. There must be a mattress vein. -- relet @60.0285,10.3648 18:50, 28 Mai 2010 (GMT+02:00)

I was able to follow the ski run for a good while, but it decided to circle the hill on the southern side, and then go back towards the valley. I came as close as 250m this way. Now, from the maps I knew that I had to go almost all the way up the hill, and that there would be a house on the top of it. Now you would expect a house to have an access road, or at least an access path. There was absolutely none.

• Coordinates reached! -- relet @60.0259,10.3694 19:14, 28 Mai 2010 (GMT+02:00)

I continued circling the hill, and reached a bit of less dense forestation (and thus more undergrowth) which brought me closer to the hash. Eventually, I scrambled some 100m through the forest along animal trails. By the time I reached the hash, I had made almost a complete tour of the hill. And despite being about 20m away, I couldn't see any building on top of it. Curiosity won, and I climbed all the way up - there was indeed, a not so small 'hytte', which is the typical Norwegian hut (of the size and quality you could easily spend a life in). There were no access paths.

After having a look at my compass and having decided to try to climb back down in the shortest direction back to the ski run, I saw it. There were small bits of plastic bags knotted to the trees next to an animal trail. That's it. A very tiny red bit of plastic marks the place where you could have diverged from the ski run towards the hut - not that it would be much of a better trail than in some of the other places. I wonder how you build these things...

After the expedition, I continued to collect some of the geocaches in the area, and then went back down to Sundvollen, where there is a tour orienteering area in the forested hillside. I spent a few hours hunting for the posts before heading back.

Photos

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  The good thing about cycling up..

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  ..steep mountains..

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  ..in Norway..

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  ..are the..

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  ..views.

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  Under the highway

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  View towards Tyrifjorden

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  Any ideas?

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  Sundvollen

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  I just hope they try to motivate me in binary.

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  A royal road.

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  Got to catch them all!

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  ...

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  ...

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  The toughest ones survive Easter.

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  A ski run is leading me.

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  Proof

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  Stupid grin

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  These ones marked the easy trail up

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  As (not) seen from the path - I circled the hill once.

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  Baa!

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  This one is actually a raptor in a sheepskin. Look at the cunning face.

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  Proof: They warn you of biting domestic animals. (disclaimer: å beite means 'to graze' in Norwegian)

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  I can see the whole way I came cycling.

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  One more, a little later, while orienteering.