Geilo, Norway to Finse 1222 (August 1, 2023)

August 1, 2023

The Start of a Signature Cycle Route

When I researched a ride in this region of Europe, I quickly realized that Norway should be the central focus of our ride, and in particular, the Rallarvegen cycle route. Norway has scenic beauty, unique fjords, and great climbing. It’s also complicated to get to, especially when the starting point of your planning is that your bikes are stored in Munich. A look at the map shows Munich, in southern Germany, is a long way from Scandinavia and it’s logical to ride from Germany through Denmark and southern Sweden, especially with the recent opening of the Kattegatte-Leden trail in Sweden, which makes a nice cycling connection between Denmark and Norway. But even after you arrive in Oslo, the most obvious hopping off point to the rest of Norway, it’s still work to get from Oslo to the fjords, hence our four day ride west of Oslo where we stayed in mostly unknown places and where there were few tourists, cycling or otherwise. So, we finally arrived near the start of the Rallarvegen at the wayside town of Haugastol and boy, has it been worth it!

We left Geilo around 9 am and stopped off at Vestlia Resort for their breakfast buffet to set us up for the day. We’re pretty sure nobody would have asked us to pay (but we did), the vibe was so casual and random. We then had an overcast but not rainy trek west to Haugastol, about 25 km. This part of the ride was on the highway and there was quite a bit of traffic, but tolerable because of the politeness of the drivers. We pulled off for coffee at Haugastol, which is a small ski resort with a hostel-like motel and a simple coffee shop. There was a huge corral full of rental mountain bikes. A favorite Norwegian outdoor activity is to pick up a rental bike here, ride it to Finse, or further onto Myrdal or Flam, drop the bike off, and take the train back to Oslo. In fact, when I read up on the route, it was suggested that we not attempt the route on a weekend, because it’s so crowded. The entire Rallarvegen ride formally starts in Haugastol and ends in Flam and is 80 km. Maniacal riders do it in a day; we took three days.

The only cafe in town. (1000 m.o.h is Norwegian for 1000 meters above sea level.)

The Rallervegen is named after the workers (“navvies”) who built the road in 1902 to 1904 to allow the construction of the railway between 1923 to 1940. Construction of the Oslo- Bergen rail line was considered important to connect the two sides of the country and allow movement of goods from Bergen (an important shipping port) to the rest of the country. After the train line opened in 1940 it was recognized in the 1960s that the Rallarvegen road would be excellent for cycling and hiking.

After coffee at Haugastol we turned off the highway where the road starts; fyi, it’s unpaved. As we learned, the first part of the trail to Finse is fairly easy. It's a slow steady uphill on excellent surfaces and we saw a number of families with kids around 10 years old doing the ride. I will leave it to Dave’s pictures to tell the story but it was wonderful and the ride was easy enough you could really concentrate on appreciating the beauty.

The geology changed dramatically once we began this part of the ride.

Yes. Even in the middle of Norway, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the Rallarvegen there's cell coverage.

Our ending point that day was the small village of Finse, which is really a railway stop with one (sort of) fancy hotel, Finse 1222, one hostel, and a few buildings associated with railway maintenance. For us, Finse 1222 was reminiscent of the hotels built in the US in the National parks (ie: Timberline Lodge, or Paradise Lodge at Mt. Rainier) or in western Canada for the Canadian railway (ie: Jasper Park lodge). The rooms are basic but the public rooms and the associated scenery pretty much blow you away, and so it was at Finse 1222. It was built in 1909 and is perched 1222 meters above sea level.

A view of the glacier and its lake from the back deck of the lodge.

We arrived around 3 pm, and enjoyed eating our sandwich with a beer and chips in the public room gawking at the Hardangerjokolen Glacier across the lake. (A beer and chips was 24 USD). Our room, the cheapest in the house, was a small room in the daylight basement part of the hotel but it was fine, although we had twin beds.

Our basic but perfectly comfortable room at the lodge.

The Empire Strikes Back, a famous Star Wars film, was filmed here and the hotel was full of photos and paraphenalia associated with the filming. We enjoyed a very nice dinner with stunning views from the dining room. It appeared to be the only place in the village to eat, with a very small menu but good food, well-presented.

The weather report for the following day was for steady rain all day so we decided not to worry about what time to leave.

Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,165 km (723 miles)

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