Harteigen, Lofoten. Cracking rims and trails
Another morning with fever, another climb to do. Cold sweat poured from my forhead as we pushed up the ski slope towards Harteigen. The trail was nice and flat to start with, but soon became rutted and rocky as we were by now expecting from this place. After a while my body seemed to quietly accept the fact that there was no rest to be had on this day either. The rule above all rules when in northern Norway is, if the sun is out, do not rest! Due to my weak condition no pics were taken on the first climb up the ski slope. When we gained the ridge, the terrain opened up an we had a big, more gently sloping plateau to play on.
Chilling and snacking
The view was stunning, and since we had a fairly easy day due to my crappy body not being up to par, we really had the time to enjoy it.
A bit of view
We made our way north and then west along the ridge, first descending, then climbing, descending for a bit and climbing again towards Mykleviksaksla, were the trail ends in the usual uber steep Lofoten madness. Progress was made slower by my sluggish, feverish brain giving my riding style a distinctive lack of smoothness (more so than usually, that is).
Always someone, isn't there?
Almost reached the first summit of the day
Keep on climbing!
Before we reached the end of the trail, we passed some scary exposed sections, a bit of tech and long stretches of really nice riding.
Where the trail ends...there is a green post box
As usual, what goes up gets to go down, nice and flowy most of the time.
Flowing back down
Back on top of the ski slope, we decided to go in the opposite direction, south towards Steinetinden and the very appropriately named Mannfallet. After just a short hike things turned ridiculous.
The map says the trail goes on top of the ridge, seriously!
There was no continuing, or at least not without exchanging the bikes for ropes and harnesses. On the way down my back wheel found a rock buried in the moss while landing a little jump, producing The dull sound of aluminium yielding(tm). In accordance with my general good luck, of course I landed exactly on where the rim is drilled for the valve, and therefore weakest. The result was a bit pear shaped
It seems i got a flat...rim, that is. Cracking!
The ride down the ski slope was brilliant fun, and predictably it took just a few seconds before I forgot to hold back and take it easy on the almost broken rim. Some parts were spectacularly good with a wee bit of mud combined with rock gardens on a sustained steep-but-not-mental gradient, I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions. To round off, here is a hill, Lofoten style:
Random pic of a random crazy mountain
As usual I am greatly indebted to Maria for the company, the pics and for letting me ride along in Lennart.