09.07.23 Femundsenden - Søre Osen

Final stage of this 4-day ride to the Southern part of Osensjøen, where Jan Henrik has bought a summer house.

A pretty easy ride today, with only two not very steep ascents. Sunny weather.

Following the road south past Engerdal along the beautiful Lake Engeren.

Lake Engeren

Past a small hydro power plant, Hylla from 1945, 2.7MW. Of course I’m over average interested in this, but it illustrates an interesting feature: the highly distributed character of Norwegian power production, compared with few large plants as in most other countries.

Hylla hydropower plant

Firewood is popular here. And necessarily, this is a very cold area in winter

From here, I took provincial road 251 towards Osensjøen.

Wild strawberries in the roadside. Not very good unfortunately.

Rather special power poles in this area, different from other places in Norway. I believe it is 10 kV, less common than 22kV

Finally down Osensjøen, observing wind turbiner for the second time on my 400km trip. Norway is not exactly peppered with these as some claim.

Osensjøen and Raskiftet wind power plant

Finally arriving at Southern Osensjøen. Great trip, although I must admit that this part of Norway is rather monotonous 🙂.

Relaxing evening after a swim in the lake

Statistics: total distance 114km, total time 7:32, cycling time 05:58, average speed 19.2 km/h, total ascent 667m, net descent 215m

08.07.23 Røros - Femundsenden

Starting in partyl clouded weather, ok temperature, promises to be a nice day. Following the Håelva river from tynning doen from Lake Femund (great for canoing and fishing).

Håelva

After about 20 easy km, I turned right towards Tufsingdal. This is a gravel road, which I knew. Such roads are normally ok for biking (if it is dry). But they need maintenance, resulting in a lot of loose gravel - you only hope they don´t do this right before you come. In this case they had, unfortunately. And used pretty big stones, say 5cm. Combined with a steep ascent, this was not ideal. 

Not your perfect bike lane. It was worse than it looks

It got better after some km. But loose gravel all the way, need to be careful.

On the upside: beautiful landscape

However, it was very quiet - not surprisingly! I only met a couple of cars, and one cyclist!

No benches here either, but a nice place for a rest anyway

Coming doen to Tufsingdal, there are some surprisingly large farms (in Norwegian terms).

From here on the road is smooth and there are no major ascents. Easy going, but still it is 100km.

Look here: benches! More of this, please.

Close to Drevsjø, reindeer

Spending the night in a small hut at Femundstunet. I like these huts, rather primitive, but ideal for a cyclist. Ever fewer of those, unfortunately.

My small hut for the night at Lake Femund

Late night over Lake Femund

Statistics: total distance 102km, total time 7:38, cycling time 5:58, average speed 17.2 km/h, total ascent 789m, net ascent 1m(!).

07.07.23 Ås in Tydal - Røros

Coming up to the main road from Neatun, you immediately are reminded that Tydal is a major hydro power community.

Substation in Tydal

Measured in kWh per inhabitant they are probably among the largest in Norway.

A pretty tough start today too, 100m ascent the first 15 minutes. After that, much more easy going however along the river Tya towards Stugudalen, a popular area for summer/winter second homes.

Today´s goal is Røros, a famous historic mining town.

Waterfall in the Tya river

After a coffee in Stugudalen, today´s only serious climb starts, 300m up to a viewpoint at 900m.

Great views on the way up.
And yes, threatening clouds

At the 900m summit

After the summit, I took on some more cloths, and indeed, it started raining again. Seems hard to avoid.

After 20km mostly downhill, I arrived at the large Aursunden lake, another regulation reservoir.

I found a bench for lunch close to Aursunden

After lunch a mostly easy ride to Røros, however mostly in the rain again.

Arriving in Røros

In Røros I met Anbjørg and we stayed the night at the Erzscheider hotel.

Statistics: total distance 85km, total time 6:05, cycling time 5:05, average speed 16.7 km/h, total ascent 667m, net ascent 225m.

06.07.23 Trondheim-Ås in Tydal

Finally I took the time for another bike ride in Norway, if only for four days. Having greater plans for next year, when I “kind of” retire. Testing out a bit now, appears to work still, after one day at least. The idea is to ride from Trondheim to Osensjoen, near Trysil.

Anbjørg drove me to the east side of Trondheim to save some km and ascent meters, the trip was long and hard enough anyway with a total ascent of over 1400m.

A pretty hard start along Jonsvatnet, Trondheim’s drinking water reservoir. Then up to 420m and down again to Selbusjøen. 600m ascent after two hours. Felt worn out.

Jonsvatnet

Shortly after leaving Jonsvatnet there was a small museum with information about a former iron works, working between 1653 and 1880. What surprised me most was that they appeared to get iron ore all the way from Smøla in the final period, something like 200km away! Maybe not surprising they shut down in the end.

Information about the iron works

Not many benches around, to this must do for a break

Coming down to Selbusjøen (Lake Selbu) I continued to Selbu, where the bakery offered fresh doughnuts, self service. Probably they were fresh once, but not today. But ok anyway, and a good rest before the next stage, while the rain started (and remained for the rest of the day).

Selbu and Selbusjøen in the background
Selbusjøen has been regulated as s reservoir for a number of hydro power plants since 1952

Riding up the Nea river valley, there is more power, wind power this time. Wind turbines are very controversial in Norway, but a couple has been built here at least.

Wind turbines along the Nea river valley

A final break. Bus stops are the long distance biker’s best friends (in rainy weather)

After a final steep climb on this rainy afternoon, I arrived at Neatun at 16:30, in surprisingly good shape. Let’s see how it works out tomorrow! And I really like Neatun, informal an cosy, great service. Recommended!

Statistics: Total distance 106 km, total time 8:26, biking time 6:35, average speed 16.1 km/h, total ascent 1448m, net ascent 300m.