Arctic in 12 days

Its been quite a week since the last update.  Just a few k out of the last update we hit big headwinds and some cold rain.  The weather was quite gloomy for 3 more days but the clouds slowly lifted higher revealing the mountains.  Lofoten was beautiful, I can't imagine how amazing it is on a clear day.

We just saw Christine and Sølvi for the twenty-somethingth time an hour ago, but probably the last time cuz their continuing south from Trondheim.  It seemed we saw them daily as they continued on their journey only stopping 7 or 8 hours a night.  Sometimes twice if we saw them roll by our camp and we'd catch the next day taking th same route by chance.  At one point Sølvi broke a couple spokes but we couldn't get my corroded fiberspoke to free up for the repair.  Jen just trued the wheel a bit and they got a new one soon later.  Then two days later Sølvi's chain broke and, of course, we ironically caught up within minutes.  I fixed that one.  This morning we found a poster on a guardrail that said "Good morning Kurt and Jen......".  Apparently they saw our camp the night before.......  I am impressed how tough these two are, we thought they'd have cracked by now.  They did skip some k's (maybe a day or so) with a ferry but still we consider them hard core.  They want to finish the length of Norway in time for school on the 9th.  We've stopped early today in Namsos while they continue on thru Trondheim on Thursday.  Tomorrow is Christine's 20th birthday......Happy Birthday, you've beaten us experienced cyclists to Trondheim!!!

Its been two ferrys a day lately as we've spent a few days on rt 17 and the side roads nearby.  Some parts of the 17 connect only by ferry.  Our last one was yesterday which is nice cuz getting up to an alarm to make the ferrys and waiting for them when early was getting old.  Some of the ferrys were super scenic and felt like a cruise. Great to be on a bike (or a motorbike) though because the all the cars don't always fit on leaving them to wait for the next one.  Priority from what we've seen goes Ambulance, Tine milk truck, bus, cars and campers.  We managed two more free ferrys.

The weather has been clear and sunny the past 3 days and hot on the climbs.  More continuous incredible scenery and the vegitation gets more lush as we continue south.  I have quite the arctic tanlines right now.  Its greener than New England.  Especially the pastures which are so healthy.  They do it right here in Norway, rotating cows on pasture.  The cows eat grass and the're not left inside like in the states (except flying cloud).  Huge amounts of bailage per acre coming off what I'm assuming is the first cut.  I have always like pastures....

We had some great flat tailwind bits and some tough climbing.  One was 6 or 7 k with 5 k of steep.......hard with the loaded bikes!  But lately we seem to manage 120k per day.  Yesterday was real choppy with some steep stuff. The scenery reminded me of the white mountains actually except it was all top notch scenery that was almost always visible from the road (unlike the white mountains) plus the addition of the pastures, fireweed, magpies...  Less tunnels yesterday, we went thru a lot of them since Lofoten.

One day I started to crack just as Oracle Jen was beginning to hit form. So I dropped the intensity a bit as I had been taking long pulls into headwinds at like 250 watts.  Now we have a great flow going using me (my front panniers) to plow into nasty headwinds and Jen's aeroBOB to hold speed down hills and onto the flats after.  We just cruise side by side in the tailwind.

We briefly saw what looked like two homemade trailers that were improved BOB like designs.  Might have been aluminum angle stock, 24" wheels, narrow tires, packed narrow, long, and AERO.  I need to build one as does Nat.  Maybe use the fork and skewer off a BOB, 20" wheel, fork with shock, and angle aliminum.  Fast.  I also have been thinking about integrating an aero bar onto a ortlieb handlebarbag.  1.5" (38c) tires are too wide here but we're keeping ours.....1 1/4" (32c) slicks are more than adiquate here.  My tout terrain has been perfict as is the rohloff. And the disk brakes work great in the rain.  My dynohub has been ideal for safety lighting in the long tunnels.  Motorists have commented how good they are when we catch up to them at the ferrys.  I think the idea setup for touring is the tout terrain w/rohloff (the Surly laung haul trucker is just fine really) with a hommade BOB style shock trailer and an aerobar with small handløebar bag.  Tomorrow I start charging batteries with the charger that my dad rigged up that runs off the dynohub.

Camping has been great, we seem to score super nice (free) spots with few exceptions.  On the beach, mountainside, running water, a sheep to walk off with my msr stove bag to be found later by Oracle Jen 20m off into the woods etc....  It was funny when I was filtering water (camped in a grazed area) and looked up to see 12 sheep that had snuck up on me.  One time we were out of water and used the water repelled on bailage to wash with (another great Jen idea).  She found a credit card on one bail and brought it to the bank.  Arctic camping tip: if its going to be a sunny night be sure to pitch your tent in the shade so that you don't get too hot!!!  

Food.....lots of pasta and bread and butter.  I seem to be on my usual kilo of butter a week consumption like at home.  The pemmican (Rosie) is almost gone but we have plenty of tallow left.  Jen has me eating cookies which I need sometimes for the sugar.  Fruit is expensive, and not nutrient rich enough for more than a treat in my opinion.  I sure have eaten a lot of food especially starchy, and so has Jen.  We're probably burning 6000 calories a day.  My mixing muscles (shoulders) are fading.  Eggs have nice orange yolks like at orchard hill, unlike the pale yellow garbage found at U.S. supermarkets.  Figured out why one liver pate is so much cheaper than the other......there's soy in it!  Hopefully the american junk stops there.

The best bread we've found so far is the Simpson's brand with Homer or Bart on the bag.....NO JOKE.  Its the simpsons, "100% official"  It doesn't compare to orchard hill (endorsed by our hero Greg LeMond) but when you are hungry it tastes great.

Were now at the bibliotek (library) looking for our new friends Karin and Kurt in Namsos to stop for the night and wash our stuff.  We met them when we showed up early for a ferry two days ago, they said they would be home tonight so we made it a short day 50k for today.

And a few hours later we're here and its so great, we've showered and washed all our clothes with their delux euro washingmachine with wool setting.  Karin made spelt bread (high hydration in a pan) for us and its excellent with pumpkin seeds, millet, and sprouted spelt berries inside.  The new best bread so far over here, might need to make a similar one at orchard hill. The small amount of seeds and berries work great and its sortof like a light volkenbrat.  Oracle Jen got excited about the chocolate cake...very tasty.  Almost time for pizza now.  We talked about food and they said there areEuropean laws that keep the livestock cared for properly and it shows.

Karin (nurse) and Kurt work for the local hospital here in Namsos, population 12,000.  We hiked to the top of a hill to overlook the town.  There are pictures up there that show the town before 1940 when the Germans leveled it, only 4 original houses survived.  Kurt grew up here and worked rowing a fishing boat when he was a teen, they would catch 15+ kilo fish.  Today is the hottest day of the year here at 30C.

Karin and Kurt have an amazing kitchen with technology that I am not aware of in the united states.  They have a stovetop that heats using "induction heat" which only works when activated by a magnetic field.  If you turn on a burner and put your hand on it its not hot but will become hot immedieately if you put something steel (has a magnetic field) onto it.  It heats almost as fast as a gas stove.  And when you remove the steel pot it cools very quickly to touch it again.  Good way to get our desease causing aluminum pans off the market, eh?  And not only that but its very thin, they have a droor of stuff only a couple inches below.  Their fridge and freezer are super slick and hidden like a cupboard door.  Nice looking wall unit oven too.  Sweet!