Norwegian Summer 2026 – Day 6: Dalseter to Bygdin

A quick word about luck, fortune, what have you. So far this trip we’ve had a handful of obstacles thrown in our path, most of them squarely our own doing. The lost passport. Liz’s chain locked up solid in a parking lot. A day we capped off with a ten-mile climb because I was overwhelmed by routing management and never fully engaged with the route. Today served up a fresh one in the form of an unexpected bridge closure. What all of these have in common, lucky for us, is that the fix has always landed about as well as it possibly could. Passport? Turned up in forty-five minutes. Chain? Sorted in a grocery store lot with a bike shop right around the corner. Hotel at the top of that long-ass climb? Had rooms, even a private cabin. So how did today’s shake out? Let’s find out.

We had breakfast at hotel in a dining room with a very summer-camp vibe. Buffet, as all of the hotel breakfasts seem to be. Then watched all the gravel groupies take off from our 4th story window, while we lazily packed up. No urgency today; we were hoping for an easier day.

We left around 10:00, and after a brief warmup climb on pavement with some Sunday morning traffic, we blitzed down a fast descent and hung a sharp left onto our gravel route. That took us along a flat section skirting a lake, a bit over five miles of easy going.

Just a minute or so down the path, we spotted two familiar cyclists coming the other way.

We recognized them from the hotel, and they had bad news: a bridge up ahead was being replaced. They’d only found out after three miles of riding, and were now headed for a reroute that would add about 600ft of climbing and some extra mileage too. Not too friendly, Norway!

We turned around and picked our way along the new route, which unfortunately dropped us deep into a gorge and then demanded a very steep climb up the other side. Too steep to ride, so most of it got walked, 45 minutes or so, followed by a nice long descent that linked us back up to the far side of the segment with the missing bridge.

So that’s our excitement, the good and bad fortune of the day rolled into one. A missing bridge, sure, but at least we didn’t ride an extra six miles to discover it ourselves!

By now it was noon and warming up, and we were starting a famous toll road called the Jotunheimvegen. This would dominate the rest of our day: one very big climb to kick it off (plenty of walking, again) and then some spectacular mountain scenery and rolling hills.

It’s a popular route (the toll runs about $12 for a car), and there was a steady mix of vehicles and other modes of transit. We stopped at a little rest area and chatted with an older Norwegian woman, maybe 75, traveling by e-bike with a trailer hauling her two dogs and a cat. She had a friend driving the same route, so she’d be picked up at the toll gate where we’d entered. All three on leashes (her friend was running loose). We should all be so lucky to pull that off when we’re her age!

I was running low on water, so I filtered some, the first time this trip.

Eventually we came up over a huge saddle (another 30 minute climb with some walking), which marked the end of our big climbs and also the halfway point of the road. From there we descended down to and skirted alongside a very long lake named Vinstre, with hundreds of cabins scattered along its shore. The vast majority sat empty, used only in the snowy months.

Gradually we worked toward the end of the lake, watching a wall of snow-pocked mountain draw closer.

We’d climb part of that (one last push!) and then join a main road briefly, dropping down to Bygdin, where we hoped to secure a room, a bed, and dinner.

No resupply options along the way today (last one was way back in Gålå yesterday , pronounced go-low, we learned the hard way) and supplies were running low. But we were in luck once more: another very unique fjellhotell, an available room, and a delicious three-course dinner. Oh, and first drops of rain as I was inside checking in.

3600 ft up, 40 miles out, 5 hrs long riding if you’re keeping track still. Quite a solid headwind all day, kept our averages down a bit. That and being tired!

Tomorrow’s a wild one. We’ll probably deviate from the official route to avoid at least one really dumb, really big climb.