Norway’s Newest Bikepacking Route is Electrifying!

Norway’s newest gravel route takes you on a ride through the 19th and 20th centuries, where tradition and modernity collide. You’ll pass hydro dams and old farms, sharing remote landscapes and roads few cyclists ever see. With over 80% gravel and plenty of challenging, one-of-a-kind stretches, this is the best ride I’ve done in a long time. Electrifying.

Welcome to buy me a coffee or support the channel and website: https://buy.stripe.com/eVq8wQdby94t6UG4K0a7C06

Visit http://www.cyclenorway.com for more information about cycling in Norway.

00:00 – Pre-intro
01:24 – Intro to the area and Norway’s Hydro Paradox
03:47 – The Route
05:13 – Route Architect and how it was made.
06:13 – Day 1 – Valley Climb following the Pylons
08:07 – Taking the wrong road and regretting it!
09:55 – Encountering Hydro Construction and a river death
11:54 – Camping on the plateau
12:48 – Day 2 – Morning Sunshine
15:19 – Old mountain treat
16:04 – Hike-A-Bike
20:22 – Back on the road in the 19th century
21:59 – Heading to Hemsedal
23:18 – Panorama Road and Golsfjellet
24:14 – Racing to catch the train
27:40 – Ending

Basic Route info (free): https://cyclenorway.com/en/routes/the-high-voltage-route-2/
Full Story Route Info (members): https://cyclenorway.com/en/routes/the-high-voltage-route-2/the-high-voltage-route/

Bike used: www.faracycling.com/bike-fara-allroad.php
Bags used: www.restrap.com

Det Kvite Gullet (The White Gold) Documentary: https://www.detkvitegullet.no (no English subtitles)

Opphavsrettslig merknad
Denne videoen inneholder klipp fra Filmprodusentane AS-dokumentaren Det Kvite Gullet, brukt i henhold til prinsippene om sitatrett for formål som kommentar, kritikk og undervisning. Alle rettigheter til originalmaterialet tilhører Filmprodusentane AS og de respektive rettighetshaverne. Bruken er ikke-kommersiell og transformerende i sin natur, og har som hensikt å informere og opplyse seere.

#bikepacking #norway #hallingdal #cyclenorway #hemsedal

So I was here in 2002 doing the fanny tool vine route over the mountains to all. And I remember getting to this point and seeing this road over here. I continued cycling. I forgot all about it. And now in 2025, I get an email from a random guy I’ve never even met before or even know. And he tells me where that road goes. This is an absolute disaster. [Music] I think I’m doing many of these clips. You can forget about it. Finally back on the hard track. Okay, this road is better than me right now. That is like out of this world. And good morning everyone and welcome aboard this V service train to Ban. Our estimated arrival time in Banagan is 1312. [Music] So, electric pylons aren’t exactly the highlight of any landscape. [Music] But in Norway, they tell a different story. Here, they don’t guide you to industry. They guide you into the mountains, across high plateaus where roads shouldn’t exist, but somehow do. [Music] [Music] On the one hand, you have a traditional society, its heritage, a challenging and tough but simple way of life. And then on the other hand, you have the birth of modernity in Norway, development, progress at a cost. And as you ride through this area, you will experience both of them. And it will ask many, many questions. And unfortunately, there aren’t many answers. Yeah. You’re going to sense both sadness and euphoria, destruction and beauty, development and loss. And that’s the paradox that we have to wrestle with as human beings. Our love for nature and at the same time our will to develop. If we do one, we lose part of the other. So the route begins in Nesbian which is in the Hallindal Valley which is absolutely spectacular. And from the small town, we’re going to head up over the valley, basically going to around 850 m on old quite rugged and tough gravel roads, following the electric pylons until we descend down to the town of All. From there, it’s a little bit flat before we climb up again onto another mountain pass, taking us to 1,200 m. We’re going to camp there for the night and then the next day head along that mountain pass before descending down to the tourist town of Hemsidal where we’ll continue heading back onto gravel and single track on some remote roads before returning to Nesbian. Now the route is absolutely stunning but what makes it even more amazing is the fact that it’s in between roller and miran and you can combine all three routes together making something really really special. Now, all this information is on cycleenoway.com. I’ve put together a phenomenal page on the route with all the detours you can do, all the other options and combining all three of them famous gravel roots together. So, if you want to become a member, you’re more than welcome and support the channel. Check it out. Now this route was put together by a local called Canoot and he was inspired by De Kita Gula the white gold a documentary film about the history of the hydroele electricity in the area. It’s a fascinating film and if you’re Norwegian you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. There are no English subtitles that I’m aware of but perhaps AI can do something with that. Now Canute did something quite incredible. He managed to connect local farm roads, old construction roads, and cabin roads together along with some very, very remote mountain bike roads from the 1990s that have been neglected to create this loop and make it happen. When I first saw it, I didn’t think it was possible that you could get through that area, but with a small hiker bike, you can go on roads that very, very few people know about. So, thank you Canoe for putting this together because it is one hell of a ride. [Music] [Music] Well, I think we’re about 500 m now above sea level. Just getting wonderful views of Halling Dah Valley. I mean, it’s such a beautiful valley. You see all the mountains in the distance there? Not a road many people cycle. And uh I think the views are just going to get better and better as I get higher. It’s the valley down there. [Music] Norway is not short of trees, that’s for sure. How wonderful is this? Beautiful. [Music] So, we’re just opening up now with the view. Got the mountains in the distance there with a bit of snow on it. So, that’s basically where we’re heading to that kind of plateau area that are uh past or above the tree line. And you can see obviously all the power lines are coming from that direction from the dams. And uh yeah, so far so good. [Music] So after the town, you have three gravel options. A low, a middle, and a high road. Now I’ve done the low and the middle before, so I thought let’s take the high road. What’s the worst that can happen? So, there’s a much easier gravel road down there. And uh I’ve cycled it before and I thought I’d test this one out up here and now I’m regretting it. It’s absolutely ah it’s just hell to be honest you. It’s just up up down up up. The road is in terrible condition. Uh high gradient and yeah, not a good place to be cycling especially when you’re short on time. Finally back onto the main route. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get any better after that. There’s another really challenging road which looks like it’s been damaged in a flood recently. Maybe it’ll improve, but um yeah, it was another 5ks of real struggle before I reached the first supermarket of the journey for me. It had been 60 km in total. Probably the hardest, toughest section I’ve I’ve ever done. I was really exhausted and I was thinking about just drowning myself in Red Bull just to power on for the next 40 50 km. But it was starting to get late in the afternoon and I thought right I think it’s just best that I just suffer through this. [Music] Thankfully, after the supermarket, you’ve got 10 km on a paved flat road, and that was just like a real nice, pleasant break from all the challenges. It doesn’t last too long. And then once again, you’re back onto the gravel. And this time, we’re climbing up to well over 1,000 m. The climb is pretty consistent and steady. But as I was climbing, it just this feeling of melancholy just takes over you. And at first I, you know, I don’t know why. I just feel sad. And then it starts to dawn on me that next to the gravel road, there was an incredible powerful river that is now just a trickling of water. And all the rocks are bare and dirty and just nature looks like it’s been it’s been raped. Basically, as you get up onto the mountain plateau, first it’s really really nice and it just kind of like brightened me up. And then you hit the construction area where the they’re doing some more uh building with the hydro plant there. And they’ve completely widened the gravel road at a certain point. It’s only for a few kilometers, but it’s so ugly. He had this whole motorcycle on and these huge trucks going past, massive rocks in the back and it was uh once again it was a really unpleasant experience for a few kilometers. Uh but eventually you say goodbye to that and you get back onto the nice quiet gravel roads and the whole of the plateau just opens up. Once you get past the last of the dams, you basically leave the 21st century or the 20th century and enter a much more traditional, untouched area of Norway. Unbelievably tough day, but we’ve reached the promised land. [Music] Absolutely spectacular. And the sun’s just come out from the clouds. So, yeah. What an evening. What an evening. Beautiful. Uh, need a good night’s sleep. We’ll crack on tomorrow, hike a bike in the morning, and then hopefully we’ll be on the bike for the rest of the day. Let’s see what happens. Good night. Yes. Good morning. Wow, that was a good night’s sleep. My uh watch says calm. That was my sleep. Can you see that? My god, look at this place. Well, as mornings go, I’m going to give this one a 10 out of 10. [Music] with the exception of the mosquitoes of course. [Music] Uh we have got 150ish kilometers to do today. Mainly on gravel again probably about 85% on gravel. My train leaves at 8:00 from Nesbian Lesbian and uh that means I’ve got 11 hours to do it and I need to film and uh I need to also meet someone in Hemsal for a little short period of time. So yeah, a lot to do. Clock is ticking, but we’re going to just power through. We cannot miss this train because I have work tomorrow and it’s the last one back to Oslo. So, let’s see what happens. Okay, leave no trace and let’s go. Uh, no, no, no, no. Are you crazy? Well, we’ve hit the jackpot this morning, that is for sure. Oh my goodness. [Music] [Music] Yeah, but on an all- road bike. Not the right bike for this job. So pushing your bike is a lot of work. So I’m going to bring out the game changer. The game changer, which is the hiker bike harness by Restrap. [Music] Uh, one. Forgotten how I do this. One in. Maybe I crouch down. That’s better. Two in. Three, two, one. Up we come. And then we got to tighten these. All right. Then that’s in my ass. Let’s take that pedal out of my ass. Yeah. How do I look? Let’s do some hiking. Shimone. YouTube sucks. So, there are muddy patches. I didn’t bring a second pair of shoes. I’m just uh hiking with my bike packing shoes. Probably not ideal, but I didn’t want to bring the extra weight and quite confident I can walk in these. Let’s hope they don’t get too wet. The biggest advantage with the hiker bike is obviously speed. You go a lot faster. Uh just a lot less energy as well used. Pushing the bike is an absolute nightmare. Uh, but you can only do it in certain places, like high up here, mountain pass, no trees. It’s fine, but you’ll always get to certain points where you have to walk like a crab because of the train around you. So, has its ups and downs, pluses and minuses, but uh yeah, I mean, I’m very glad I brought it right now. Yesterday was tough. and some really ugly parts to go through with construction. But today it was well worth it. It really was. I can’t believe where I am right now. Can’t believe it. There’s a guy on a mountain bike. Wow. Hello, Mark. It’s Mark. Matthew. Matthew. Sorry. It’s okay. I’ve seen you many times. Yes. On YouTube. On YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Have you got the right bike for this? I see. The wrong person. You did. Okay. I never done this before. Okay. First time. It’s a little bit too rocky. Yeah, it is. Yeah. In places. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have to try. Yeah. This looks okay, this part. So, uh I hope so. with suspension. I’m going into the gravel road further down into the valley. Yeah. And up to the mountain again. Oh, nice. Yeah. And the weather’s like incredible. No wind. Always when you’re out, it’s incredible weather. I time it. Yeah. Yeah. Good to meet you. Yeah. Likewise. Have a great trip. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. The sheep are not happy about me being here. So, I think we need to get on our way and leave them alone. As you never know, they could be killer sheep. So, if yesterday was the 20th century ride, then this morning is the 19th century. And by far, this was the most incredible part of the route. Hello. I don’t know how much you can really pick it up with the uh GoPro, but Oh man, this is incredible. [Music] [Music] So, after that incredible stretch, we hit National Route number four. Although it says number five on the signs, don’t ask. And we’re going to head now to Hemszadal, all the way down the valley. [Music] Hezadal big ski town Swiss style architecture very very nice quite up market but it is an all year round destination now and they’re constantly building there so you’re always hearing construction going on we’re back in the 21st century unfortunately it’s 1:00 Now I’ve got 7 hours till the train and I got a lot of kilometers to do. I think I’ve got about 11 and 10 still to do. So uh yeah, I got to power on. [Music] [Music] I’m now stressing a little bit. First protocol is the Panorama Road, which is pretty famous here in Norway. A little bit of tourist traffic. Uh very, very beautiful, but it’s great that you can actually turn off onto a single track area specific for cyclists and that’s just a fantastic ride through forest and open areas. Really, really beautiful. Back on the road. [Music] So, update from the road. I’m going to have to bypass Lesbian and go to Ghoul instead, which is they’re both pretty close to each other. So, that will save me 9 kilometers of travel. Now, it might not sound much, but right now I’ve got 3 hours before my train leaves. So, it’s the last train in the evening. And I’ve got to do 61ks, which means I got to do roughly around 20 km an hour, which usually would be no problems whatsoever. But with a loaded bike and on gravel roads and with some climbs, I’m not optimistic, but I got to go. I got to keep going. There’s nothing else I can do. So, let’s see what happens. Heading back onto the gravel shortly. [Music] So, this last section is a lot of fun if you’re not short on time. It’s basically just a patched together network of old roads that somehow bring you all the way back to Nesbian or Ghoul. One minute you’re on a good section, next minute you’re on a really bad road. It’s just constantly throwing you from one road to the other and you have no idea what’s coming next. Well, it’s at this point I realize now I’m never going to make the train. The roads are just too difficult to get any sort of speed on. It’s just never in a million years going to get 20 km an hour average. So, I’m It’s uh 10 7 now. [Music] You know, I thought that was it. I’ve got no chance. [Music] But then the roads just got better and better. [Music] And then it turned to paved and then it went back to gravel again. But still it gave me hope. 5 minutes. 5 minutes. Where’s the train station? Have I made it? Have I made it? Has it gone? How’s it? Is it delayed? Is it coming shortly? Don’t ask me. [Music] Five minutes to spare. 5 minutes to spare. It’s coming in four minutes now. Four minutes. I can’t believe it. I just thought I’d never ever catch it. Oh my god. [Music]