The trail changes once again as it rolls and twists its way into a drier, more dense forest with bigger trees. A flock of sheep bleats and run away from the trail as we blast through the opening of an ancient stone fence, staring back at us with a mix of surprise and anger.

The trail changes once again, twisting and twirling through sparse pine trees. We play around with small jumps and doubles, hurl ourselves over a series of rollers and dive head first into insanely, rear–tyres–scrubbing–our–butts, steep pitches before the trail spits us out at a small gravel road leading us back to our truck. We look at each other with surprise. Stoked to have turned such a massive low to a massive high in a matter of just a few pedal strokes.

As we round off the day at a bar with the most expensive après ride beer and pizza any of us have ever enjoyed – the booming Norwegian economy, fuelled by the country’s recently found oil reserves, has made the prices on food and alcohol sky rocket to ridiculous levels – everything suddenly makes sense for me. I came here with the expectation of epic all–mountain trails and tours. What we found was something completely different. Like a mix of all–mountain and downhill, but in an alpine environment. The Norwegians call it toppturssykkling, which translates into bike touring. Kind of like the summer equivalent of ski touring, another Norwegian national sport. But without skis, uncomfortable boots and, of course, snow. Pedal uphill where you can, drag you and your bike upwards in whatever fashion you find suitable where you can’t. Then blast downhill on old hiking trails. Simple as that.

Once we get our heads around this, everything becomes crystal clear, the possibilities in the area are seemingly endless. The next couple of days we discover and explore trails all over the area. Our search leads us to a bunch of great trails in the Valldal region, with detours to the nearby villages of Fjørå and Liabygda.

Pedalling and pushing up old farming roads, dropping into trails we have no real clue where they’re leading. Exposed sections in the rugged high alpine, steep, techy, gnar in the dense forests covering the lower parts of the mountains, flowy stuff in between. We even come across quite a few parts bearing the distinct evidence of someone with a shovel smoothing out Mother Nature with riding mountain bikes in mind.

Our last day we take the 20 minute ferry ride to nearby Stranda, made famous by its biggest employer, the Grandiosa pizza factory, supplier of Norway’s (oddly enough) modern national dish, frozen pizza.

Somewhere along the road to Hellesylt we stop and unload our bikes before one of Norway’s hundreds of road tunnels. The country has spent billions and more billions on ferries, tunnels and bridges to connect their remote areas to each other and the mainland. Our object for the day was a remnant of the old days though, pre oil money and modern transportation, an old post road between Bergen and Trondheim (Den Trondhjemske Postvei) leading over a high pass that has been adopted by hikers through the past century. The narrow road is almost grown over, more reminiscent of a singletrack.

The trail twists it’s way up 35 sharp switchbacks up the steep mountainside. In more than a few places it’s either too steep or rocky to pedal up, or both, we have to resort to our trusted method of carrying our bikes on our backs. The only difference, this time we know we’re heading the right way, there are actually signs on this trail.

We sweat like pigs as we reach the top of the climb, the sun shining from a clear blue sky. Something pretty unusual by the Norwegian coast with its more than unpredictable, and rapidly changing, weather. The scenery that rewards us is simply out of this world. Way, way below us the mighty Geiranger fjord unleashes its stunning beauty in front of our eyes, without doubt the single most famous and photographed place in Norway. A lonely cruise ship breaks the still surface of the greenish water. Steep, lush, mountains rise out of the water, thrusting their white clad peaks towards the cloudless sky.>>