Running with Reindeer

The title track

OH MAN! This morning we rode uphill for 5k into the high country, with an amazing tailwind propping us up. This far north (edit: and east), getting above 200 m tends to put you up in the snow. The roads are all open so far, and are in unbelievably good shape for an area with a strong freeze-thaw cycle. Like, 50 miles of perfect pavement per half-mile of filled cracks, filled potholes, or uneven bits.

Anyway, up we went into the high country, and there were reindeer everywhere. These are domesticated animals, often collared, earmarked, or wearing fancy neon spray-paint on their white fur, but they are still pretty jawdropping. Spotting a mature adult skylined white on blue at the top of a ridge really drove it home for me - this is wild northern herding country.

Aaaaanyway, there are hundreds of these majestic beasties feeding, pooping, and hanging out with their (tiny and adorable) kiddos along the sides of the highway. They don’t bat an eye at the cars, but when they see a new thing like a bicycle going by on the road above them, it’s full-on red-alert everybody out the building’s on fire departure time. They turn and run, often along the grade, so they can keep an eye on you. When you’re moving faster than they are, they’ll try to outpace you for as long as they can before slowing and dropping down and away.

The experience was jawdropping. There’s something completely impossible about the sensation of rolling, nearly flying, alongside an animal running full out. And they run like this so frequently and for so long, that three or four times I felt almost like a part of the herd. Carried along not just by the tailwind or the slope down, but by the animals themselves.

My country for another waffle

We’re far enough out now, that you can go for a couple of hours without seeing a human being that’s not behind the wheel of a car or camper. There aren’t many of those, either. Before we stepped down out of the high country at Ifjord, I joked with H about what we’d do if there was a cafe there. And then, tucked into a shabby looking building behind the gas pumps, we found a cafe that couldn’t really have existed.

The inside was nicely decorated, the staff were the first people we’ve met who didn’t really speak English, and ten bucks got us a waffle with cream and jam, a huge floofy cardamom bun, and a tasty hunk of chocolate cake with coconut. We had a slow and lovely conversation with Roald, each using what little we knew of the other’s language and filling in the blanks with our own. This is the best part.

Within half an hour, heidi was ready for a snack. Within an hour, we had lunch. The hungries have arrived.

Standard dinner ration for one. Add crackers, chips, and half an orange, and Heidi’s full for at least half an hour.

The road goes on forever

You turn the bend into Bekkarfjord near the bottom of a long, wild hill. The road is rougher than usual, with little dips here and there, and it’s wide enough for two cars but not much more. There are basically no cars out here right now. Thank goodness.

The thing about the road, though, is that in its rolls and twists it gives the distinct impression you’re about to ride right off of it into the sea. This is not something one can photograph, I think, so use your imagination or saddle up and check it out yourself. There’s a little cafe I can recommend along the way.

It’s windy here

Like, really very windy.

Finding a safe camp for our tent would have been very difficult tonight, except for a long ridgeline blocking the wind from the northeast. Even tucked behind it, the wind blew hard enough to knock our bikes over.

Old friends

• Waffles are better here. Less floof, but more flavor.
• The ocean. No swimming yet, but we did touch the water during lunch today. It’s crystal clear and cold, and weirdly devoid of life in the intertidal. I wonder whether there’s seasonal freezing in the shallows or something.
• Spring buds. The first buds are breaking on the warmest hillsides, and there is even grass in a few spots!
• H’s freckles - they’re adorable, and coming back in force already

New Friends

• A crazy bird mob (sea birds, ravens, and a few raptors - possibly eagles?)
• Mussel and clam shells, all quite large. Did we just eat all the big ones in Washington?
• King crabs (or something like that)! They’re so huge and pink in their pieces on the beach.

New… rivals?