Did I?
I made the brilliant decision to stay for an extra night in Oslo to enjoy a taco dinner with my friend, this meant I would have to do the 13 hour Trondheim - Harstad trip in one go. I did it earlier in the summer, so what could possibly be problematic about doing it in september? I was planning to head out early, so I went to bed fairly early on saturday.
When sunday came I was all out of oomph, maybe it was because of the heavy rain, and generally poor weather 7c (44.6f). So I dragged my feet to get going and didn't manage to start riding until 11am. I got gas somewhere near Trondheim and it was raining moderately, and somewhat cold.
After a couple of hours it just started pouring down, my feet was getting wet and somehow water was penetrating my rain gear. It was wet and cold. Around 2pm I needed gas, and it was raining less. I had managed about 214 kilometers (132 miles). I got a large coffe, two hot dogs and a waffle (had only black coffee for breakfast). It stared to rain a bit moer so I got going.
My second stop was at around 5 pm, and it was just pouring down. it was so wet. I was wet, the road was wet. My boots had enough water that I could feel a stream if I lifted my feet. I was cold and somewhat annoyed at the whole trip. I got a coffee and it made wonders for my morale. I couldn't stay too long because I had to cross Saltfjellet (salt mountain) and that is a cold ride. My GPS kept changing the predicted temperature from about freezing to 7c, so I decided to just plow through it and get past it before it got too dark or cold.
Going over the mountain I was worried it would be frozen somewhere, so I followed a bunch of cars. It was getting annoyingly cold and my clothes were thourougly soaked. I was even more tired and in addition it started getting darker. And boy was riding in the dark with this light a lot harder while it rained. My wife called me, I just pressed ignore and carried on. At least she'd know I was fine. My microphone wire got ripped (arrrgh). On the way down from the mountain I enjoyed a tiny sliver of sun, that gave me hope the rest of the trip would be easy.
At around 8 pm I arrive in Fauske. I am now 649 kilometers (403 miles) in, its dark, I'm cold and sore and my right wrist hurts. My helmet is wet, even with the pinlock its getting foggy. Its heavy rain. I get a coffe, go to the bathroom, and call my wife. The coffee did wonders for my morale and I felt nice and rested to do the last 300 or so kilometers (slightly less than 200 miles). For an hour or so riding was tolerable, even at times enjoyable.
But the fogging got worse, I got cold again, I couldnt see very well. Without the visor the raindrops hurt my eyes, it felt like hail falling but Im sure it was just big rain drops. A bunch of cars came rushing and I couldnt see anything with my low beams with cars approaching.
For a good while I was following a semi that had great lights, it made it so much easier when I could see a bit further and follow the tail lights. He eventually managed to slip away and I wasn't able to catch up with him. I followed a car for a bit but that too was too fast for me. I was worrying I was going to miss the boat, and was trying my best to make progress. But it was cold, dark and wet. So so wet.
I decided to go without the visor for a while, it was amazing, I had so much better vision and got my spirits up. But then a moth hit my eye and it hurt a ton, so I got the visor down and the speed down. I was approaching the ferry dock and I had 30 minutes to do 20 kilometers (12.5miles). I was thrilled, maintaining 40kmh would be very doable (24.8mph).
Eventually I made it to the ferry dock, exhausted, but happy, I was ten minutes early. The time was 10:35pm and the ferry was scheduled for 10:45pm. I couldn't see the boat so I asked a semi driver when it was arriving. He told me 11:45pm!!! I had over an hours wait there. I was drenched. Luckily the rain had subseded, and it was really quiet and calm there apart from some cows that were seemingly being tortured (by their noise in the background). I was so frustrated. But then I pulled myself together, grabbed the dryest clothes I could find, and headed to the bathroom. This bathroom had a 10 minute timer for the lock, what kind of sadist design these things? Undressing with so many layers while drenched takes some time, and I were worrying the lock would open and someone would run into me butt naked.
After getting into a dry pair of pants, fresh wool socks and a fleece sweater (all my t-shirts were on the bottom of the pile in the Ikea bag) I felt somewhat better. But I realized i had no protective pants, and no layers (just my construction jeans, leather jacket that was tolerably dry, my wool socks, casual riding boots and the fleece and summer riding gloves). The ride after the boat would be COLD.
Since I had nothing better to do I decided to prepare some freeze dried chili. It had beans, so I apologize to any chili purists here. I boiled some water and poured it in. And by boiled I mean heated until I got bored. I managed to pour too much water in, and somehow I didn't manage the instructions: Boil water, mix, eat. So it ended up being a chili like soup with crunchy bits. But I must say right there that really hit the spot. It was warm, spicy and filling. Albeit crunchy and the wrong consistency.
AS you can see I messed up my brilliant loadup. I just attached it well enough to get onto the boat and after my gourmet spice soup with crunchy stuff the boat arrived.
Boat trip was decent, some waves and too late to get any serving. Going off the boat I rode to the nearest parking lot to deal with my cargo. When I was there I saw the first northern light of the year:
Other pic:
https://i.imgur.com/B4X5dTJ.jpg They dont really do it justice, it was brililant and soo cool around the mountains. Very intense, like a 4/5 star one.
It was now around 1 am and I still had somewhat over and hour to ride. My luggage was crooked and pushing against me, but stable, albeit with very little room for me. I rode with the visor open, making sure to close my eyes if I were being attacked by moths and closing it whenever trucks came. It was pretty cold and miserable, but the northern lights followed me the whole time, but not as intense as at the dock. Because of the light pollution my picture game was a bit off, and I didnt see any bright enough worth stopping afterwards.
Safely home my wife helped me load off the bike, I had a long shower and went to bed. It was then 02:31am (my hour of riding took longer since I was slow).
So now I am in the market for the overall kind of rain gear and some new boots.
BTW: I can now say with confidence the BT46 works on rain. They stuck to the road brilliantly the whole way. Only complaint is they only last about six weeks...
