Hi Matthew, I hope the surge in traffic today didn’t disrupt your whole weekend.

I was hoping to get a little bit more background on the Norge på Langs route that you put together. There are quite a few trails that lead through the center of Norway and I’d love to understand why some were chosen over other ones. Your route seems to be a fairly direct route and diverges from the national cycle routes in various places. In curious if the choices you made were primarily related to the route being more direct, or it generally being the more scenic / interesting one.

Some things concretely:

– Your route includes about half of Mjølkevegen (National Cycle Route 5) and no part of Rallarvegen (National Cycle Route 4). Both of those seem to be very popular routes (maybe too popular?). Your route is the most direct one, but I’m curious if you’d recommend extending the tour a bit to include those two? Or maybe the route you outlined includes landscapes that are sufficiently similar?
– Between Trondheim and Vågåmo your route mostly follows the E6, similar to Pilgrimsruta (National Cycle Route 7). An alternative (again less direct) would be to first follow Villmarksruta (National Cycle Route 9), then onto Songnefjellsveien (National Cycle Route 6) at Røros, and finally to Mjølkevegen (National Cycle Route 5), merging back to your route at Beitostølen. It’s definitely a longer route, but I’d be curious if you think you’d see more varied nature?
– An alternative from Lindesnes to Rysstad would be to go via Kristiansand and then on the Fjord & Fjell route (National Cycle Route 3). Any thoughts on the differences between the two routes?
– Your route diverges from Kystruta (National Cycle Route 1) between Søre Årgård and Trondheim, and is in this case the less direct one. Was that done for the more scenic route?
– In general were there any stretches you went out of your way to include or exclude?
– Why did you choose south to north. Both seem popular, but instinctively I would have chosen north to south, partly since it’s easier to organize transportation back, and psychologically you’re “traveling home”.

Apologies for the potentially odd questions. I’m in the process of planning the route for Norge på Langs and am trying to get the lay of the land. My intention isn’t to pick apart your route in any way.

Thanks!

– Chris