[Closed] Lofoten Islands

[url= https://smaertin.wordpress.com//?s=lofoten&search=K%C3%B6r ]This guy[/url] has. Looks amazing.

Nice link, always lusted after a trip there for the climbing, but seeing that then it looks great for biking too.

I can put you in touch with some people who spent some time climbing over there, if that's any use?

Very kind thanks. I have a pretty good base of people who've been there before who'd be more than happy to assist.

I've only been there climbing, but an absolutely stunning part of the world, friendly people and some great free camping areas. Highly recommend taking a bottle of whisky with you (and a fair bit of food to be honest) as prices are not cheap (was about £12 a pint five years ago...), you can also use the whisky for bartering! Worth having a sneaky read of the Rockfax Lofoten guide in an outdoor shop for some of the details on camping spots, etc.

Oh, and the weather is either chuffing amazing, or biblical sideways rain! If the latter, you can have an err, interesting day at the Norwegian Fishing Museum in A.

Thanks for the responses; the idea is to ride down the spine road, E10, from top to bottom with some mtb excursions if possible. If it's not rideable (I'm no Hans Rey) maybe some climbing or kyaking. Will def take some whisky!

I see your reference to Hans Rey meaning maybe you already saw it but there is a video of him and some other dude riding there.

Also link in my profile to my blog which has some riding around Bødo which is not far away.

Hi Will, really enjoyed your blog, incredible scenery. I will be in Bodo for a short time, what would you recommend and would you know which would be the best trail map for the Lofotens? Nice bike by the way; I have a Mojo SL and love it. Mac

Been there twice - once climbing and once cycle touring. The advice to bring booze is a good one. We also found the Hurtigruten to be a surprisingly cost-effective and luxurious way to link bits of the islands together on our tour.

Amazing place.

Mac. Mojo is immense, I was a serial bike changer until this one and not even tempted by the 27.5 craze because of my love for this one!

I am an architect/student so the best thing I would recommend in Bodo is to visit the new library/symphony hall that has just opened, it is by a London based architect and it is a fantastic building.
[url] http://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/library-and-concert-hall-in-bod-norway-by-drdh/8674296.article [/url]

I would otherwise recommend a walk/ride up to a small hill called Keiservarden (just to the NE of the city) for a fantastic view back over the city. Or (never went to it myself, but saw it from across the harbour and could be interesting) a little walk around to Nyholmen could be worth a look, it is an old fortress of some sort.

[img] [/img]

Or if you have enough time and are feeling adventurous you could go visit the cabin we built up at Heggmoen. You are allowed to stay in this overnight and on the river is a rather nice spot!

[img] [/img]
Nice cheesy overexposed image of us from the local paper, you can even spot me striking a pose (on the left in black with the wellies on!)

Or you could take the boat out to Fleinvær where we built a [u]public[/u] sauna which you could have a go in! The islands are rather nice too with some great views!

[img] [/img]

[url= https://williamcgibson.wordpress.com/2014/10/21/_59-a-tiny-island-called-fleinvaer/ ]Link to blog post about the islands and sauna[/url]

As for maps, I don't have a specific trail man for Lofoten however this is a great OS equivalent for Norway.

[url= http://www.norgeskart.no/#6/498660/7538659 ]Norgeskart - Norwegian maps[/url]

There is also a phone app for that which allows you to download areas and use them offline! Very useful.

Hi Will; thanks for all that useful info. Immense scenery, public sauna, cabins in the woods - what the **** am I doing living in South London? Roll on the end of May!

I was there last summer touring / bikepacking

[img] [/img]

It was ace!

More pics here

[url= http://morayfatbike.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/68-degrees-north-bicycle-trip-to.html ]Lofoten Tour[/url]

I didn't post this before as as far as I was aware it was only for the Trondheim area (where I live) but ibjave just been using it today for the first time this year and it as seems it covers all of Norway now! Could be useful for you.

[url= http://mtbmap.no ]Norway mtb map[/url]

Takes note of Trondheim contact for future use.

Nice map, tack!

Where do you live Swedish chef? Sweden by any chance?

Hi!

There are also some other MTB-maps based on [url= http://www.openstreetmap.org/ ]Openstreetmap[/url] data:
[url= http://mtbmap.se ]MTBmap.se[/url] - A swedish MTB map covering all of the Nordic countries.
[url= http://mtbmap.org/ ]MTBMap.org[/url] - Another Norwegian MTB map
[url= http://mtbmap.cz/ ]mtbmap.cz[/url] - MTB map of Europe
But I prefer [url= http://mtbmap.no ]MTBmap.no[/url], the one anus posted, maybe it's because I made it the way I wanted it to look 😀

I've been trying to get some people in Lofoten to add trails with mtb-tagging in Openstreetmap, but no success so far. So there aren't any colorful trails in Lofoten on any of these maps at the moment.

Reading this with interest from down south in Sweden. Great info on the Swedish MTB map, many thanks for that. Just need to find some people to explore the trails with!

It's on my bucket list, never considered it as a biking venue, maybe I should...

Reitstoen - where are you? the guys who gave me your map told me it was a local guy from trondheim who made it? Are you?

Yes, I'm the local guy from Trondheim 🙂
I only had plans to make a local printable map of Bymarka and Estenstadmarka in Trondheim, but got sidetracked with an online version, which I made to cover all of Norway last fall. The software I'm using isn't really suited to render large areas.

I was hoping someone with better skills in cartography and websites could copy the style (green, blue, red and black color coding, and with contours and hill-shading) and make a map covering the entire world, which is always up to date, like most OSM-maps. That would be perfect!

Nice! It is certainly a useful map as it is for Norway anyway, basically every ride that I have met here has said to me, 'oh, do you know this map? You need this map for riding here'.

Send me an email, we should get together for a ride sometime, me and some other guys managed to get out for a ride both days this weekend as enough snow/ice has melted now! (and of course we used your map)

Following.

There have been a few updates to the map around Lofoten since last time 🙂
Mountainbike-tagging has been added to a few trails in [url= http://www.openstreetmap.org/ ]OpenStreetMap[/url].

Visit [url= http://mtbmap.no/#11/68.1644/13.7872 ][b]MTBmap.no[/b][/url] to see some "colorful" trails. Click the "i" to see the legend.
Short description: green–easy, blue–intermediate, red–advanced, black–expert and yellow glow means recommended trail.

[url= http://reitstoen.com/forums/singletrackworld/lofoten_leknes.pn g" target="_blank">http://reitstoen.com/forums/singletrackworld/lofoten_leknes.pn g"/> [/img][/url]

I haven't been riding in Lofoten myself, but I've been told that the island of Vestvågøy is the best place to go mountainbiking. I've been hiking though, in the area around [url= http://mtbmap.no/#13/68.2354/14.5430 ]Svolvær[/url], and it's wonderful place if you like mountain hiking!

If you need some inspiration just watch some of the following videos from Lofoten 😉
[url= https://vimeo.com/135445926 ]Trail riding Smørdalskammen[/url]
[url= https://vimeo.com/66453699 ]Lines of Lofoten[/url]
[url= https://vimeo.com/84054799 ]No(r)way - Lofoten Island[/url]
[url= https://vimeo.com/54435407 ]500 meter cable cam[/url]

cheers,
Ola Endre