Hafjell Road Trip

This will be one of a number of journal entries of a weekend here in Norway. I hope to capture some of the happenings of this trip, the people I meet and the things we do.To set the scene, I am on the back seat of a Toyota Prius and have been for over 3 hours now. There are three of us here and there are 2 bikes on the roof rack. We have just passed Oslo and have another 2 hours or so to go before we get to Hafjell near Lillehammer. Road trip weekend. A biking weekend. A boys weekend.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teUbZvhpKfc&feature=youtube_gdata_playerWe are headed to a bike park, one of Europe's leading parks I am told for a weekend of downhill riding. My friend, also customer of mine Arnt had planned with a bunch of other guys to head here for more than a year now and I just happen to be tagging along. I have been biking or bouldering with him a few times over the years, but always an evening trip near Kristiansand for a few hours. There are a few other guys from the office from whom I could borrow a bike and head out. Biking with these guys is not just a ride through the woods. I have written about this before and I kind of new what I might be getting into. So it just happened I called him about two weeks ago and asked what he might be doing this weekend. Just my luck. So we have stopped for some items before the shops close for our weekend at the cabin; bread, cheese, fish squeezy, bananas and some beer. What's missing? More later.Arriving at the cabin after close to 6 hours of driving, we are tired. Unloaded the car, bringing all the gear and my suitcase really does not fit in. There are others already here in the cabin, later it would be about 12 I guess in total. Some pizza was left over on the counter, sat at the sofa and talked to the others about the next day. These were experienced bikers. I thought I was one too, but eh, wrong division. Off to bed, well mine was a "slot". It was a bed, actually a top bunk near the sloping roof. No way to sit upright in it, but then I was there to sleep. Sweet dreams.Next morning, feeling good. The weather said good things in the morning and some rain in the afternoon, so off we went to get the bikes and gear before the 10am start. The "start" meant that is when the ski lifts opened. Yes, this was a real ski slope or better a side of a mountain with many slopes. Got my gear sorted and dressing took at least 30 minutes. This included something which an American footballer might wear. Shoulder pads, back braces, down the arm protectors and knee and shin protection plus a full helmet like a motorcyclist might have. Lift pass in the pocket and off to the lifts with a monster bike. I found this fascinating that a 20kg (40lbs) bike was ridable. Well, I still ask why there are pedals as I almost never used them anyway. Full suspension of course just like a motocross bike might have too. Once at the top of the lift the three others in my group picked course to ride, just a warmup route. Speeds even on this track were really fast, with great switchback burms to lay the bike into. Controlling the bike was my entire task, nothing more and that was good. There were technical sections bouncing over roots and large rocks and this surprised me how exhausted I was after even a short run. Then back up another lift to a different set of track, this got really tough. It was on the 3rd run I think and the second black run of the day when I really messed up. It wasn't the most difficult part but somehow I got my front wheel on the wrong side of a boulder while turning. Within milliseconds I was over the top but all I remember was the stars I saw and the impact of my body. I had smacked my head (inside a helmet) on a log and then the right side of my body across a number of boulders. The protectors certainly did their job well including the helmet but I hurt. I had gone about 3 or so meters through the air and was well off the course and down the hill which was ok as I needed to make sure to clear the course for anyone following me. That was not a problem. Getting back up and dragging the bike back up to the course was. I knew this was a bit too much.To make this story a bit shorter, I still road more in the afternoon but did not have as much fun since I was hurting, more bruised type, and fearful. That is not good on a course where speed is needed to get over the boulders and up the jumps. I went to bed before 9pm, telling all there I was just exhausted. 11 hours later I woke for day two. And even though it had rained quite a bit during the night, I had a great day. We rode a few of the black courses but not the most technical ones. Spending more time on the speedy but technical curves with fast flattop jumps. Some of those are 2 to 3 meters up the front and that was cool. My bruises were beginning to show but the riding was really better than the first day. On our final run down a section we all liked one of our group flatted. Actually the first of the weekend. We stopped and they fixed it but the fun was gone. This was the final run and he was really bummed. Once again on the bike we blew out again, then riding the rims done the road to the bottom. We cruised the trail and had a nice final set of fast turns and smaller jumps. I was really tired and it was a good time to stop as that is when the mistakes begin, like the day before.Once at the bottom the rains came in, we cleaned the bikes and I returned mine. Thanking the folks there for a wonderful weekend and a great setup they have. In the car we began our drive back. I was lucky that I was only go to Oslo to catch a plane home. That was about 2 hours drive and that was enough for me. At the airport I could hardly crawl out of the car. My legs were beginning to tighten up and the bruises were getting more painful.Now, sitting here almost a week later I have at least 12 different set of bruises from my two falls and diverse slip ups from the weekend. It was successful. That first night with the others in the cabin we had talked about what we wanted to do that weekend. We agreed that we wanted no visible signs of injury. Bring on the suffering, bruising, embarrassment but keep the wounds to ourselves. Mission accomplished.