The 'Mjølkevegen' & 'Numedalsruta' Tour

We decided this year that it was about time we went back to do another tour in Norway. I had come across the Mjølkevegen route whilst having another look at the www.cyclingnorway.no site. For some reason the Mjølkevegen isn't on the English translated part of the site you will find it under 'Ruter' on the Norwegian part. Mjølkevegen translates in English as the Milk road and like its name suggests was the road that connects all the high pastures of the largest and most active mountain farm areas of Valdres, Stølsvidda. The high altitude gravel road which climbs up to the high plateaus that are over 1000m in altitude is used to collect the milk and take it down to the valleys. In the olden days the milk was transported in milk churns and each little set of farmsteads had a milk-churn stand by the side of the road with the name of the farmsteads. Luckily many of them remain and make an attractive sight along the route.

Most of the Mjølkevegen is on gravel roads with some short sections on proper tarmac roads. The gravel sections on the Peer Gynt vegen and the Jotunheimvegen are a toll road for cars and there is very little traffic. The route is actually classified as a mountain biking route but it perfectly feasible to do on touring bikes however you have to be prepared for some tough climbing but once you get up on the plateaus the scenery is some of the best in Norway. Particularly the sections on the Jotunheimvegen along the Vinstre lake and the climb up the Slettesfjell were spectacular and will be well remembered for years to come, not only was the scenery good but the flora is rich with some wonderful wild flowers.

On reaching Gol for our route back to Oslo we decided from the advice of our friends Stan & Daema to use the Numedalsruta down to Kongsberg and then get a train to Oslo rather than tackle the very busy Fv7. Apart from the long climb up Rukkedalen most of the route was downhill which made a very pleasant change to all the climbing we did on the Mjølkevegen.

You can find the route map that we took on the 'Mjølkevegen' on the Outdooractive website here. If you click on the '3D Preview' box in the map it will do a 3D fly through of the route showing the terrain. You can also download a gpx file of our Mjølkevegen route here. For more information on the Mjølkevegen visit https://www.valdres.com/things-to-do/activities/cycling/mjolkevegen

You can read more about our 'Mjølkevegen' & 'Numedalsruta' tour in our travelogue pages using the links below:

We have outlined the route that we took on the map below: