Mjøsa is the reason to stop here. Norway's largest lake runs for more than a hundred kilometres from Lillehammer down to Minnesund, and on this stretch of its eastern shore, south of Stange and around the farming village of Tangen, the water lies wide and calm below gentle fields of grain. Across the lake you can see Skreia and the low wooded ridge of Toten, and on a still evening the far shore doubles itself in the surface.
This is Hedmarken, some of the best farmland in the country, and it shows. Big red barns, white farmhouses with deep verandas, long straight hedgerows and fields of barley and potatoes roll down to the lake. The land was settled early and stayed prosperous, and the old farms carry the confidence of families who never had to leave for America in hard years the way so many in the west did. Hamar, a short ride north, was a medieval bishop's seat, and the ruined cathedral there now sits under a striking glass shelter.
The swim itself is cold, honestly cold, even in July. Mjøsa is deep, over four hundred metres at its deepest point, and the water rarely warms much beyond the high teens near the surface on a good summer, so the trick is a quick plunge, a gasp, and a towel. Look for a gravel beach or a small public bathing spot near one of the shoreline settlements; locals swim wherever the bank is gentle and the path goes down. The shallows near the southern shore warm faster than the open water.
As for the riding, it is relaxed on the way home. The E6 motorway carries the through traffic past here between Oslo and Trondheim, and the old county roads closer to the lake are much nicer, slower and quieter, curving past farms and through small birch woods. Watch for tractors in harvest season and for moose at dusk where the forest comes down to the road. Hamar is the nearest proper town, with fuel, cafes and supermarkets, and Stange itself has the basics.
If you are lucky with timing, you may see the paddle steamer Skibladner, launched in the 1850s and still running summer trips on the lake, the oldest paddle steamer in scheduled service in the world. Its white hull and tall funnel churning past the fields are a sight from another century.