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While cycling in Norway I passed along signs with bicycling information that were marking some routes as "trillesti" or "trillestier". This word is not in my paper dictionary, nor on wiktionary, nor on ordbøkene.no.

A DDG web search appears to give exclusively results related to cycling.

Example of an information panel with trillestier in the legend in the bottom left:

photo of a sign with trillestier in the legend

What is a trillesti?

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It is a path that you can "trille", wheel your bike through (so holding it and dragging it on the path), but that probably is not good enough to actually bike on, perhaps because it's very bulky, full of rocks, etc. I grew up in Norway and know this from word of mouth and from visiting the paths (they occur throughout the country).

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    Ah, at least trille is listed in dictionaries :)
    – gerrit
    Commented Jul 3 at 20:31
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    Google translated it to Dutch as Karrepad or karrespoor, in English that would be cart track, indicating poor surface but recognizable path.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jul 3 at 20:32
  • @Willeke Somehow I didn't think of trying machine translation. But a trail so poor one has to push one's bike (like the German Schiebestrecke) sounds considerably worse than a cart track.
    – gerrit
    Commented Jul 3 at 20:42
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    Even as a Norwegian, avid cyclist, I have never heard trillesti before and would not have intuitively understood it. I know the expression trilletur, which in the area I used to live was used for routes on unpaved paths and roads, where the surface is good enough to push a stroller. I would have assumed that a trillesti is a path good enough to walk with a stroller, not a path too poor to cycle, so that you have to walk your bike.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Jul 4 at 12:58
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    @shoover In this case, Poli is correct. I've never doubted that. I just wanted to point out that it is an unusual expression, which is also used with other meanings.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Jul 4 at 19:57

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