Hey everybody!

     So now that the suspense of trip assignments is over, I thought I'd share a story with you all! This weekend (it's my last one here in Iceland before I come home) I thought It'd be fun to do something adventurous, so I decided to go hike the famous Laugavegur Hiking Path in the southern highlands.  The trek is one of the most popular hiking destinations in the country- it's about 34 miles long and, from what I had heard, traverses some of the most beautiful scenery in all of Iceland.  With a recommendation like that, I figured I had to go check it out for myself! Laugavegur is so popular in fact, that every year they hold an ultramarathon along the trail (which, coincidentally, was the same day I decided to go myself).

     The only problem was that since I work full time I only had a weekend to do it, which meant I'd have to take the bus there on Saturday, and then catch the bus back to Reykjavik from the other end by Sunday afternoon.  No problem, I thought.  With a good weather forecast and 24 hours of sunlight, I figured it would be the perfect end to my stay in Iceland, so I packed my bag full of Clif Bars and Gu packets and set of for the mountains.

One of the "off-road" buses

     The journey begins by boarding an off-road bus that takes you on  a 4 1/2 hour ride from the city up into the Icelandic highlands.  When I say off-road, I'm not kidding--they have these full on coach style buses that they've jacked up the suspension on.  While I figured it was because we'd be on some sort of mellow dirt road, I really had no clue what I was in for. Long stretches of gravel roads, lava fields, sandy plains, and several river crossings finally brought us to Landmanalagur, the starting point of the of the Laugavegur trek.

     The hike itself starts of with the longest climb of the trek-as the trail ascends, you work your way up a steep slope before you mount a wide ridge on and emerge onto a sweeping snow covered plateau.  As you hike up towards the crest of the plateau you cross large snowfields punctuated by small streams and hot springs.  It was pretty weird to see all this snow, and then a few feet away have a pot of boiling water pouring out of the ground!  This whole section was really nice but pretty

A hot pot of boiling water coming from the ground, with a field of snow in the background.

Here, the snow ends and the trail descends sharply into
 the river valley below

     As the hike continues south you gradually lose elevation and the landscape becomes more jagged.  Soon you drop into some lowlands and the trail begins to wind through small valleys and green pastures.  Right around the halfway point there is a large lake (you can see it very faintly in the picture to the right), followed pretty closely by the first of several river crossings.  I had been warned about the river crossings beforehand.  Supposedly there are 4 (turns out, there were 6) and you need to remove your shoes and wade across.

One of the many "moon-like" stretches of the trek

     The water was REALLY cold, so much so that by the other side of the river I couldn't feel my feet! Fortunately I brought a small towel and some extra socks.  At this point I'd been hiking for about 4 hours and I was feeling pretty good, so I kept up my pace and continued onward.  After another several miles the landscape changes yet again, and you come out onto a large, black sand plain.  It was a beautiful section of the hike, and it even felt a little bit like walking around on the moon.  There was no vegetation nearby, just lots of black and grey rocks and sand.

A look back at the one of the lava fields

A river crossing between during the final stage.  Luckily
there was a bridge on this one! 

     I was making good time, but an old hip injury was starting to flare up, so I slowed down a bit as I came into the hut at the 24-mile mark.  I filled up my water bottles, ate a Clif bar and decided I should keep going.  With only 15 km left, I figured I had come this far, and I had better finish! I kept going, albeit at a much slower pace from then on out.  The final 12 km's of the trek drop down into a natural forest (as it turns out, Iceland is pretty tree-less, so while the forest might not have been much, it was certainly noteworthy having just walked through what felt like the moon).  Pretty soon, I came to the final river crossing, which was the last obstacle between me and the final hut!

     As I came over the last hill and arrived at the hut, I checked my watch: it was 12:43 am (still light out, by the way), and I had been walking for 11 hours and 31 minutes.  Not bad I thought considering I the whole injury thing.  Right before I reached the hut though, I heard some voices down the trail and when I turned a corner, I came face to face with a bunch of stumbling drunk women on their way back to the hut from a nearby campsite.  Who were they and what were they doing up and about so late? Well, it turns out they had all participated in that ultramarathon I mentioned earlier, and were  on their way back from celebrating!  Their finishing time:  a little over 7 hours.  Pretty impressive.

     The next morning I woke up early, hopped on the bus, and made it back to Reykjavik a little after lunch. Mission Accomplished!

Cheers,
  Mike