Day 6 – 2012/August/03

                Friday class released us early, giving us more time to pack for the trip than expected.  So I went down to the heated beach to lounge for a few minutes more before the grueling trip.  Mircea went in search of a backpack to borrow for the trip.  Yes, we had already bought our bus tickets.

                We met back at Roro’s roughly around 3:00 and commenced packing.  Uncharacteristically for the country, the entire [holiday] weekend showed good weather in the forecast.  Thora offered some advice for the trip- and everyone we talked to tended to look at us like we were crazy.  I have gotten used to that look.

                Roro drove us to the bus terminal where we promptly boarded and were off.  There was intermittent sleep for the 3-hour ride down to Skogar and a constantly changing view.  At one of the extended bus stops along the way, Mircea decried his starvation, pulling three sandwiches out from our weekend rations and quickly devoured them.  This concerned me slightly- for we didn’t have a LOT of food.  And I warned Mircea that we would need to be more sparing…

We started on the trail ~8:30 or so (we had to spend a few minutes around Skogafoss – the waterfall that was both our bus drop point and our trail start.  There is a legend regarding a treasure chest under the waterfalls…).  Up, up, up we hiked, following the river and many other falls, sheep, grasslands- up into the rockiness of the Icelandic highlands, our path being encroached by two volcanic glaciers on either side.  We thought we had made it to the first hut on our journey (by the silhouette against the dark sky), but were dismayed to find it a run-down abandoned hut.  Exhausted, we set up camp and promptly fell asleep.  And Mircea ate a meal.

                A note on the preparation for the trip: in the future, I will require to see a fully-detailed bill of laden from all others in my hiking party to be sure they have all the necessities.  As we followed the river feeding Skogafoss, Mircea asked several times if he could help out the weight on my back by consuming some water.  I think sharing is a great idea.  I had packed the water I would consume in ~2 days, around 4.5 liters, expecting to fill up water at one of the various huts we would pass along the way.  Mircea continued helping me during the first 4 hours of our trek.  When I realized I was down to only 1 liter before bed, I kindly asked Mircea to begin drinking his own water.  “What water?  I didn’t pack any.  I figured you had enough for both of us.”  Uh oh number 1.

Day 7 – 2012/August/04

                We awoke at 11:00-  I had awoken a few times prior due to sun in my eyes- but after finally feeling rested, realized there was no more sun.  Being ~1000m in altitude and on a glacier, the clouds had settled in from the morning heat in the valley passing the moisture our way.  On a trail where the only way to note the trail was by muddy footsteps and sighting of large yellow pylons spaced ~100 feet apart, the lack of visibility in the fog was frustrating.  Following the signs to the hut – Fimmvorthuhals =- we came to a pylon that was oddly not connected to any other pylons-  at least as far as we could gather with an hour of wandering here and there.  We were quite excited to hear some voices of some people descending the adjacent ridge.  They had a GPS…  and were just as far off the trail as we were.  They were volunteers that had come to do some renovations on the hut (move a solar panel and paint the deck), so we followed to the hut.  We warmed ourselves there, and Andrea (the hut warden) gave us some tea, free of charge.  Since she wouldn’t accept money, I asked if I could shovel some snow for her that would later me melted for drinking water.  She accepted the offer.

                Back on the trail towards Thorsmork, the afternoon sun did seem to lift the clouds a bit, making navigation much easier.  Without getting lost again, we began finding more people as we winded around lava fields (no active flows… just blowing steam).  Descending the mountain over Thorsmork looked as stately as a scene from the Lord of the Rings.  And of course, not long after thinking so, Mircea and I stopped to talk to a couple gentlemen, trying to gage our time.  Andy and Rob were taking some pictures.  They explained that this was their “Summer Home” away from New Zealand.  It took me just a moment to realize that they had already converted to Northern Hemisphere Season-Speak.

                We stopped briefly in Thorsmork at the Basar (Bow-sar) hut to have dinner to let our feet out of our boots.  They were complaining a good bit already along with the rest of the legs and the stomach.  Almost an outright rebellion!  I had gotten used to Mircea’s constant comment about “starving” or “being too hungry to think.”  Smoked salmon on sesame crackers was quite tasty and downright upscale for the surroundings.  Some may question the transportation of the salmon…  but I was banking on cooler weather on the mountain as refrigeration and the smoking to keep off any particular bacteria.

                We hiked several hours further, noting that the days were growing noticeably shorter.  We passed a couple around 10:00 that night, who with noticeably American accents (rare on the trail) commented that they had started off from Landmannalauger – our destination!  We queried for a time estimate.  “It took us 4 days to get here from there.”  My heart sank slightly.  Uh oh number 2.  Our bus for Reykjavik leaves at 16:00 on Monday – only 42 hours to go.

Day 8 – 2012/August/05

                9:00 was not so bad to awaken to…  again, pulling Mircea out of bed.  According to Thora, the area past Throsmork was pretty well flat until we got past Alftavtn, the last hut before climbing the mountains in front of Landmannalauger.  Yes, it was mostly flat…  but there were enough canyons and hills to make our feet hurt.  The interesting part about this section of the hike was the variety in terrain we covered.  Most of the way was veritable desert, walking across miles (or should I say kilometers) of volcanic sand.  One mile of the oh-so-black sand was pretty neat.  20 miles (I exaggerate… but only slightly) of the sand is downright annoying to walk on.  The only odd thing about being in such a desert-like moonscape were the four river crossings of bone-chilling glacial melt.  Fording each river when the water is just shy of thigh-high lost its novelty very quickly.

                The time passed relatively quickly, passing the Emstur hut and arriving at Alftavatn back in the grasslands and situated on an alpine lake for dinner.  We chatted with a couple guys from Italy for a bit over dinner before making tracks Northward.  From Alftavatn, there were still 22 km to go- way too much to cover in half a day.  Mircea realized that he was out of the food he was carrying.  “Do you have any more food, Keith?” he asked.  I responded negatively, “Nothing left for dinner.”  I was saving what little I had left in my bag as a ration for breakfast, knowing that we would need that last little energy boost.  Again, I was a little frustrated with the lack of food planning.

                We took off once again, across the grassland and up another mountain, using every bit of daylight we could muster.  As we rounded the mountaintop, we were tossed into yet another environment, this time more of a feeling of being on Mars.  Everywhere the rocks had a red or yellow tint to them, steam pouring out from many cracks.  The darkening sky and the heavy smell of sulfur kept our imaginations busy as we followed the trail, looking for the last hut before Landmannalauger.  Again, dark fell along with the clouds, limiting our visibility on a sketchy-looking ridge.  There was no sign of the hut, and given our fatigue, we needed to set up camp.  We knew we had traveled more than 30 km in one day…  and we were definitely feeling it.  I was a little anxious about the timing-  if we would make it to the bus on time or not.  We were comforted by the thought of the hot spring that was supposed to be there.  Mircea was disappointed that there was no more food to eat before bed.  We slept well, anyways.  Even though I felt we were in the midst of Mordor.

Day 9 – 2012/August/06

                Another morning at 9:00.  I divided the rest of the food out somewhat evenly, setting it more in Mircea’s favor due to his metabolic needs.  It was a cloudy morning, still- but with the rest, the trail was easy to follow.  We descended into a valley, across which we could see the hut – Hrafntinnusker.  This was the most annoying valley I have ever been in!  Small rivers have cut into the sand banks every 40 feet or so, leaving a 20 foot deep crevice in the sand.  Though you could see the hut across the valley a mere mile away, the going was VERY slow.  Up and down and up and down and up and down.

                For Adam, I have to note that in some sense, the arrival at several of the huts along the journey made me feel as if I were in a Final Fantasy game (namely on the NES where we would play together).  The little group of villages with people to talk to, all with information about the trail you are on and how to get to the next place- and the surrealistic landscape in between…  I laughed about it several times, and I hummed some of the songs to myself as I trudged along the sand.

                The arrival at Hrafntinnusker revealed that we were making good time- and at our given pace, would get us into Landmannalauger at 15:00 – an hour before the bus left.  We kept moving steadily; and the final descent into Landmannalauger, on time, revealed some of the most colorful and diverse landscapes possible.  In some sense, the scenery itself was a sort of recapitulation of every color and geography we had encountered in the prior 2 days.  The descent was quite pleasant, though the last mile weaving through a labyrinth of lava field sculptures was mildly brutal, especially since it hid just how far you were from the bustle of Landmannalauger.

                I had expected a town with a few shops.  Instead, it was just another hut-like grouping of buildings with a large tent city and parking lot.  I sat down to rest and revel in the excitement of completing the goal- and early to boot!  Mircea disappeared, leaving me to look after his pack.   I was looking forward to joining the large bustle at the end of the boardwalk that were swimming in the hot spring, not at all thrilled with Mircea’s lack of letting me know where he had gone.  “Keith, the bus leaves in 30 minutes.”  It’s a good thing we were early!

                We ran over to the spring, giving ourselves 10 minutes to soak and relax…  and there was no doubt that we were the most intensely relaxing people in the spring for those 10 minutes!

                We made it to the bus.  There was even room on the bus.  And for all the excitement of the prior three days, the bus ride was only icing on the cake.  I did not expect the off-roading adventure that is the Reykjavik Excursion Bus Line…  fast driving around narrow, one-lane, tall cliff roads and river fording all in a large Mercedes-Benz bus.  I slept some on the bus.  And Mircea happened to overhear a couple girls speaking to each other in Romanian… and he went to join them for the rest of the ride to speak in his native tongue.  Success is sweet, indeed.

Day 10 – 2012/August/07

                Everyone in the class was genuinely surprised to see us this morning.  They didn’t think we’d be back in time.  And they were even more surprised that we weren’t zombies!  Quite a few of the others had rented a car and went to the West Fjords for the weekend.

                We toured the District Heating system of Reykjavik today- which was fascinating to see the control center and geothermal well outposts all over.  There were GE motors everywhere- gentle reminders of where I must return eventually…  but not soon!

                There was another Icelandic lesson when we returned… and Marina came over so I cooked some Chicken Tikka Masala (Indian dish) for dinner and gave a recap to the day’s field trip to help clarify some of the discussions for the non-engineering students.

                In discussing with Mircea regarding what to do with our next weekend, Roro asked me if I was a careful driver.  Then she offered to let us borrow her car for the weekend…  $50 for the “rental” and we pay for gas.  Oh the possibilities!!!

                Pictures later…