Iceland (part 2!)
A 5-day backpacking trip along the Laugavegur & Fimmvörðuháls Trails
Landed at 6a due to the time difference, and was greeted with some beautiful morning sunlight at the airport! It's a 40-minute drive to Reykjavik, so took the airport shuttle to the city's main bus stop.
I brought over dehydrated meals from the states, but still needed to pick up some extra calories at a local grocery!
Reykjavik is known for having cats everywhere, and people leave their windows open so cats can come and go.
Kinda cool how you can see Hallgrímskirkja from around the city! It's a helpful landmark for navigation for sure.
On the road! 7am bus from Reykjavik, scheduled to arrive at the beginning of the trail (Landmannalaugar) by 11:30am.
You can stay at Landmannalaugar and enjoy the hot springs + day hikes around, so there were quite a few people without more involved gear.
The fog was really setting in at this point. You can also see how high the cairns + trail markers are, for when snow piles up.
Made it to Hrafntinnusker! Red buildings are the huts, which people can pay to stay at; the white building is a shelter for people who are camping, which is where I spent the rest of the day after setting up my tent, hanging out and chatting with fellow hikers!
We didn't get much clear sun while on the trail, so little moments like these were really appreciated.
Álftavatn technically could have been my destination for the day, but I'd decided to keep going to Hvanngil, which was only a few kilometers farther. None of the first four days' hiking was particularly long.
There were a few river crossings, and I believe this was the first one of like 4 or 5 throughout the week.
I bought Crocs for this hike, because I wanted some proper water-crossing and camp shoes. Honestly, they worked great!
None of the water crossings were difficult, but damn they were cold - my legs were numb by the time I got across.
This was the shelter tent I spent pretty much the rest of the day inside, chatting and hanging out with the peeps I'd gotten to know over the last few days.
Today was the fourth (last) day of the Laugavegur Trail. It technically ends/starts at Langidalur, but because I was going on to complete the Fimmvörðuháls Trail the next day, I wanted to stay a little bit farther south at the Básar campground.
I knew some people who were taking a bus off the trail at Langidalur, but I was off to Básar. I did detour a bit and checked out the Volcano Huts at Húsadalur, but didn't stay long.
There was sooo much leftover gas - people definitely overestimated how much they'd need for such a short hike.
The bridges spanning the Krossá river were actually taken down just a few days prior to my arrival because the weather was extremely windy + wet enough that the Fimmvörðuháls Trail was deemed too dangerous.
These three friends are some of the peeps I met and hiked with along the way. Best part about doing these trips is the people you meet!
The Fimmvörðuháls Trail is ~15 miles, and has quite steep ascents + descents - I needed to make a 4p bus, so I woke up ~5:30a to make sure I'd have plenty of time.
You can technically split this trail into two days, but I decided to just knock it out in one. Skógar is where the bus back to Reykjavík stops.
This downhill section was actually really sketchy - these guys ahead of me needed to scoot down, and I did the same. There was a lot of scree and it was super steep.
I like collecting little fridge magnets, and I got this from Grænt og Grænt, a local art shop in the city.