We woke early, ready to get moving after a special treat of orange juice for our breakfast (had to drink it now so I wouldn't carry it too far). It was going to be a good day to put some miles between us and Seyðisfjörður as we start out on the Víknaslóðir trail, hoping to reach Bakkagerði sometime Monday.
After a short, but steady climb, we met our first obstacle to cross, a waterfall. I'd been pulled into two different currents in the past few weeks, so I was feeling a bit cautious each time we were faced with a fording, but we chose our spot and passed through safely.
We continued higher and soon found the guest book on Hjálmárdalsheiði, along the highest section of our route. From there, we followed a few footprints through snowfields until the trail started to descend back down mossy green slopes dotted with a line of old telegraph poles.
The next river took a little time to decide the proper place to ford. The marked trail crossed at a narrow bend. We borrowed a post to determine that it would be too deep to cross there - about waist high and rushing, like many of the crossings, the water level has been especially high from the wet summer. Eventually, we decided to cross two smaller tributaries before changing out of our hiking shoes, rolling up our pants, and crossing a little lower where the water moved a bit slower.
Now we were dropping down a rugged slope toward a black beach, grasslands covered in wildflowers, and a few bridges before reaching Loðmundarfjordur.
We had traveled for six hours by the time we reached the hut at Loðmundarfjordur, stopping for lunch and the chance to sit. A group of hikers also arrived from the opposite direction, gathering wild mushrooms to cook for their dinner that evening. We spent a few hours chatting and resting and felt refreshed to begin stage two of our trek. It would have been easy to linger, spend the evening camping near the hut, but the weather was favorable, so we thought we should continue. We backtracked away from the hut, and followed a dirt road toward Nes.
Fed and rested, we were moving quickly along the stretch of road. I use road hesitantly, but it can be driven a few short weeks in the summer by well-equipped vehicles, so we'll call it a road. Shortly after leaving the hut, we saw the most incredible sight: our shadows!
We enjoyed our evening walk in the sun and took tons of photos in the lovely light.
After winding up switchbacks, we pitched our tent at the pass by Nesháls. After ten hours of hiking we enjoyed a simple dinner and a gorgeous view across to the fjord we passed through earlier in the day.
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| Seyðisfjörður - Loðmundarfjordur - Nesháls |
