July 9 – 10th: Technically if you never get to sleep, it is still the same day, so all of this falls under day 1! We left home with plenty of time to get to Chicago O’Hare airport but traffic and accidents turned a 4.5 hr drive into a 6 hr drive. We celebrated our successful start with a $10 airport beer but it was worth it.

Our direct flight was only 5.5 hrs long but with the time change it meant we boarded at 7:30 pm and arrived at 6:30 am. Iceland air was fine, if a bit less bougie than when we flew with them seven years ago. This time there was no meals or coffee, just a beverage service, which might be in part due to COVID-19 restrictions. Clearing customs this time was more about just showing our COVID vaccination card. I’d followed the food allowances and restrictions but we totally could have brought more food! Next up was the rental car which was a dissapointment. The customer service was fine but they gave us a Kia Sportage instead of the Toyota Rav 4. This may seem like a small difference but we really wanted the extra clearance and 4 wheel drive of the Rav 4. Steve was pretty salty about it and they wouldn’t downgrade us to the Duster. I’d recommend calling and confirming your car choice, especially if most of your travel is on F roads.
Keys in hand we headed to gas station for atove fuel then the grocery store to stock up on random food and my favorite, skyr! Seriously, why can’t we get this in the states?? No, Siggi’s is not the same! We still hadn’t scored any coffee yet since the planned cafe stop didn’t open until 10 am and we needed to be on the road. So back to the gas station for the worlds smallest cup of coffee, followed by a red bull because my brain was still on Indiana time. Sure we had everything this time we headed north. Nope, we had forgotten to get cash from the ATM in the airport. One more gas station stop, another coffee, and some krona, now we were really ready to go! Writing this the next day I can laugh and see that it was our lack of sleep and trying to rush that ended up costing us time overall. I’m sure there is a lesson there somewhere!

Our first day and “night” were spent at the Hagavatn cabin area, accessed by our first and roughest F road, F335. This was every bit of 9 miles of rough road, taking us about an hour and fifteen minutes to travel. Can it be done in a Sportage? Yes… Should it be? Probably not, unless you’ve also brought along your own road crew. We’ll see what the damages are when we return it! Steve had looked over lots of resources and was prepared for one big river crossing that he didn’t think our car could do. When we got there we found it bone dry.

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There was one car in the area when we arrived but we only saw the people in the far distance. A quick change of clothes, day packs packed, and we were off for our first big hike! The goal was to skirt the river and range until we got back to the Stora-Jarlhetta peak. The hiking was easy, just some rock scrambling with beautiful views all around. The first part of the ascent was not bad, then the talus slope showed up and for every 2 foot forward, I slid like a half foot back. Thankfully I had my hiking poles and I’m a full convert now! Even just a year ago I pooh-poohed hiking poles but they’ve saved me busting my butt so many times in the last 6 months! I firmly belive that I would have made a much better quadraped than a biped!

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Steve went ahead and found a nice sheltered spot on a ledge so we could enjoy a coffee before heading to the top. Let me tell you, this was some thicc coffee made from the glacier run off! Steve commented that much more of that and we be farting dust! After posing for some Instagram worthy pics in hopes of garnering free coffee, we continued our trek to the top.

We had a rough idea of the best way up based on a track Steve found on wiki-maps. The first attempt led us to a cliffed out section. This was after a sketchy semi bouldering on some crumbly rotten rock. We came down and continued around the face, finding the original track we had intended. The climbing was not quite rope worthy but it also wasn’t just a simple walk up a steep slope. More than once I had to put it into four wheel drive to use both my hands and feet!

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The guys kept saying “we’re almost there” pretty much all day so when I heard Tserka say we are at the top, I wasn’t sure I believed him! The view from the top was breathtaking! The Langjökull glacier was pretty much the whole northern horizon, with more mountains off in the other directions. This country is so beautiful and so barren but with hidden pockets of lushness and color.

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We decided to descend the mountain on the opposite side we came up. This was in theory easier than climbing but for me, going down always hurts more! I had one good crash, but came out with only a small rip in my pants and a cut on my wrist. In the meantime, Steve was basically skiing down the hill!

Once we made it off the slope, it was an easy flat walk back to camp. Nothing super spectactular to look at compared to what we had seen from the top, but still, it’s Iceland, it’s all really damn beautiful!
Back at camp we all went for a very brief wash in the glacier creek before for a late dinner of noodles. We had the whole area to ourselves after one car went out and back from seeing the waterfall.

As for the weather today, Iceland completely spoiled us! I think we had more sunshine today that we did total in our 14 day trip here seven years ago!