Iceland 2021 Day 6

07/15/21

Hornstrandir hiking Day 1

We had a leisurely morning packing up and organizing our packs in prep for the next 6 days of backcountry backpacking in the Hornstrandir peninsula. We made the short drive up to Bolungarvik through another tunnel and with time to spare went up to Skälavik beach. A few people, probably Icelandic tourists, were having a picnic and building sandcastles. I love how no matter the beach location or temperature, kids will create! Back down to town we visited the few shops since we had time to kill. The handcraft store had some great hand knit wool items, I almost picked up a hat. I wish now I had since we really don’t do souvenir shopping on our trips! We found the general store that sold everything you’d want if you lived up here. Then we went to the cafe and chatted with the owner and her husband. She had come over to teach music and he came to visit for 3 weeks but 5 days before he was to go home to Australia, they closed the borders due to COVID. He’d now been here 18 months!

Fueled by a tasty london fog, we went down to met of ferry. The young man getting the boat ready didn’t speak much English (or was just shy) but we were sure we had the correct boat. A family making a day trip, joined us and then the captain rolled in on his scooter. It was a nicer ride than last time since this boat was enclosed! A short 45 min trip and it was time to board the small inflatable dinghy to get to shore. We even got there with dry feet! Now the real fun began. Hefting our heavy ass packs (mine had to be every bit of 40- 50 lbs) we started climbing. Up a the ridge about 800 ft we found the main trail and travel smoothed out and our pace picked up. This lasted a good bit until we came to the crest and found the trail and whole hillside had slumped! We picked our path down slowly and then continued down the same 800 ft we’d gained, back to sea level. With a day pack I’m sure this is all really fun… (oh sweet summer child, you have no idea how much more challenging trails are going to get – me talking to myself from the comfort of our bed and breakfast seven days later).

Steve had planned for us to get to the beach crossing at low tide, the only time isis passable from this trail. We were a bit behind schedule but hit the beach at 6:30 pm. Now the real adventure began! We knew the “trail” went along the shore rock ledge, so we made our way out a good bit . Then we saw the impassable cleft before us. In theory we could have waded or swam it but this is the far north ocean and it is frigid. We saw a ladder going up an the other side of the cleft and we figured we could make it up the ridge line to that point. Sure enough, another sketchy scramble up rotten rocks and we found a trail. Following this we found markers and a chain going down to the ladder. Apparently this is the actual trail and we needed to descend back down to the coast. I needed a breather, so Steve dropped his pack and went down to scout coast since we didn’t know what waited around the corner and the tide was coming up. He came back up reporting yep, this was the way. Let me tell you going dawn a cliff face with a heavy pack with a death rip on that chain was an experience . I remember during our Vancouver trip when we finally made it across the scary waves in the kayaks, asking who had the whiskey! Once again there were no spirits to boost my morale! Now back at sea level, we skirted the coast, hopping rock to rock for what felt like 5 miles but was really just over a bit one mile. Along the way we saw a mink family, so that was worth it. We finally made the beach, and way across the a bay, tiny white structures could be seen, our campsite! It was still a long way to go along the coast.

We had a single morale boosting piece of chocolate and kept moving. At the end of the first beach we found our first river crossing. I was prepared this time! I donned my neoprene booties I bought for New Zealand, then my Crocs in 4 wheel drive mode, stripping down to underwear since it looked deep in the middle. The water didn’t feel as cold as I remembered before and I didn’t sink in quicksand. Tserka did a bit and lost one of his sandals to the river.

Back on land, we scrambled up and over the next ridge and across the beach. This was the big river and we know it would be a hike upriver a ways until we found a spot. We stopped to put on raincoats and found we had picked up a tagalong. A curious arctic fox had been following us for a bit. Working our way upstream we found the interior trail and a cabin. The cabins and houses at these small communities belong to the extended families of those settlers who used to live up here. Technically no one lives here anymore but they use them as summer vacation homes, coming in by ferry and staying for a week or so. This cabin had a quad and had marked the river crossing. It was knee deep at the deepest and I left my pants on for this one. Just a final 1.5 mile easy dune hike and we made it!