07/16/21 – Hornstrandir Hiking Day 2.

We slept in since dinner was so late and woke up to rain. I don’t think it would have mattered, it was set to rain all day. Steve chatted with the 2 guys who had camped at the same spot but were asleep when we came in last night. They were from NY and had just spent six days packrafting the interior rivers. They said it was some of the most intense whitewater of their lives! Having used a packraft for like 5 miles of gentle flat river, I cannot imagine throwing myself into some of these rivers! I don’t fully understand how they didn’t just pop their raft on the first rock, or freeze solid with the cold water! After coffee and granola in bed, I was finally ready to don the rain gear and leave the tent. Our first stop was the lake for water, about half mile away. We had anticipated the camping areas to be closer to good water sources but that hasn’t been true so far. A dromedary bag would be a good thing to add to the list, only filling it right before the campsite. Steve had planned an optional five mile out and back to the old US Air Force radar station but given the total cloud cover, Tserka and I voted no. I knew we had another big lake crossing at the end of the day and I figured the terrain was going to be slow and rough.

Skipping the site seeing, we headed up, and up, and up. Seriously, we climbed for four hours!Most of it was no trail, just general direction marked with cairns. Using the cairns when we could see them (complete while out at times) the compass and map, (compass needle was a bit whacked), and Gaia.gps app on my phone, we more or less stayed on the trail. I lost count but we crossed at last five snow fields. There was an alpine pond at the top that would have been beautiful on a clear day, but was still magical in the mist. We filled our water bottles with the cleanest coldest water yet and continued on.

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Yesterday was a scary day full of high adventure, today was a tough day full of grueling terrain and no stops. We had planned to do a hot lunch at some point but Steve never stopped. Some where on the two hour descent I crashed physically, mentally, and calorically. I found the next flatish rock, sat down and forced a snack break. I wouldn’t say morale was boosted but at least my energy was up a bit. We came down to a house called Tonga, a private residence. They had some helpful signs pointing the way to the lake crossing. We could hike the 4 miles around the lake shore or take our chances with the crossing. The sign pointed out and then that was it, no more markers. We did time it perfectly for low tide though! I went first since I had the best water crossing set up. Steve convinced me to take all of my pack so if it was a good crossing, I wouldn’t need to come back. The temperature wasn’t bad and it was mid shin to start. Not bad! Past the middle, it crept up to knee high, then thigh high. I was so close to the opposite shore that I was determined to make it & the final push was a crotch high but then it was shallow again quickly. I met a fisherman coming out to the lake he had on chest waders which would have been ideal, if a bit heavy to carry while hiking.

The next mile or so was crap hiking. No real trail, just in and out of marshy mud and wet areas. The maps showed a trail that I don’t think enough hikers come this way to keep it open in all the vegetation. The summer residents had a couple of quad tracks around the area, down to the river and bay, and to the air strips. We ended up at a dead end track, looking at yet another water crossing, when a local guy came out on his porch to yell for us to come up his direction. He asked how the crossing was and when I said about crotch high, he said well, you didn’t find the right part, it should have only been shin deep at low tide! Oh well! He pointed us in the direction of the camping area, way out on the spit of land past the summer houses. Completely soaked and shivering, we found the tiny camp area. We threw up the tent and I immediately crawled into my sleeping bag to warm up. Steve passed me snacks periodically, followed by a chai latte, then a cup of chicken ramen (that was supposed to be our hot lunch). All of this resulted in a food coma once I warmed up. It was only 8 pm at this point and I figured we’d all warm up and have a little nap before coming back out to make dinner. Well, the next time I became conscious it was 5:30 am!

Totals: 8.85 miles in 8:09 hours (5:30 moving, 2:40 still), gained 1545 ft, lost 1604 ft.