07/19/21 Horn Day 5
We woke up to overcast skies but no rain. This campsite is the largest and most crowded on the entire Hornstrandir. The ranger came over to get our info, no charge for camping (yet) but they want to know where home is and where you hiked in from. We commented on how the chain and ladder caught us by surprise the first day and he said oh, yeah we’ve removed that trail from our maps … well, we found it on ours!
Hiking into camp the night before. 
Driftwood art and Borea Adventures tent
Today was all about exploring the Horn. When we were here last time it was completely clouded out, so today’s just cloudy weather was an improvement. It was glorious to put on a lighter pack that was just clothes and lunch. From camp it is an easy 1.2 mile through the dunes to reach the river crossing. It is more of a shallow lake but at low tide, it is no more than knee high. After that we made our way around in reverse of what we did last time. Being able to see this time made everything so much easier. We climbed up to the Horn proper and even got lucky with a brief break in the clouds.
River crossing 
Long way down! 
Those white dots are birds! 
Then we made our way clockwise around the peninsula, taking in the bird cliffs and the overlooks. Pretty much every corner yields another breathtaking vista. On a sunny day I’m sure it is stunning but we were just happy to not be completely clouded out!
This is the highest point on the Hornbjarg cliffs.
The guys decided to summit Kálfātindar, the highest point on the cliffs. Steve and I made it up part way last time but then lost the route in the clouds. I opted out of this adventure since today was challenge by choice and not challenge by necessity. They made it up and back with about 20 mins of pictures at the top, in around an hour and fifteen minutes. I did manage to snag a picture of them at the top by chance!
From here it was a simple job of making our way back down to the coast and then back to camp. We managed to hit the crossing at low tide again, talk about luck! Back at camp the winds picked up something fierce and we spent part of the night wondering if the tent would hold. I’m glad to report that the Nemo Dagger 2 is up to the challenge of Icelandic winds. I’d highly recommend using all of the tent stakes and adding extra rope to the tie out points on the fly.
Totals: 11.7 miles in 9:39 hours (5:50 moving, 3:49 still) 1664 ft gained, 1646 ft lost.
The Rambling Hamblings 