07/18/21 – Horn Day 4 – Hlöduvik to Hornvik

Another sunny day, what a treat! Steve went down to get water and after asked me if I’d seen the sign warning of a whale carcass and to get water farther upstream… No I did not see that sign last night! One of the very few things you have to watch for in Iceland for water quality! We spoke to a ranger later in the trip and he said it had been there for at least a full year and with the water is so cold and with few scavengers, it will be there for a while!

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We packed up and headed out at our usual 11:30 am and as usual, we went from sea level to like 1200 feet pretty much immediately. Today’s hike was the long way around to get to Hornvik, hiking along the ridge that gave us or great view of the Horn. We went up and over the first pass and then took the way less traveled trail. It was marked as a route on the map but also listed as not clear or well marked, meaning good luck!

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The way down was lovely and warm and we lunched on a little spit of land between the creeks.

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From there we did another climb from sea level to about 1400 ft, bringing us to seriously amazing views! For the next few hours we made our way along, talking way too many, pictures. Then we had to pay the dues that got us this great view, we had to start our way around the mountain cliffs inland to find our way down to the next camp. No trails existed here, just a trace on Gaia from some other hiker. Slow going across boulder fields on a slope that strained the ankles, but luckily in only in one direction.

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We picked up another fox as we made our way around.

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We found the pass we were shooting for and looked down… f@ck. What was listed as a route on the paper map no longer existed and it looked steeper than anything we’d done yet. Oh yeah, it was also all downhill after eight hours of hiking already, so basically my perfect recipe for suckage. Steve did find remnants of the old trail and I began my sloth like way down.

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If there is a rating called type zero fun, this was it. My attitude was bad and partway down I had to stop and mentally regroup. It was time to deploy the last of the morale boosting chocolate! Tserka and I perked up and the rest of the descent was a lot easier.

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Finally at the bottom, we got to the basalt dikes that Steve wanted to see and where we’d planned a coffee stop. Unfortunately, they’d installed a camera to I assume live stream the bird nesting cliffs. I did my norm and freaked out that we were doing something we shouldn’t be doing, so no coffee stop. Dumb? Yes, I know but my brain was in a bad place. I just wanted to get out of the valley and the trail out was well marked and well traveled. It ran along a steep slope and I had to be extra aware of my footing. The more fatigued I get, the more clumsy I become. Basically as I hiked, I replayed various scenarios of falling to my death or maiming over and over in my head! Fun times!

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We made it to the trail junction into camp and seeing a nice river, Steve called a dinner stop since it was already 10 pm. Camp was still a mile away, hiking along the coast over the boulders. Having dinner here would save us time when we hit camp and keep us from being those obnoxious campers who role in late and make a bunch of noise in a crowded campsite. The break was wonderful! Dinner was a Peak ReFuel meal of Butternut Dhal and it was amazing! The great thing about these meals is that they warm you twice, once when you dump the boiling water in and snuggle the food bag, and the second time when you eat it! Once again a curious fox showed up to sniff around as we had dinner.

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Refreshed and fed, we hiked the last miles to camp, including one rope ascent and descent. We’d done worse without ropes earlier in the day but they were a nice touch. We made camp in the middle, with about 10 other hiker tents and 15 of the Borea tents. I managed to sleep after about three hours of leg cramps, and man, it was great!

Totals: 11.15 miles in 13:16 hours (8:09 moving, 5:07 still), gained 2731 ft, lost 2728