The Laugavegur Trail is a 33.5 mile (54 km) trail, dotted with huts and accompanying campsite that make it easy to split in 4 days. I had wanted to go to Iceland for a long time, seeing everyone who traveled there posted gorgeous pictures. When looking for what to do, I somehow stumbled across this trek. The pictures were stunning. I researched the required backpacking, and thought being in Colorado gave me the perfect chance to prepare. Plus, I wanted to explore Colorado hiking anyways.

I took a hiking safety and backpacking class. I did research, went to REI, got fitted for a pack and boots. I waited for sales and looked for gear built for wind and rain. I practiced with my backpacking pack at elevation, destroyed one backpacking stove by accident, and bought another. I tried to hike or backpack every weekend in the summer. I bought new trekking poles days before the hike at REI when my old ones crapped out.

I did read Wild by Cheryl Strayed earlier this year, so maybe that inspired me to backpack the Laugavegur Trial solo. Also, I know that my pace is so often much slower than everyone else, so going on my own allows me to hike at my own pace and stop as often as I want.

Anyways, after all this preparation, I knew the weather played a huge factor and could result in my changing my plans or even canceling my trek. I allowed 5 days for the trek in my itinerary, thinking I could always spend a day in the beautiful beginning or end places of the trek.

After being delayed for a day and going on my Snaefellsnes Peninsula, I headed to Harpa Concert Hall to catch a 7 am bus with my rain gear on. As we waited for the bus, I started talking to some Canadians and found out I had been chatting with them on a Laugavegur Trail Facebook group about the weather and changing our plans. They planned to start the hike and push through to the second hut at Alftavatn, since they had a hut and were not camping.

I got on the bus, which had WiFi, and checked the weather. It was not looking good still. However, on the Facebook group, a hut warden had recommended staying in the hut at Landmannalaugar, the place you start the trek (where the bus drops you off), and then doing the trek in 3 days by combining days 1 and 2 for 15 miles total. I had been considering doing this all along anyways, since the first campsite (Hrafntinnusker) is typically the windiest and coldest.

Safetravel.is eventually put out a travel warning not to hike or camp that night. I ended up using WiFi calling (I didn’t know that was a thing? it’s awesome) to call Landmannalaugar Hut from the bus and reserve a hut bed. I felt a lot better knowing I did not have to camp that night and could start the hike fresh in the morning.

As we turned off the ring road toward the interior of the country, the scenery got just stunning. It was like being on the moon among these stunning mountain formations. The scenery at Landmannalaugar is truly jaw-dropping. It’s like being in a painting. Photos really don’t do it justice at all.

The hut is around $70 but very basic. It has a mud room, shared kitchen, and the bedroom is like this (luckily no one was sleeping right next to me so I had lots of space!): The key aspect to the hut is that you are inside and warm, and when the weather warning says “tents will be destroyed,” you are not sleeping outside! Suddenly your definition of “too expensive” changes when faced with these conditions.

With no WiFi (certainly no TV), what do you do all day when you can’t start hiking yet? Well, there is maybe the hot spring with the most amazing mountain views in the world.

I went in for a bit and met some people. I also met some people in my hut – one was a geologist in Iceland for work who brought his mom and a friend along to explore. I decided to try a brief hike (preview of the trail), and the mountains truly looked like living in a painting (more on that tomorrow, see a view of the huts and campsite below).

I made my dehydrated backpacking meal in the kitchen, and also had some fish soup that an Icelandic tour guide had made a huge batch of (it was delicious). I met an Israeli couple, Or and Tal, who I would end of seeing a lot as we were doing the trek on the same schedule. After dinner, I went to the hot spring which was full of people (once again, no internet or TV) and met a different person from Israel who was staying in my hut and even a couple from Flagstaff, AZ. As the sun set, people began singing in Russian. Free entertainment (they were actually pretty good singers)!

I met the others in my hut (you can’t really help it, it’s tight quarters!) including one guy who decided to get a hut after he couldn’t sleep in his tent the night before. We went to bed pretty early. I wanted to get an early start with 15 miles ahead of me and knowing I am often a much slower hiker than most people. I slept great in the hut despite the number of people sharing a room.

Iceland Day 4: Laugavegur Trail to Alftavatn