Iceland Sea to Sea – Day 1
7/7/15
20.4 miles

Lots of things came together for this route and the start happening today. Yesterday I picked up Squatch and Wing It from a hike they were on near Lake Myvatn.  We spent the night in Akureyri making final decisions and plans. I was already committed to a Sea to Sea route that I came up with over my the past week.

 

 

I need to complete this route in a pretty aggressive time schedule because I have a flight to catch home on July 19.  However, I also really wanted to push myself on this Iceland trip and was excited to have a solo experience to be on my own pace and schedule. But Wing It came to Iceland  expecting to complete a Sea to Sea route and when those plans didn’t work out (same reason as my original itinerary didn’t work), she decided she wanted she wanted to join my new route. So, in many ways I am not getting what I originally wanted, but trying to make the best of it.

This morning we added Squatch as a driver to the car I had rented and he dropped Wing It and I off at the beach in Blonduos. He’s going to head back to Reykjavik for now and join us in a week at Landmannalauger for the final 50 miles.

I discovered packing up this morning my hat was missing (I just had it last night so I have no idea where it went). So after walking the half mile back into town from the beach, we went on a mile or so detour around town to the gas station and supermarket until I finally found a hat. I have no idea what it says.

 

 

 

 

Finally around 11:15am we got out of town and started pounding pavement. Thankfully the road switched to gravel after about 5 miles and remained this way the rest of the day.

It was an easy walk passing endless farms with sheep and horses and occasionally cows.

 

 

I know it was a late start, but I was really hoping to get further today. I still had a lot left in me when we stopped around 7pm. The route will continue mostly on roads tomorrow so I hope we can crank out 30+ miles.