Hornstrandir Day 2 – 6/28/15 ~9 miles

I didn’t sleep well between the constant flapping of my tent in the wind and the never ending daylight, but I really woke up when a thunderous crash had me instantly popping my head out of my tent to see a massive rockslide roaring down from the cliffs above, thankfully far enough away to not be a danger.

We continued along the nonexistent trail on swampy shoreline to loop back around to almost where we’d started yesterday. From there we picked up a faint trail to head over a pass to the next fjord. There were several snow fields to contend with, but nothing difficult. Up on top the land was an expansive flat of rock and spongy moss.

 

 

 

 

Coming down from the pass was very steep and the trail was pretty faint, but at least there was a trail.  At the bottom we reached a massive lake and walked about 3 miles along the marshy edge alternating between toe deep and ankle standing water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made camp at the end of the lake at the bottom of where will we start our climb up over another pass to get to our ferry pick up location (different from where we started).
It was definitely a slower pace than I am used to hiking at but if any place warrants smiles not miles it’s Hornstrandir.  We saw lots of birds today and even a ground nest with 4 chicken sized eggs near camp. Oh, and another adorably fluffy fox briefly visited camp.

The wind was intense today and got really cold towards the end of the day. I was often wearing 4 top layers including a synthetic puffy. Considering it wasn’t even raining I’m feeling a little nervous about weather on the (hopefully) impending long hike.