Iceland, Without a Guide

Iceland, even it's name suggests adventure, a place filled with glaciers, black sand beaches, epic waterfalls, and primitive mountains. I first got the idea in my head a few years ago after talking with my Uncle, who had just returned from there on a business trip. "There's no trees.", I'm paraphrasing a bit, but that statement stood out to me. No tree's? I live in New England and that idea sounded so foreign to me. From his short description I felt compelled to do some research. A quick Google search yielded pictures of lava fields and old volcanoes dotting an alien landscape covered in a slight dusting of yellowish moss.

Too Hot.

I was hooked. For the next two years the idea kicked around in the back of my head, I couldn't shake it. There were set backs of course; the allure of Utah was too strong to take a back seat to this trip, the car accident last year, but finally this was the year. All of my late night procrastinating research was about to pay off. Google: Iceland hiking, Iceland Lava Caves, Do Icelandic people really believe in Trolls? YouTube: Iceland GoPro, Iceland Waterfalls, Man vs. Food Iceland (0 results). This was the year I would go, It would be the first time I would step foot in Europe, the first time I would drink water from a pool on a Glacier, the first time I would jump out of a plane (which luckily happened to be abandoned in a wasteland of black sand), The first time I would climb a lava waterfall frozen in time one mile deep in the Earth, the first time I would see a mountainside smoldering with cooling lava, and the first time I would hike at midnight in full sunlight.

Window Seat.

So one snowy February afternoon Mark, Nancy, and I went online and ordered plane tickets, because as I've said before, once you buy the plane tickets, you have to go. It was set and for the better part of the next three months I would be in planning overdrive. I know I've talked about it before, but Itinerary's are so important. You've got a limited amount of time on vacation so why waste any of that trying to figure out what to do while you're already there. And worse than that, taking the easy way out and letting a travel agent or guide do all the work for you. I do however realize in some situations and parts of the world this is a necessary evil, but if it can be avoided, it should. The simple question I asked myself is what do you want to do in Iceland? Once I figured out that step it was time to do the research.

Last Light.

Iceland is hard. Trying to find any information that doesn't direct you to a guided tour is damn near impossible, hell even the person who answers all of the Iceland questions on Trip Advisor works for Icelandic Mountain Guides. It wasn't long before I became overly frustrated, and on more than one occasion yelled "F@ck tour guides!" while sitting at my desk, at work, with my boss one cube away. But after hours of scrolling through forum post after forum post I was able to figure out the locations and directions to get to almost everything I wanted to do/see during my time there. As a service to the world, I will be posting all of the directions and information to all of the things we did and if I help just one person, then it will have been worth it.

Not a school bus.

After months of research, packing and repacking my bags, I boarded the plane that Saturday morning still not having any idea what to expect, nor how to pronounce Fjadrargljufur Canyon should I need help finding it. I'm going to post about this trip a bit differently than the ones in the past. There was too many small hikes to write about each one separately, so I'll be doing them by days. I hope you enjoy reading and maybe some of you will decide to visit this awesome country in the future.

On a side note, I'm doing Seek the Peak again this year! If anyone is interested in sponsoring me that would be greatly appreciated. All of the proceeds go to help fund the Mt. Washington Observatory and their research on weather and climate. Information on the cause it located here and if you're interesting in donating my personal fundraising page is located HERE. Cheers!