This is not your ordinary hike. For about 25 days this summer, our boots will be rocking and squishing across the Icelandic landscape from Skógar on the southern coast to the Hraunhafnartangi lighthouse on the northern coast.

For us, it’s a backpacking vacation, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Our first Icelandic vacation idea involved peddling the entire Ring Road but a closer examination of our gear closets made it clear that we were backpackers and not cyclists. In fact, there wasn’t one piece of long distance cycling gear in our combined inventories.

It was time to reconsider.

Outfitted with new maps from Ferdakort and information from websites and blogs, we discovered our true calling. Using an orange highlighter (the only color NOT used on our maps), we slowly traced a route using established foot trails, roadways and untracked territory until about 370 miles or 595 kilometers of vacation loving fun was staring us in the face.

Since arrival in Iceland via a sailboat hasn’t worked itself out the way I dreamt, we’ll be touching down with the masses at Keflavík International Airport. Sailing from Boston through the Davis Strait will have to wait until next time.

Upon our arrival, we’ll bus it to Reykjavík and set up base camp at the Salvation Army Hostel, a cozy place in the heart of the capital.

After our final gear shake down, we’ll check out places that caught our eye in the Reykjavík Wallpaper* City Guide. We’ll be looking for warm, delicious gastronomic pleasures to compensate for the upcoming weeks of trail food.

I suspect that pre-hiking excitement will cause sleepless nights at the hostel, but once on the trail, falling asleep will not be a problem. A 40-pound pack and daily 15-mile hikes is the best medicine for insomnia caused by the Norse goddess Sól’s position in the summer sky.

Larry Mishkar.

The first day of our hike begins in a bus, flying down Iceland’s Highway 1, the Ring Road, toward the ‘trailhead’ at Skógar. History once placed Skógar directly on the coast, but sea level change put the new coastline out a further five kilometers.

To make the Iceland traverse ‘official’ we need to go south before going north. The first of many trip photos will happen at the nearby Skógafoss waterfall under—hopefully—cooperating sunny skies and double rainbows.

The trail between Skógar and the valley of Thórsmörk is popular with hikers, and huts line the way. We’ll pass between the Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull glaciers before swinging northwest to Thórsmörk.

The first half of the route from Thórsmörk to Nordurnámsver is the hut-lined Fjallabak trek, the best known long trek in Iceland. Our goal is to reach Nordurnámsver and the bridge over the Tungnaá river north of lake Krókslón.

Our first food resupply location is the well-stocked camp store at Landmannalaugar, a popular highland tourist destination, midway between Thórsmörk and Nordurnámsver.

Once past Nordurnámsver, we hike toward the lava fields, and a mountain in the national park of Vatnajökull glacier. Happiness is in the details along this section: too far from the mountain and its lava field hiking; too close to the glacier and the mountain is hidden.

After Vatnajökull, we’ll swing to the north of Trölladyngja, an interesting lava district with two routes—we’ve been warned that the southern route is dicey with the possibility of snow.

Jenni Post.

Hungry after all that lava hiking, we’ll lay over at Reykjahlíd by lake Mývatn. Our second food resupply is a small grocery located here. A lakeside campground will be our resting spot before traveling north toward Dettifoss waterfall and the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon national park.

Located on the southern end of Jökulsárgljúfur, Dettifoss is 100 meters wide and drops 44 meters, and holds the record for moving the largest volume of water in all of Europe. With its spray visible for miles, we’ll be looking for more rainbows.

A chaotic canyon and volcanic mountains caused by an eruption awaits us in Jökulsárgljúfur. The park hike requires two days to reach the northern boundary and our third food resupply at the horseshoe-shaped depression of Ásbyrgi (legend has it the depression was caused by the hoof of Sleipnir, Ódinn’s stallion).

After Ásbyrgi, we make our way north to the lighthouse at Hraunhafnartangi and the grave of the murdered Icelandic saga protagonist Thorgeir Hávarsson—Thorgeirsdys. A rock pile grave, or dys, marking the location of his decapitated body continues to grow from the custom of adding rocks as a gesture of respect.

So here at the Atlantic Ocean is our finish line. Strangely enough, the bus ride back to Reykjavík is nearly the same distance as our hike. Go figure.  

Larry Mishkar and Jenni Post – photo@larrymishkar.com 

Larry and Jenni are filling in for Alana Odegard.