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rpcv 
Group: Members
Posts: 192
Joined: Aug. 2006
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Posted on: Aug. 08 2012, 8:40 pm |
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My husband and I spent two weeks in Iceland in July, nine days of backpacking from Laki Mountain to Skaftafell. We went with a group and a guide. It was the first time we had ever done a trip like that and we had a blast. Everyone in the group actually got along really well (and nine days is a long time for a group that didn't know each other at the start). Ninety percent of the route was off-trail. Our guide said he never takes the same route twice. If I had to guess, I would say we hiked 75-85 miles. We spent three days crossing glaciers, crossed large rivers, camped in wildflower filled canyons, hiked past amazing waterfalls, and saw something completely new every day.
More pictures can be found here.
We started the hike with a short climb to the top of Laki Mountain, the site of catastrophic volcanic eruptions in 1783-84.
Hardy little pink flowers in the volcanic desert.
Finding a way onto the glacier on day 2. Our guide had hoped the river in the center of the photo would be low enough to cross. No such luck. We hiked miles upstream looking for a way across to get on the glacier.
Our second day on the glacier. Glacier crossings are slow and tiring, but amazingly beautiful.
A pair of Harlequin Ducks make their way upstream.
Arctic River Beauty in front of an unnamed waterfall.
Two large waterfalls on the route. One of my favorite things about this picture is the distinct line between the waters from the two rivers.
The view from my favorite campsite of the trip.
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Silver Spring Wanderer
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GaliWalker
Group: Members
Posts: 583
Joined: Feb. 2010
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Posted on: Aug. 08 2012, 11:23 pm |
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Amazing (especially the twin waterfalls)! Beautiful photographs.
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'Gali'Walker => 'Mountain-pass' walker
Photos: http://galiwalker.zenfolio.com
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GoBlueHiker
Obsessive Island Hopper...
Group: Members
Posts: 14069
Joined: Jul. 2006
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Posted on: Aug. 09 2012, 1:58 pm |
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Awesome. 
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Wealth needs more. Happiness needs less. Simplify.
www.RainForestTreks.com
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RebeccaD
Double Arch, Arches N.P.
Group: Members
Posts: 9852
Joined: Jul. 2004
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Posted on: Aug. 17 2012, 11:14 am |
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Fantastic!
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Bits of writerly thoughts and random short fiction found at
The Ninja Librarian Blog
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| Post Number: 5
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ponderosa
Group: Members
Posts: 3985
Joined: Jul. 2003
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Posted on: Aug. 19 2012, 10:07 pm |
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Wonderful!!! Thanks for posting.
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The harder the toil, the sweeter the rest.
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tomas
Group: Members
Posts: 2360
Joined: Oct. 2006
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Posted on: Aug. 21 2012, 3:02 pm |
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I gotta get back to Iceland. Fortunately there are some amazing fares out of the local airport, so I just need to find a good excuse to go.
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To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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llamapacker
Group: Members
Posts: 658
Joined: Feb. 2010
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Posted on: Aug. 21 2012, 4:37 pm |
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Beautiful. Love those two waterfalls.
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| Post Number: 9
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Burner973
Walk it off
Group: Members
Posts: 1687
Joined: May 2009
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Posted on: Aug. 21 2012, 4:54 pm |
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Great photos. Was there last August. sure makes you appreciate forests though.
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"A map is the greatest of all epic poems. Its lines and colors show the realization of great dreams." Gilbert H. Grosvenor
New Jersey, the people who tell it like it is.
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| Post Number: 10
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rpcv
Group: Members
Posts: 192
Joined: Aug. 2006
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Posted on: Aug. 22 2012, 8:31 am |
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Thanks all. It was a great trip.
Burner, it does make you appreciate forests. I have a picture of my husband "hiding" in an Icelandic forest near one of the rivers. He is crouching on the ground among some scrubby birch trees that are about four feet tall!
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Silver Spring Wanderer
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overthehillwalker
Group: Members
Posts: 580
Joined: Apr. 2002
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Posted on: Aug. 24 2012, 11:15 pm |
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Thank you! Awsome!
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CajunHiker
Carnival Time!
Group: Members
Posts: 22559
Joined: Jun. 2006
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Posted on: Aug. 25 2012, 1:01 am |
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Wow, thank you for sharing!! Amazing!!
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"Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. All at once." - Chris Rose
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WhosThatGirl
Group: Members
Posts: 9
Joined: Sep. 2012
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Posted on: Sep. 06 2012, 11:25 am |
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Amazing photos, thank you for sharing!! I especially loved the two waterfalls (like everyone else) - they are just stunning. Is the river on the right side from glacier melt? Might explain the lighter color of the water, if it has glacial sediment in it.
OK, Iceland is getting bumped up on my list of places to go!
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| Post Number: 14
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desert dweller
Greetings
Group: Members
Posts: 8845
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Sep. 06 2012, 1:08 pm |
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Very nice, indeed.
I would have never believed the photo of the two hikers next to the river was in color. Only the clothes of the hikers proved that it was. What a stark landscape.
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Seek Higher Ground
Can you feel the silence
Photobucket
Flickr
YouTube
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| Post Number: 16
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rpcv
Group: Members
Posts: 192
Joined: Aug. 2006
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Posted on: Sep. 13 2012, 10:07 am |
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@ WhosThatGirl: The river on the right is, indeed, glacier-fed.
Eggs, we went with Icelandic Mountain Guides. There aren't a lot of companies that actually do backpackbacking trips (at least more than a night or two) outside of Landmannalauger. We had a great experience with them.
The people that were on the trip with us who visited Landmannalauger as well loved it, but did say that it was crowded. Except for the first and last mile of the trip, we saw three other hikers, from a distance, in the entire nine days.
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Silver Spring Wanderer
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