Travel: Laugavegur Trail Day Three

Day three of the Laugavegur Trail! This was the best day – full of sun, snacks, and scary heights! After a decent sleep we had some breakfast and hit the trail. We headed out late around 9am, yet it was worth the sleep in, that’s for sure.

Laugavegur Trail Day Three

Breakfast – oatmeal! See, we’re the only ones in the kitchen, since everyone else (well, most people) have already left. I usually wake up before Bryce when we’re at home and on this day I was up for a solid 3 hours before he got up. I won 4 games of solitaire in that time (I did more than only play cards, haha!).

Raisins and peanut butter kick this oatmeal up a notch. After breakfast we packed up, snapped a photo of the trail, checked out with the warden, and started walking.

As you can see, the first two nights we were on the floor – there’s no rhyme or reason as to who goes where (that I’m aware of, anyway), the sleeping pads were comfortable enough, though. Better than a tent!

Our stay at Hvanngil was awesome, especially the horses. Up next, a Emstrur, which is about 11.2 km down the trail. A shorter day than yesterday, since we hiked the extra 4 km!

Hvanngil to Emstrur

Our bags are packed, our rain coats are zipped, and we’re ready to hike.

It’s wild how the terrain changes from day to day. The sun was out in full force on this third day. Okay, the clouds below moved fast!

With the flat hiking, weaving in and out of the mountains, we made good time and decided to stop for about an hour off the side of this bridge – we packed our chairs!

It was such a nice break, especially since we know that the huts don’t open until 1pm, so there really isn’t a need to rush, right?!

We had lunch in this spot and I had the best gluten free pretzels. So good!

Back on the trail we followed the path and were happy we could walk side-by-side.

The volcanic sand above was so hard to walk on – well, not that hard, it was like walking on the sandy beach on the West Coast Trail. I find I’m so slow walking on the sand.

Only 3 km to go! Wild.

Check out the glacier below. It’s super neat.

At this point we’re making our way down the hill to the hut – let me tell you I had no idea how many times I’d be climbing up and down this hill on day three! We walked up to get service twice and once to check out the gorge (more on that below!).

We made it! Time to check out the hut.

Emstrur Hut

We took the beds closest to the wall, and not on the second bunk. As an early riser, it’s safer to be on the bottom bunk!

This hut is different than all the others in that there are actually 4 separate huts, and they’re fully open, like a studio apartment. The kitchen is right there, so it’s difficult for some who want to go to bed early (ear plugs!) or for those who wake up early. Quite hours are pretty standard, 10pm to 6am. Having said that, our hut was hustling and bustling around 5:35am the next day.

After a break outside we had tea, snickers, and played go-fish. The nice thing about go-fish is there really isn’t a strategy to it (or is there?!).

After a few games of cards we headed over to the ranger station to talk about weather in Skogar, since that’s where we planned to be on day five, yet with snow squalls, that plan wasn’t looking good. We then hiked to the top of the hill for reception and make a back-up plan.

After that, back to the hut for more snacks. This time we had rice cakes with peanut butter and raisins.

Before dinner we headed up to the gorge – one of the highlights of the trip. Don’t miss it, even if you’re not staying in Emstrur, drop your pack and do the loop, it takes about an hour. So, back up the hill we go.

The Gorge

Guess what we saw?! Our first tree on the hike!!

Now, for the gorge. Or, as it’s known, Markarfljótsgljúfur Canyon.

After we walked the gorge loop we headed back to the hut to make dinner.

Since the hut was full and had a small kitchen, we decided to have one of our quick dehydrated meals. All that take is water and time. We played more cards and ate up.

Post dinner we grabbed our chairs and headed outside to watch the sunset – and a family of 6 from France scurry to set up their tent!