"Postholing" our way to the Hot River

The hot river and mountain scene
NOTE: These pictures are in reverse order!!

River Crossing that required quite the leap (well, actually, heft by the boys)

Boiling Mud!

Warm Muck

Cute Mosses

Dom Luxuriating

Skeptically eying the hot river-- can it be true?!

That's pretty much the feeling...

Outside our hut! From left: Aaron, Dom, Me, Libby

Libby and Dom with their morning tea

Yay!!! The hut! My celebratory picture!

The Trail

Lunch in the vacant store

After a relatively uneventful weekend (a trip to the Perlan [basically a really, really, really fancy water tank] and the geyser that spurts off behind it), we decided to go wild and spice things up during the week. Dom's friend, Aaron, is visiting for a couple of weeks, so they wanted to maximize his time here and go on a mini trip during the week. After much debate and a phone call home, I once again decided that I could miss good old volcanology to venture off to a hot river with Dom, Aaron, Libby, and Alex. We had been told that there was a "survival hut" near the hot river that was about a 5 km hike from Hveragerði, a town about 30 min south of Reykjavik. After acquiring a stove and packing up, we bussed our way to Hwy 1 to begin yet another hitchhiking adventure.
We split up into gender divided groups-- 3 girls versus 2 boys. The boys started behind us and so were able to snag the first ride. We only had to wait 15 or 20 mins before getting picked up as well, so it was pretty efficient! The guy who picked us up was a part time welding teacher at a middle school in Reykjavik and owned an organic farm outside of Selfoss. From what he said, it sounded like his wife was pretty much in charge of the farm, so he couldn't really tell me all that much about what they were doing. I guess they grow mostly potatoes and carrots and get a good price for the carrots. I wondered if they had grown any of the carrots I have been eating like mad. I don't think I have ever eaten as many carrots on a daily basis as I do here. It is pretty incredible. Anyway, he dropped us off at the Hveragerði Bonus grocery store where we rendezvoused with Dom and Aaron. After running about the store and getting supplies (with little thought about how much they weighed, I might note) we set up a little picnic in an vacant store in the little shopping complex to feed our hungry bellies and wait out the snowstorm that was raging outside.
After lunch, the weather had miraculously become sunny and beautiful, so we took off down the road towards the hot river with high spirits. After walking along the road for awhile, we ran into a mother and daughter and asked them if we were going in the right direction. Good thing we asked, because apparently we were just walking down their long driveway at that point... They kindly redirected us and told us to be prepared for a 3 hour walk. We had no idea how a <5>When no sticks were visible, I would run up the hills off to the sides of the trail to see if I could see where we were supposed to go. As we continued on, the snow got increasingly deep and I kept toppling over after unexpectedly postholing deep into the snow. Luckily, I had lots of layers on and rain gear so it really wasn't bothering me all that much. Nobody else in the group had rain pants on, which definitely made their experiences a little bit less pleasant. As we marched on and on and on, the sun began to set. It was dusk before we caught the first glimpse of the hut, and it looked fairly far away. The red sticks had completely disappeared by this point, so we were basically just going by feel. I wasn't too worried because I knew that we had food and headlamps and so knew that if worst came to worst, we would be able to follow our footsteps back out in the dark. After awhile, I went ahead of the group to serve as a scout. Because of Iceland's lack of trees, I was able to see people way behind me and yell back at them about what I was seeing. Eventually, I thought I saw an unnatural looking shape that I thought was probably the hut, so I began to make a beeline. The hike was taking us over little ridge after little ridge, so the valleys unbeaten the ridges were filled with deeply drifted snow. At points, I was repeatedly postholing up to my hips, which definitely made the going a little bit more difficult. Even though the situation wasn't totally ideal, I still found myself looking around at the environment we were tramping through and being absolutely blown away by its stark beauty. Imagine snow covered (small) mountains with little patches of THICK moss peaking out here and there, a blue-pink dusky sky, a steaming river winding its way through the valley, and virtually no sign of human presence. Pretty amazing. Finally, finally, I got close enough to the hut to be absolutely certain of its existence. As I made it over the last little ridge in front of the hut, I turned around and yelled "It's here!!!!!!!!!!!!" a cry which was met with quite a few celebratory noises. I was a little worried that the hut was going to be unexpectedly locked for some reason or another, but luckily it was open! It was an adorable little place. It was especially cozy because it smelled a bit like the Muir cabin when I walked in!!! I was so excited! There were double-sized bunk beds built into two of the walls and then a wooden table and little wooden counter on the other walls. We left our sopping clothes and boots in the mud room and then quickly set about heating up water for dinner and tea! Oh! I should note that Dom and Aaron had been carrying plastic grocery bags full of heavy food through this whole ordeal... clearly not quite the hike we expected. After cuddling into our sleeping bags with warm couscous and tea, we were pretty darn happy. Everyone kept remarking on how wonderful life was and how happy we were to be where we were. We wound up staying up pretty late (3 am or so) but slept in late enough to compensate. I eventually got tired of waiting for people to get up at about 10 am and so began tiptoeing around picking up peanuts and chocolate wrappers from the floor and exploring the area right around the cabin. After a late, late breakfast of plain oatmeal with cut up bananas, apples, raisins, skyr, and Marylins (a type of cookie) we set about putting the place back in order and signing the guestbook. People quickly began to get cold after putting on slightly damp clothes and wet boots, so we didn't dally for too long before heading down to the hot river! It was blissful! Dom was the only person who actually submerged himself because the rest of us couldn't bring ourselves to take off our clothes, but wading was amazing as well. It was such a funny scene-- snow all around and people playing in the river! What a disconnect! We splashed around for awhile, but when it began to rain in earnest, we figured we best begin the trek out. The combination of a rainy (and thus snow melting) night and full daylight made the walk out wayyyy easier than the walk in had been. We had been walking on the wrong side of the river the night before, so had done way more up and down than we needed to and had missed all of the bubbling pots of mud and hissing vents of steam that were on the other side of the river! They were quite the sight! HUGE pots of vigorously boiling mud and hot, milky blue pools of water. Pretty magnificent.
Instead of walking all the way back into Hveragerði, we wound up cutting up a hillside to Hwy 1 to expedite the process. After splitting up the girls and boys groups again, we both managed to get picked up within 15 min or so. Our driver was nice enough to drive us all the way back to Gamli Gardur, which made the trip home seem effortless!
Once again, being in a somewhat challenging situation made me feel really lucky to have grown up with my parents-- they certainly did a good job preparing me for all sorts of outdoor situations. It is funny to be in the place of outdoor confidence and leadership within a group like this, especially when you think about what a scared little kid I was a bunch of the time. My knife, water bottle, and rain gear training served me well again!
Myrica and my mom come day after tomorrow and I can't WAIT! I think I am pretty much caught up on school stuff, so I should have plenty of time to play around with them! I can't believe that it is already time for them to come! I am going to be home before I know it, something which I definitely have mixed feelings about. I am super excited to return to the PNW and everyone who I miss so terribly, but it feels really strange to know that my "abroad" experience will be over sort of soon. I mean, I have been looking forward to this since high school, is it possible that I will have actually gone and come back?! Seems unreal. I just need to make sure to enjoy every minute of my time here while it lasts!!!!

I miss you all and think of you often! I hope that you are all well, well, well!