Autumn & Charl's Excellent Adventure

Raising the kitchen tent at Básar. We took over a picnic table that was already there.

And then, we moved it even further, and built stairs next to the really big rock - the same one I'm leaning against in the upper photo. The rock we moved became a base for a lower flight of stairs.

Glaciers seem to create their own light. They are always the brightest part of our skyline, and seem to light up most in mornings and evenings. It's our sixth week here, and we're doing some of the most advanced trail work yet. We're working on the main Laugavegur trail, just beyond Básar –possibly the most popular path in Iceland – where erosion is a constant, powerful force. The current trail sends hikers up a slippery scree slope, with a cable along the side as a hand-hold. For the new path, we've built a set of wooden steps (imagine a very sturdy stairset for a front porch), dislodged and moved a 500-lb. rock to fit them into the mountainside, and have lately been digging into the ground to set the corner posts. We'll fill in the steps frame with heavy stones from higher up the mountain, and put rough-cut timber over the frame for the actual steps. The finished product should be quite charming! And then we'll build and place another set. It's hard work. We must carry all of our materials and tools by hand. We can only build a little bit of it in the valley, in part because the construction is very site-specific, and in part because the trail is not wide enough (and none of us are strong enough) to carry a stairset up. But again, it's our last week. It will be bittersweet to leave our new friends, but lovely to head home. There is light on the horizon.

Important contrast: rare blue sky at the worksite between Básar and Fimmvorduhals; sunny Saturday at the cafe at Húsadalur. That little cut in the hills on the right is the cliff path we follow to the worksite, and part of Iceland's famous Laugavegur trek between the Thorsmörk valley and the waterfalls of Skogar. In the last week, we carried a half-dozen tools and 50 feet of lumber up there. Yesterday, it took four of us to move a 500-pound stone to make way for some new timber steps.

When traveling, coordinate your pants color with your bus color, so as not to get lost.

Two things I learned fairly quickly on our arrival at camp. 1: Since it never gets dark in the summer, the birds never sleep. Ever. They sing and call at all hours. 2am and 2pm are one and the same. 2: One of the most common birds in our area is the Snipe! I had always thought that the Snipe was a myth, an impossible to find creature that you sent kids out to find when you wanted them out of the way for a few hours. An interesting feature about the Snipe is the "drumming" or "winnowing" he makes with his feathers as he dives through the air. This noise can best be described as a cross between a Wookie call and the sound of a spaceship in a 60's sci-fi b-movie. Put these two facts together, subtract the knowledge of the second fact, and you get an interesting first few nights in your tent. -Ae

It's our last night camping out in the 'wild' ; today we hiked from the beautiful, but violently windy Alftavatn lake, to the peaceful, serene, mountainside hut of Emstrur. We're all camped on little flat bits of land next to a rushing stream. More than 10 kilometers of the day were spent hiking on the flat, black sand and rock plains between Hvangill and Emstrur. And we crossed four rivers! Each one required removing shoes, but only one required removing pants. Lunch was easily the highlight of the day. Since we left Alftavatn in a rainy rush, and didn't cook breakfast - we stopped at Hvangill in fairer weather, hoping to cook at the picnic table outside the wardens' hut. To our surprise, we were offered the barn! Upon investigation, we discovered tables, chairs, candles, and a plethora of empty Scotch whisky bottles in the upper floor of the barn. We made real coffee, and had a nice lunch before the big river crossing.

Home.

Hey what's up it's yo girl swingin a pickaxe. We made four drains today to send water away and preserve the trail for years to come.