Into the Tourist Den: Golden Circle > Keflavik [6/30-7/04 - 230mi]

I left Gardur's farm overloaded with frozen Icelandic meat products and headed towards the famous tourist destination of The Golden Circle. Near enough to Reykjavik for convenient day trips, the area is swarming with tourists and their large coach busses. Alas, the items on most of their checklists are Geysir (yes, a geyser- but the english word "geyser" stems from the Icelandic location.) Geysir itself only spouts every hundred years or so, albeit very impressively; however there is a small fountain right next to it that spits up a flume of water every 10-20min. Nearby is Gullfoss, a massive 3-tiered waterfall. Deciding that I would avoid the masses and tempted by the idea of leaving my gear at the campsite for the 14mi round trip ride, I made the journey to Gullfoss around 1am and literally had the place to myself. Finally there is Pingvatn- Iceland's largest lake and the nearby village of Pingvalla that is the historic site of the first Parlimentary assembly in Europe.
Geysir had all the makings of a tourist trap, but Gullfoss was very impressive.

Gullfoss

 

 

 

And then it rained- amazingly, for almost a month in Iceland I had avoided the rain except for a few brief showers. Today was not so lucky and I rode for hours in a cold steady rain. Despite this, I detoured 12mi extra to see Pingvatn. As you can see, the view was tremendously worthwhile:

Another day riding along the southern coast out to Grindlavik, I found a fantastic campsite perched on the cliffs above a black sand cove and listened to the crashing waves as I cooked up Gundar's shark fillets for a late night dinner.

near Grindlavik

My final day led me to the famous Blue Lagoon Hotspring Resoprt, which they are quick to point out is ranked as one of the 25 Wonders of the Wolrd by National Geographic, with prices to match.
ljgh

outside Blue Lagoon... you'll have to see inside for yourself.... if you dare

The entire experience felt like being part of a sci-fi movie: after ponying up the $45 entry fee, they give you a microship encoded bracelet that is both your locker key and expense account for whatever fantastic goods and services you want to indulge in. Massage? Beauty products derived from their silica mud? An overpriced beer in the pool from the Tiki Bar? Have at it all, just scan your wrist....

The surroundings were just as eery- turquoise blue pool backed by jagged black lava speckled hills, a steamy geothermal powerplant off to the side, hoards of people soaking while their faces are caked with the white silica skin elixer. I couldn't decide if this was paradise or a high-end concentration camp. But if you go all the way to Iceland, you kinda have to go to the Blue Lagoon.

I made it out alive and back to my original campground near the Keflavik airport to retrieve my bike box and pack up for the next phase of my trip.

goodbye Iceland, you have sure been good to me!

An island retreat [Vestmannaeyjar -- 3 days]

Figuring that if I'm spending a month on a big island, I ought to spend a few days on a tiny one. Boarded the 10am ferry boat for the 40min trip to the Vestmannaeyjar Islands just south of the mainland. This is a group of about 15 small volcanic islands formed during the last Ice Age (10-20,000 years ago) although the most recent one, Surtsey, was formed during an underwater eruption between 1963-1966. The largest island, Heimaey, is the only inhabited one and is home to over 4000 people. It's a popular destination for bird watchers and has quite a few of the famous puffins living on its cliffs.

The campground here [there are two actually- Porsheimili is far nicer than the other up the road] is really a great setting- overlooking a cool golf course built into a lava field, the ocean and several small islands; backed by an amphitheater of towering cliffs with swarming birds and a few errant sheep. I ended up settling in for 3 pleasant nights, enjoying the chance to rest, explore, soak and linger at the town coffeeshop.

Porsheimili campground

Early on the agenda was a nice soak at the town swimming pool, with an extra hot hottub. I was randomly given a locker for my valuables, and it was (appropriately) my old courier number from the past 8+ years:

lest I forget my past...

On my second evening as I was heading to the campground's communal kitchen area, a nice Polish couple I'd met earlier were hanging out at the picnic table. Upon my arrival the exclaimed, "Come, we have made you fish! Eat dinner!" This was no joke- they'd been down at the fishing docks trying to buy a fresh fish for dinner. The fisherman must've liked them and said, "We have plenty, here take these two for free" and handed over two big fish (cod and haddock) that were so fresh they had yet to even be packed into the ice chests. Talk about a score for me! We had a little campground feast with several others, and the fish was deliciously grilled with garlic butter and lemon. I'd been intent on eating some fresh Icelandic fish, although was reluctant to fork over the $40+ most nice restaurants were charging for a good seafood meal. Talk about a bargain!

catch of the day

the Chefs of Honor- Mia & Lukas from Poland

The next day I rode the couple of miles down to the southern tip of Heimaey to what is, statistically speaking at least, "the windiest place in all of Iceland." The weather station here at Storhofdi records only an avg of 4 calm days per year and often has winds over 30m/s. It was only a gentle breeze today, however.

Storhofdi

Along the way I watched some killer whales coming up for air as they feasted on fish schools a ways off the coast. I didn't spot any puffins, although I didn't really go searching them out like most visitors do. Guess I've never been much of a bird watcher. Next it was up to the northern tip of the island by the harbor to climb the island's highest point, Heimaklettur, at 283m above sea level. The views were pretty cool, especially of the lava field created by a 1973 eruption that evacuated the island, buried 300+ homes, added 2.3 sq km of land mass and threatened to block off access to the harbor. I'm told some of the lava is still hot enough to light a cigar from the ground, although I did not test this out personally.

sheep ain't afraid of heights!

Lobster Fest 2012 [Hofn]

Pedaled the last few miles into the fishing town of Hofn to check out the Lobster Festival I was told about back at the mysterious free hottub earlier in the week.

It turned out to be pretty fun, although it was an event definitely geared towards locals and not foreign tourists... so the printed schedule and all events were only in Icelandic and I couldn't understand a word of what was going on most of the time. They had some carnival rides for the kids during the day, and at night it turned into a good excuse for everyone else to drink. But the Icelanders are pretty mellow when it comes to drinking; they were clearly having fun but not getting outrageously wasted or being obnoxious. Pretty chill vibe all around.

The local restaurants had a lot of lobster specials on offer- I didn't see any whole lobsters being served but you'd probably have to go to one of the sit-down restaurants for that. Compared to a typical Maine lobster, the Icelandic variety (I'm told) are smaller and tastier. I've been pretty good about only cooking my own food from the grocery markets so far on my journey... and as this would be my first, and in all likelihood last, Icelandic lobster festival.....

....I went a little overboard:

lobster pizza

lobster pylsur

lobster soup & lobster pylsur

As they say in Icelandic, it was "Yammy"

2 days exploring Myvatn on foot

Ended up spending three nights at the lakeside campground in Myvatn; it's a fascinating place bustling with volcanic and goethermal activity. I easily could've spent an entire week or more and still not had time to hike to everything to see around here. Myvatn is also one of the biggest bird sanctuaries in the world and I think I read that there are somewhere around 2000 different species of birds living around the lake.

The first day Craig, Karolyn and I set off to hike up to a volcanic "psuedo-crater" [they are called psuedo-craters, because they look like craters but that term implies creation by impact (meteorites) rather than by volcanic activity. There are many of varying sizes in this area.) Along the way we turned up an amazing little natural hotspring cave along the trail.

At this point it was raining pretty steadily and looked like dark clouds would be bringing more for the foreseeable future. So instead of hiking up to the pseudo-crater in the wet, we took the other fork in the trail to the Myvatn Nature Baths, a "luxury" hotspring resort said to rival the world famous Blue Lagoon rear Reykjavik. It cost a pretty penny to get in (2800 Krona... ~$21) but seemed worth the splurge. It was. Of course by the time we hiked to the springs, the rain had stopped but the idea of a lazy afternoon soaking in hot mineral water sure sounded splendid.

Myvatn Nature Baths

At the cafe there, I got to try Bjarnarflagsbraud ("Geyser Bread") a local specialty that is baked underground for 24hrs using the natural geothermal heat nearby. It's an interesting bread and quite tasty actually- it's extremely dense but soft and sticky and very savory.... like the heaviest gingerbread ever, minus the ginger and sugar.

A few hours in the hot pools did the body good (and the skin too, according to advertisements) so we started back to camp and checked out some crazy features along the way.

geothermal power plant & cooling pond

Day 2: On Sunday I set off solo to do some more exploring. First I rode around the west shore of the lake to hike the summit of Vindbelgarfall volcano for a nice view of the surrounding area and many pseudo-craters around the lake.
 

After a mountaintop lunch, I pedaled back around to the east shore and hike to the rim of Hverfjal volcanic rim. It's hard to tell from the photo but the rim ridge runs in a complete circle that you can easily walk all the way around.

Hverfjal

We'd also made friends with a couple of British ex-pats now hailing from Canada who are traveling counter-clockwise around the island via public bus. They've been spending a few days at the Myvatn campground as well and we've had many lingering breakfast & dinner conversations in the communal kitchen area; this last night here was no different.

good company: Karolyn, Graham and Jane

Iceland or bust!

For months I've been mulling over plans for an epic, solo, self supported bicycle tour in Europe this summer. I've wanted to do a trek like this for several years and as things have panned out over the winter, life finally lined up to make it happen. Time to move on from a long relationship, from 4.5 years living in Denver, from 8.5 years as a bike messenger for Denver/Boulder Couriers. Time to go on a long adventure!!

I finally pulled the trigger and bought my plane ticket, thus making this feel like much more of a reality. I fly from Denver to Iceland in June, spend a month there circumnavigating the island and checking out the fascinating geologic features: active volcanoes, fjords, glaciers, mountains, geysers, and perhaps most appealing- hot springs!

In early July, I'll fly to mainland Europe, catch some mountain stages of the Tour de France later in July and spend 2 months exploring the continent. No real agenda yet, but I expect it to include France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany... maybe more, maybe less depending on my muses. I'll be traveling on my bike, carrying all my gear and belongings in panniers, primarily camping at night. Having done two short tours in Utah in years past, I'm ready for something seriously epic. Can't wait!

Glenwood Springs road trip

Grandpa gave me some money for a Christmas gift, so we hit the road for a weekend of (cheap) relaxation at Glenwood Hot Springs. I found a motel for $50 and we drove through a gnarly snow squall over Vail Pass, then got in a beautiful 2hr hike in Glenwood Canyon before settling in for the night. And eating pizza while laying in the hotel bed is always a treat!

Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon

scree field in Grizzly Gulch, north of Glenwood Canyon

misty crags above Grizzly Gulch

nice view from a $49/night motel, yes??

On Sunday, we soaked all day in the hot springs in town. No photos, but it was a fantastic day!

back to the mountain bike!!

April and I packed up the car and took off for some rustic car-camping outside Buena Vista along the Collegiate Peaks in the Sawatch Range of the Rockies. We found a nice quiet campsite near the dead end of a dirt road in the National Forest and had a fun night by the campfire.

My elbow's feeling stronger and more stable so I brought my mountain bike along to have my first go at riding trails since my accident in June. The Colorado Trail passes through this area just a few hundred yards from our campsite and on Sunday I rode south for a couple of hours to Sand Creek before turning around and heading back to camp. Autumn foliage was spectacular and the aspens were peaking! A really beautiful weekend and a major hurdle cleared in getting back into the woods on my bike. I'm not at 100% by any means, but felt pretty solid once I got into the groove of mountain biking. I can't wait to get back to the trails soon!

Sunday afternoon, April hiked the Colorado Trail north a few miles to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, and I finished up my bike ride and met her over there with the car. A relaxing soak until dusk came upon us, then stopped off in Leadville for our favorite bargain dinner of filet mignon at Quincy's.

Valentine's Day in the mountains

We took a long weekend back to the Bunny Lane Cabins near Buena Vista, including a ski day at Monarch Mountain. Got a nice hike at the Denny Creek trail before settling into the cabin for a couple of nights of ping pong, wine, good food and fun times. Cooked our entire dinner atop the toasty woodburning stove!

Skied a day at Monarch, which is one of the last 'old school' ski hills around. 4 fixed lifts (3 doubles and 1 quad), no big lodge, no condos, no hoopla. Just a great quiet ski hill with some avy controlled sidecountry terrain to boot up.

We checked out Cottonwood Hotsprings before heading back home, although would recommend Mt. Princeton next time. Then a cheapo dinner at Quincy's for some $6 filet mignon for Valentine's Day and back down to the city.

Steamboat / Strawberry Park ski weekend

April's older sister Sandra came out from Illinois for a visit and a jaunt to the ski slopes. We booked a couple cabins at Strawberry Park Hotsprings and hit the road in my overstuffed car, skidding over Berthoud Pass, white knuckling it over Rabbit Ears Pass and rallying up the steep snowpacked road to the springs. Forecast called for snow that night, so I preemptively installed the tire chains for the ride out to Steamboat resort in the morning.

We woke up to a foot of fresh powder, loaded up the car with our gear and made it all of a quarter mile before getting stuck up the first hill. There was no hope making it up the slope, even with the chains on. So, we bagged the ski day and soaked instead. I took a nice snowshoe up to the ridge behind the springs with a great view that I forgot to photograph. They've had record snow this winter here, it was incredibly beautiful with everything capped in 4ft of soft snow.

We skied on Sunday instead, and what a great day it was. Turns out half the lifts were closed yesterday due to wind and whiteout, so lucky that we didn't make it to the resort on Saturday as planned. Perfect weather and wonderful soft snow. This is the first time I've skied in seven years, but like riding a bike it all came back immediately and I jetted around the entire sprawling resort. It was an expensive day at $98 for a lift pass, but lots of fun and absolutely no lines for the lifts. Time to learn to get into the backcountry and away from the development, clearcutting, and sprawl of the commercial resorts.

April & Sandra at Strawberry Park

Buena Vista / Mt Princeton Hotsprings birthday weekend

April surprised me with a couple nights at the amazing Bunny Lane Cabins outside Buena Vista for my birthday! Fun times indeed- a large one room cabin with a pingpong table, vintage stereo system replete with a classic rock cassette library, and a toasty wood stove. Low key and rustic, just how we like it. Good homemade food, goofy fun times. Happy birthday to me!

"Rabbit Den" cabin

The cabin is just up the road from Mt. Princeton Hotsprings resort and we enjoyed a long afternoon soak (and another later at night) along the Chalk Creek. Natural hot water seeps up from the earth right next to the river, and rocks are arranged to form small pools of varying temps depending how much chilly riverwater mingles.

Mt. Princeton Hot Springs alongside Chalk Creek

We drove up to Saint Elmo, a preserved 'ghost town' up towards Mt. Princeton. Most of these buildings are now privately owned and restored, originally built in the mid 1880's.

St. Elmo ghost town

Hiked along the base of the Chalk Cliffs- a unique rock feature resulting from the effects of underground hot water chemically transforming the rock before it uplifted into the peaks we see now.

the Chalk Cliffs