Day of Rest in Þórsmörk

After the two day trek across the Lagaveur Trail with a final 14 hour push through some of the most breathtakingly beautiful landscape I have ever seen, we were ready for some down time and much needed rest.  After all, this is supposed to be a vacation; Þórsmörk ended up being the best place in Iceland thus far to relax.

Spent two night here in a lush valley in the shadows the Myrdalsjökull and Eyjafjallajökull glaciers.

Woke up at 11:00 to a backpacking gourmet breakfast of dehydrated fruit and maple almond butter burritos.

After some hot showers we headed to the lodge to get some time out of the rain, I never realized how soaking wet I was from the previous 4 days of biking until I entered a dry structure.  

Still ravenously hungry we from the trail, we attacked this basket of fresh baked bread like a couple hyenas.  

Thick Icelandic butter, vegetable soup.

With a short break in the rain, I took advantage of my renewed energy to clean the bikes a bit.
Tourists pay big money for jars of volcanic ash, I was cursing it as I attempted to scrub it from all our components.  I shudder to think what my bearings look like.

Volcanic mud and sand turned the rims into grinders to quickly wear down the break pads to almost nothing during the previous day's descent.

Þórsmörk was bustling with people, as there was an ultramarathon running the same route we had biked the previous two days, this meant intertaining conversations with people from all over the globe who had come to Iceland to run the iconic Laugavegur trail.  

This years winner in 4 hours, 48 minutes, 8 seconds.

55 km, total elevation gain of 1900 meters (or 6233 feet) and total descent of 2200 meters (7218 feet) which took us a total of 19 hours of trail time on bikes, 5 hours the first day, 14 the second. 

We took advantage of all the special amenities provided for the racers, most notably massage and a fresh roasted Icelandic lamb feast. 





Ate dinner with some racers from Canada who had finished around the 6 hour 30 minute mark, who called us "crazy" and were equally amazed that we had completed the trek with bikes and were still on speaking terms with one another, and called Monica "hard core".

 Paradise camping; Sauna; Hot Springs; Yoga Yurt.

Barrel sauna and a dip in the hot spring pool.

Chillaxing under some fine needlepoint work of famous paintings.