After shaking the frost off of our tent early in the morning we drove through mountains and lava fields from Modrudalur to Egilsstadir and set up camp in a secluded grove of trees at the city campground. Despite holding the honor of the largest town in East Iceland the population is just over 2,000 residents, and besides being a good jumping off point for a few of the things we wanted to do in the area there's not much going on. We took a quick lap around town and then headed out to find Hengifoss, the third highest waterfall in Iceland at 128 meters tall.

​There was only one other car in the lot when we arrived, and shortly after we started the 2.5km hike we passed the owners on their way back down. We loved having the trail to ourselves after the massive crowds we encountered in Myvatn, and we stopped often to admire the view as we followed the rather steep trail next to the river. About halfway up we came to Litlanesfoss, a 30 meter high waterfall surrounded by hexagonal basalt columns. The columns are formed by lava as it cools, and always lie at right angles to the cooling surface, meaning the columns can range from completely vertical to nearly horizontal, depending on where the lava was flowing from. At Litlanesfoss the lava filled a stream bed and cooled slowly, and the tallest columns are slightly curved at the top, indicating that the lava was still slightly in motion when they began to form.

With all of our stops it took us about 40 minutes to get to Hengifoss and there was a little rainstorm along the way, but right about the time we got to the end of the trail the sun came out and lit up the top of the falls and made the red clay strata glow. The cliff face shows the cross section of all the different layers in the rock; red sandy clay, black lava layers, sandstone, grey ash and brown soil. It makes for a striking image with the bright white of the water, and gives you a glimpse into the geological history of the area. We stayed for nearly an hour just drinking in the solitude, and just as we started back down the trail another group of people arrived...perfect timing!

The next morning we woke up early to drive out to Husey farm to do some horseback riding. Neither of us are really horse people (Steve had never been on one and I'm super allergic), but horses are a big part of the culture here in Iceland so we decided it would be a good idea to give it a go. Icelandic horses are their own distinct breed, and no horses are allowed to be imported into the country in order to keep the bloodlines pure. Even horses that are exported from Iceland aren't allowed to return. They're much smaller than the horses we're used to seeing, almost pony size, but incredibly hardy with a double coat to withstand the cold and they're incredibly sure footed. Some are bred as work horses, some for riding, and quite a few farms breed them purely for their meat which is consumed in Iceland as well as elsewhere in Europe.

We arrived at the farm at 10 and met our guide at the stable. One of the perks of being completely inexperienced is that we got our own guide, and she had us comfortable in the saddle and trotting in no time. We rode out across the farm, nestled between two rivers, and down to the edge of the larger river where we could hear the ocean waves crashing in the distance. We appreciated being able to go our own way, rather than having to ride nose to butt in a line like most horseback tours in the states. We stopped on the bank of the river for a little while to give the horses a break and a bunch of curious seals swam over to check us out.

We spent about two hours out on the horses enjoying the view of snow dusted mountains and having fun bouncing up and down in the saddle before returning to the barn and treating our horses to a few slices of bread (apparently they go nuts for it). We got back on the road just after 12:30, and on our way down the road from the farm we spotted a beautiful white fox on the side of the road who kindly posed for us for several minutes before going about his own business. We drove down the East coast, intending to make our way to the South of Iceland down the most remote section of the ring road. Route 1 cuts straight south from Egilsstadir for a little while before turning to gravel and descending steep switchbacks at a 14% grade and finally veering to the East and hugging the winding coastline. The views were absolutely spectacular and we stopped at a beach covered in billions of minuscule pebbles about 30 minutes outside Hofn to watch the powerful waves battering the shoreline before heading into town to set up camp for the evening at the city campground.

 The first characteristic that makes up an adventure is not everything goes as planned. That can certainly be said for our adventure here in Iceland so far. We are having an amazing time in the Land of Ice and Fire, but our cycle tour didn't quite go as expected. Maybe we'd better start from the beginning...

When you work seasonal jobs like we do, you are often long on time but short on money. We decided early on this summer that we would spend part of our our off-season (October/November) "honeymooning" in Iceland. Since we had lots of time on our hands, but not a long of expendable income (we are saving to buy property after all) we decided to us bicycles as our mode of transportation while we were overseas. It had worked well for us in New Zealand, and we find cycle touring to be a fantastic way to really get to know a country as you move much slower and encounter so much that you would never see zooming by in a car. We did our research, and it seemed as though we would be able to see a good deal of the country by cycling Route 1, also known as the "Ring Road" because it runs in a circle more or less around the circumference of the whole country. The internet assured us that many of Iceland's fantastic waterfalls, black sand beaches, volcanoes and glaciers were right off the ring road and with over 5 weeks to bike we should be able to cover the majority of the 900 or so miles. Further research on the weather gave us hope that although it would be a bit chilly, and a bit rainy October is by no means Iceland's wettest month, and the temperatures hovering between 40 and 55 degrees were similar to what we had experienced in Skagway for most of the summer. 

​We arrived at Keflavik International airport at 11:30pm on September 20th and spent the night at the airport before taking a bus with our bikes still in boxes to the City Campground. We assembled our bikes and paid $30 each to store our boxes at the campground for the duration of our trip, then set out to a local grocery store to load up on supplies. We were told Iceland is very expensive, but coming from Alaska we found the food prices to be very reasonable, the difference being the produce here isn't half rotten when it gets put on the shelves like it is at home. The next morning we loaded up our bikes, road to the main bus station at Mjodd, and boarded a bus to take us to Selfoss on the South coast to begin our journey.

Selfoss is the largest town in the South Iceland with almost 7,000 people. At first glance there's not much going on, but we found a nice little path to walk along the Olfusa river, which is the most volumnous river in Iceland, but only 14 miles long. The bank of the river is an old lava flow, and its pockmarked with perfectly round little holes caused by gas bubbles in the lava. Steve stood in one and it cam up to his waist, and was about the diameter of his wingspan.

The next morning we awoke to heavy rain and forecasted 20mph winds, and it turns out we had come to the South in the midst of a terrible gale that was predicted to last for days. Sections of the road further down were under a travel advisory even for cars, but the short section we planned on riding to Hella seemed in better shape so we loaded up our bikes and took our chances. It took over an hour to go just 6 miles, pedaling hard into a headwind even downhill, covering 25 miles took all day. Strong gusts would catch us by surprise, causing us to swerve towards the edge of the road. Despite the challenges we were in relatively high spirits, and our rain gear kept us reasonably dry and fairly warm. Steve got a flat halfway through the day that we aired up several times before a break in the weather gave us the opportunity to change it. Turns out the tube had torn at the base of the valve stem, but we had picked up two spare tubes in Reykjavik so we were ok. The wind really picked up for our last two miles into Hella, and it was so strong we struggled to even push our bikes over the bridge into town. 

We woke up the morning of September 24th with some big decisions to make. The forecast for the next two weeks in the South showed heavy rains, dangerous gusting winds up to 60mph and a significant chance of misery on the bikes. After fighting the headwind at the end of the day we realized we had little chance of making much progress and we wouldn't be seeing any of the sights through the rain. We debated taking a bus all the way to Hofn, on the East coast in hopes of turning the headwind into a tailwind, and riding back towards Selfoss, but realized there was no way to guarantee the wind wouldn't change direction. After checking the weather all over the country we decided to abandon the South and take a bus back through Reykjavik to Borgarnes, just North of the city, to try our luck on the North West section of the ring road.

We began the morning riding through rocky fields with big mountains in the distance, but by late morning the landscape had changed to black lava fields with bright green moss growing on the rocks. We stopped in Bifrost for provisions and went on a short hike just outside of town to the rim of an old volcanic crater where we ran into friends of Steve's on their honeymoon as well (small world!). About 20 minutes past the crater the scenery changed again and everything began to look a bit prairie-like with golden grasses and rolling hills and lots of little streams and waterfalls. The road wound next to a small river and we made camp on a plateau just off the road.

​On September 26 we had another successful day covering lots of ground. It had been incredibly windy and our campsite the night before, making us grateful for our expedition-grade tent, but it had blown itself out by morning and dried out our wet gear as well. We started the day with a short downhill followed by four big hills with short plateaus in between. The final hill was an 8% grade, but although it was difficult neither of us needed our lowest gear and we were rewarded with a nice long downhill stretch into Hunaping Vestra. After a stop at the gas station for one of the famous Icelandic hot dogs we got back on the road. There was another smaller climb out of the valley and then rolling hills along a high plateau with beautiful views of the ocean and mountains in the distance. We turned off the ring road for a 6k detour to Hvammstangi, a town of around 500 people right on the water and stayed at the local campsite with a great view of a waterfall.

The next day we managed another 50+ kilometers to the town of Blonduos. We visited the Seal museum in Hvammstangi in the morning, so we got on the road late and the 6k back to the ring road was mostly uphill and partly into the wind but by the time we got to the highway we felt pretty good. The route was mostly rolling hills through grasslands full of sheep. There were huge mountains to our right and the ocean to our left for much of the way, and it was a beautiful ride. The wind was light and behind us most of the day with light rain off and on and temperatures between 45-55 degrees. We stayed the night at the campground in Blonduos and splurged on dinner at a restaurant...significantly more expensive than cooking for ourselves.

September 28th was a really grueling and slightly dangerous day that ended up changing everything for us. We woke to a fairly steady rain, but no major wind. In fact, it was the first calm night we had experienced as the excess condensation in our tent proved. The ride started with a moderate but short climb out of town followed by some rolling hills that felt harder than than they should have because we weren't warmed up. The temperature started around 38 degrees, but combined with the rain it made it too cold to stop for more than a few seconds. It was raining where we were, but just a few hundred feet above us on the mountains it was already snowing. We felt warm enough while riding, but our hands were rarely comfortable as our "waterproof" gloves did not perform as advertised.

​About an hour into the ride we reached a long sustained climb out of the valley we were in and over a low mountain range. It took over an hour and a half of hard pedaling in our lowest gear to conquer the hill without any rest breaks, and by the time we got to the summit we were both drenched in sweat. The rain had turned to wet snow and without the exertion of pedaling uphill we both cooled off rapidly on the descent, making it miserably cold. We made a beeline for the gas station in Varmahlid to warm up and it took over an hour for us to both stop shaking. We bought two burger meals for $17 each and tried to look at things objectively.

There's a certain amount of pride and stubbornness that comes along with cycle touring, and neither of us liked the idea of giving it up, but we didn't want our pride to stand in the way of enjoying our experience. We spent several hours going over weather reports, potential routes, financial costs and emotional happiness and came to the conclusion that cycle touring was not going to be the best choice for us this time in Iceland. Despite making fairly decent progress on our bikes we were missing out on so much. Everything that was advertised as "in" a town, or "on" the Ring Road is in fact a 10-25 kilometer detour one way. In the conditions we had experienced that could easily mean spending ALL DAY to take a few pictures of one waterfall, biking over gravel roads and extreme hills to get there. We were constantly missing out on places and experiences because we needed to move on before the weather got too bad. We were also spending quite a bit of money on food at places like gas stations, not to mention bus fares to avoid busy sections of road where cycling is discouraged. Looking ahead we had a two-day minimum ride to Akureyri, and another too-dangerous-to-ride section after that. With no major attractions on our way and nothing being close enough to the ring road to get to in the foreseeable future on our route we decided to bus back to Reykjavik to rent a car.

We found out we could rent a small car for $30 a day, which would be less than what we just paid for the two hamburgers we had to eat because we were too cold and exhausted to cook. In the long run, we would be able to save money, see more and be less miserable and so we put our bikes on a bus one last time and paid $45 each to get back to Reykjavik. We arrived in Mjodd at 1130 pm and made one final bike ride back to the city campground. We were sorry to end our cycling tour earlier than expected, but after careful consideration we both decided we were making the right call. We don't know if we'll ever get back to Iceland, and we don't want to leave feeling like we missed it. In hindsight it would have been better to plan a very thorough bike trip through just a small section of the country, giving us time to make all of the detours and get to know an area really well. Who knows, maybe some day we'll come back and do just that! 

February turned out to be a bit of a strange month as far as weather goes in Telluride. Typically we get our biggest and best snowstorms in this part of the winter, but after 60" of powder in January the snow gods must have gotten confused and thought it was time for spring. The last month has been marked by uncharacteristically high temperatures and weeks of sunshine. That might sound nice to those of you who are sick of shoveling out your driveway, but on a ski resort 50 degrees and sunny is cause for alarm. We were lucky that we had such above-average snowfall at the beginning of the season, because over the last month we've lost a lot of our base. With no fresh snow on the mountain, motivation to ride has been a bit low for us, so we've been spending lots of our time off in the library trying to plan our wedding, or traveling outside of Telluride to find some other adventures. 

The one upside to not having a lot of powder-days is we finally got the chance to go ice climbing in Ouray without feeling like we were missing out on good snow. We managed to make two climbing trips in February and considering the warm temperatures and the amount of the river that had thawed in the canyon they will probably be our only trips this season. Both times we left Telluride the night before and camped in our truck in the parking lot so that we could get up bright and early and climb all day. On our first trip we met some really great people from Northern California who we were able to swap routes with, and at the end of the day they even shared their crockpot dinner with us back at their hotel! Our second time in Ouray we brought along Steve's cousin Tyler for his first ever ice climbing adventure. We managed to get in quite a few climbs on three different routes, including one with a chimney-style crux between two pillars of ice that challenged all of us to our limits of strength and flexibility.

Just when we had resigned ourselves to nothing but spring-skiing for the rest of the season, the snow gods blew back in with a little two day storm at the end of the month. Although the base of the mountain only got about 4" in 48 hours, the upper slopes got pounded, and that plus a bit of wind-loading made for the best run on Palmyra either of us has ever had. We had planned on hiking to Mountain Quail, about a 30 minute hike from the top of lift 12, but we got there just as ski patrol was opening the peak, so we decided to go all the way and we were rewarded with waist deep turns on untouched powder. Neither of us had ever been all the way to the summit of Palmyra before, preferring to drop just below on a run called Tramshot, but after two hours of climbing through knee-deep drifts we knew it would be worth it to go all the way. The snow was so deep we never even touched the bottom!

We've only got a few more weeks here in Telluride before we pack up and head up to Alaska for the summer. Its crazy how fast this winter has flown by, but looking back we've had a lot of really great adventures so we really can't complain. Spring break is coming up in the next few weeks, so we'll both be busy teaching for ski school almost every day of the week. Between working, packing and planning a wedding its going to be a busy last month in paradise.

Finding time to go all the way to the library to use the internet has proven difficult this past month with all the amazing snow we've been getting here in Telluride. Over 60 inches of fresh Powder meant the best January the resort has seen in about 10 years, and with our part-time ski school schedule we were able to enjoy every minute of it. We had several great powder-days in the trees and bumps off of lifts 7, 8, 9 and 14, and throughout the month we ticked off some epic runs on the resorts hike-to terrain. We had a couple of good runs on Chutes 8 and 9, a few knee-deep laps on Bald Mountain, some face-shots off of Mountain Quail and Genevieve, and a 90 minute hike up Palmyra (13,470') for some fresh turns on it's first day open this season.

When we weren't busy shredding the pow we did manage to make time for a little professional development. We both passed our American Association of Snowboard Instructors Level 1 exams, which makes us much more "official" as snowboard instructors, and also comes with a bit of a raise for the rest of the season. The exam consisted of 3 days of riding and two written exams. We were tested on our ability to teach, assess the biomechanics of snowboarding, and of course our snowboarding skills. The exam was held here in Telluride and we took it along with 6 of our coworkers, so it was super convenient and we had a lot of fun.

Towards the end of the month Steve's family came out for a visit, and we got to spend 3 days showing them around our winter wonderland. The kids got to go sledding and build a snowman, and on their second day in town the kids went to ski school while the adults rented ski bikes so we could give them a tour of the mountain. At the end of the day Steve proposed to me at the top of lift 10 in front of the Enchanted forest, so our big news for the month is that we're getting married! It's certainly been a very eventful month for us, even if it's not that interesting to read about. February has already been off to an adventure-filled start, but you'll have to wait for the next post to read all about it.

One of the perks of having our birthdays just two days apart is that it gives us a great excuse to spend a little extra money to do something special. So after several months of working multiple jobs and saving every penny, we took the day off in between our birthdays and took a trip to Treble Cone in Wanaka for a day of snowboarding. We jumped on a bus at 745 in the morning, slept most of the 90 minute drive to the mountain, and had our tickets by 10am. Following the bus drivers advice, we headed straight for the top of the mountain, and we weren't disappointed. After a warm up lap we hiked up to the top of the mountain and we found the closest thing to powder we've seen in New Zealand, as well as one of the best views yet.

After our hike we spent the rest of the day on the Saddle Basin lift, enjoying the best runs on the mountain. Our favorite spot was a run called Super Pipe, a huge drain with 30ft walls that acted as a natural half pipe. Even after the clouds moved in and the visibility started to deteriorate the snow in Super Pipe was still good. Of the three mountains that we've ridden in New Zealand so far, Treble Cone was the closest thing to a "proper" ski resort. The beginner and advanced areas didn't overlap, the difficult runs were actually challenging, the runs were well-marked, the lift ramps were well-maintained, they didn't groom every run to within an inch of its life, and maps were available everywhere (and for free!). It would be great to go back one more time before the season ends.