On August 8th, 2023 Meredith and Celeste Raymond ran the Laugavegur trail, running North to South (Landmannalaugar to Þórsmörk). Here’s a recap of our run:
We ran together the entire way, just the two of us, carrying everything we needed in terms of food from the very start in our running packs and filled up on water in rivers and campgrounds along the way. We left Landmannalaugar around 9:45am; the day started off pretty chilly, but we were greeted with sunshine and clouds as we ran past the geothermal and sulphur pockets approaching Hrafntinnusker.
After Hrafntinnusker, we trotted along the black sand and up the ridge, admiring the spectacular views. We ran down the rocky switchbacks, in awe of the valley and views we were quickly approaching. It was hard to have to continue moving with all of the beauty that was surrounding us but we are glad to have been able to take some quick snapshots along the way. We felt grateful to be running in the sunshine, something we didn't think we would be lucky enough to experience monitoring the weather the week and days leading up to our run.
We continued towards Álftavatn and then continued on our way towards Hvanngil. On our way, we crossed some smaller streams and were surrounded by neon and dark green mountains and waterways as can be seen in one of our photos. Neither of us had never seen colors like this in nature before!
After Hvanngil, the weather swiftly changed, big clouds started to roll in and thunder began crackling. We were two miles shy of Emstrur and knew our best bet was to just keep humming along for safety purposes. The thunder was only becoming louder during this section so we knew we had to kick things into gear and continue moving. This section was flat, with maybe a small incline, and in reality felt like we were running in a giant sandbox with heavy headwind. Reaching Emstrur was relieving but bittersweet! We had started our run pretty late in the day and knew that we likely wouldn’t see many more people during the remainder of the trail.
The rain continued to pour the entire last leg, where we saw came across very few other people. Our final river crossing was wild - the river was roaring, especially after hours of rain. We were at least waist deep trudging through, but safely made it across. From the river we were lead onto a winding trail lined with the only trees we had seen that day. The forest was tangly and the trail network definitely confused us towards the end, but we were so excited to be finishing!
Reaching Þórsmörk was incredibly exciting! After hours of running in the rain, we were so happy to celebrate finishing our adventure through the Icelandic highlands! We are filled with gratitude for the experience we had on the Laugavegur Trail and Iceland as a whole. Running through dirt, sand, rocks, river crossings, valleys, forests, and experiencing beautiful sunny weather followed by loud monstrous thunder and heavy rainfall; to say this trail was any easy or typical feat would be a flat out lie. Our day didn't go perfectly but there are very few, if any, adventures that can top the experience we had here.