John Muir Internship

Grace is on a 6 week internship on the John Muir trail on the Whitney Portal.  She and 5 other interns are studying sustainable camping on the JMT.  They were on the trail during the first hurricane to hit California EVER and if you say it downgraded to a tropical storm by the time that it hit California, then it's been since 1938.

Mt Whitney was supposed to take a direct hit!  And I was worried.   It turns out that the team decided to hunker down in base camp and wait out the storm.  They had 36 hours of high wind and rain and came through it without any damages or injuries.

The report now, a few days later, is that they have crystal blue skies and lots of running water.

 

Day 1 on the Laugevagur

Landmannalaugar to Hrfntinnusker:  7.5 miles.

 

Day 3 - Iceland

On our 3rd night in Iceland, we stayed on a horse farm.  That was the night we got prepared for our hike and made big decisions about which rain jacket to bring and whether or not to bring waterproof socks!

We made giant stir fry dinner and got organized!  There was lots of packing, unpacking, checking and double checking.

The next morning, we packed up the car and met our bus to take us to the trail head.

The bus ride was about an hour and a half and crossed rivers to get to the start of the hike - Landmannalaugar.

 

Break time

The gas stations in Iceland are well stocked because they are the infrastructure in small towns.   They often have groceries, a grill and ice cream!

We stopped at one and each got a cone.  Susan had a lot of trouble managing her cone!

 

Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon

One of the highlights of our trip was kayaking in the Glacier Lagoon amongst icebergs.   

Jim decided he would stand in the ocean where the icebergs float into the ocean.  This is him trying to feel his feet again!

This is the beach out the mouth of the lagoon - its called the black diamond beach because the ice looks like diamonds on the beach.  Susan collected sand from the beach for her husband who is a geologist and collects sand from around the world.