Iceland Day 7: Emstrur to Thorsmork, 10 miles

July 16, 2021. The last day of the trek. Foot is still swollen, but much less. Today Gully wraps my leg with purple sparkly tape. Today's distance and profile is much easier than day 1, so will try it. Almost to the end and it is the prettiest day of the hike. Gully gives us a briefing at the beginning of the day that if the volcano erupts, there will be lots of alarms and we are supposed to run to high ground. We go down through a lovely gorge to cross the Syðri-Emstruá River and my gopro again doesn't work:(. We see two glaciers in the distance that are quite beautiful.

We do have some uphills which I don't care for, but am better able to keep up. We come down another lovely gorge and cross a bridge for lunch where I take my boots off. It becomes quite windy after lunch and we start a very fast pace which I am able to keep up with.

It seems Greg and Linda need to catch a bus, but no one tells us this, so no one is very happy. We have one last river to cross where we get special instructions and have to cross in teams. The final section is through the "forest" as we come to Thorsmork and our final hut. We have a bit more room here and I am not sharing with my "friends", instead with the Israeli guy, MJ and Julie. I got in an argument over a chair with someone from another tour and had to ask their guide to get the chair - so stupid. The weather was beautiful today, much different than two days prior.

Tomorrow we are to do the hike to the ridge on the Fimmvörðuháls Trail. Not sure if I will do this bit of the hike as it is the highest altitude of the entire trek - about 2500 feet.