Pics: Honeymoon hiking in New Mexico!

[Independent Gal]

Skips, it was 12-15 miles (= 6 to 8 hours), so not QUITE that bad. But still a long tiring day. For me the first two days were the worst, and then my body adjusted quickly, but the landscape was so amazing and I was so happy to have my sister almost to myself (poor dad!) for so long that I hardly noticed. And the food on the trek was amazing which kept us happy too.

Oh, and the other thing I just remembered that made the first couple of days nutty was that I took my boots off to ford a little glacial river and instead of putting my river shoes on (tevas) as I should, I just hopped, literally, right in bare foot. The volcanic sand looked so nice! But I landed on a sharp rock and got a golf ball sized pool of blood welling up under the callous on my heel, like a big blister (sorry, I know that''s gross). So we had to do battlefield surgery! Take some thread and a needle, hold a match to the needle to sterilize, deep breath, thread it through the blister, and leave the thread in to help it drain. Then I got to walk on that for the next 7 days!

All I can say is, thank heavens for Band Aid silicone dressings. They are a gift from God.

 

[Independent Gal]

Oh yeah, and the hiking was really easy and flat. I think they classified the trek as ''moderate''. You need lots of endurance but not much in the way of skill and very little scary stuff (scrambles) or elevation gain. The only tough parts were a couple of fast moving rivers to ford by foot and one sheer-ish cliff drop to climb down which (geology nut alert!) must have been a fault. But that was actually kind of fun and exciting.

But the company does hikes and treks of every length and difficulty.

 

[Independent Gal]

Yeah, and the party really does start at midnight! And goes till dawn! And those Icelanders really know how to drink. And smash bottles, and walk down the street singing at the top of their lungs. Yup. They ain''t kidding around!

 

[Delster]

Ouch, I''ve done that needle and thread op too! Desperate times eh? I discovered those silicone strips for the first time on our trip to NY last month. Oh my goodness, WHYYYY don''t we have those over here???

Beautiful photos Indy, and it''s so cool to learn all about travel in Iceland, thank you for sharing all this info!

 

[Independent Gal]

Hey Delster, I think I first found them (different brand though) in Germany... so c''mon Girl! Get your EEC on and import some!

I''ll try to remember what the brand name was.

And you should definitely go to Iceland. It''s, what, like across the street from you? You could practically swim there!

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 7/10/2008 11:28:10 AM
Author: Independent Gal
Oh yeah, and the hiking was really easy and flat. I think they classified the trek as ''moderate''. You need lots of endurance but not much in the way of skill and very little scary stuff (scrambles) or elevation gain. The only tough parts were a couple of fast moving rivers to ford by foot and one sheer-ish cliff drop to climb down which (geology nut alert!) must have been a fault. But that was actually kind of fun and exciting.

But the company does hikes and treks of every length and difficulty.

Thank you for the info; I appreciate it! There are so many places I want to visit!!! How awesome that you have been there; you have gone to lots of great places!