Laugavegur trek is the first on the list of 'the best hikes in Iceland'. A pretty flat 3-day walk (55 km) offers an astonishing diversity of views: from lava fields and green sulfur valleys to an abundance of glaciers and numerous waterfalls. I didn't bother searching for the hiking partners and soloed the trail like a flash, finishing it off with a one-day Fimmvörðuháls Trail (22 km, the second best hike in Iceland).

Day 0: Hitchhiking from Reykjavik to Landmannalaugar (Landmannahellir)

Day 1: Hitchhiking from Landmannahellir to Landmannalaugar, Landmannalaugar to Hrafntinnusker

Day 2: Hrafntinnusker - lake Álftavatn - Emstrur

Day 3: Emstrur (Botnar) - Þórsmörk

Day 4: Thorsmork to Skogar via Fimmvörðuháls pass

Day 5: Hitchhiking from Skogar to Keflavik Airport

After seeing my husband off for his flight back to LA and buying food at Kroner (a cheap Icelandic supermarket chain), I started my trip to Landmannalaugar (the names are quite a handful!)

Hitchhiking was basically the only way to get to the start of the trek that day, as I already missed the last bus to Landmannalaugar (6700 kroner/$70). Hitchhiking in Iceland works surprisingly well if you go around the island on the main road. However, getting from one place to another turns into a real challenge when you choose to hitchhike anywhere off the main circle (stay away from F roads!), especially if you start at 5 in the evening. In the end, I was patient and got to the beginning of the trail next afternoon - good enough.

The first part of my journey was quite successful. Although I chose a good spot near Highway 1, nobody stopped for a while. However, as soon as I started walking, a nice Icelandic couple in their 40ish pulled over next to me and suggested me a ride. They were going to hike for a couple of days, a typical way to spend a weekend in Iceland.

We stopped by a couple of gas stations and grocery stores - the family needed some food and I had to find a gas canister. The gas was sold out everywhere, I found the last canister at the N1 gas station near the turn to the road 30.

There are two main ways to get to L. from Reykjavik. Google navigation shows the first one as the fastest and the easiest - the road 32 to the F26 to the F208, which, I guess, most of the tourists take. The bus from Reykjavik takes the second route - the road 26 to F225, which is shorter by a couple kilometers, but actually takes a bit longer due to the road conditions. The Icelandic couple found the second route better and dropped me off near the turn to the road 26. I instantly regretted my choice: for the first 20 minutes there were no cars at all.

I walked for a couple of kilometers towards my destination (still had 96 to go!) before the first car pulled over. An Icelandic farmer was going to the summer house for a weekend - apparently, many of Reykjavik inhabitants have summer houses with animals and gardens a couple of hours away from the capital.

He dropped me off 20 km further down the road, 76 km more to go! Only 10 cars passed by during the next half an hour of walking. Finally, a huge red 4*4 stopped - a not very talkative Icelander drove me 10 km further, I needed a ride for 66 more. His farm was the last inhabited territory on the way; he generously suggested I camp at his place, I refused hoping I'd still find a ride to my final destination. It was already 6:30 pm, the sun was slowly setting down.

Two hours and 10 km of walking later only 3 cars passed by. All of them turning to F225, the exact road I needed. Nobody stopped. It was getting colder, darker and windier - I kept walking anyway.

When at around 10 pm I finally reached the road F225, a huge jeep suddenly slowed down next to me. "Are you okay? Do you need a ride?". Finally! A computer scientist with the most beautiful Icelandic girl I've ever seen (who turned out to be a helicopter pilot), were going to bike around the Highlands for the weekend. Unfortunately, they were going the wrong way for me. Nevertheless, they generously gave me a ride to an empty Landmannahellir campground, 18 km away from my final destination.

It was much better to camp at a real campground then in the middle of nowhere - under the midnight moonlight Icelandic lava fields seemed dark and scary. It was so windy that my tent flew away a couple of times before I managed to set it up. It was the first night in a tent by myself, I later realized. The cold wind wasn't the worst: it turned out that the gas canister I've bought didn't match my kitchen stove - I had to go to bed hungry, chewing a dry energy bar and drinking ice-cold water.

11-13 km, 3 hours + hitchhiking

Next morning I woke up in a go-get-it mood: I was going to do this hike no matter what. I paid for the campsite (1500kr /$15) and asked two warden girls for some hot water.

There were three ways to get from Landmannahellir to Landmannalaugar: hitchhike, get a bus (at 11:10am), which I wasn't sure was going to stop by, or hike (18 km), which would mean I'd delay my main hike by 1 day. I started hiking at 10:30am, hoping to hitch a ride on the way. Unfortunately, 15 minutes later I had to turn back - I didn't want to cross the extra unbridged river: there are at least 3 more rivers to cross on a hike.

I settled to wait for a bus when the car stopped near the hut. I run towards it and begged a woman with her dad to take me with them to Landmannalaugar. They reluctantly agreed: having passed by some amazing views on the way we got to Landmannalaugar by 11:30 am.

The Landmannalaugar campground is huge and overcrowded: more than 40 tents, a couple of local stores, information desk and natural hot springs. I picked up a used gas canister to cook lunch and some coffee. When the line to the information desk got shorter, I came closer to try out my luck: they were selling two types of gas canisters for the same price (2000kr/$20) and had a JetBoil, the one I needed. "Oh, I bought the wrong gas canister! I already opened it, could I still switch it to the fitting one?" The Icelandic guy with a beard just took my canister and gave me the right new one. "Wow," I thought, and agreed to pay for the overpriced (500kr) bathroom.

It was already noon, so I chose to chill at the hot springs and walk only 13 km instead of doing two stages of the hike in one day. The springs are a natural, with no disinfection or luxury facilities, pool of international people: Russian, Spanish, Italian, Indian, Icelandic folks were trying to catch the perfect temperature currents, flowing under their butts.

An hour later, I headed to Hrafntinnusker: the beauty on the way was breathtaking. The landscape changed completely with every kilometer I walked: lava fields Laugahraun, Fjallabak, snowy peaks, boiling hot pots of sulfur of Haalda, acid green grass, areas covered with obsidian. It was very easy to find the trail - the route is really well-marked, and crowds of people are going the same direction.

3 hours later, at 4:30 I arrived to Hrafntinnusker, checked in with the ward, and hid my tent in one of the hikers-made stone-circles protecting tents from the extreme wind of the highlands. In a thousand years, archeologists would probably argue about the purpose of these weird stone constructions in the middle of Laugavegur trek.

12 + 15 km, 2.5 + 3.5 hours

The windy night over a book quickly turned into a foggy chilly morning - my tent was wet from the melted frost: it went down below 0C (32 F). I slowly packed, had breakfast, and left the camp at around 9:50am, almost the last out of 25-30 tents who camped at Hrafntinnusker.

Apparently, the key to outrun as many people as possible is to leave the campground the latest and walk a bit faster than average - I passed by 45 people before I quit counting. The valley had several melting snow pitches, but nothing particularly hard to pass. I got to the lake Álftavatn (12 km) at noon (2 ¾ hours), which put me into 4.3 km/h (2.7 miles/h) - a decent speed for hiking, explained by relatively flat landscape.

I chatted to a group of Americans for a couple of minutes, and then started cooking lunch half-listening to their conversation. (I hope I am not spoiling the secrets of the century here, and his gf will never find my blog, BUT) One of the hikers was sharing his story of four year plan of proposal to his girlfriend. First, three years ago he gave the girl a framed heart-shaped collection of his selfies which he was taking everyday three months in a row. On the back of this picture he wrote (with a UV-light pen) "Will you marry me?". Three years ago he gave her a UV-light pen as a present. All two last years he was trying to give her hints on his own blog that she should open the frame and read the back of the picture. "It's not too complicated, isn't it?" - the guy asked his friends. "No-no, not at all" - all three of them shook their heads. Why can't people just be honest sometimes? - I thought, heading off to the next piece of the trek.

On the way to Emstrur I had to cross a small unbridged Bratthálskvísl River before reaching Hvanngil Ravine, a campsite just 5 km south from Alftavatn. I got to the second much wider unbridged river quite soon - maybe it was Bratthálskvísl instead? I crossed both rivers barefoot; although every single guide recommended not to do so, I didn't see any reason why not. Yes, it's f-cold: you might get a spasm, fall, be carried away with the stream, and die, but apart from that, I wasn't particularly concerned about crossing the rivers barefoot.

Finally, quite exhausted, 4.5 hours later I reached the campsite at 18:30 (6-7 hours walk in the official resources). The check-in guy mentioned that I was the first Russian he saw on the trek. Well, Russians normally camp wild, I answered. Shower (500 kr) was not included into the campsite price (2000 kr), I decided to reach Þórsmörk and take a shower there. It was the best decision in my life, the next campground had a shower, sauna and a pool included.

15 km, 4 hours 15 min

I started hiking at 10:50, which is considered to be super-late by hiking standards. However, there was no point to rush, I'd walk much faster than anyone else anyway.

I passed a canyon of Syðri-Emstruá River with a very high bridge to cross. Later I waded the Þröngá River, the deepest on the trek. One of the signs said "when wading it is good practice to go hand in hand and head downstream" - I guess it doesn't work if you are by your own and have only two hands.

The final part, a forested area, was easy to hike except for the last piece. I ascended a big hill, and the trail just disappeared - instead, I took a "man-made" steep imitation of a trail, clearly made by people who, like me, didn't want to go back to look for the proper trail, but wanted to get to the campsite anyway.

I finished the hike at around 3:30 at Volcano Huts in Húsadalur Þórsmörk, set up a camp, took a shower (the campsite was 2500 but the shower, sauna and the pool were included).

28 km, 10 hours, 1000 elevation gain, 1200 elevation loss

Next day I realized that I made a big mistake of finishing the trek too early - Basar was just 6km away from the Volcano Huts. The day before it wouldn't have been a problem, while now it meant I had 6 more km to go, which put me into 28 km a day.

Even a bigger mistake was staying up reading until 3 am, which meant I didn't start the trek before 11 am. I chatted with a Russian couple who were going the same way, and headed up the hill. When I got to Basar, my pedometer indicated only 3.5 km instead of 6, which was a great relief - I had to walk less than 30 km a day.

The first part of the trail Goðaland ("land of the Gods") was a marvelous walk with 800m elevation gain. Weird rock and lava formation covered with bright green vegetation made me feel like on a different planet. The opening song of "The Game of Thrones" was playing in my head all 5 hours of the first part of the trek.Two craters surrounded by dried lava, Magni and Modi, were next on the way. They were formed during the famous Eyjafjallajokull eruption in 2010 (the volcano itself didn't look like it could cause airport closures for several weeks).

Two craters surrounded by dried lava, Magni and Modi, were next on the way. They were formed during the famous Eyjafjallajokull eruption in 2010 (the volcano itself didn't look like it could cause airport closures for several weeks).

Soon, I saw a Fimmvörðuháls lodge, which was a little walk to the right, while the Baldvinnskali hut and Skogar were 1 km further down the trail. The minimalistic hut provided necessary refuge in case of emergency: several dorm beds, a portable bathroom for 500 kr, water refill for 500kr and flat space for camping. I didn't stop - there was plenty of free water in the Skogar river in just half an hour of walking downhill.

I started descending at 4:30 pm - half the way there! There are two main ways to go down - a shorter very well-marked dirt road, and a bit longer trail to the right, which is not mapped but offers a spectacular views on 23 waterfalls, including Skogafoss in the end. I chose the longer walk, and took a short break near the river for lunch-dinner.

There were not so many people ahead of me at this point, I passed a couple of folks, saw a couple of tents, and admired all the beautiful waterfalls on the way. The sun was setting down - by 8 pm it gotten quite cold and windy, so I stopped a couple km before the Skogafoss campsite and set up my own wild campground (it was an ethically hard decision, triggered by tiredness and 1 star reviews of the Skogafoss campsite).

I woke up at 7, and was near Skogafoss at around 8:20 am. After walking around the waterfall and some coffee, I got to the highway 1 to catch a car to the airport.

Two girls were already staying near the road, they turned out to be Russians as well. They were waiting for about 30 minutes, but as soon as I left them to walk a bit further, the car pulled over next to us with enough room for all three of us and the backpacks.

A French guy with a beard was in Iceland for paragliding, and was planning to go to the Burning Man, a famous California festival, a couple of days later. We chatted a bit, he dropped me off near the Highway 41 in Reykjavik. I was going to Keflavik - to pick up my manual rented car and Polina, my best friend from Russia.

I had plenty of time to hitchhike to the airport from Reykjavik, so wasn't worried when the first driver dropped me off at the really inconvenient gas station. Half an hour of walking later I got a great ride with an Icelandic guy married to a russian woman. A former principal, he just opened a photo-tour business. He dropped me off near the SadCars, a rental company. My Icelandic hitchhiking and hiking part was completed.