"Iceland story".

Time alone?

WHY?

This year, one of my top five priorities was to spend some time alone. I do live a remarkably busy life. Juggling between a few businesses, personal life, my son's life, and my sport life and I started to make some adjustments in order to be alone as much as I could. I started to get up very early in the mornings, so I can have at least a few minutes, a few moments or maybe maximum an hour to myself, just to be alone with my thoughts, and not to have any noise or distraction. Like many of you I probably worked too many hours and I think we do find those moments to be very precious and I definitely will cherish that experience for the rest of my life.

So, during this year I have picked up a few Books and magazines that highlighted the bike packing around the world and, I thought to myself that what would be the perfect way to spend some time alone if not to go on a bikepacking trip into a wonderful place. I thought about a few places and one that definitely stood out as a very remote place was Iceland. What inspired this particular route? It was one of the posts that I saw online, there was a man sitting on the wing of the broken airplane and the plane was sitting on the dark black moon dust, that is a million dollar shot, I thought to myself, as I was planning on taking my semi-pro camera along with a gopro and my phone to document this, well I did not get this picture, but it definitely sealed the deal for me to go on this trip.

So, the route that I picked, one gentleman did in about a week's time. I wasn't sure about his, or mine physical abilities. It's hard to compare yourself to someone else. So, I figured that I wouldn't have the whole week riding. I wanted to see what I can do in three days since we were only going to Iceland for five days, actually as soon as news broke out about my plan, my family wanted to join me and I definitely glad that they did.

The trip that we planned was right on the 4th of July, which is always a long holiday weekend here in America, where we currently reside. In preparation for my first official bike packing trip all I had was a gravel bike and I had to purchase all of the other essentials, such as bags, sleeping tent, sleeping bag, mattress, pillow, all the cooking gear and all the food. This definitely took some time, but it was very interesting part of this whole journey. I still remember setting up a tent for the first time In my backyard and sending everybody pictures, and they all responded that they had no idea how I'm planning to spend the night in such small enclosure. During the week before we embarked on this trip we were closing on our condominium in Florida and this definitely added huge amount of stress to the preparation, since I wanted to make sure that everything was ready for my wife at the time- Kateryna to be comfortable with the closing. This deal was very hard, believe it or not, from the buyers’ standpoint, we actually ended up suing a seller in order to close. Of course, everybody’s stress level was at an all-time high. I wanted to make sure that she was going into that deal comfortably and could close, because the closing was set on the day that I would be riding and the last thing I needed was to try solve any issues, while being in one of the most remote places.

So back to the route preparation, I went on a “Ride with GPS” app, and started to look for alternative routes that I could do near this area. It must be a little bit shorter than my original loop that I picked up online. I found a route that looked like it was doable in three days and actually reached out in the comments section to a person that made this route to ask him, how was this trail? As most of the people that rode this trail did it on a mountain bike and I wasn’t sure if It would be a doable or not on a gravel bike. After a couple of days this person got back to me saying that they ended up not riding this at all, because there was still snow on the trail. As I remember, I talked to him In May, and I thought to myself that, in a little over a month the snow should melt. It is July, right? Why would there be any snow in July?

GETTING THERE

We got there alright, rented a big Air BnB place right in the heart of Reykjavik and my plan was to spend a night with my family, get all the gear ready, put the bike back together and then next morning, we planned on going to the Blue Lagoon to relax, before getting on with the bikepacking trip.

At this time of the year there is almost 20 hours of day light in Iceland, it was a small challenge to fall asleep the very first night we were there, even with all of the blackout curtains on and putting my airplane mask on my face, although this daylight saved me day 2 in my bikepacking trip it helped me navigate much easier at the end of the day what otherwise would be much harder endeavor.

So, the next day we visited a Blue Lagoon, which was a wonderful experience. I got too relaxed, and the time was really going by, and then on top of that, the starting point was a few hours away from Blue Lagoon and I had to hurry everybody up. But not so fast, we had a small debacle as my father who is a little over 60 came downstairs without his boots and only wearing a flip flops, we did help him search the lockers but a lot of lockers were locked so, we couldn't find his boots as they were not in his locker, after my sister and his wife came back downstairs they didn't like that idea of him continuing journey in Iceland only in flip flops and they took shift managers back to the lockers to open all them and they actually did find his boots we all were relieved after that.

It was time for lunch and we went to a very good local restaurant that is a hidden gem and we ate a super nice lunch. I recommend this place if you are ever in the blue lagoon area. Place is called Hja Hollu check it out!

Like I said, I pretty much was cooked in a lagoon. I Felt like a steak on a BBQ and I said bye to my dad, my step mom and my sister, my son, and to my Brothers girlfriend Keira, who joined as last minute.

I took my brother-in-law and my brother with me to drive with me to the starting point and to make sure that I had started, and everything was well.

?The trail that I decided to ride was called the Laugavegur trail starting in Landmannalaugar and finishing in Skogar, where we rented a hotel and the plan was to meet there at the end of day three and my family would spend this time at leisure doing some, fun activities while I struggle with my bike and eat some dry packed food.

We took a lot of “F” roads which are unpaved roads and Iceland people strongly advised us to only use 4x4 cars, the plan was that if we hit any rivers on the way, that I will continue riding by bike to the start and the guys would turn around and go back. The car that we rented wasn’t in the best shape, so it was pretty shaky getting there. I ended up driving all the way as the guys didn't feel comfortable. I guess I did not really care. I just want to get there as soon as I can. We got to the parking lot area and immediately I saw that I was getting myself into something that I was probably not prepared for. In addition to having 4 bags on my bike, front, mid, back and a small top bar bag, I ended up taking a backpack and a fanny pack with me full of stuff. I thought about this multiple times, because we always overpack, you know, even going for Ironman race that I completed in 2019, I had my Ford F-150 full of bags, and God knows what. So, I knew I was overpacking as soon as we got out of the car.

?I started going through my backpack and the fanny pack to see if there's anything that I can leave in the car, is there anything that I do not need? Because the backpack was pretty heavy. I ended up taking out some stuff which I left in the car and we started to walk towards something that looked like a starting point. We saw something, like, an information booth. We went up to the guy and I asked him, hey, where's this starting point? I guess what I was expecting to see was probably the start gate of an Ironman race. Something big, a red carpet to acknowledge that hey, what you are about to do is, pretty big. Unfortunately, there was none of that, and we asked the guy hey, can you point to the start? He pointed out to pretty much a 90 degree Rock wall, and a wooden stick that was at the bottom of that wall, saying hey, that's your starting point. I asked him, How do I get up there with the bike and is there any snow back there? He said yes there is some snow. It’s patchy he said, did anyone ride this by bike this year. He said no, not that I have seen it. You are the first person.

START

We got to the starting point and I put my bike on my shoulder guys offered me to help, but I said, listen, you're not going to be with me on the trail if I can’t get up here, then what are we talking about??Immediately my heart rate went up to like 160 as I started to climb this small mountain. We climbed that and then walked a few hundred yards together. I hugged them both and they said: Go! There's no turning back now. I got on my bike and started to ride.

As far as communication goes, I had my cell phone with me. I had my Garmin GPS bike computer, had a route loaded and I had my Garmin Montana 700 with its SOS service and text messaging ability. I texted everybody that I'm on the trail and started to ride. The riding didn't last very long as I started hitting the snow, pretty much right off the gate. And you know, I started to wonder, how is it further down, will I do it in three days, where do I sleep? All those thoughts started to go through my head when I looked at the watch, it was around 4:00 o'clock, I started to climb.

?The first day lasted for about 5 hours and I believe I gained the 3500 feet in elevation, so it was a pretty much straight up wall covered in snow and only way to get up was climbing up by walking on someone else footprints and pushing the bike on my side in the fresh snow, going up and up and up with probably 90% snow, and only 10% riding of which a lot of the riding was uphill and sometimes with the gusty wind. So, unfortunately, I had to get on and off the bike and walk the bike even in the places where it probably would be rideable on a good mountain bike and on a good day.

Weather Gods was mostly with me, as from the day that we arrived it was mostly sunny, it only rained for 5-6 hours straight during my second day, and spotty showers on the 3rd, so I can’t complain about that aspect of the trip too much, I honestly thought that weather would be good, or maybe it was a self-excuse for not prepping well for the rain, for what I paid dearly at the end of the second day.

Just in case you want to compare yourself to me or if you were thinking of attempting this trail,

This year I competed in two hardest races for gravel bikers in my opinion. One was in Hico, Texas called Gravel Locos, where I did a 100 mile and finished 15th in my age group. And then a few weeks later I did Unbound Gravel where I also did a 100-mile route and finished that in 7 1/2 hours so, I felt like my level of fitness was pretty good. That should be your reference point if you want to compare my feelings or compare my level of pain on that trail with what you may have to experience.

Day one ended up at the Hrafntinnusker Hut on the top of the climb. Where at the time of my arrival, all the good flat camping spots were taken, and I settled for a half circle built with stones at the bottom of the plateau. I did, went out into the Hut to talk to the Hut warden and I actually bought some handmade wool socks, I don't know why, I think they were like $50. I asked the warden if there's any spots in the Hut, he said yes, but I decided to have a real experience and to settle outside. I stayed outside on the Hut porch to have dinner, rules said that only people staying in the hut are allowed to use kitchen, thanks God that bathrooms were public, well bathroom was a big word for what it was, but my 3.5 years of military style academy served me well, this brought me back to those days, here the toilet is a hole in the floor and water is very cold and you have to manually pump it, so not exactly Marriott but it did the job.

?I was very anxious to use my brand-new cooking gear and the gas cans that I bought in Reykjavik. I'm not sure what happened, but urghh… and I never cheap out on the equipment but that stove wasn't all that great. So, I think that lasagna that I ate was a little bit undercooked. What kept saving me was the Mike and Ike candy that I kept chewing on just to kill any of the taste of anything that I ate on that trip including that undercooked lasagna. From now on this is the number one item on my list for any bike packing trip that I’ll do in the future.

After that delicious dinner I walked back to the plateau, which seems close but was about 10-15 min walk, to build myself a tent and try to sleep in out in the open. The wind was blowing very hard and in my direction. And the stones were not protecting me at all from the wind. On top of that, the flat section where I built the tent was not really flat after all, it was tilted and it was difficult to build the tent during the wind, so I decided, listen, whatever it is just finish it. I Put my mattress down, got into the tent and tried to change clothes inside the tent to get into the sleeping bag. The tent that I chose was Terranova laser one because of the lightness, (they claimed it to be lightest in the world), but it's definitely a very tight place to be in, I'm 6’3” and it was almost impossible to be completely stretched out on the back. The wind was gusting. I don't know if I got any sleep probably got some, but not an enjoyable night. ?If you can fit, I think it is better to buy a little bit larger tent.

DAY 2

I got up in the morning to see that the skies were clouded. And it was kind of hard to see where to go next. I told myself not to look at any fitness tracking apps or sleeping tracking apps that I had.

?I am using OURA ring for sleep tracking and, of course, I used my Garmin watch for my fitness tracking, but I knew that looking at it would only mess up with my head and negative thoughts might start creeping in. I went up to the hut to brush my teeth. One interesting observation that despite the conditions a lot of trekkers and the people that we're on a trail were very hygienic, everybody seemed to be able keep up with the hygiene and definitely brushed their teeth, washed their hands, wash their face, ?they even took some cold showers. I made breakfast and started planning for today. The food choice was “Kind breakfast bar” with almond butter, I personally do not like either Cliff or Kind bars, this is a startup idea people, since there is not many options out there, so get cracking, I think that someone can make better tasting product.

I realized that if I want to make any kind of progress, today is the day to make a big push. One of the high points was getting to lake Alftavatn and my goal was to get there by lunch, have lunch there and then push on to Volcano huts.

I started to walk on the trail, just honestly following people that were on the trail, before I left I kept asking the hut people if there's still snow on their trail, they said that it should get better little further down it didn't seem like it, as the snow continued to prevail and being the main surface that I encounter, thanks God, there was some people on the trail but mostly pretty remote. All of them were trekkers and they all kept complimenting me on my efforts with the bike. In reply I was saying that I'm just a stupid man and there's nothing strong or smart about what I'm doing, I just have no way of coming back and I must get to the endpoint, but it served as an amusement to them, laughter to myself, I think it's always good if you can laugh at yourself, It made some of those efforts a little bit easier and I kept pushing on, I was riding a little bit more that day, but again, not a lot. It was more of a hassle to get on and off the bike. By the time you get off the bike to walk, you are probably better off just walking. My bike was heavy, and it wasn't easy to hop on and off the bike every couple of minutes.

What kept saving me that morning was definitely the views that Landmannalaugar had to offer, strong colors and it’s vibrant nature with grey and red dominating the scene and some greenery in the valleys along with the melting snow, if you would stop at every point to take a picture you’ll not get very far, just stunning views all around you.

I got to lake Alftavatn around one pm, four or five hours of moving time already, If I recall correctly, I left around nine or maybe a little bit earlier than 9. Had a good lunch. Unfortunately, restaurant was still closed, this was an indication that it was still an early season here in Iceland’s interior. The lake is incredibly beautiful, very quiet. I went out and talked to the Hut warden about what I should do. How is the trail ahead? He didn't have much to say, so we just chatted for a little bit, he was a young fellow first year on the job. I bought some candy from him and kept pushing on. It took another five hours to get to another hut point. This time Emstrur-Botnar Hut, and between the lake and Botnar, it was probably the most riding I did in all 3 days that I was on the trail, this section had the most beautiful views. I had to cross a few rivers, here about river crossing guys, be prepared be aware that the current is very strong, I would strongly recommend water shoes. They saved me a few times. The rocks are slippery and or sharp, so you don't know what is underneath you. Yes, one river was very deep with strong current, and I actually made a quick video about it and posted it on Instagram. Thanks to the group of British guys that directed me to the little better crossing spot than I originally planned for myself. Chilling experiences, but I knew about that and was somewhat mentally and gear wise prepared for this.

Surface was really like riding on the moon or on some kind of a different planet. Dark black volcanic dust and black gravel with huge mountains right next to you, huge mountains that are all completely covered in green, so it's kind of a surreal feeling.

We are getting to the whole being alone essence of this story. There’s 3 epiphany parts of my story that are pretty interesting and changed the whole course of that trip, and maybe my short term future.

Where were we? I got to the 3rd Hut and I asked the Hut Warden If I should continue to push on to the volcano huts, he said by bike, sure, no problem. You should get there without any issues in an hour and a half. He said: ?I've seen many cyclists do it. It's more built for cycling rather than trekking.

?To give you an idea it was five pm. I got to Volcano Huts at 10pm, all this time that I was riding I was thinking to myself, should I just go back and ask this man, who were those bikers? Are they World Champions of mountain biking or something like that??? Because let me tell you, there was some sections, especially descents, that I don't know if anyone can really ride it, some were very dangerous by being next to the cliffs, well someone hinted to me later next day that there's probably an F road going a different way, but I clearly remember asking him to point me to the direction where should I start and he pointed at again another stick in the ground, and an arrow on the pole that I guess, said Porsmork. Those sticks were really the guiding markers as my bike GPS was very accurate but did act up sometimes.

EPIPHANY 1

At about 8:00 o’clock pm as I was riding on the trail, I felt a slight vibration on my arm, there were a few times when some of the notifications would get through, but that vibration kept going and I understood that I was receiving a call. I moved my glove out and I saw that I I'm getting a call from my wife at that time, Kateryna. I hit the brakes as hard as I could, because I understood that I might not get a signal if I moved one more inch. That morning I received a message from her on my Garmin Montana device saying that everything went fine, that she had signed all the paperwork, we had a notary come to our house to notarize, since the closing company was in Florida and as I was instructed by our bank, we handed the notary a certified bank check. Well right before 3:00 o'clock Kateryna received an e-mail from the closing agent asking where the money was, our response was that we give a check to the notary, as we were instructed by our bank. The closing agent’s name was Angela and Angela kept saying, no, we need a wire transfer, and if we do not receive a wire transfer today by 5:00 PM, you guys are in default.

?Florida had a little different normality for the amount of the deposit and we had about 41,000$ on the line, if we do not close today we would lose that and this is what seller wanted. That is what Kateryna explained to me and without moving an inch I called the banker. I said, hi Joe! This is Alek, guess where I am calling you from, I'm calling you from the middle of nowhere in Iceland, can you please help me, as I explained him the situation. The banker said that they did their part and wired the money and, of course this Notary person is the representative of the closing company, so they should be dealing with him and not us. I called Angela, before that moment she was definitely an Angel. But suddenly, she turned into stone cold killer and said: listen, if we don't get the money by wire tonight, you guys are in default and none of my explaining to her that the certified check was always acceptable by everybody and still acceptable today didn’t work. The biggest issue was that we moved the money from one account to another account right before I left, and given the fact that the previous day was the 4th of July holiday, the transfer was not yet completed, so on one account we had money leave the account, but on the another account, the money didn't hit the account yet, so therefore we did not have the funds to cover it, the sum was substantial not something that you can go borrow from your neighbor. Kateryna was calling the notary agent asking him, to be be so kind and give her the check back on what he said, that he was, out on closings and could not meet her before the bank’s branch closing time.

?And if she would go and meet him, there's probably would be no chance for her to get back to the bank on time before they close. She went straight to the branch and started talking to a branch manager and at some point, branch manager said: I'm sorry, there's not much I can do here. I believe I told Kate just don’t leave, just sit there, make sure they do it. Just simply do not leave and tell them that you can't accept no as an answer. Somehow our branch manager, after seeing that Kate was about to burst into tears, went and talk to someone and of course, with a few strokes of a keyboard, money was sent out.

I believe they definitely saw that we were moving money from one account to another and they would definitely be available there tomorrow and, that she could simply release it. But of course, it is easier said than done, but someone still had to convince her to do it.

?I started to move because I was getting cold, All in all it took about 30-45 minutes standing trying to figure this all out by phone. As I kept moving, I received a text message on Garmin from Kate saying they can’t do anything about it at the bank. I tried to call her back on her cell but of course, there was no signal. And I kept going with a completely unknown situation at hand. Not knowing what is going to happen. Cursing at myself. A big percentage of?the whole idea to be just alone with my thoughts and clear my head was gone and the rain kept going harder and harder. I understood that I still have a way to go. It was not clear how many more hours I had to go and I had to just concentrate on one climb at a time, one hill at a time and I set those targets to keep pushing the bike uphill.

As the day was coming to an end and I met a couple that looked like had a head start on me, for about a few hours. I did talk to them about that and as I got caught up to them, we continued to push on together. A couple of miles before the hut, there was a last river crossing, deep again, and a pretty strong current seemed like a story of the trip. I really had to put all my concentration into it since I was cold wet and very tired but I successfully crossed it. Yeah, the water shoes were somewhat of an annoyance getting them on and off every time you need to cross the river but one time I didn’t, and I really paid the price. I tried to follow a guy, on a small river crossing, somewhere between the lake and the Botnar Hut, the fact that he did not have a bike, backpack and a fanny pack, and I did, did not stopped me to try. I thought if he can do it, so do I. I ended up stepping into the water and got completely soaked. I did pay for not sticking to that routine all the time.

I got to the hut right at 10:00 PM, the route was very confusing at the end and I actually had to do a detour after about half a mile of going the wrong way. This made the second day a 13-to-14-hour day, with exactly 26 miles of walk-a-thon with the bike. I knew that those Huts were closing at 10:00 o'clock and I knew that there's probably a slim chance that there's any availability, but I went to the store and saw that it was still open. There was a lady with kids trying to buy something and I guess she was there already for a long-time and she was back and forth with the girl at the counter. And I think that's what really saved me, thank you lady whatever your name is! Right after she finished the girl said: hey, we're closing, I said, I know, thanks can I get some food? I was not feeling like cooking anything out of my bag. I got two Snickers bars and a small bottle of Prosecco. I was completely soaked. My backpack ended up not being waterproof and I didn’t have a protective cover on it, everything inside was soaked except for my waterproof pants. I asked her if there are any spots available?! She said there might be a few. You must go up to the second floor and find it, which I did. I ?Ended up in a bed on the side by the door, it was the worst spot since the door was not closing completely and it kept hitting my bed and waking me up, every time someone needed to go to the bathroom. I celebrated that day by sitting down in the kitchen, eating my Snickers and drinking that little bottle of Prosecco completely soaked, but happy. I could not believe that I made it. I dropped my bag in the common area on the floor, took out the clothes with the hope that they would dry out by morning and put on my waterproof pants, got into a sleeping bag and went to sleep. They're not kidding when they say that you should bring earplugs when you sleep in the Hut, It was loud. All sorts of noises were coming out, definitely some farts. The snoring was horrendous, and I don't know what happened, but the temperature was so hot that I woke up completely drenched in my sweat and had to take off those pants in the middle of the night.?I think I slept worse than the first night in the tent.

DAY 3 Epiphany number 2

When I woke up in the morning, I immediately started to think about what happened with our condo. I was completely wiped out the night before and did not even think about it. What could I possibly do to help the situation, nothing really, I checked my Montana before going to bed but no new messages popped up. I knew that Kate would kill me when I come back if we didn't close. To my relief, I received a message on my Garmin that everything's OK. I Kept asking her what she meant by this by, but I guess that's what she meant is that we closed on our condo. The weather that morning was beautiful bright sky, sunny and warm, warm for Iceland I mean. I headed out to the kitchen, made myself breakfast. The night before I asked the girl that worked at the store where can I put my bike. And she said that I could just leave it outside I knew that Iceland is very safe, but still couldn't just leave it outside. I was riding the Specialized Diverge 2021 edition with all the bells and whistles. You know, bikes get expensive at that level, to just leave it outside. I kind of hid it in the corner behind the hut, to my happiness, the bike was still there I got some food out of it and made breakfast, oatmeal with berries out from the dry food bag, again delicious, just kidding, and then head straight on, for what it's going to be another big day, a steep big climb was right up ahead.

The trail start was not clear. All you can see was that there was another side of the river about a mile away, it meant that I had to cross yet another river. This time, thanks to the Icelandic man and woman, the bridge was built. This one was interesting. You must climb up 10-15 steps; they build this up high. And then climb down, which made it really not pleasant experience with the bike, but that's what had to be done and then carry-on, riding again on an old “F” road, if we count how many times I said word riding in this story, not a lot right?! The road went all the way to the start of the climb. It was exactly as many trails would start in any other park, a big information stand and a very narrow one person path. This whole journey looked like a 5-mile climb. With elevation gain of 2700 feet. The climb was brutal. I would say zero flat sections and gradients sometimes more than 13%, maybe 13% was average, but it was just steep all the way up. I did meet two beautiful Icelandic women that were repairing the trail steps, it was cool to see them doing carpentry work. I offered to help but they politely declined.

My plan was to simply push on till the top of the mountain, make it up there as soon as possible and then the profile showed that it was complete downhill from there, which I thought that this would be the section where I can ride my bike. And I'll be able to just enjoy the end of it by riding some miles down.

A few hours into that walk, I had that feeling that I should talk to someone. I was somewhat friendly on this trail, hahahah but I definitely didn't talk to every hiker that I met. It's just sometimes when you are in a zone the last thing you want to do is to talk to someone. As I was climbing, I saw this gentleman coming down. He looked very curious, and he was looking directly at me. And I probably was simply tired or, I was just looking for some excuse to stop. I guess we said hi to each other and started to talk. He told he was going to where I'm came from, and I was going where he came from. I immediately started asking him, how is it over there? And he started telling me that it's pretty bad. He Told me the story about two girls that went out into the night wanting to push on got lost and had to came back to the hut 8 hours later. He also told me that the trail was not ridable. Even downhill it was mostly snow, and I would still carry my bike most of the time. Most importantly, he started talking me out of going, he said there's a couple of bad sections, there's no way to walk up one section of the trail without holding up to the chain that is mounted to the side of the mountain and, he said: I am not sure, how are you going to do that with the bike, he kept showing me pictures on his phone and he said because it was rainy the last couple of days, the road is very muddy on that section.

In those types of situations, I usually do not listen to what people would tell me to do. I would 99% of the time would do quite the opposite. But I started envisioning myself holding up to that chain with one hand and holding my bike with another. And thinking at some point, what should I do? Should I just drop my bike down into the bottom, or should I just drop with the bike? Or should I leave the bike and drop myself down? All those sorts of thoughts are going through my head. And this man started persuading me to not to go, he said: I think it's a bad idea. I started to trust his words as I saw that he was really well prepared for this trip, he told me that there's a bus stop where I had just come from. And then I can catch the bus to Skogar. Kudos to him. I had no idea how he knew about that bus stop, but actually this is exactly what happened.

And as we continued going down, he was taking lots of pictures. And he told me, listen, so I don't hold you up just continue on going, and I'll catch up with you.?As I kept walking, there was a section that I knew that I had trouble with going to the direction that I met him, on it you really must balance yourself like on a sidewalk. All of the rocks had very pointy tops, and I really had to gather all of my balance abilities, so I did not fall. I did that and I kept going and I don't know how I heard it, but I thought I heard help! I turned around and I saw that I could not locate him. ?And then the same words kept coming out. Help, help, help. I literally dropped my bike and started running, towards that section, and I saw that he fell and the only thing that saved him or caught him was his huge backpack, his legs were already in the no man's land. I had to pull him out by the backpack. And he kind of immediately said that: hey! You probably saved my life and I looked at him, and I said, you probably saved me too. Because you talked me out of going, we both laughed. It was a bit crazy experience. We talked about it for a little bit about what happened. I learned that his name was Pierre and that he is born French but currently lives in North Carolina, and same as me he wanted to have time to himself and was alone on this trip. We started to walk down, and this time we were stuck together all the way till the bottom of the mountain and then he showed me where the bus station was. And he kept on going to the Hut to get himself situated.

THE BUS STATION

The bus station was nothing but a small trailer in the middle of nowhere, you know, serving some snacks and coffee. Hospitality wise, I traveled a lot around the world, and I could tell you that America is the friendliest country! You can argue with me about that, that's OK, but if you would, compare it to let's say United Kingdom, Germany and or Iceland the Hospitalities are very cold, in these countries I think people say: it goes with the weather. There's probably nothing to be friendly about when you have a very harsh environment for most of the year. When I asked the girl at the bus station to help me with buying the tickets, she said that I should just go on the app and buy it. I kept telling her that you understand that I'm in the middle of nowhere and there's almost no signal.

So I asked her kindly if she'd do it for me on her computer. She said she cannot. I said, I clearly see that you have internet access here, why wouldn't you help me? And then I turned on my Boss mode and I said: girl, do you understand I will not leave this place until I have the ticket, I said do you understand that I have no other means of transportation to get to Skogar! I'm not going to leave anywhere until you help me! Well, that worked in some capacity. Basically, what she did, she shared her internet via hotspot, so I was able to get on and buy a ticket, but then I started asking her if the bike can fit on the bus. And she said she does not know. And so, she told me to email the bus company, because they should know, so I sent an e-mail. And I left to find my new friend Pierre. Since the bus is not coming up until 8:30 PM and I had almost all day to kill.

As I had some reception at this spot I called my wife at the time, Kateryna, to talk to her about what happened these few days to let her know that I am okay, but kind of felt disappointed that I did not fully finished the trail. Then called my sister Olga to let her know same news, to which her response was: What did you mean you turned around, sounded like she was more disappointed then I was, we talked about this after the fact and she told me that she figured that if I turned around it means it was bad, we spoke about logistics and if the bus would not take me, maybe they can come and get me, but they were running behind the schedule themselves as their glacier hike was taking longer, so it was a must for me to get onto this bus.

?So, I hopped on the bike and went back to the Hut that I gloriously left this morning with clear intentions to never come back here again. Keep that in mind that I sent an e-mail asking bus people if they would be able to take me with the bike. I went on and found Pierre at the Hut. We heard from somebody that Volcano Hut had a good burger. As we were walking towards the restaurant we met a group of nice people, Irish family a father and son and looked like son's friend, they were doing something similar to what we're doing just also going the opposite way. They were again amused to see me doing this trail by bike and gave me a ton of compliments and as we sat across each other at the table, Sean looked like a real Irish man, like a real rock. I told him that it means a lot by hearing a real man, giving me those compliments. I could really feel the man’s bond happening as I can easily distinguish a real man from not a real man, if you know what I mean. So we kind of got friendly, had a good few hour lunch. Charged our devices, bought some T-shirts that displayed the profiles of the trail. I ate do not even know how many burgers. They were really delicious and really expensive; everything was really expensive in Iceland. We did exchange our information and I told them both goodbye and I embarked back to get to the bus, I had another hour to get back to the bus, and let me tell you as we were going down mostly towards this restaurant, now I had to climb back lots of stairs to go back it’s like an hour threshold session with belly full of burgers not fun.

When I got back to the station. I think there was still a small glimpse of time when the service would work on the phone. And I checked the e-mail and I saw that the bus company responded that they cannot take my bike on the bus and that I should cancel the ticket or whatever, they cannot process my ticket which I purchased using a girl phone service. At this time there was another man at the counter, and I started talking to him, asking him what kind of bus is coming and will they be able to fit me in. He said that he was friendly with the drivers, that he feeds them, and he doesn't think there should be any problem and they will listen to him. I said whatever is needed, I'll pay them. I just really need to get on this bus. So, to my relief a huge Mercedes-Benz bus on the very, very big tires showed up and there was no problem putting a bike underneath the bus where luggage would go. We went back on some “F” roads and crossing some crazy rivers, which was no issue for that big bus. After an hour and a half we successfully got back to Skogar.

We chose this hotel in Skogar because it was very close to Skogafoss waterfall, and the trail was supposed to bring me to the main road, a biking distance to the hotel.

?I don't know, probably around 10:00 o'clock. I checked into a very weird hotel named Kverna, the building used to be a school. And looked like a family from Eastern Europe runs it, it is a bizarre place let me tell you, just bizarre.

Upon arrival they also told me, hey, you could just put a bike anywhere, go put it in girls locker room downstairs. To get in the hotel you had to open the lock box to get the key as everybody was supposed to be sleeping but thank Goodness, they were awake.

?I was actually sleeping in another building that used to be God knows what. But there was really nothing else available in that area for that day and for as many people as we had.

?I am sure the most riding I did all day was going from the bus station to get to the hotel, I was very happy. I was very relieved that I had finished it, I was definitely out of it. I think my face was so swollen from lack of sleep, that I could barely open my eyes. But it was more relief and happiness than anything else at that moment! My family arrived very late that night and I think they were more excited to tell me their stories than to hear mine as they got situated in the hotel. Me and my son Daniel went to another building where our room was, and finally, I was able to take a really hot shower which felt like surreal and we went to sleep, so we can visit the Skogafoss waterfall in the morning, it is one of the most sightseeing attractions in Iceland.

“THU” GEAR!

Few words about the gear that I was using, most definitely the bike was a beast it held up well and of course I ended up scratching in few spots since the rocks were very sharp and it was very hard to control the bike sometimes, Apidura bags were awesome I used them in every spot except the under the seat bag. For that spot I had the bag that was given as a gift to me, on my Birthday, and it proved to be a complete failure, I will not name the brand, but it's not Apidura, because of that bag I lost few clothing items that just fell off the bag and it was just not sitting well so, basically just buy Apidura bags they're awesome. Rapha clothing is by far the most durable and the most comfortable, at least the winter bib that I was using out there. I was constantly hitting my calves with the pedals as I was pushing the bike next to me, but the bib had no marks, no tears nothing whatsoever. I spent all three days in it, and it was just really good quality. My specialized shoes held up till the last day and I think there were just too many rocks for them but they're definitely not meant to do what I had to do in them for three days they held fine but some portions of the sole were falling apart at the end of day 3. And everything else held up pretty well, the tent was awesome, everything except for my cooking stove which is whatever.

EPILOGUE

Did I accomplish what I wanted? Did I find what I was looking for? I think what I found was something bigger than me. A challenge that pushed me beyond my boundaries at the time and that clearly set me on the path to take on even bigger challenges in the very near future.

?I was actually speaking out loud that I think that this would be probably the hardest challenge that I've ever done. And it was. Almost no thoughts of self-doubt but there was actually one crash. I Crashed, head down, going downhill and I thought to myself that this is probably the place where no one will find you for a few hours or maybe a few days. You definitely need to be in the right state of mind to attempt this trail, especially when there's a lot of snow. This is a mountain bike, not a gravel bike trail. But this is the trail that I now would like to go on foot. Hopefully with my brother and my son as they are into hiking, even if it’s in a distant future the path forward is set, I have been there is nothing to fear now. The views are amazing. Nature that wasn't touched for millions of years where people barely go off the trail, if any. It's kind of like walking on many different planets. In the span of three days the colors changed drastically. The beginning was red and yellow and brown and then went black and then went green and then the trail went super green. At the end I could even see the Glacier in the distance while I was on the path to Skogar. I would say that this is a good place to be alone with your thoughts, enjoy nature, maybe without the bike in July, but know that you may still get a call through when you least expect it.

Sincerely your noob bike packer Alek.

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