Crossing Iceland from Sea to Sea by Foot and Packraft
A Journey to Supplement Investigations into the Contested Future of Iceland’s Central Highland
Including Reflections on Wilderness, Energy, Gods, and Restoration
The full story is below. Please do not distribute. Seeking Publication.
Introduction
On July 16, 2024, I completed a 12-day, approximately 240-mile (386 km) self-supported hike and float sea-to-sea across Iceland from the south coast to a northern fjord. Most of the route was on trails, some on dirt roads, the last 40 miles on river, with some particularly remarkable cross-country sections through trailless wilderness. The journey was beautiful, inspiring, and challenging—a feat of endurance and determination across an often brutally barren and at times punishing landscape. One challenge was uncertainty from often limited information. Iceland has been crossed many times, but nearly always along roads and never by this route.
My intention was to complete a compelling and inspiring journey that tied in with my research work centered on conflicts between the possibility of renewable energy and tourist infrastructure development on the one hand, with park and wilderness conservation on the other, in Iceland’s vast interior Central Highland region. The fate of the Highland is at a critical juncture, dependent on the outcome of ongoing policy processes and popular sentiments.
This trip allowed me to gain firsthand familiarity with my main research subject; to learn the land one step or stroke at a time—incomparably more intimately than cloistered in a vehicle. I here employ the account of this adventure to convey a myriad of intersecting environmental issues, primarily considering the competing interests of wilderness preservation and energy or tourism development.
PS: DISCLAIMER - some sections of this route are extremely dangerous; do not attempt to repeat.
A Flickr album with photos from this journey lives here.
I gave a presentation on this journey in Missoula Montana in 2025.
Below is a non-narrated video montage.
A Journey to Supplement Investigations into the Contested Future of Iceland’s Central Highland
Including Reflections on Wilderness, Energy, Gods, and Restoration
The full story is below. Please do not distribute. Seeking Publication.
Introduction
On July 16, 2024, I completed a 12-day, approximately 240-mile (386 km) self-supported hike and float sea-to-sea across Iceland from the south coast to a northern fjord. Most of the route was on trails, some on dirt roads, the last 40 miles on river, with some particularly remarkable cross-country sections through trailless wilderness. The journey was beautiful, inspiring, and challenging—a feat of endurance and determination across an often brutally barren and at times punishing landscape. One challenge was uncertainty from often limited information. Iceland has been crossed many times, but nearly always along roads and never by this route.
My intention was to complete a compelling and inspiring journey that tied in with my research work centered on conflicts between the possibility of renewable energy and tourist infrastructure development on the one hand, with park and wilderness conservation on the other, in Iceland’s vast interior Central Highland region. The fate of the Highland is at a critical juncture, dependent on the outcome of ongoing policy processes and popular sentiments.
This trip allowed me to gain firsthand familiarity with my main research subject; to learn the land one step or stroke at a time—incomparably more intimately than cloistered in a vehicle. I here employ the account of this adventure to convey a myriad of intersecting environmental issues, primarily considering the competing interests of wilderness preservation and energy or tourism development.
PS: DISCLAIMER - some sections of this route are extremely dangerous; do not attempt to repeat.
A Flickr album with photos from this journey lives here.
I gave a presentation on this journey in Missoula Montana in 2025.
Below is a non-narrated video montage.
