12-Oct-2015 -- On our trip around Iceland on the Ring Road, we noted some potential confluences to attempt, and 65N 22W looked fairly easy. Although this confluence isn't on the Ring Road, we were taking a side trip off the Ring Road to visit the Snæfellsnes peninsula. On the map, it looked like a straightforward 2000-meter hike from the road (route 54) to the confluence point. As we left the Ring Road in the early afternoon and drove out on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, it was raining and bleak. Although route 54 is the major road onto the peninsula, on the north side it is a dirt road filled with potholes (it is paved on the south side of the peninsula). As we traveled west on route 54, we reached the point (22W) where we would need to head south on foot toward the confluence. We were careful to park on the east side of the creek as it crossed under the road, as the confluence lies east of the creek channel. There is a reasonable open area to park off the road at this location, and we hiked south up the gradual rise in elevation toward the confluence. The land is very open, with high grassy areas mixed in with open dirt and rock sections.

As we hiked toward the confluence, following the GPS readings, we realized that the high grass areas were fairly wet and swampy, and one had to try to walk on top of the larger grass clumps to keep from getting one's feet very wet. This made the going somewhat slow. There were also a few small flowing water sections to carefully cross. These were not wide, but the land around them was very boggy and saturated. When past a grassy area onto a dirt and rock section, the pace would pick up until the next swampy grass section. This pattern continued for most of the 2000 meters, but as we approached the confluence point, the terrain had changed to more dirt/rock sections than grassy sections, as the gradient has gotten a little steeper. The rain had mostly stopped for the hike, but the weather was still gray and a bit windy, and there were intermittent sprinklings of rain. We reached the confluence point in a non-descript dirt and rock section (and were glad it was not in one of the boggy grassy sections). Pictures were taken, confluence dances were done, and we headed back to the car. We took a different route back to try and avoid the grassy swamp areas by working our way west to the creek channel and then following that north. There were faint trails along the creek, and the going was much easier with little to no wet areas. With the creek carving a reasonable channel, any standing water nearby would drain into the creek, keeping the land near the channel edge fairly free of swampy sections.

Future confluence seekers should consider following the creek bed south for 2000 meters from the road and then working east toward the confluence rather than taking the direct line as we did, it will make for faster and easier travel.