Distance: 14-15 kilometres. Route: Burstabrekka Burstabrekkudalur Drangaskarð Hólsdalur Karlsá on Upsaströnd shore.
Maximum elevation: 820 metres. Hiking time: 6-7 hours.
The Drangar route was in earlier years a much travelled route between Dalvík and Ólafsfjörður. This hiking trail is one of the easier ones, despite being quite long. It is easy to find your way on this route following a track that was made when the power transmission line was constructed. You start from the farm Burstabrekka and walk to the south past the river over a wooden bridge which is located there. The route is not steep. To the right, you have the mountain Hólkotshyrna and the highest portion of that mountain range is Barkarkolla mountain and to the left is Kerahnjúkur mountain, which is 1,097 metres high. Up in the valley there is a lake which is getting larger because of the power station that has been built there. A private party has now harnessed the power of the Burstabrekkuá river. Usually the last stretch up to the Drangaskarð pass is hiked over snow. When standing in the pass, you can see the Ólafsfjarðarbær in the V shape which the valley forms and in the other direction you can only see the innermost part of the valley, which is named Karlsárdalur valley to the north but Hólsdalur valley to the south. The descent down into the valley is very steep with a scree with loose rocks and therefore people need to be very careful when taking this route. When you get down below the steepness you arrive at a point where the route of those who intend to hike the Bræðravegur trail meets your route, but then you walk up from the bottom of the valley and after that, at your convenience, down the mountain side of the Kálfsárdalur valley and down to Ólafsfjörður. The Bræðravegur trail is named after two brothers who died of exposure on this route on a Christmas night and were buried in the cemetery at Kvíabekkur. You walk down the valley along the track. Hrafnabjargahnjúkur mountain is on the left and where the bend in the valley is, there opens up a view down the valley and out to Eyjafjörður fjord and Hrísey island. If you follow the track all the way you reach the main road a short distance south of the farm Karlsá.