A lot to catch up on ...

Since I haven´t posted in about two weeks, we´ll try a story by pictures, since it´s much easier for me to remember things with a visual aid.


Here´s the last camp that I reported about in the middle of Valle Guanaco, more specifically where Mack, Justin, and I tented for the week. Pretty nice spot, out of the wind and rain.

The following weekend, we did a short day hike up a peak called Tamangito (I believe I mentioned this in the last post, so I won´t elaborate too much). We had a great view at the top in all directions.

Two weeks ago, we headed out to a new camp much closer to the Argentinian border. It was actually a pretty ridiculous place. We spent our nights in an actual house with running water and a bathroom, and for that matter, a kitchen (with the normal, but slightly nicer, wood stove). Unfortunately, the work there was much more difficult than the fence pulling that we had previously encountered. This time, the fence had 7 or 8 wires going across, 2 being barbed, and many of the wires were so old that the plants had grown well over them (note that all the plants here suck). We also had far fewer people working in the group that week, about half what we were used to, so progress came very slowly. Fortunately (and unfortunately), I spent one day in Cochrane taking care of bus and plane tickets, as well as food and money for our future travel plans. While the work was horrible that day (i.e. through dense forest), Mack and Justin were lucky enough to spot a pygmy owl in the woods and get some really great shots from probably 10 feet or so away. Very mad that I wasn´t there.

After four days or so working, we took a day off and did a quick day hike to Lago Chico, which was about 2 or 3 hours to the south and was supposed to have a great view of the larger Lago Cochrane. The weather turned sour quickly after leaving and by lunchtime, it was raining quite hard. We decided to eat and turn around. Naturally, by the time we got back, the weather was great, so we sat down before we got back, build a rock wall to stop the wind, and had a few beers. Here´s the new ad for Cristal:

This is why we take out the barbed wire first (it´s the topmost wire on most fences):

Justin, Mack, and I after a hard day at work inside the kitchen of our ridiculous house enjoying sopapillas (bread fried in animal fat, mmmm):

Now we get to the epic part. Yesterday, we returned from a long five day hike up north briefly into Jeinimeni National Reserve. The trip consisted of three easy steps. Days one and two going north through a valley housing Río Los Aviles, day three going east in Valle Hermoso, and days four and five going down a valley housing Ríos San Antonio and La Leona.



Day one: So starts the journey into the valley. There was a old sheep and guacho path that was there (or at least supposed to be there) which we followed a good deal of the way. We actually started the day with a river crossing in really cold, rainy conditions, so we got a pretty slow start. After getting into the valley, we realized that we had to ascend a few hundred meters to get to a more hikable area following the path. Here´s a view from the top looking back into the Valle Chacabucco (Los Aviles on the right):

Once we got to the top, walking was pretty easy going for a while, despite the somewhat uphill climb. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we were all carrying about 50 pound packs, which made the hike significantly more difficult (food weighs a lot, and we eat more than the average person). We hiked through some plains-esque areas and topped out over a hill to this view (there was also a really incredible red mountain on the left, and you don´t get the scale of how big this valley is in a small photo):

Walking up and through the valley:


We vastly underestimated how long the hike would take, and with heavy packs, we didn´t quite make it to the first site where we were supposed to camp which happened to be a puesto, an old guacho residence. Too bad. Ended up camping on the riverside so that we could make a fire and easily access water. Also underestimated the amount of food that we had, which severely affected our moods until the fourth day when we were sure that we could gorge on more food without being negatively affected later in the trip.

The next morning, we woke up to the tent being completely frozen over. We also didn´t get any sunlight until about 11 since the valley is north-south. The sun makes a huge difference in how warm you are at any given time, the air is most always cold. Anyways, we headed from our camp mostly up a dried up riverbed until the end of the day. We booked it, trying to make up for the time that we had lost the previous day from our lack of disciplined hiking.

After passing through a bunch of dense forest, we came across and slowly walked over a huge boulder field through to another forest ...

And finally ended up in our destination, Valle Hermoso. The sun was just setting by the time we arrived, so here is basically the only shot we had time to take before needing to cook dinner and set up camp.

Day three. Walked most of the day over dry riverbeds in Valle Hermoso. No signs of much life, and certainly no paths to be seen. Pretty drab day overall. Once we reached a large lake called Lago Verde (it was quite green), we had one hell of a time going up and then down a 300 meter pass between two mountains to get around the lake. A view looking back at the valley:

Near the pass next to Lago Verde:

A view of Lago Verde and Valle Hermoso at the top of the pass:

After descending from the pass, we walked on another dry riverbed for the rest of the day to reach another lake.

Mack and Justin had thought that we were headed for a puesto for the night, so after a really long day of hiking over rough terrain, we de-panted and took the plunge into a relatively high river (Justin actually sacrificed himself first, pretty cold crossing the river three times). We couldn´t find the puesto anywhere, so instead set up camp next to another river that we crossed the next day.

Day four. Got up early and made really good time since there were a ton of great paths along the Rio San Antonio. At this point, we were still headed slighly uphill, as the river drained into the lake from which we had come. We crossed the river about 20 or 30 times that day (thank god for the Keens):

Most of the day was spent in either forest or areas where the river had caused all the trees in the surrounding area to die:

We finally reached our destination, a smaller green lake but pressed on as we had made really great progress that morning. We also started to eat more food, which raised our spirits considerably.

Day five. Woke up really early because we needed to be at the bottom of the Valle Chacbucco for a pickup at 7 pm and we didn´t want to be late. Río La Leona is actually owned by a small farmer, so most of the land this day was relatively uninteresting, plus it was pretty dark when we made the vast majority of our progress. You probably can´t tell in the picture below, but the shaded area at the bottom is where the sun has not hit yet, and the ground there is frozen solid.

Farmland.

At the end of the hike (yeah!). A view all the way into Argentina to the west.

So it´s late and I´m tired, this post is done for now. But to let you know how tired I really am, I have been sitting around all day today resting my weary muscles and got completely fatigued afer doing abs, situps, and walking up a little hill to look at the progress on the Thompkins´ house. Sad. Good prep for Chaltén and Torres del Paine. Until next time ...