Greater Patagonian Trail GPT 11

When I was getting ready to leave Lonquimay after one night in a hotel I encountered two other GPT hikers in the supermarket. Big surprise for both parties and of course we both delayed our departure and chatted quite a while. Although this Swiss couple with hiking my direction I would not meet them again because they were behind me - and I was now taking a huge detour! On the upcoming trail section there had been a big landslide last year and every hiker had complained how dangerous it was to get around it. And I had realised that in order to enjoy this difficult trail I wanted to avoid any risks if possible. And as there existed a detour around this section I decided to take it!

Problem was that nobody had ever hiked the entire length of this long detour before! It involved a lot of road walking - and two bridges which I could not confirm 100% on google earth. This was going to be an adventure ... The section started with a long road walk and first impressions of the volcano Lonquimay. When I turned onto the paved road accessing the National Reserve I was surprised by the amount of tourist traffic. My plan was to continue hiking on that road that would soon turn into dirt. But when I arrived at the entrance of the reserve a very friendly female ranger more or less talked me into taking an even longer hike into the reserve ... In hindsight I can't believe I took that risk because I had no gpx track of this route, there was no official map of it - there only was a small one page color photocopy of google earth. But the ranger praised this route so much and swore that her colleagues had only recently blazed it that changed my mind and embarked on this 45 km route through the reserve. According to the ranger it would take 4 days ....

To my delight the trail marking was indeed fantastic! I had never seen anything similar before. There were wooden posts and painted blazes on rocks the entire way. The views were outright spectacular and not too much snow was left. I even found a great water source that was not marked on my "map". But instead of camping there I made the mistake of continuing. My "map" called the next kilometers the "labyrinth" and I was soon to find out why. I had to traverse a huge lava field and the trail zig-zagged through sharp lava outcrops. It was very strenous hiking but the waymarking was excellent! I was reluctant to camp in this lava field because it was so high up and completely exposed and pressed on until almost sunset. Despite my fears the night was completely calm with no wind and it was not as cold as expected. The view in the morning was incredibly: I was camped between two snow covered volcanoes under a completely blue sky!

Trail marking continued to be great and a water source appeared just in time. Soon I was descending below tree line again. On a steep slope a whole herd of cows was walking in front of me because the trail was so narrow that they could not let me pass ...
It took me only two days to hike this traverse and I did not see a single soul during that time. In hindsight this was one of the most beautiful sections of the GPT - although it is not even the main route! Finally I had found the perfect mix of great landscape, good trail and trail marking. I sent an email to the ranger to de-register and embarked on the upcoming long road walk to rejoin the main GPT route.

The road walk turned out to be much nicer than expected. It was pure dirt and hardly any traffic - expect this French cyclist. He was not making a lot more kilometers cycling than I was hiking! Coming from where I was going to he assured me that the two bridges really existed - a great relief for me! He also told me that there was tunnel! Tunnel? I could not believe that but sure enough the next day I had to walk through a 400 meter long tunnel. There was no pavement and lots of horse droppings inside because there were more riders than drivers using it ... Of course there was no lighting either ....

I camped close to the dirt road and was convinced that it was so bad that cars did not use it any more. In the morning I learnt that I was completely wrong: not only a car, but a small bus fought its way up the mountain ...
I even passed an abandoned orchard full of cherry trees. I enjoyed the unexpected vitamins a lot ...
The second bridge was a narrow metal construction over a deep river gorge with plenty of horse droppings on it. I cannot understand how the cowboys manage to drive cattle over such a bridge where even I felt uncomfortable looking down. There was a well stocked minimarket on the other side where I had a very long lunch break before finally joining the main GPT route again. I had made a detour of over 100 kilometers but I have enjoyed it a lot. In hindsight this has been one of my favourite stretches of the entire GPT! Even the road walk has been pleasant ...