Greater Patagonian Trail: GPT 4 - 3

My time on the GPT was now slowly coming to an end. With less than two weeks left before my flight back to Germany it became clear that I would probably not be able to hike all the way up to Santiago de Chile. Therefore I was not very disappointed when I heard that section 5 was closed due to another volcano alert. I skipped forward to section 4 which was not rated as particularly attractive. As I was soon to find out this rating is completely wrong.

After more than one day of continuously ascending in dry mediterranean landscape I reached two alpine lakes - and a herd of wild horses and cows.

As I did not want to be woken up by a four-legged friend, I camped a bit further up and away from water. When I looked out of my tent into the sunrise I saw a big cloud of smoke in the distance and realised only after a while where it came from. This was not a forest fire - this was smoke from an active volcano! And this volcano was the reason why I was not able to hike section 5! Although this volcano was more than 50 kilometers away I felt pretty uncomfortable and tried not to think about a volcanic eruption ... But when I woke up in the morning the sky was clear again and all the smoke had disappeared.

After some climbing over rocky slopes I reached another beautiful mountain lake in the morning and could not resist the temptation to take a swim. Continuing up to the next pass I came across two arrieros on horse back - and right on top of the pass 4 G cell phone reception ...
I must admit that I ignored the spectacular mountain scenery for half an hour while checking on my smart phone what had happened in the world.
The descent was as long and dusty as the ascent and when I finally reached the valley bottom I could not even find a campsite!

A small water fall in the valley was a very popular picnic spot and very crowded in this hot summer evening. Luckily I did not have to pay the entry fee as I was walking out. First it was too busy and crowded to camp, then everything was fenced in and in the end I had nearly reached the road. With a little detour I eventually found a decent campsite but I could still hear the noise from a nearby youth camp.
I woke up next morning to a rare phenomenom in this area: fog! I even had to pack a wet tent ...

 As soon as I had reached the road I came across a mini-market where I could buy some more snacks and delicious freshly baked bread. I needed this motivation because there was a long road walk ahead. It would have been unbearably hot and dusty in the sun, therefore I was more than grateful for the fog.
But where the route presumably turned off the road there was a huge fenced-in private property with a farmhouse right at the entrance. No way I would be able to sneak in there. So grudgingly I continued walking on the tarmac road which meant a huge 10 kilometer detour!

When I saw a bus shelter next to the road I decided to try my luck, sat down and waited. And for sure, after only half an hour a bus arrived and saved me 16 kilometer road walk! I was so happy that I bought some ice cream in a mini-market before finally embarking into the mountains again.
The GPT route took me along a very popular valley where now dozens of families were picknicking and camping. At the end of the dirt road a locked gate was decorated with several "no entry"-signs. All the locals ignored it and there was even a soical path around the gate ...
Unfortunately a couple of kilometers later there was another gate like that with even more "no entry"- signs. I climbed it and felt very uncomfortable. I walked several kilometers with seeing anyone and already felt relieved when all of a sudden I heard a truck approaching. I disappeared into the bushes. The car stopped just a couple of hundred meters later. I decided to walk around it off trail. Very bad idea! I ended up fighting my way through blackberry bushes, lost half an hour of time and got several scratches.

Plus I discovered that there were discarded beer cans and old fire rings all over the place. Despite all these "No Entry"-signs this was a popular fishing area. The people I had tried to avoid were probably harmless fishermen trespassing here as much as I did.
When I climbed out of the valley I encountered a group of arrieros descending you told: "If we had know that you are here we would have brought wine ..." Luckily they were going the other way ...
And when I finally had found a nice campsite I was visited by a lonely cow.

Next day was very hot and very dry - and unfortunately I had not brought enough water from the last water source. The trail dragged on forever under the relentless sun and I was cowering under a bush to get some shade during my thirsty lunch break. When I finally reached a water source in the evening I drank 1,5 liters straight ...
I was now a bit worried about the rest of this section because there was a river crossing ahead which Martin had not been able to do two months ago. I hoped that the river would now be passable after snow melt. I fortified myself with a lot of blackberries which were growing at lower elevation.

The river was very cold and very swift and I had to concentrate hard to find the best way but I made it safely to the other side. Relieved I took a thorough bath to wash off all the dirt before I started another long ascent.
I had been warned by other hikers but the route now took me through one of the worst bushbashes of the entire GPT. Apparantly now cattle was driven up here and therefore there was no trail. But when I finally reached the pass the view into the next valley more than rewarded me for all the hard work. It is so typical for the GPT to go from "this is horrible" to "this is so beautiful" within five minutes ...

Unfortunately on this occasion it changed back to "this is horrible" within one hour. As usual the "trail", in this case a faint horse trail" was routed high above the river in the valley and in several places I was afraid of slipping. But by now I was already so used to this kind of hiking that I just walked on until I found a flat spot near the river for camping. Although I did not know it then this was my last night on the GPT ... In the morning I wondered if I could make it out to civilisation in one day. It was more than 30 kilometers to the next road - but God, I needed some time off the trail after the last hard days.

And the day started difficult indeed: Within half an hour of walking the trail disappeared completely into blackberry bushes. I first tried to fight my way through the thicket with the help of my trekking poles but I soon gave up. Without a machete there was no way I could make it through several hundred meters of the thorny jungle. I ended up wading directly in the river! Eventually in lower elevation the trail got better and better and I was hiking faster and faster despite the fact that I still had to get up and down several little passes. In the evening I passed some wonderful campsites and stopped briefly. I could stay here another night and hike out to the road next morning instead of rushing it now. But I felt that the hike was over for me. As spectacular as it had been - I have now had enough!
But this is the GPT and therefore it had another surprise waiting for me: When I emerged onto the brandnew and paved road there were plenty of trucks carrying sulphur from the mines - but no bus!

Beach near Valparaiso

There was a huge container building nearby in the middle of nowhere so I walked over and asked the security guards about public transport. There was none - I was told. But this was workers' housing and I could ask people exiting the premises. The first truck was occupied by three worker who happily gave me a lift into the next village from where a bus took me to Rancagua. I must admit that I booked myself into a push four star hotel to get a bit of luxury.
After some brainstorming in the hotel I decided next morning that I would indeed spend my last week in Chile sightseeing instead of returning to the trail. The last missing sections were not the most attractive ones and I basically had had enough. I spent my last days in Valparaiso and Santiago de Chile before flying back to Germany.

Greater Patagonian Trail: GPT 6 Circuito Condor

GPT section 6 coincides mostly was a rather well known Chilean trek, the Circuito Condor. There are even dedicated hiking maps for this route, a rarity in Chile. When I left the bus in Vilches Alto, the starting point of the Circuito Condor in a National Reserve, two dozen backpackers were already waiting to take that bus back into civilisation. Everything was fenced in to prevent the masses of backpackers from wild camping - I did it anyways ...

But I obeyed the regulation that each hiker has to register with the park rangers and pay an entrance and camping fee. I soon realized that most backpackers were just hiking in for around 20 kilometers to the first view point and camping at the designated camp ground there. This view point was indeed very spectacular but what delighted me a lot more than the alpine panorama was the fact that there was a well maintained hiking trail descending down into the valley - another rarity in Chile ...

First viewpoint and good trail!

First glimpse of Volcan Descabezado

 As I was still in the National Reserve that night I had to camp in a designated camp site, an old and long abandoned farmstead. I considered wild camping but the many old plum trees lured me into the official site where I met Hugo, a Chilean weekend warrior who had injured himself when hiking in and was now waiting for the rest of his group to help him hike out again. After hiking for weeks without company it was a pleasure to have someone to chat with for a while.
Next morning I met his friends who were coming back from having climbed Volcan Descabezado, the "beheaded" volcano. Although it is a relatively eassy climb I had decided not to summit it because I had already climbed too many mountains on this trip ...

 

 

I passed the "base camp" where several tents were pitched while their owners were climbing the volcano. But I walked on to do a side trip to Laguna Caracol. The moon like landscape was so fascinating that I took an incredible number of photos. Despite the breathtaking scenery there was no other hiker and I camped all by myself next to an ice cold stream.

Next day took me forever through this moon like landscape and walking in volcano ash was pretty demanding. There is no trail marking, but luckily I could follow the footsteps of other hikers. A Chilean couple asked me for help because they wanted to take a different route and did not trust their smartphone navigation ....

I was totally amazed to find so much water in this otherwise totally barren landscape. Next to the small streams colorful flowers were just in bloom and the scenery looked like someone had started coloring it with one stroke of the paint brush.

My map showed hot springs along the trail but I had no intentions of reaching them that night because I thought that the place would be two crowded. But then I met two Chilean backpackers who told me that I would probably be on my own. There was no one camped there when they had left and they had not seen anyone going there. I decided to try my luck. Of course the trail seemed to drag on forever. There was even a swift river crossing to do until I finally reached the famous hot springs. If it had not been for the steam I would have missed them. And indeed, there was no one else there which meant that I could soak naked in the hot water. What a delight after a long dusty day!

There were three pools that had been dug out with an old rusty shovel which was still laying around. Unfortunately, as soon as I stepped into the pool all the muck from the ground started floating up. It was still nice to relax in the hot, but muddy water. When taking this picture with a timer my smartphone nearly fell into the water ...

I slept very well that night despite the sulphur smell from the hot springs. Former visitors had even built rock walls as wind protection around the camp sites. And a big horse shoe collection told me that this was a popular spot for riders, too!

Still, I was not entirely happy when I left next morning. The map told me that I had to traverse several incredibly steep slopes - something that I had learnt to fear and to loathe on this trail.

The slopes turned out to be really steep and a fall looked potentially mortal, but luckily I was walking on volcano ashed which provides a wonderful tread. When I had passed an exceptionally scary section a group of seven day hikers with small backpacks were coming towards. They surprised me with a weird question: "Have you smelled anything strange?" I told them about the sulphur smell of the hot springs but they just shook their heads and left - leaving me rather clueless.

Veronica was waiting next to the lake

After climbing up to another spectacular pass and descending down to an alpine lake I found out what was behind that all. A lonely female was sitting next to the lake waiting for my arrival. She introduced herself as Veronica and told me that she had injured herself on the way up and asked me if I could accompany her down again. Of course I was willing to help but I wondered what she was doing here. Veronica was part of the volontary search-and-rescue team that I had come across earlier. They were looking for a 30 year old hiker called Sebastian Joffre who had gone missing here 16 day ago. Because there was only little hope that he would be found alive the SAR team had asked me for a "strange smell"...

This sad story told me that my fears of slipping and falling were not altogether unfounded ...
In order to locate him Chilean military was coordinating a big search including soldiers, volunteers, helicopters and dogs. Their base camp was in the valley and Veronica was in contact with them via radio. But the military headquarter had not allowed her to try descending on her own. She was now waiting for her group to come back and help her, but she was afraid that they would arrive very late in the evening with very little daylight left for the descent. And then she would have to rush - something she could not do with her injured knee.

Paramedic, me and Veronica

What happened now was more like a story out of a James Bond movie than a normal hiking day. After she had received permission via radio to descend with me we slowly started hiking. In fact, despite her injured knee Veronica was still walking faster than me. Various times concerned military were asking for hour progress via radio and announced despite Veronica's protests that they would send as a paramedic. And for sure when we had nearly reached the valley bottom two soldiers came towards us. Veronica had already told me that this rescue action was probably more due to the fact that one soldier had cast an eye on her than to medical necessity ...

In order to "rescue" her, they had driven up the valley cross country in a military vehicle - and asked me whether I wanted to get a ride to their base camp. This was something I did not want to miss - and it was the bumpiest ride of my entire life! While Veronica was riding shotgun I was trying to stay alive in the back of the track while being thrown up and down.
I wondered why we had not waited for the rest of the rescue team but I was just told that they could walk back to base. Special treatment out here was apparently for women only! When we arrived in the base camp we were celebrated like heroes - but I still preferred to camp on my own a couple of kilometres away.

Nothing dramatic happened while I hiked out to civilisation the next morning ...

Greater Patagonian Trail: GPT 7

El Puente Ingles

GPT section 7 starts at "Puente Ingles", the English bridge which was constructed by a British engineer in order to drive cattle across the river. Nowadays it is a popular picnic spot. When arrived late in the evening there were still plenty of locals frolicking in the water. I walked half a kilometer to get away from the hustle and bustle and camped.

Next day started with a long and dusty road walk but I refused all offers of rides. When I finally turned onto horse trail I was passed by a group of friendly carabineros on a patrol ride.

They knew the area so well that they used this last chance with cell phone receptions to make some calls. To my big surprise they did not object at all to have their picture taken.
The following day turned out to be one the most beautiful on the GPT for me. The trail took me up a pass in the morning and down the pass in the afternoon. Views on each side were absolutely spectacular and I did not see a single soul that day which ended even more spectacular at the Laguna Maule. Although horse drops told me that this is a popular campsite I had the lake all to myself and enjoyed a wonderful evening swim.

Laguna Maule (photo with no filter ...)

I was a bit nervous in the morning because I now had to walk around the lake - but there was no easy beach! The horse trail contoured the steep slopes fifty or hundred meters above the lake. If I slipped I would just fall into the water but this did not make me feel a lot better ... I even walked short bits in the water in order to avoid the eroded horse trail. In the middle of this stretch I even came across a lonely puesto and met the arriero who was living there a couple of hours later on horse back.
I still could not relax because at the end of this stretch the horse trail took me up to a pass and contoured around a terribly steep slope where a fall would send me down several hundred meters ...

Descent down to Laguna Maule

Views from the pass onto the dark blue lake were fantastic and luckily the steep descent was on sand. I was sliding down but not slipping and falling. When I arrived at the outlet of the lake I took a bath and had a long break. I thought that now the worst was over but as usual on the GPT I was wrong. What I had thought to be a nice afternoon stroll along the river turned out to be more nerve-wracking hiking on eroded horse trail high above the river. The trail was so badly eroded that someone had even tried to repair it with logs - it was still scary as hell.
At one point I had to cross a slope where the trail was more or less totally washed out. I clang to some thorny bushes to avoid sliding down into the river and promptly had several thorns in my hands and arms ...
At least the river crossing at the end of this demanding day was easy. I filled up my water bottles and camped at the first possible site being totally exhausted and fed up ...

Trail high above the river

Next day was far less demanding and a lot more entertaining! I passed an outpost of Chilean carabineros who are not only police but function as border patrol. When arrived at their puesto in the middle of nowhere I was immediately offered breakfast and mate. Their main job is to prevent cattle rustling but of course they check for all sorts of contraband. Or as one of the carabineros put it: "If you check on one of the arrieros we always look what he has in his saddle bags. If we find marihuana, we sit down and smoke a joint together!" This guy looked so serious when saying this that I almost fell for his joke. Because Chilean carabineros have an excellent reputation and are not corrrupt!

But beside all this joking around these guys did their job and copied all my passport details. Or as they put it: "If you slip and fall here, you will not die immediately. It takes a couple of days. But when we find your bones finally we at least know who you were ..."
With this comforting knowledge I left my new friends and traversed a very hot and dusty plain, crossed a braided river and camped under a plum tree full with ripe fruit!  There were only bushes in this plain - only around puestos there were huge green trees giving shade. This way you could see each settler from far away.

See the dark green trees in the middle - there is a house there

Two days later I came across another highlight - hot springs close to the trail. As the crow flies they were only around 1 km away from the trail but of course the path was eroded steep. Luckily I was the only person there and could frolick in the hot water. I kept my clothes on because I wanted to wash them.
Unfortunately there was no shade and you cannot stay long in hot water with the hot sun shining directly onto your head. At least I was very clean when I continued to the little village of Carrizales which turned out to consist only of around three huts, no shop and no cell phone signal - but another carabinero post!

Here I was greeted with cold lemonade and learnt even more about their job in the mountains. Most of their "clients" are Chileans who hop over the border and steal Argentinian horses or cattle. The other way around (Argentinians stealing Chilean cattle seemed not to happen very often ...). There are usually six men at these outpost. Three of them go on patrol for several days and the other three stay in the outpost for emergencies. Their shift is one month long and most of them seem to enjoy it a lot. "We shot rabbits and go fishing a lot ..."
But they have to bring in all their food for one month! The government is only paying for the horse feed ....

I joined them feeding their horses and was allowed to take pictures - but only after they had changed from shorts and T-shirts into their uniform ... Being a lot taller than any of them I kept my seat for the picture ...

The next was very hot and dusty walk through cattle country. Although being generally very dry there were huge swampy meadows that were difficult to cross. I finally emerged up on a high plateau were I was nearly caught in a thunderstorm and then followed by a herd of cattle. When they saw the steep descent at the end of the plateau they turned around ... Unfortunately I had to go down there ....

View into the valley

 Of course there was no trail and very carefully I descended meter by meter, sometimes sliding down on my butt until I finally reached some sort of cattle trail and the river. I pitched my tent on the first flat spot and thanked God that I had not hurt myself on the descent!

I had hoped that from now on it would be an easy stroll along the river out to the road and then back to civilisation but again the GPT was full of surprises. The cattle trail was generally routed high above the river and I was trying hard not to slip and fall. I finally reached a very well maintained dirt road and soon the highway came into sight. But to my utter surprise there was a locked gate and a guard station between me and my return to civilisation. But surely the guard would let me out! Well, he didn't. The poor guy was very apologetic but explained that the camera would film it all and get him into trouble. After a short discussion he showed me a hole in the fence out of camera view were I could get out to freedom ... From there it was a long road walk to some popular hot springs and a bus ride into town.

Greater Patagonian Trail: GPT 8

Along the road to the power plant

I decided to tackle this route on an alternate trail because I could reach this section terminus by bus. I knew from the map that there was a hydroelectric plant in the valley I had to ascend but did not think much of it ... When I approached the valley on a well used dirt road I saw a big guard station at its entrance. There were lots of signs but none said "no entry". So I tried to just walk by while the guard was dealing with some cars. Of course I was stopped. The poor guy did not really seem to know what to do with a hiker - and in order to play it safe he denied me access. I decided to not make a scene. This was all open landscape with no fences and it would be easy to just sneak in. And hopefully that late in the evening nobody would stop me once inside.

My designated camp site ...

It was easy to bypass the guardstation without being seen and soon I was on a huge maintenance road leading towards the power plant. I just made it 2 kilometers in before I was discovered by another security guy in a car. He stopped immediately and asked me where I was going that late. "Have you registered at the guard station?", was his next question. I mumbled something about cross country and hoped for the best. At least it now looked like hikers were allowed here. He told me to get into his car because he wanted me to register at the guard station and promised to bring me back afterwards. There was nothing I could do about this - but I wondered how the security guy at the guard station would react when he saw me again ... It would then be very obvious that I had disobeyed his orders ....

But I was incredibly lucky: In the meantime a new work shift must have begun because a different security guard was sitting at the entrance. He copied my passport details and off we went going back. Unfortunately the driver would not let me out where he had picked me up. He told me again and again that this was too dangerous and there were pumas and so on. He would take me to a safe spot. Again there was nothing I could do. After five more kilometers he finally stopped, showed me a very nice camp spot close to the river and left. I don't want anyone to know where I was camping but it was already getting dark. I decided to trust the guy and stayed. And indeed nobody showed up while I was camped there although vehicles were coming and going to the powerplant all night long.

I never made it down to these lakes ...

I did't see a single person next day! I passed the power plant, ascended 1000 meters and walked in breathtakingly beautiful country. At the end of the day I wanted to descend down to the lake in the photo and camp there. I could already see on the map that this 400 meter descent would be difficult because it involved a 1 km long traverse of a very steep slope. When I stood at the beginning of this traverse and looked down things were a lot worse than expected. The very steep slope had eroded so badly that there was no more trail whatsoever - only sun baked dirt covered with loose pebbles. If I slipped there I would fall almost 400 meters ... I retraced my steps very carefully. I felt too exhausted at the end of the day to tackle this difficult section and walked two kilometers back to the last water source. Next morning I deliberated my choices: If I took the risk to traverse the steep slope (and survived!) I would immediately be confronted with the next problem. The GPT passes very close to the volcano Chillan which was in "alerta naranja", orange alert now. As hikers were not suppposed to get closer than four kilometers I would have to take an alternate route that involved a very long and very exposed cross country section ...

 

I came to the conclusion that no trail in the world was worth this risk. I just did not feel comfortable continuing - and therefore decided to turn back and skip the rest of this section. In order to get some variety I wanted to hike out on the regular route which turned out to be incredibly beautiful - and full of steep slopes with eroded trails ... After 16 kilometers I came to another section where a slip would have meant immediate death. As spectacular as the scenery was - I did not want to risk my life for it. I turned back and hiked out the route I had come in. For someone who is 100% sure footed and free of vertigo this would probably have been easy. And even for me the chance of an accident was minimal - but I did not want to take that risk ...

I arrived back in the valley after a very long day and steep descent, set up my camp and slept very well. In the morning my decision to turn back was confirmed by the fact that my shoes were falling apart. The sole was coming off and I would have felt even more uncomfortable in this difficult terrain with defective shoes ...
But before I arrived back in civilisation I was in for another surprise. A lonely puesto near the trail that had been empty two days ago was now full of people, probably a family. When the father saw my clumsy efforts to climb over the gate next to the puesto he immediately invited me over. "Have a drink, have a peach, relax!", he told me and offered me a chair.

Hugo and yours truly in front of the puesto

Hugo was here on holiday with  most of his family. Only one son was back home looking after the cattle. They had brought a goat from their herd as food for the weekend. When I jokingly told him that I had never ever eaten goat, I was invited to try a bit. His wife put a huge piece of meat onto the open fire inside the hut and thus warmed up the rest of last night's barbecue. Despite the rather primitive hut I was served this meal on a porcelain plate, with silverware and napkins. The meat tasted delicious and Hugo even sang for me!

When I left these friendly hosts my luck continued. When I reached the power plant and the road again I was picked up by two locals who had been cutting wood here. We passed the guard station without any problems and they took me to their village, where to only direct bus to Chillan, my next destination stopped for me within five minutes ....