I bought a cheap tent (12 GBP) and sleeping mat in Los Angeles in order to do the trek; another 2.5kg to carry from now on!
We (Yonatan/Omer/myself) caught a bus to the park entrance, from Los Angeles, to a place called El Abanico which is about 7-9 km from the start of the trek. We hiked in the drizzle/rain to the ranger station, taking around 2.5 hrs to get there, and signed in to ensure that if we got lost or didn’t return they would know to come looking for us!
The first day of the trek has a couple of options and we decided to try to get up the mountain to camp at a meadow plateau with views down the valley, despite the ranger telling us it was going to rain a lot and we should wait for the following day. This was a further few kms from the entrance and referred to in the Lonely Planet Trekking in the Patagonian Andes as a ‘pleasnt side trip’. It turned out to be exactly as described and gave some amazing views down the valley once the clouds dispersed. The ranger had been wrong about his weather prediction and we ended up with brilliant sunshine and some amazing views. We set up camp at Meseta de los Zorros in a meadow overlooking the valley below and made a fire to cook dinner on. We settled down to a nice bottle of wine and a pasta and tomato sauce meal; at least we would have a little less to carry on the second day.
Day 2 – Estero Los Pangues to Los Barros (15.5km; 4-6 hrs)
We got up round 7:30 and packed up after breakfast; the tents had got pretty wet from the dew so we tried to dry them in the morning sun but without much joy; it didn’t really matter as we would be putting them up again that night.
The trek took us back to where the side trip had split from the main path to Sierra Velluda, about half an hour, from where we continued up the mountain. From this point on there was not much of a marked trail to follow and I’m sure we walked further than we needed to. We worked our way across a vast expanse of lava that remains and finally reached a point almost at the summit where we stopped for half an hour for lunch. Continuing up to the pass we reached the glacier and the highest point of our climb; again the vistas were superb. The glacier blocked our way so we had to skirt around the top and then descend into the valley below. By this time we had already walked for 5hrs and were geting pretty tired. We had to clamber/walk a further 2hrs before we reached our camp for the night near to the Laguna de la Laja. We all had really sore feet! We made camp but there was no wood for a fire, so we used our gas stove to cook up soup and mashed potato (from a box). An early night was called for to rest our weary muscles.
Day 3 – Los Barros to Guarderia Chacay (23km; 5-7hrs)
Day three was to be a long but easy day trekking along a dirt road back to the park entrance, albeit about 25km from our camp. Walking along the road was much easier although a little disconcerting to see graves marked every few hundred metres; we still don’t know why these people died but surmise it was some to do with the military as we saw a huge statue at the top of a hill at one point but didn’t have the energy to walk up to read the plaque.
We walked until around 2pm and took a ‘quick lunch’ that lasted about 2hrs becuase we ran out of gas and had to slow cook some rice under a fleece (the pan being hot from before the gas gave up). We had already realised we would need to camp at the entrance before catching the bus back the following morning so we just plodded on. With about 2km to go a young couple stopped in their pickup and offered us a lift … all the way back to Los Angeles … sweet!
The total trek was around 40km, plus the 7-9km (differing views) to the park.
We actually got back to our hotel and headed out for pizza … it tasted so good.
More treks to follow – the next starting tomorrow now that we’ve recovered.
