The bus to take us into the park left at 730am on the 26th. We were still packing at 1am the night before. As I looked around at all the food and clothes we were going to be carrying around with us, I wasn't even sure it would all fit in our bags. What the crap did we just decide to do. But by 2am it was all packed and neither of our bags weighed much more that 35lbs. So that wasn't so bad.
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| 730am at the bus stop and feeling great |
As soon as we got on our bus, we had a two hour(ish) ride to the first stop. I slept pretty much the entire way. When I woke up, there was snow on the ground. Crap, what did we get ourselves into? Can't say that hiking in the cold, snow and wet sounded all that appealing for ten days. We watched a safety video, made our reservations for the free campsites and got back on the bus. I woke up at the second stop. At least the snow was gone! We totally got this. We also hopped off the bus to get a quick coffee while everyone else unloaded.
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| That's a guanaco. In the snow. |
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| Last tasty sugar beverage |
We were the only backpackers on the bus to the third and final stop. It was a super easy flat day walking towards the mountains, and if we were lucky, we would have great views of what we would be hiking around for the next nine days.
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| Cheesin' |
We learned that they take cooking and fires very seriously in this park. They don't really have naturally occurring forest fires here because its so cold that lightning is very rare. The last forest fire burned about 40% of the park before they got it put out. The fines and jail time for things like camping or cooking in non-designated areas are incredibly steep. Like, escort you out of the country for breaking the rules.
Day 1: Administration to Paine Grande
After the bus dropped us off, we snacked on some lunch, adjusted our packs and started off on our adventure. There was no snow and not much wind. So woohoo!! The first part of the hike was incredibly flat and through a big field. Ellen took the time to dry some of her laundry off the back of her pack. It hadn't dried from her washing the night before. Our feet and backs were feeling pretty good. It was a great day so far! We got to the first place to camp and made the executive decision to keep walking another three or so hours to the next camp site. Might as well walk in great weather and give ourselves a shorter day the next day. Who knows when the weather might change and we'd be robbed of the mountain views by the clouds.
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| Flat trails. Sunshine. Hooray! |
After walking through more fields and by a river for a while, we walked up a pretty steep hill and I just hear Ellen go "oh. wow." We came up over the hill to a view of one of the burnt forests with the mountains as a backdrop. So even if it was cloudy for the next nine days, we still had that amazing first view. And it just got better. We kept walking towards it. Pretty soon we could see this gorgeous turquoise lake. Then we were walking along the gorgeous turquoise lake.
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| Oh wow! |
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| Freakin' unreal |
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| Walking through the dead forest, from where the last fire burned through |
We were definitely tired and hungry by the time we got to our first camp. It was pretty apparent that it was going to get cold once the sun went down. Something to note though: the sun didn't go down until around ten. So much daylight!!! After an awesome dinner of reheated salmon and quinoa, we crawled into our tent and went to bed.
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| So over that standing thing |
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| Paine Grande campsite |
Day 2: Paine Grande to Italiano
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| Slept in, eating granola and coffee for breakfast |
The next day was pretty short. The map told us it would only take about three hours. So we slept in a bit and took our time packing up, aka we left at noon. The trail didn't have much elevation in it, but it still took us about an hour longer than expected. We had good weather again, and I think we both stopped to take more than all of the pictures.
This was also our first day to get up close to one of the smaller glaciers (or ice fields, I'm not sure which). Occasionally we would hear thunder, but it was actually chunks of snow and ice breaking off of the glacier.
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| First glacier sighting! |
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| Glacier close-up. This one was actually taken from our hike up the French Valley. |
Italiano is one of the few free campsites left in the national park. A majority of the camp sites are run by one of two private companies. In addition to camp sites and a cooking area, the paid camping generally has showers, a small store and a refugio. The refugio had beds for sleeping in and also provided cooked meals (very expensive ones at that). The free camping was much more of what I had expected for all the sites. Not so many amenities, definitely not hot showers.
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| Sunset colors on the glacier |
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| Bye bye sun (at 10pm) |
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| First of several sketchy bridges |
The weather stayed clear and we got to see a pretty gorgeous sunset. Just as we were falling asleep it started to rain. The first test of our rented tent!
Day 3: Valle Frances Mirador and Italiano to Cuernos
The next morning we tried to get an early start so that we could walk up the French Valley to a mirador (lookout). We got started about an hour after we'd planned to. Neither of us really like mornings. Or being cold. And that's what getting up early is full of. It had stopped raining by the time we woke up. Our stuff stayed dry. Great success.
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| Walkin' up next to the stream |
As we walked, we met a guy who's moving to Spokane in June. Small freakin' world. It stayed cloudy, but the clouds moved around enough that we got some pretty awesome views of the glacier and its surroundings. The hike up the French Valley took us through forest, across a couple streams and up along a ridge. There's a small camp near the mirador thats for climbers looking to ascend some of the faces in the French Valley.
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| Looking back on the lake under the fog |
When we got to the lookout, I was looking around at all of these rock faces and all of the scree below them. How do people even get up to them to begin climbing them?!
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| Do you see the shark fin? |
We got about ten minutes at the top before it started to sprinkle and the wind kicked back up. We still had to get back down, get our packs and hike to the next camp, so we hustled back down. We stopped in Italiano to get our stuff and eat some bread and cheese sandwiches for lunch.
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| The fog kept shifting around so we got a great look at the rocks, just not all at once. |
After lunch we had about a three hour walk that descended down from Italiano down along a lake to Cuernos. All I can say is that I was quite pleased to be going down instead of up. Especially since our packs were still pretty packed with food. About 15 minutes before the camp, the trail walked along this perfect stretch of beach on the lake. So many of the rocks were perfect skipping rocks.
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| CLOUDS |
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| Such a great rest spot |
For several of our dinners we brought pasta and powdered soup. You only add a bit of water to the soup mix, and its a sauce. At Cuernos we tested out the pasta and cream of mushroom soup. Not bad. I can't say I'd voluntarily make it again in a non-camping situation though.
Day 4: Cuernos to Torres
The next day was going to be a decently long one. We were heading up from the lake up a second valley to climb to the free camp called Torres. It's also the closest camp to the mirador for the towers themselves. Meaning we could sleep as late as possible and still see them for sunrise.
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| I'll say it again. CLOUDS. |
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| Drinkin' straight out of a waterfall |
The weather continued to stay clear, and we got a hot sunny day to hike uphill. We also got the company of these large black flies that were incredibly persistent. As they buzzed around us in circles, they did a pretty good job making us look like crazy people.
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| Looking back at some cool rocks |
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| Awww come on, he's a fun guy |
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| Walking down the valley to Cuernos |
Just an hour or so before our camp, we stopped at one of the paid camps for a quick sec. Our original plan was to quickly pick up a couple of beers to take to Torres. That quickly turned into chatting and deciding to stop and have a beer/coke at Cuernos.
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| Last uphill of the day, sponsored by beer, Advil, and Coke |
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| The forest was amazingly green |
The camp at Torres was one of my favorites of the trip. The camp spots were nice, there was lots of space, and it was a great place to hang out and chat with the other hikers. We crawled into bed pretty early because sunrise the next morning was at 5am, and we had about forty five min of hiking to do before then.
Day 5: Sunrise at the Towers and Torres to Seron
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| Still managed to smile for the pic |
As stated before, neither of us like cold. Or mornings. So I was pretty impressed we made it up exactly as planned. We were there well in time to pick a rock and get situated to watch the sun rise. I brought my sleeping bag with me, and I was so thankful I did. The sun may have risen at 5am, but since we were in a valley, we didn't see light coming over the hills for another hour or so. We could see people getting cold and heading back down to camp.
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| Literally brought our beds up to watch sunrise. (oh hey there moon) |
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| Ellen taking pics |
We froze for another half an hour before we saw the very tops of the towers getting hit with sun. Slowly, they lit up little by little until the sun was officially up. We hustled down to camp and jumped back into our tent and sleeping bags to warm up. This turned into napping for a couple of hours.
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| The first light! |
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| Lit up towers |
Then we packed up and headed out for a long afternoon of walking. We headed back down and out of the valley, and wrapped back around to the back side of the park. This was our first day of walking that wasn't on the W route, so it was a bit quieter. By this point we had gotten to know several people that were all on our same schedule, so it was nice to get to camp and see familiar faces. Once we were on the backside and off the W trek, it was much more common to keep seeing and chatting with the same group.
Every time I have to hike in the hottest part of the day I always think "tomorrow I'm going to get up early so I don't have to do this." And then every time the alarm goes off I forget about this. For a while, we were walking on the same tracks that are shared by the horses. So more flies making us look crazy.
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| Drinking the water out of the stream. All the running water in the park was both delicious and safe to drink. |
My hiking boots were broken in, but I hadn't realized how tired my feet would get by the end of each day. It was always first priority to get the boots of ASAP as soon as we picked a tent spot. By the time we were about three quarters of the way to our next camp, we were walking it flat open fields of daises. So many of them! And all I could think about were how bad my feet hurt. So I said eff that and changed into my camp shoes. Best decision ever.
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| Boots had come off at this point. |
Seron was also a really nice campground. Before we got to the park, we had been told not to worry too much about mosquitoes because of how windy the entire trip would be. Except that for the next few days we were swarmed by little black gnats and mosquitoes any time we stopped. Could we maybe have compromised and had just a little wind?
For both of us, this was our hardest day of the trip. It had pretty significant amounts of elevation change in multiple parts, and it started at 330am. We started to toss around the idea of taking a rest day about 2/3 of the way through the afternoon and I think the plan for a rest day somewhat solidified by the next morning when we found out there were some others taking a rest day as well.
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| All the flowers. |
