The lagona negra trek and somemore of Bariloche

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After returning from the "Refugio Frey" trek I have rested for tow days in Bariloche - at the first day I took public transportation to Llao llao park and most famous hotel - although it was raining a lot so I didn't want to hike for long. I also went to two different places to get information about my next trek - "Lagona Negra". The first place was the office of the Nauel Huapi national park and the second was the "Club Andino" office. Both places were good for getting information and that's raised my confidence on going out to the trek by my own. I was planning to hike for two days - hiking to and spending the night at "Lagona Negra" in "Refugio Italia" at the first day and going back the same way the day after. Only, after a couple of hours of walking at day first of the trek - I found out that both offices were not giving me the full information about the trek I needed...

After about three hours of walking I got to a waterfall, and saw that the red circles signsmarks changed to this small piles of stones - "Rujom" in Hebrew. I followed this piles of stones and only after about two more hours of walking I found out that I have reached another waterfall which was a dead end for me and not even near to Lagona Negra. it was scary. I had about one and half hours of day light left, I was tired and had no tent to camp along the trail. So, after realizing I have no reception on my cell phone I took immediate decision to go back to the beginning of the trail as fast as I can.

luckily I have gotten back to the part of the trek that was familiar to me wile there was still day light, and I knew that the rest two and a half hours of walking back to the beginning from that point were marked pretty well. I did walk in the forest at the dark for about two hours, but eventually I got to the small town that was at the starting point of the trek ("colunia suiza"). I stopped the only police man that was wandering the streets of the town that late of an hour and fortunately he was very nice and helped me find a "cabania" - a small motel to stay for the night. I was also thankful for the fact that it was almost a full moon night so the walking in the forest was a bit less scary then it was at an empathy moon night for example.

Actually I realized that I should have searched for the red marks and not for the stones piles when I got back to the waterfall where I took the wrong turn at the first place. I followed the confusing marks - the stones piles because the red marks were not that obvious on my way to the lagon. just when I came back I have noticed the correct red signs but it was to late to continue to the lagona negra by then.

Some times a man does all he can to get informed about a plan (trek in this case) but its not all in his hands. When coming back to Bariloche I have returned to both offices to let them know about the confusing marks along the trek. both places told me they knew about that ! and the reason was probably a mountain contest that was held there a few months ago that have probably build and used the confusing trail marking (the stones piles). unfortunately both offices forgot to tell me about that...

If you are plannig to do this trek you should know that the guy at the national park office told me they are planning to strengthen the main marks along the trail for next summer so I hope that for you, it will be a better success then mine in getting to the Lagona Negra...

Any way, while waiting to the bus that will take me to my next adventure in Argentina, I saw some really authentic protests in the streets of Bariloche - as you can see at the photos attached.

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