Advertisement
Published: February 29th 2008
By far this was the most challenging and most rewarding hike I have accomplished in my very immature trekking experience. From Lake Ilon we descened quickly back to the trail head, Pampa Linda, and took a recovery break to refill water bottles, snack on granola and get out of the sun. Before long we were heading up to the 'Cloud Pass' hike. It was more popular than the very steep Lake Ilon.
At the first stopping point Dain and I were easily distracted by a nearby waterfall, (cascada.) We dropped our packs and shimmied on up to see this site. It was a fun side show, but my legs got scraped and bloodied by all the sharp vegetation overgrown onto the path. Dain tried his best to find a path to get closer and closer to the waterfall, but we didn´t want to spend too much time on this project. Because of the suggested 3 days to hike this trail I felt somewhat pressured to move on.
We gave ourselves a day to accomplish what most do in 2-3 days, but the info center said it was possible. When we were ready to hike on, the next river to
Passe de los Nubes
Our favorite view. ford was at peak runoff time and was just too fast and dangerous to cross to the other side, where the rest of the trail picked up again. So, using our best judgement, we got a fire going to cook up some hot dogs and rice. After dinner, an hour or so, the river had calmed down and we were able to cross safely.
Immediately after crossing this river we ran into a marsh. Yes, the front office in Pampa Linda referred to this, but we had no idea it was this serious. No matter how hard we tried to jump around to avoid the muck, it was impossible to avoid. Mud and water filled our shoes, it poured in from the top and we just got through as quickly as possible.
Now, we gushed on in hopes of making it to the second camp, located after the summit of Passe de los Nubes. A couple hours after upward, out of breath hiking, the sun was set and we had to pitch the tent in a meadow before we were hiking in the dark. The meadow provided a flat area sheltered from the wind by some thick shrubbary,
but Dain had me terrified of wildlife, specifically Pumas! As we said goodnight, he explained where the knife was and that the bamboo stick outside the tent was purposfully sharp at one end in case of animal attacks. Right....
The night was safe. Actually, we were up stargazing before the 3 alarms were even ringing. Now, in complete darkness, at 5:30 in the morning, we packed up and felt our way out of the meadow. It was a good 2 hours head start on the hike. At one point, we were both unable to find the next trail marker and not having much line of sight, both sat down and waited for the sun to come up. Finally, around 8:00 it was luminous and we found our marker to the next point.
By the time we were at the summit it was light enough to see that, compared to Colorado, this wasn´t very near to the clouds at all. After another 2 hours of descending, we discovered the feature of this hike. Exiting the woods we encountered a view of an entire mountainside of rock, topped off with Glacier Frias and pouring down the rock were 2 dozen
Some people on horses
These horses did the same hike as us! waterfalls pooling into a small lake and then into a river. Best of all, in the early morning we counted 5 Condors circling high above our heads. Both of us sat down to enjoy a quick moment of this sight, but realized that we were not doing so well on time and pushed on.
The hiking to the next camp, more forest, back to the obstacle course of trees, marshes, boulders, bamboo forests, getting off trail on accident then back on was incredibly fast. Much more difficult than any rugby game I've played. We poured sweat and booked it through the hot and the humidity and made it to our ferry just as it was ready to leave. On the ferry we met an Australian girl and her guide who had to do the same thing and were slightly behind us, from the second camp.
At the end of the entire 2 weeks in Patagonia, we decided that this is the most unforgetable adventure of them all. Dain has decided that this is his new 'Best Place in the World' spot. I will decide what is my 'Best Place in the World' spot after I become much more
More bridges
What fun! Passe de los Nubes familiar with the world, but I think it will be ranked pretty high up there.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.039s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.021s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
