Our taxi took us up some back dirt roads that led to a gate. We thought when we got there the trailhead would be rather easy to spot, but it wasn't so it was a good thing that we had a map and somewhat of a route description. There was another group there that was going on a different hike and then one singular guy that we saw for a brief amount of time and then not again. Our goal was mainly to follow the creek up the mountains toward a pass.
We thought that there would be some sort of trail, but after a while it seemed to disappear. I looked at the map and saw that the trail left the creek, so we thought about finding it again. The problem was that even though the area seemed like it was full of open meadows, it actually wasn't. Instead, it was filled with peat bogs. It was definitely low impact hiking as we traversed through the peat, but far too slow to make any noticeable progress.
So after sinking slowly into the ground and moving too slow, we found our way back down to the creek. There was not a trail for a good amount of time. We ended up having to cross the creek, which wasn't too bad, but since Dad has a foot that takes some maintenance, that also slowed us down.
Eventually, we found some trails to follow. They would go for some time, then disappear. It was probably because the area that we were in was open range, especially for horses. We actually found some large horses that we followed for quite some time until they let us by.
We knew we would have to find the trail again at some point, but luckily it was open enough for us to continue to see where we were going. We could look up and see the mountains rising in the distance, but that distance became smaller and smaller after some time. We even saw an extremely large hawk just chilling out. We thought this was a rather unique sight, but we would see more and more of these birds down in Tierra del Fuego as the trip went along. They actually filled the niche that would usually be filled by ravens as they became rather friendly birds at camp areas.
We left the river and stumbled upon a much better trail. This one lead away from the creek for sometime and suddenly markers started to appear. We were happy about this as it gave us confidence and we could stop wondering whether we could find the trail and instead just plug away.
We were even more convinced when we came to a creek crossing with a bridge. Instead of having a railing to it, this bridge had just a piece of wire to hold onto. I wonder what would have happen if we would have fallen. It probably was not something to hold onto, but it did help us keep our balance.
After this initial crossing, the trail began climbing. We had many steep switchbacks up into the forest. This was good because it meant that we were getting closer to our campsite. Dad was moving well and we had plenty of daylight, but it had already been a long day. We were ready to get into camp and have a relaxing evening.
Before this could happen, we had another crossing on a not so good bridge over a much more painful and cold drop. Dad thought I wanted him to bite it into the creek when I took a picture, but it easily could have ruined our day. After this crossing, we still had a bit of uphill through the trees wondering the whole time if we would have a good sign of where to go to camp for the evening. Our goal was Laguna del Caminante.
We were happy to see the only sign of civilization in this wilderness when we stumbled upon the sign for the lake. We were happy to take this because it meant the end to our uphill hiking and a trip to our campsite. It also meant that we were above the trees and our views were starting to open up.
The mountains in this area looked incredible and one could spend an entire summer just in this one area accessing all these many mountains. I wondered how many of them had been climbed and how many times. This was definitely off the beaten track even though only a few hours earlier we were in Ushuaia in civilization.
The trail traversed above the creek through a meadow. As we came around the corner, our view opened up even more and we could see the lake along with many snow covered peaks.
This looked like it was going to be a pretty sweet campsite. As we got to the other side of the lake, we could see a stand of trees where there were a few tents pitched. We had to go down a steep slope that was very eroded to get down to the lake. It was slick and we had to be careful to not end up with a soggy bottom.
As we got to the bottom of the steep slope, there was another double sided waterfall that poured into a pool of water.
We wandered around the camping area looking for a decent site. There were a couple other parties that had kind of taken the best of the lake sites. We chose to move back away from them and be in the trees a little bit. This was a bit less scenic, but quieter. Our neighbors did not seem particularly friendly, so we kept to ourselves. The weather was looking like it was going to turn as the night wore on. We had such great weather the whole trip, it was inevitable that the weather would get nasty at sometime. We prepared for a soggy day hiking the following day.
Our taxi took us up some back dirt roads that led to a gate. We thought when we got there the trailhead would be rather easy to spot, but it wasn't so it was a good thing that we had a map and somewhat of a route description. There was another group there that was going on a different hike and then one singular guy that we saw for a brief amount of time and then not again. Our goal was mainly to follow the creek up the mountains toward a pass. 
So after sinking slowly into the ground and moving too slow, we found our way back down to the creek. There was not a trail for a good amount of time. We ended up having to cross the creek, which wasn't too bad, but since Dad has a foot that takes some maintenance, that also slowed us down.
Eventually, we found some trails to follow. They would go for some time, then disappear. It was probably because the area that we were in was open range, especially for horses. We actually found some large horses that we followed for quite some time until they let us by.
We knew we would have to find the trail again at some point, but luckily it was open enough for us to continue to see where we were going. We could look up and see the mountains rising in the distance, but that distance became smaller and smaller after some time. We even saw an extremely large hawk just chilling out. We thought this was a rather unique sight, but we would see more and more of these birds down in Tierra del Fuego as the trip went along. They actually filled the niche that would usually be filled by ravens as they became rather friendly birds at camp areas.
We were even more convinced when we came to a creek crossing with a bridge. Instead of having a railing to it, this bridge had just a piece of wire to hold onto. I wonder what would have happen if we would have fallen. It probably was not something to hold onto, but it did help us keep our balance.
After this initial crossing, the trail began climbing. We had many steep switchbacks up into the forest. This was good because it meant that we were getting closer to our campsite. Dad was moving well and we had plenty of daylight, but it had already been a long day. We were ready to get into camp and have a relaxing evening.
Before this could happen, we had another crossing on a not so good bridge over a much more painful and cold drop. Dad thought I wanted him to bite it into the creek when I took a picture, but it easily could have ruined our day. After this crossing, we still had a bit of uphill through the trees wondering the whole time if we would have a good sign of where to go to camp for the evening. Our goal was Laguna del Caminante.
We were happy to see the only sign of civilization in this wilderness when we stumbled upon the sign for the lake. We were happy to take this because it meant the end to our uphill hiking and a trip to our campsite. It also meant that we were above the trees and our views were starting to open up.
The mountains in this area looked incredible and one could spend an entire summer just in this one area accessing all these many mountains. I wondered how many of them had been climbed and how many times. This was definitely off the beaten track even though only a few hours earlier we were in Ushuaia in civilization.
This looked like it was going to be a pretty sweet campsite. As we got to the other side of the lake, we could see a stand of trees where there were a few tents pitched. We had to go down a steep slope that was very eroded to get down to the lake. It was slick and we had to be careful to not end up with a soggy bottom.
As we got to the bottom of the steep slope, there was another double sided waterfall that poured into a pool of water.
We wandered around the camping area looking for a decent site. There were a couple other parties that had kind of taken the best of the lake sites. We chose to move back away from them and be in the trees a little bit. This was a bit less scenic, but quieter. Our neighbors did not seem particularly friendly, so we kept to ourselves. The weather was looking like it was going to turn as the night wore on. We had such great weather the whole trip, it was inevitable that the weather would get nasty at sometime. We prepared for a soggy day hiking the following day.
No comments:
Post a Comment