(Direct from our Hiking Journal) Dia 6: Los Perros to Las Guardas
Clear excitement in the air when we woke... everybody up early, including me. Dave was surprised to see my eyes open when he woke up. THE PASS WAS WAITING! As we packed up camp I spotted a fox(!), who seemed to be making his morning rounds. We named him and other fox we may meet Magellan, not to be confused with the dogs we meet, which are all named Frijoles.
As we started our trek, we were sure the theme for the day would be MUD... lots of it... no way around it... the kind you lose your shoe in if they´re not tied on tight. Dave was well-equipped with his mucklucks (that´s 'amy language´for gaiters)... Amy´s were tucked away safely in her pack.
The second choice for the theme of the day was ´Revenge of the Tortoise´. We´ve learned we don´t hike so fast. Every day, we get a nice early start, only to be passed on the trail by the same packs of los chicos (chilean twenty-somethings) who only wake up long after we´ve hit the trails. But, while we may not be fast on the flats, we can climb with the best of 'em! Between all the climbing and our love of the mud (which other hikers seemed to be afraid of for some reason), we were flying past people on our way up to the pass.
As we cleared the tree line, the wind picked up... a LOT! Precipitation was in the air. It seemed a lot like snow, but it was a little early to tell... and it had been sunny and 65 degrees minutes before. Appropriately, Dave got out his raincoat... Amy´s remained safely tucked away in her pack. Not a great place for it, as we rapidly approached theme #3: A FREAK SNOWSTORM! The wind and driving snow really picked up, literally blowing the snow up the mountain as we went through the pass and over the top. Blizzard like conditions. Dave used his clydesdale frame to lead the charge into the wind and up the pass... and a solo Chilean hiker we overtook was smart enough to hop aboard the clydesdale train and ride up behind us safely to the top.
On our way down, in moments when the wind would die down, the snow continued to fall in a winter wonderland (even though it´s summer). Through the snow, we got our first views of GLACIER GREY! Most people just see the foot of the glacier... but on the circuito grande trek you approach it from above and it keeps you company all the rest of the day and into the next as you descend. This thing is HUGE... we have no real way to gauge just how far across or how wide or how tall it is, but it was HUGE! I think it might be bigger than Rhode Island (apologies to Mike Beegan, future senator from that great state for any perceived slight). we later read in our book that the glacier is 12 miles long and 200 meters thick... like we said, HUGE!. It´s a huge sea of ice but it´s not smooth, oh no, it´s got great texture to it, with all of it´s deep crevasses of bright blue. Just stunning. It seems to just pour out of the mountains in every direction (actually, that´s exactly what it does).
We continued to descend alongside the glacier -- LOVING it, along with the feeling of just being in the groove... that beautiful point in a backpacking trip when your boots feel good, your pack feels light, and you feel like you could just walk for hours and hours... (which is good, because that´s pretty much what you do). Along the way, we had to climb up and down some ladders (suspiciously suspeded from rocks) in order to cross some deep canyons. Who knows who hung these ladders, or what their engineering credentials might have been? There were places for bolts... but not bolts. We later read in our trekking book that these ladders sometimes get washed out by flash floods... that did not inspire any greater level of confidence, but fortunately, by then, we were done with those. Oh, and we saw a woodpecker, named him woody and saw him fly away with his love. Love birds:). Spent the night at quiet and wet Las Guardas. Free! was a plus, but not so well maintained, a minus. But we liked it all the same, as we were 1 of just 5 tents.
Side note: Potato soup for dinner, no matter how delicious and satisfying at the time, is not enough calories for refueling in the long run.
No comments:
Post a Comment