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→Season 2023/24
* Recommendation Jan Dudeck November 2023: The Regular Route on the eastern side of Lago Puelo is traversable again. Also, thanks to Martin Lizondo the Regular Route could be re-routed next to Cerro Plataforma onto a more maintained trail. This avoids serious bush bashing on the now obselete Regular Route that I renamed to Option 6 (Cerro Tres Picos). This makes previous route descriptions not applicable to the updated 2023 route. So enjoy section GPT23 again without battling through dense fields of bamboo grass.
* 2024-20-18 to 2024-02-22 / 5 days / Hiking / SOBO /RR + 23-02/ Gerald
Day 1: Until Rio epuyen is not much water. Only Water {23} [11.4/448] is accessable, not super easy though. That part is quite dry...
Take the road to your left at -42.148514, -71.594333 to avoid crossing private property. Camped here -42.15975, -71.597078 . It's right at the lake and a bit exposed to all the boats crossing. Room for one tent.
Day 2: nice trail. At the other side of the lake is a free camping (-42.227775, -71.666765). From waypoint Bridge {23} [29.1/269] (Rio Derrumbe) on is no water until you reach Rio turbio (if i remember right). Camped like Roman here -42.304965, -71.768301. Met 2 gauchos and asked if i am allowed to camp. They said no problem, i should just distinguish the fire with water if i wanna make one. Is a nice spot right next to a river.
Day 3: from now on its like walking on sand dunes until the lake. There is a Puesto next to a river at -42.339905, -71.785909. Continued to Plataforma {23-02} which offered nice views - thanks Quentin for telling me! There are river along the way. Camped at the lake -42.346106, -71.79513.
Day 4: lost the trail in the forest with the big rocks, but still easy. Once you are at the second meadow it's a swamp until you reach the lake. in the burned area i lost the trail pretty quick. It's super hard to find again since the gps track is fairly sparse (maybe Jan Dudeck or Martin Lizondo can share the original track). Had to bush bash for 1-2h (lost track of time). Super demanding... Found the trail 2 or 3 times and lost it again. From -42.394973, -71.809004 on i joined and never lost the trail. Watch your gps super frequently, otherwise you take a wrong turn. The Hill Roman was talking about is great to focus on in case you are lost. To the left, the trail is easy to spot.
Camped between the lake and the MR -42.446782, -71.727817. Not super great, but rain was coming. There are not really nice places to camp along the lake until the paid camping.
Day 5: just walking on the MR with nice views. Got a ride to Cholila at the end of the lake, since weather looked super unstable.
Piuke Mapu Patagonia Hostel is nice! Good view on tres Picos. Plenty of supermarket and even western union if you need one (around here -42.510352, -71.434688). It's kind of kiosk, so better ask how much you can get before doing the transaction.
Beautiful hike!
* From 2024-02-16 to 2024-02-19 // 3,5 days // Hiking // NOBO // RR + Option 2 // Quentin Clavel
From villa Lago Rivadavia, you just follow a long gravel road, until PK60, where the fun begins !
Kind of bush-bashing on some part, maybe it's just me who lost the track, but I had some great fights with the bush !
When arriving at the junction, the tracks are easy to follow.
Go absolutely to cerro plataforma, amazing atmosphere, crazy to see this big flat summit, surrounded by hills, and a 360° view on all the moubtains around. This place is classified for its fossils, millions years ago, that was the seabed, reason why we could see fossils.
Reach the great Lago puelo, the hard part, that have been burnt is doable, sometimes hard to find the way, but with the HOS it's alright. Views are very nice up there. This stretch is part of huella andina, so you'll have (more or less) regularly the blue and yellow marks to show you the way.
One important thing is that there's no water at all on this part of the section (from KM0 to KM 13).
Then I could see from above the busy beach (it was a crazy hot day, 38° announced), as I didn't wanted to go into the crowd, I skipped the end of the section, and instead, take a track, going straight to the first street of the city.
On that one I could resupply thanks to the minimarket of Alicia (just after the camping Puelo). Then you just have to go straight at the end of this street, and the next section begins.
* 2024-Jan-12 / 5 days / Packrafting / SOBO / RH + RP / Lauren & Sebastian
Day 1: We took the first bus out of Lago Puelo, which leaves by the gas station around 7:30 am. But the wind was too strong so we decided to hike along RH instead. We later found out that on the same day Daniel started GPT23 packrafting southbound and he made it across the brazo occidental even though under high winds. After the brazo, it was windstill and even some tailwind for him. We saw that same windpattern still a few hours later from the top of the mountain. The way up the mountain was super well maintained, once you come to the ridge wayfinding becomes tricky and the way down a bit worse, but not super bad. It‘s a very scenic hike which we enjoyed. We camped at Puerto Riquelme the first night.
Day 2: Started packrafting out of brazo oriental. Recommend early morning. We thought we’d have tail winds after the brazo going south, but winds shifted soon and the initial tail wind became head wind. We packrafted until approximately 1 km before the end of the lake where the trail comes down near the lake. It‘s a very well maintained trail all the way to the pass.
Day 3: We continued up to the pass. Nothing difficult on that stretch, only amazing views! After the pass the trail disappears more and more. Find your way through the magical boulders and you’ll come to the first meadow with a little stream, which is where we camped :)
Day 4: We followed the meadows down, once the trail leads back into the forest it becomes well visible and easy to follow, all the way to where the steep downhill starts. We had no problem following the trail. To avoid dense bushes, stay on the left on the hill and follow the horse tracks and poop. After the steep downhill, we think that we went too low and couldn’t find the trail, so we had about one hour bush bashing until the first little hill at -42.39672, -71.80949. There we found the trail, more or less easy to follow, but it’s always there! Due to Cy and GGs account we expected difficult bush bashing towards the end, so we followed Roman’s route. The way down the hill to the ford was easy bush bashing. Maybe 15-20 Minutes, just follow the main cow tracks, they will lead you right to the ford. The ford is indeed demanding. Only attempt if you are comfortable with difficult fording! From there on it’s all road.
Side note: Daniel just continued to follow the regular trail from there. He said it was in good condition all the way and not too difficult to follow! So there is no bush bashing needed once you find the trail and stick to it! The fording at the end is less demanding than the other one on Roman’s route. So both ways are highly enjoyable, pick your preference! We camped at -42.45679, -71.77372, which was right next to a perfect river-in spot for Rio Tigre, which we would definitely recommend!
Day 5: We paddled down Rio Tigre, which was a pure pleasure! As mentioned in previous accounts, have a look at the second left turn before you go in (either scout it - there is a great landing spot just before - or have a look at the satellite images). On Lago Cholila we made good progress. We started a bit later that day to make use of the sail and it was perfect. After that we finished down Rio Carrileufu, however due to the later start, the last part on the river we experienced quite the strong headwind! We finished a truly remarkable GPT section at Campsite Abuelo Daniel!
*2023-12-22 to 2023-12-25 / 4 days / Hiking / SOBO /RR / Roman