Cambios

An Uber from Cohayique to Villa Simpson is about 9.000 Peso. From there I easily found rides to Lago Elizalde. A older man told me that there was also a camino from Lago Elizalde to Lago Azul passing cerro sombrero a couple of years ago. I really liked the walking through the valley to lago desierto. It passes a beautiful farmland landscape sprinkled with little lush patches of forest and creeks. Camping is easy there. But if you want to speed up there are also cars from time to time and hitchhiking is possible. At S 45° 52.495 W 072° 16.913 is a little shack shelter surrounded by some old tractors and a big mate cup installation. A farmer passing by car told me I am welcome to stay there. To reach lago desierto you have to climb a locked gate (well described by Kara Davis). I crossed lago desierto and camped at the isthmus between it at and lago azul. There is a nice camp spot at waypoint Lake {32} [38.3/337] surrounded by old gooseberry bushes and an abandoned van. The central lodging building is collapsed so its seems to be an abandoned place now except the cattle. Next day I crossed lago azul. The wind increased dramatically forming up to 1 m waves. There are some emergency exits on the left even after the shore gets steeper after the settlers on the lefthand side. At the end of lago azul you reach a huge private hacienda on the isthmus, with a big park like forest and buildings within. I tried to sneak between the buildings but to reach the path to the mountains you finally have to pass a big meadow. There was a greenkeeper around and it was no problem for him to let me pass. The family was not around. The track to the mountains is steep and part of a big network of mountainbike trails. This network spans nearly the entire valley! I met six young chilenos who told me that they are working the summer to maintain the trails only for that family – I have never seen such a giant mountainbike network! Incredible how much effort and money must spend here only to satisfy a family’s hobby. They The Chilenos were very friendly and even turned back to offer me a ride to the end of the valley as rain increased but I kept walking. This track is in really good conditions up to the bush bashing section. And here comes the problem: 1.) the bush bashing is wrong annotated. In reality it starts for 1.2 km at the end of the annotated section 2.) the track is mostly gone were it reaches the river bed. Landslides have washed away a big part. Don’t cross the landslide! It seems super instable! When you have forded the riverbed at the landslide don’t put on your shoes, yet. The following part has turned into swamp land. I suggest to make the entire 1.2 km in your fording footwear. After that the track to the las horquetas trail is mostly overgrown or blocked by trees but still visible. It was pretty hard for me as temperatures dropped to 4 °C and at this point it had not stopped raining for 48 hr. In bad weather that’s definitely no fun. The ranger hut was my salvation as it was abandoned but open and had a stove and even some firewood. The next day the weather was perfect and I continued towards cerro Castillo. There had been recent work around Camping Rio Turbio and the track is still in good condition. Paso Penón has heaps of snow and I found myself sinking to the hips from time to time. But in good weather it is ok. The views from the pass and the following valley even outcompeted the view from laguna castillo. After the paso penón the rest is fine. I used Variant F to descend. As mentioned before It it now follows a different way in the end due to right of way conflict and you reach the street at approximately half way between villa cerro Castillo and the national park entrance.