Cambios

This has so far going SOBO been the easiest but also the worst part. Apart from the last 45 km and a few spots, there is a lot of road walking and the long flat valleys are not very spectacular. I wonder how the alternatives compare. Laguna del Dial is not that attractive, there are no trees around it. What is good are fruit trees, from the shop in the middle of nowhere Carizales there are plume-like trees that probably ripen in late January, at the Laguna there are probably -edible bushes of wild currant (probably ripe in January) and at the end at the penultimate bridge(137.6/1041), there are lots of cherries at a puesto and then 1 km further in a former puesto - these ripen in December.

The first pass is nice, soon after there are lot of puestos and this was the first section where I actually met people-arrieros every day. The descent to the valley is uneventful, once you reach Rio Saso, there is a minor road with very little cars. Carabinieros at Carizales took my details, asked where I went, I said Laguna del Dial and that was that. There was nobody at the shop (and they have very little supply from what I could see from the window) around 1830. They seemed to have wifi in case somebody badly needs it, it is password protected , but you could ask. A few km before the hot springsHot Spring {07-F} [0.7/1357], a trail branches off the main road - then it is about 10 km of trail before you reach the road again. This stretch and a few km around the shop are quite nice despite the road).

The hot springs are nice, perfect temperature. Right next to them, there is place for a single person for sleeping (no tent) otherwise you need to camp further downstream or at the camp waypoint. They can easily be reached in two days, the trail is easy. I managed to miss the second carabinieros befora the Laguna sw Si without really wanting to. The road only ends less then 10 km from the Laguna.

The second "hot spring?(Hot Spring ? {07} [124.6/1404])" waypoint is real, you need to ford through the canyon a bit (which is fun on its own, there are places where you can leave the canyon about 200 m downstream from the hot.spring) to reach it. The water is too hot, it springs not much above the level of the river. I tried to make a pool where the water could cool down but have not finished it. I encourage you to build upon it.

Once you reach the last bridge where the minor nroad road to the end of section begins (in the files it is mislabeled as trail), I encourage you to stay on the left bank and climb a bit on option 07. It goes through really nice oak (I think) forrest and it is a trail almost to the end of the section. I think this part is almost the nicest of all GPT 07 and I think RR should be routed through this option. The trail is in good condition. From Los Sauces, there are not many cars (congratulations to other people having been lucky). Luckily there are buses at 7 and 10 in the morning to San Fabian. The second bus goes back at two. I think on Sundays it is all shifted by one hour (so it leaves an hour later) but I am not sure. There is signal from the last bridge but there is no cell signal in Los Sauces.