Cambios

Despite never wanting to do the whole "yo-yo" (Natalie speaking) we did the yo-yo. Starting in Ventisquero and going until the bridge before the Rio Puelo town (didn't do the fjord). We then hitchhiked to Cochamo to deal with a ripped neck seal and planned to return to Laguna Azul to cross into El Bolsón. Last year we were inspired by Tobi and Fangwen's (T&F) trip into the Ventisquero valley and tried but didn't finish due to time and weather. On the flip side, that meant we were able to return this year with a packraft, which made the return trip much more interesting. It is a stunning valley and a beautiful river to be in a packraft (a must for packrafters, Tomáš thunksthinks). There were virtually no tabanos which was a biggie after the mid-January infestation of 20 and 21! Tomáš did the upper Ventisquero river after the view -hike in Rincon Bonito and I chose to go higher on the mountain of the view -hike, earning myself a very incredible 360 -view of the glaciated mountains around (both not in GPT yet). The Ventisquero river was easy, class 2 II at most, we hit our knees on occasion. The Upper Puelo before the hike was very easy with a faster flow, just a bit of wood (nothing that couldn't be avoided), probably class01class l. We skipped the first rapids of the Gorge (6.2), they are surprisingly powerful and should not be paddled by anyone unskilled or without a team. The hike was actually nice, not that overgrown and pretty easy to follow. Tomáš went back into the river a little earlier and skipped the last 6km of hiking, while I met him after the hiking section, he had to walk one more rapid and ride two. The rest of the Puelo until the lake was once again easy. Upon approaching Lago Tagua the headwind was strong and paddling was slow. We planned to paddle to the parque Tagua (Option 11) but the waves and wind were very strong so we camped and crossed the lake the next morning, skipping the hike. Lake was easy and fast in the morning but the lower Puelo was slow for the first 5km before the rapids. We skipped the first rapid there and went down river right, putting in a but warlier bit earlier than Jan suggests, crossing a few small rapids and hitting our knees once. The rest of the lower Puelo was a bit slow but overall the whole thing was very beautiful.

We again took the bus at 8:38 near Hostel Apel in Puerto Varas to Cochamo, we were told the bus that goes to the ferry (Laguna Tagua Tagua) was 10min behind the Cochamo-only bus. The ferry bus supposedly leaves here: 41.3160641S, 72.9853782W at 8:15. Tomáš does not get itand then probably goes around town, but that is how it istaking a long time. The plan was to get off the first bus, look for Tomáš's Inreach inReach and then catch the second onebus. Unfortunately , while we were looking for the InreachimReach, the Laguna bus passed and we were unable to stop it, it was the only bus of the day. On the bright side, with more time to spare, Tomáš managed to wake up the land owner of Camp {21} [79.3/7], and it turned out they had found the inReach the day before and gave it back to us, yay! Soon after all of this (~10:15) we were able to catch another bus to Cochamo, so there must be a few that go in a day(later we learnt they go at 8,9,10,11,12 and 16:00 from Puerto Montt). In Cochamo, we waited until a bit after 12:00 for a bus to Rio Puelo, which made a stop at the trailhead for hiking the RR. We reached Rio Puelo at about 13:45, and that is where the original bus going to and from Laguna Tagua made its appearance on its way back to Puerto Varas/Montt. Since both of us were underslept due to Tomáš having spent the night vomitting (and having had little luck with hitchhiking on that road last year), we found a very nice two-room cabaña for 50.000 here: -41.66243, -72.29821, WhatsApp +56 9 4243 2328. (Entel internet in town functional.)

The bus from Rio Puelo is said to be at 11:30 but arrived around 12:15. It is easy to see how it misses the ferry from time to time. If one is stopping in Puelo for re-supply, there is a small vegan bakery with good sourdough loafs (-41.6599144, -72.2974946; not open Mondays). Also Supermercado El Maiten sold gas canister's for 7mil. By one o'clock and 1.5mil per person shorter, we were at the ferry. There you get out of the bus and catch a new one waiting at the other side (there are two on the other side, be sure to take the correct one). It takes over half an hour and costs 1.3mil (slow but functioning 3G Entel most of the lake ferry, but not at the end, telecom tower at the northern terminal). The ferries are two (or three?) and each at least two of them go 7 times a day each way (December- March), so you are likely to wait less than an hour. The buses on each side of the ferry are coordinated but since it seems likely when the first bus can miss the misses a ferrynarrowwly, it can add to delay, be prepared to wait some time if you are waiting to go SOBO (for example at the end of GPT22 RH). The bus to primer coral costs 1.5mil. It still stops for some time (15 min? - but the driver was making a big purchase) at Llanada Grande, where the shop is still good and the Entel internet mostly not functioning (receiving e-mails and text messages at most). We got to Primer Corral at 16:00.

Our plan was to stash extra food near Ford 37.5 (not fordable, maybe in February or better March). It seems it is regularly used for camping. We read T&F got their food stolen so we made sure to hide/bury our duffel bag of food very well, deep in the forest. Unfortunately, after Nat I hid it and carried on to the first ford, Tomáš met a pig. The pig tried to invade his backpack despite Tomáš only standing a meter away. He realized quickly our food stash had no hope against this invader. Since he did not know where Nat whereIt hid it, he had started to catch up with her pursue me, which only came to fruition at the river "Correntos", which has a fitting name. Therefore our first day was extremely short. Tomáš took both our backpacks across the ford (had to cross up river near the top of the islands where it divides into three: -42.01786, -71.93876 ) and made camp (lots of spots near the OSM path). The river was above his knees (173cm), but the length of the crossing, doing it three times and coldness made it somewhat challenging. I went back to make the duffel pig-proof, taking the OSM route that follows the river in my way (-42.00228, -71.93336). It was a lot nicer than the road, recommended.

Since we were both still struggling to get over our stomach bugs, we had a late morning and a very easy day. The simple 16km walk to Ricon Bonito felt a lot harder than it should have. As T&F described this section before, it is partially a MR, with a short detour, turning into a trail midway. From our river camp, the GPT track files follow an old trail used probably mostly by cows now, until a settler: -42.02520, -71.94877. At the settler, who was not at home, we had to zig zag through gates and over one fence until reaching the MR: -42.02707, -71.94872 (it makes a detour probably to cross Rio Correntoso over a bridge). The way to Rincon Bonito is signed with little red arrows. Our first water was located here: -42.01995, -71.98929, shortly after the MR ends and trail begins. The last few kilometres of the MR were recently "upgraded", so it is quite ugly, and they may be expand it more, but who knows. On the trail, there were two more simple fords. The first ford was a calm creek: -42.01840, -72.04246. There looked to be good camping just before it, would have been a nice place to aim for the first night. The second ford [15.8/164] has a cable car, where the GPT files indicate a bridge. Tomáš went to verify this after we forded and saw other tents camping there as well. Not sure if it was organized or not, probably yes. A little further ahead there is a settler with their own cell tower. Tomáš (who is from Europe) got full bars but Natalie, with her my Canadian phone, got nothing. There is still water just before the turn off to the viewpoint trail as T&F have noted. We went into Ricon Bonito to see what they would charge us for camping. We were surprised to meet a group of American packrafters who had flewn in that day to paddle down to the fjord. There were 5 of them sharing the 200mil cabin, so not terribly expensive, but the plane from Puerto Montt was 600mil. Kind of nice to know we had a group of river guides near. In the end we were not allowed to camp at this glamping site, it is for reservations only. The men that worked there recommend us to camp at the abuelaBernardita Alegría's (Bernardita Alegríareferred to as "abuela" in earlier seasons) place 2km up the valley but they said it was 25mil a night per person, which sounded far too expensive for camping (maybe it included half board?) so we found a place in the forest not far from Ricon Bonito and once again had an early night. It seems that while the valley is privately owned (by several landowners? - settlers still live up there), there are no right of ways issues at all.

The trail to the view point is steep but easy (~930m in 4km). The men working at Ricon Bonito had cleared the brush the day before, so Tomáš finally almost didn't need his machete. There was a little bit of water on the way up ( -42.03631, -72.09700), but probably best to fill at the bottom. You do not have to go all the way up for a view, there is also a view point after 450m of elevation gain. At the top we decided to split and go on two different adventures. Tomáš wanted to explore the upper Ventisquero river and I wanted to explore the upper Ventisquero mountain (aka go to the highpoint above the view point like T&F considered). Luckily we both had successes and you can read Tomáš's description below. As for extending the trail to a highpoint at 1600m I HIGHLY recommend it if weather is nice. By using satellite imagery and a little intuition, the bushbashing was not bad at all. The bush is that dwarf alpine Lenga that is usually very stiff to walk through, but luckily it was not so dwarf. It was taller than me which made it possible to slither through the understory without much fight. There is roughly 500m of BB, the rest is CC. At the beginning I zig zagged between hidden open spots and then eventually made my way to a ridge-like feature that had many breaks from the bush, and some interesting views. You have to play with this ridge a bit because it is not continuous. Ridge around here -42.05122, -72.09511. Eventually you break free from the bush and enter a dry basin just below the highpoint. It is an easy walk from there and if there is snow you might come across a few small meltwater streams as I did. The views were amazing, it felt A LOT like home but obviously more special. If we did not have a plan to start paddling that day I would have explored the ridge. It easily goes to 1700m and then from there it looks you could connect to the main mountain, it will be a fun trip for one lucky person. As for meeting Tomáš, we planned to meet where the track files hit the river. However I was unable to get to that spot as there were blackberries and cliffs, so I ended up taking the main trail to the river in Ricon Bonito: no one said anything. But when you take this trail down you will hit the bottom and eventually walk along two small boardwalks, just after these boardwalks, the main trail goes left, but dont go left, a better way in is to the right after the boardwalks. It is a sneaky path but it is there and leads you to a nice small beach. Luckily I was ahead of Tomáš and warned him of this new point; -42.02492, -72.09604. We had a nice evening paddle of only a few kilometers, filled up on water at the cable car ford and then made camp in a sheltered bay. Unfortunately the day ended with a torn neck gasket: I ripped my neck gasket all the way to the bottom when taking off my drysuit. I was terribly sad and in disbelief. I had been trying hard to treat it well, not pulling it, covering my face with a balaclava, covering it with a balaclava from sun, treating it once a month with 303 and so on. Luckily Tomáš had one bar of internet ať the camp site so I managed to find a store in Pucón that could ship a spare neck gasket to Cochamo (do not do that, ship things to Puerto Varrasinstead).

This goes beyond what is in the GPT files - I was not sure why they end up only in the middle of the valley. when one can clearly see buildings and meadows higher up the valley on satellite.Turns out there is a trail to them indeed. There is one more settler, Fredy Alvarado living here with his family: -42.03933, -72.13376. He is signposted, maybe he would provide lodging and stuff too. Up to him, there is an OSM trail. You can divert from it to a cable car over a river here -42.03852, -72.12473 (signposted by Ricon Bonito). From Fredy, the trail continues, it seems to be used by animals and is still fairly clear. When you enter one clearing, trail can be a bit difficult to find, join it here: -42.04754, -72.16677. Then here -42.04773, -72.17127, the trail fell into the river with trees (obstructing it, this part needs to be walked in packraft through a shallow side channel). It is just 50 m 50m and can be easily walked around. The meadows are abandoned puestoes that still seem to be grazed. I put in here: -42.04244, -72.18400. One could probably walk further up in the braided river bed if willing to ford, the valley is really pretty with lots of waterfalls and glacier views and the river would be packraftable for a few kilometres more. River itself is stunning (more scenic and wild than Rio Puelo I think) and easily navigable until abuelaBernardita's place here -42.03202, -72.11899, where II or II+ rapids start (sorry, I am only apporixmate in rating). With a bit of scouting and skill (I am not very skilled though), the rapids are navigable though, as I ran them. The second and third are the biggest, and those are the ones I scouted, the following ones are a bit smaller but could have been scouted too. One can also portage and supposedly there is a path maintained by Ricon Bonito along the river bank (see OSM) so bailing out should be easy. Where there is the OSM path to the side valley, there were some cables so I assume a cable car, but did not see it and cables could be for water too, I did not get a good look. Rapids end around our the meeting point with Natalie. I definitely recommend this extension especially for packrafters.

We spent the morning organizing the online neck gasket purchase with one bar of internet and then set off quite late. The Ventisquero river is indeed gorgeous and although it is rated II+, the rapids are small and easily portaged if need be (Tomáš thinks II+ is for the rapid section he did alone - or possibly for spring months with more water). We scouted a few rapids but overall there were no surprises, and obstacles were easily passed. There was very little wood, and the wood that was there was big and obvious with lots of room to go around. There was I saw only one rapid with possibly dangerous strainers (around here -42.02042, -72.06173 if we postidentified it well) that led you to a right riverbend with a lot of strainers, that was the only rapid that was a no go (Tomáš looking up thought you could go it and exit to an eddy on the left or keep to the left of it in general, but it was easy to walk through a shallow drop, so we did that). There are two possibly II rapids here: -42.01429, -71.99931 and here: -42.01853, -71.99523. The first one is straightforward, the second one has a good line on the left of the main current. We picked the left side of the river there, hitting our knees a bit - better walk it if you do not take the main current. I (Nat) personally agree with Jan's description that the river is shallow, we hit our knees a few times (canoe seat). (Tomáš thinks it is "Moderate with occasional ground contact" at most - and this more in the upper part than the part we did with Natalie, that is as long as you pick the correct main line to run rapids, anyway it has a lot more water than Rio Huenuhuenu). There was one more water source for drinking further down the river on river right (-42.01882, -71.98949) and then Rio Correntoso if you trust that (we did going up without issues). I wish I filled up more because it was the last water until Bridge {22N} [7.4/137]. We got to our food hiding spot stash near Ford 37.5 (NOT fordable now, maybe in February?) in ~3hrs. While having camp, we saw the Americans go by, and probably startled them by trying to say hello. I felt stupid, as at that moment I couldn't remember the "I'm okay" signal and made them even more confused by giving them the one hand up signal. They finally just paddled on. After lunch we headed towards the gorge entrance/hiking section (Rapids Start 6.2). The This part of Rio Puelo seemed easier but flowing faster and with more water, no more shallows. There was more wood than the Ventisquero but once again easily avoided. However, there were a couple of underwater logs we almost hit. If one does not feel confident enough with keeping on Tomáš thinks the inner side of the main flow to avoid strainers in river bends then it is best to not follow the main current at times (Nat speaking). I wouldn't say it is anything over class II (Tomáš thinks definitely at most I+, when Jan mentions "up to class III" in the manual, that either applies to November or is wrong in his opinion), you can avoid all of the small rapids if you want and keep it strictly at a class I. At times we had a very strong headwind and had to paddle hard. We were totally surprised when we hit the gorge and therefore missed the first exit by a hundred metres. Because because we were fighting a headwind and thought we didn't realize were moving slow. Turns out we were still moving fast, it only took 1.5hr for (~13kmin 1.5hrs) and therefore missed the first exit by a hundred metres (the gorge is more than half a kilometre after the exit). We had to walk back up the river and ferry across it to get to the start of the hiking section. It was 17:30 so we just camped there and boiled river water. There is a telecom tower above Puerto Urrutia but we did not test it. Lots of didymo algae.

The bypass trail turned out to be a nice if slow (up and down) trail. It is only very little overgrown trail with some beautiful views of the gorge and powerful rapids within. There was drinking water throughout. We started late and stopped somewhat early. The first ~2km to Settler 7.7 (Christian) was very easy and clear but Bridge 7.4 is not there anymore, there is a new log bridge just up the creek bed (go left after the gate). Two men on very stunning horses were there but we didn't talk for long. The overgrown bit technically starts after this settler but it was ~80% easy to see and follow. The meadow sections are the only places I would often loose it and it was only badly overgrown at the first beach after Settler's 7.7 gate (locked). However There, the GPX wants you to walk on the river shore, which is probably a lot easier than the overgrown trail, as long as you find the entrance back to the trail again: -41.87870, -71.96787. Later, it would have been very overgrown after the last hill climb before Settler 15.3 but it had been recently cleared. I was very lucky as it seemed to have been cleared that morning or day before. There were fresh cuts, prints and horse poo. As for the first beach, where it was overgrown, the GPX wants you to walk on the river shore, this is probably easier than the overgrown trail, as long as you find the entrance to the trail again: -41.87870, -71.96787. I often found the gps GPX was off by ~20m, which can be annoying in the forest at times. At the third beach (~6km before end) , Tomáš and I split. He wanted to paddle the last bit as he believed it could be a good alternative river in, the rapids looked easily portaged. I was less inclined, so I walked and he took most of the weight and we met back at the normal put in. See Tomáš's notes below. Camping at the end of the hike, beach under Settler "Castanos" beach, is very nice. There are lots of camping spots on the beach or grass meadow above and some tables as well. Near his boat , there is a tarp set up, if you want shelter from the rain. I signaled Tomáš to exit the river just before the normal start because there is a pebble beach, rather than the wood beach (-41.82415, -71.97926). You can fill up on water at the top near Castanos or ferry across the river to a creek.

Tomáš: Rio Puelo in the section that is portaged looks like at least solid class III (that was also the assessment of the Americans we met earlier - they said the start of the gorge is 500 m 500m of big waves without holes, surveying from an airplane on their way to Rincon Bonito) and technically probably can be run by people who know what they are doing (but do your own research), as the Americans presumably did (but they were river guides). Possibly, you could even put in (somewhat precariously from a rock) at the end of the first beach Natalie mentions above, walking the rapids (the gorge is mostly not closed from then on where there are rapids) if you have got the skills (they are still mostly class III). From what we saw, I am unsure only whether rapid at -41.86224, -71.97834 can be walked, as we could not see the rapid properly. Also possible there are more rapids than we saw. Make your own assessment first.

Day six: End of portage hike to Laguna Tagua Tagua, 28 km