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→Season 2024/25
==Season 2024/25==
* <span style="background-color:aqua;">'''2025-03-08 / 3,5 hours/ Packrafting / NOBO / Option 1 and 3 / Tomáš&Natalie'''
We put in here: -45.88564, -72.32216, after entering through a gate here: -45.88712, -72.32188, which is. alot more convenient than what the GPT track files have. The river was fast, higher than usual (grass was underwater by maybe 30cm) and with small but fun rapids that kept us entertained. With less water. it might be harder to always avoid the shallows but we had no issues. We got some headwind but it did not slow us down meaningfully. There is phone reception at the beginning, especially here: -45.89469, -72.30808, but mostly throughout, as there are two cell towers around settler at 13.6 and then abive lake Caro.We started paddling around five and rrached the road end at Lago Caro (which was calm this late) before nightfall around 20:30. We put oir tent under a shelter of the disfunctional toilets, which was convenient. The next day, Natalie walked 12 km back before getting a hitch on Sunday morning. Tomáš, being. asilly person, went for option 4. This was our last packrafting ride together and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
* <span style="background-color:aqua;">'''2025-03-09 to 2025-03-10 / 2 days/ Packrafting / NOBO / Option3, Option 4 / Tomáš'''
I had two days before our plane (evil people we are) to Santiago was leaving the next morning, so it made sense to go on an exploratory track including possibly 8 km of bushbashing. The first day it was supposed to rain - ideal for machete work! I started early in the morning, crossing Lago Caro against some headwind, took me over two hours against not too big waves. Settler at 0.1 is recently abandoned - there was a note from the census that they tried to count him. The bridge over the river is still standing. The mortal rapid is indeed mortal, a scary huge very sad hole in there. The trail is full of half a meter tall grass but wide for the first km until -45.79156, -72.61483. From there I used the machete to connect the meadows to enter the forrest. On the eay up, trail was sometimes still visible but it was not always easy to follow. Based on conversation with Jan, they went there around 2018. Since then, there have been some new treefall and bamboo growth. Took me probably 4 hours to get to pond at -45.77929, -72.58930. It gets easier the higher you go - bamboo does not grow above 500 m or so and the forrests opens more and more. But indeed I could not find any signs of a trail where the BB starts. I packrafted the 400 m of the pond, which probably including the setup and packing was as fast as walking around it. Based on misreading satellite pictures (and not taking into account contour lines) I thought the way down would be very easy through very open forrest. I mistook that for a very rocky cliff, as I soon discovered when trying to go down. It finally started to rain, so i went back up and camped at -45.77463, -72.58353 above a creek. It was wet, cold and windy and I had dreams of nice trail down, though I thought I would go back the next day.
In the morning, I looked at the map again and devised a way that should avoid the cliffs. It took me 8 hours to climb the 3 km down. I made a loop through -45.76676, -72.59646. At first I was high and the going was ok, almost 1 km per hour. When I started to go down, it was steep, bushy, wet and very gorgy. There was a way and I did not have to go back many times and the ravines were steep but passable. Most of the time, visibility was quite low. I would not recommend this to anyone., it probably was not entirely safe and if something happened to me, I have no idea how anybody would be able to come to help or find me. At -45.76488, -72.58838. I chanced on a feral cow trail. Jan says the settler at 7.2 died in 2017 when trying to cross the river. I assume his cows on this side of the river were never recovered and they made a network of very handy trails in the lower forrest. I reached the river and was able to start packrafting at 17:00. Another possible way down was. lookignfrom below and judging the steepness of the slopes, through here: -45.76876, -72.56814, but I doubt if it would have been better. I am not sure if there ever were a trail going through here in the first place. Maybe the trail only served to reached meadows above the tree line?
The river itself was quite fast but rapidless barring some easily avoidable trees. I paddled heavily, so i managed to go down in 3,5 hours. Along the way, one can see cows and around middle. there is a fishing base, so the valley si not abandoned. Take out at -45.57631, -72.62555, before the bank is undercut and it would be difficult to get out. The subsequent trail has been the muddiest trail I have ever walked on. I was racing through it to catch a taxi arranged by Natalie to Coyahaique (100 thousand) at 23:00. It took me maybe 2:15 but it was an ordeal. The taxi then got lodt and was an hour late. Chilians are not very good at using navigations apparently. Anyway, I made the plane. if the connection went, this would be a great candidate for RP together with GPT32 Option 6 (it would be a flip flop) - I assume most packrafters preffer rivers to lakes.. Jan says Option 04B is a very old disused trails. But steepness wise, it makes a lot of sense. If I ever come back, I would be happy to be a part of a group that would clear that trail. As for option 04, maybe there is a trail, but I certainly did not find it.
==Season 2023/24==