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→Understanding the Trail
The GPT is an informal route network that consists mostly of trails, roads and cross country routes that were not made for hiking nor especially prepared for hikers. Most of the trails were made by the local population to solely serve their purposes, i.e. to drive animals to summer pastures, to get to remote settlements and outposts or to extract wood from the forest. The GPT routes network that the GPT is composed offof include:
* well-maintained horse trails that a regularly used by the local cowboys (Arrieros or Gauchos),* poorly maintained and neglected trails that are washed out, trenched and blocked by fallen logs,* minor roads and simple car tracks that are occasionally used by an all-terrain vehicle,* trail-less cross country routes in barren open terrain,* a few short stretches of bush bashing,* and where no more adventurous route was found also public roads with moderate transit traffic.* Packrafters can cross in addition mountain lakes, float down generally calm rivers and even paddle on fjords.
What also distinguishes the GPT from many other “classic” hiking trails is that it is not single line trail but a partially wide network of tracks with many options. For some hiker this is confusing as you cannot just follow one trail but you need to make many choices along the way. But because the GPT is an informal trail network these choices are sometimes essential to continue your journey when you find your route not passable and closed. Then you can return and divert and try a different track. For safety reasons I have also included bad weather options and exit routes that get you out of the mountains to the next village or at least to the next road. These additional tracks are not recommended for hiking since they are often not particular attractive but having these tracks on your GPS can save you in adverse conditions.
With the recently added extensions in the north - that extends the trail all the way to Santiago - and in the south - that stretches the trail all the way to edge of the Southern Icefield - the trail spans now about 3000 km in often difficult and slow terrain. With this extension the trail became too long to be safely Thru-Hiked in one season. An experienced Thru-Hiker may disagree as with 3000 km the trail is even a bit shorter than the Appalachian Trail (AT) but the so different terrain and the unpredictable route makes this comparison inadequate. In particular in the north the suitable season for hiking is quite short as you need to wait until December for the snow to melt and the rivers to fall to be forded safely and heavy snow storms may make the route again impassable in late March or during April. Being in this area earlier or later means an unreasonable risk.
I know, sooner or later someone will try to Thru-Hike the trail in one season and may even succeed if he is lucky with the weather but attempting this seems foolish to me. You need to rush, take less attractive short cuts and more importantly: take unreasonable risks by throwing yourself in torrential rivers and getting high up when a blizzard can kill you. And remember, when you walk on this trail you are the gust on the land of someone else. You can’t slow down to appreciate land and share relaxing time with the people along the route. Just the idea of making a race in the backyard of someone else who does not even know feels wrong for me.
The appropriate pace on this trail network is the “appreciation pace”. This pace might vary substantially between different hikers but it gives you the time to make an attractive detour, i.e. climb a summit next to the trail, accept the invitation to share some cups of mate, sit out a day of torrential rain in shelter with an arriero or wait in front of a pass or lake if the weather is too volatile to climb up or to paddle with your packraft.