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→Season 2024/25
==Season 2024/25==
* <span style="background-color:aqua;">'''December 17–26 2024 / 10 days/ Packrafting / SOBO / New option combining Huella Andina and nearby lakes from Icalma/Villa Pehuenia to Paso Mamuil Mamal (road from Pucón to Argentina) GPT14 RP?, GPT15-RP???'''</span>
TL;DR: If you like people suffering, skip to day 7–9
(Note: putting everything here, even though this technically spans two sections - there is no possibility to legally cross borders back to GPT15.)
Summary: This is a new and quite scenic and varied mostly-not-on-road route. In our opinion, it is a superior alternative to a lot of roadwalking on the RR GPT14-15 and a possible candidate for extending RP (including a river flowing through Aracaurias, which are to be found along all the trail). The last bushbashing (BB) part, while offering an experience in a pristine and untouched forest, is extremely demanding and not exactly safe due to its remoteness and bone breaking/puncture hazards. The forest was an experience for us like no other so far after six months on the GPT in total. The 5km BB took us 3 days. However, before that final section, this route is suitable for hikers as it follows the Huella Andina ("HA"), with some modifications (and using a packraft). I will refer to the KMZ file downloadable from wikiexplora article about HA. This time of the year, we practically never carried water, it was everywhere. It would be probably different at the end of summer. We never met any park rangers, so we do not know if any permits or payments are needed. In Villa Pehuenia, we were told by the tourist information office that HA is only open from Lago Ñorquinco, and indeed it is only marked from there, but the two previous sections exist as trails or roads and to our knowledge are open for hiking. Probably they are not maintained as they are not in any National Park. Outside of the lakes, we met no other overnight hikers and only one daypacker and one group of MTBikers.
Day 0 - Crossing from Icalma to Villa Pehuenia - 4 km
In Icalma, we asked a local working in a garden whether there was a taxi in Icalma and he offered to drive us to the border for 5 thousand CLP, which we accepted. It was a big help since the border was closing at ~7pm (it may have been 6pm but we only had an hour or so for both crossings). At the border, we were informed that Argentina requires a boat certificate of desinfection by a Chilian officer, but the Argentinians did not ask for it (for details, see this discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/222224388283455/posts/1956717948167415/). We didn't get a hitch between the border controls, but soon after in Argentina the first car took us to Villa Pehuenia. Villa Pehuenia is a tourist town, with no exchange office but seemingly every shop was willing to change US dollars for Argentinian pesos, ask around to get a decent rate. Shops were open until 21. Ressuply is well possible, this being Argentina, but food is now probably cheaper (though of course worse) in Chile (the Argentinian border controls did not check our bags stuffed with food at all). There is a dedicated shop for vegetables and fruits here: -38.88139, -71.18762. Paid 10 thousand to sleep at a run-down but functional Complejo Lagrimitas. Phone Claro internet decent.
Day 1 - Villa Pehuenia to Moquehue ‐ 15 km
Our first independent packrafting trip meant that we fiddled several hours with packing and loading the boat, so we started at 11 AM. Lake was calm and we reached a beach here: -38.91476, -71.27327 around 14:00. The "puesto" marked in OSM sounds more like a settler, dogs and chickens heard. While we ate, whitecap waves against our direction developed and when paddling, we more or less stood on the ground, so we opted for hiking the rest of the way. The trail to Moquehue is easy but scenic, so we did not regret it. It is a trail, not a road, OSM has it wrong (will be fixed in the summer) until the last 1 km or so. In Moquehue, we managed to buy bread and nuts, ressuply possible, but we had most of our food already. Claro internet (last before end of trip). We followed HA for one km and slept a few hundred metres beyond the town here: -38.95579, -71.32329 (no water).
Day 2 - Moquehue to ridge above the next valley - 13 km.
We followed HA until just before Filo Cerro Plomo. Appart from first 2 km, it is a 4x4 road (sad) through a beautiful forrest (happy). Sidetrip to viewpoint here -38.96209, -71.32286 worth the ten minutes it takes. The ridge above the HA that should be accessible through OSM path starting here -38.95090, -71.31670 (mapped based on Strava, so might be CC) looked like easy and beautiful walking and is probably preferrable in good weather. Paths around -38.97080, -71.32003 are also mapped based on Strava, might be an artifact of a race or one single mad person doing the same round over and over and might be more CC than trails, but should get you to the ridge too. Anyway, on HA, the trackfiles are a bit wrong, around -39.00634, -71.30802, you will see two trail marks, so leave the road and go up. Met some people with bikes here, only people we met for the next two days. Path is not visible, but forrest is open and you go basically straight up. When reaching low lying beech shrubbery, path reappers that leads you up to the saddle. There is a creek shortly after this turn off (just before the trail marks) you can fill up on water. There is also a cairn at this creek and if you wish to walk the creek bed I think it might be possible as well. From the saddle we opted to follow the ridge NE from HA. It is spectacular and while steep, no hands are needed to advance. It is a bit slowgoing though, especially with a packraft and 10 days of food. We slept near a seasonal lake around -39.03013, -71.28361, very beautiful.
Day 3 - Ridge above the next valley to Lago Ñorquinco - 15 km.
We followed the ridge for two km and then discovered a recently maintained trail down to the valley here: -39.05003, -71.28180. We took it. It took us down through beech shrubbery to here -39.05142, -71.28621. Then it kind of petered out but the forest was open enough for us to easily reach the HA in the valley. The HA is quite a wide path that must have been made with a digger some time back, but it is not used by cars up to -39.08562, -71.30652. We originally wanted to stay on the ridge longer and go down from here: -39.08760, -71.29079. That is open terrain and looking from below, it looked possible, but not wholly certain. However, we would advise to join the ridge straight from Moquehue as suggested previously and get down by this trail we discovered. We followed the HA to Ruta Provincial 11, but it might be advisable to cut to the NW corner of the lake from here: -39.11217, -71.30914 to avoid roadwalking and a detour: Arroyo Nompehuen must be forded anyway and while cold, does not have too much water (knee deep) and there seems to be a path on satellite in the suitable direction and the landscape is reasonably open. We put our packraft in here -39.12056, -71.31909. It is a campsite where noone was in attendance, otherwise day-access is about 4 thousand pesos per person, so you might want to reach the lake farther, should be possible, use OSM and satellite map. There are showers and toilets and trashbin though. It was a bit windy (from West) and rain was coming, so despite the small size of the lake and low fetch, whitecap waves developed. Their direction was suitable for us and we crossed the lake along the southern shore to find a very wind sheltered camp next to a creek behind a bush here: -39.12056, -71.31909.
Day 4 - Lago Ñorquinco - to Arroyo Calfiquiera - 19 km
The next day we padled to -39.14420, -71.29466 and joined HA from there. According to OSM, the lake can be hiked around from both directions. West side seems preferable. HA starts to be marked here. It is actually mostly a very old eroded road made with a digger probably decades back. It has overwhelmingly the characteristics of a trail. Cascada Coloco is very pretty. Once you reach the pass, where there is a puesto and cows, the trail turns into a road that is very rarely used, it seemed. Vivac Pampa de Castro would probably give you shelter in rain and is open enough for hanta virus not to be a worry. We reached Arroyo Calfiquiera here: -39.22814, -71.27044 (before that it is a wild stream). However, the creek is overgrown just after that, luckily there were two locals living there who were fishing and helped us carry our fully loaded packraft to -39.22933, -71.26945. There was one more narrow and almost overgrown section shortly after (-39.23189, -71.26735), so you might want to put in just after that (follow the 4x4 tracks visible on satellite). From then on, apart from two low lying bridges, no portages were needed (we shortly walked our boat once or twice through some narrow braided passages). We camped at -39.23857, -71.25184 just before a class 1 rapid (that turned out to be the biggest on the river). Tomáš left his scissors from his Victorinox card there, you might find them at the edge of grass.
Day 5 - Arroyo Calfiquiera to Vivac Malalco Chico - 18 km
In the morning, the rapid turned out to be dangerous only for one's knees. The bridges are here: -39.24453, -71.24944 and -39.24874, -71.21634. There is a creek with fresh water flowing in at -39.24601 -71. 21842. With all the packing and unpacking, it is for sure quicker to walk on HA (which leaves the road for a trail in the valley for at least a part of its length). However, packrafting is recommended as part of the arroyo flows through an aracauria forrest and all along you get nice views of surrounding mountains. It is also good practice for beginners, we thought, being beginners ourselves. Down at the lake, we ferried across an American who said she would climb a mountain north of the lake nearby using a trail disclosed by a local. We did not packraft across the lake and instead got out at the picnic area at the west end of the lake (small stream but walk up a bit bcs there is an outhouse in the stream) and then after lunch made a shortcut to the ridge. After about 500 metres along the lake on the road, we turned right uphill and soon found a trail used by horses recently here: -39.25142, -71.19640. It was easy to follow and joined HA here -39.25310, -71.18395. It would be great if somebody could investigate where in the valley (presumably further up) it originates. There are a few puestos high up on this side so more trails are expected. The HA itself then crosses a very attractive (old volcanic) plateau. It is probably (one of) the nicest part of the HA that we have seen so far (out of a half). We camped at a valley designated by the KMZ files as a bivauc and it is a good camping spot, but do not expect any facilities or people.
Natalie devised an idea where you would CC from here: -39.25687, -71.23304 onto the ridge, traverse Cerro Rucachoroi and join HA here: -39.31090, -71.20943. It all looked like well passable CC, but we never got a good view of the peak itself and are unsure if it can be sidehilled or crossed. Some of the sub-peaks obstructing the view were rather vertical, but ridges that we saw were passable.
Day 6 - Vivac Malalco Chico to Lago Quillèn - 21 km
Going down is straightforward. However, there are some fallen branches. About 200 metres of altitude above the valley, you hit a creek that you will cross several times downstream. After crossing Arroyo Malalco (which looks great for packrafting, but do your research), a local from Comunidad Laf Lefiman offered us a cabaña with Starlink internet for 60 thousand,but it was too early so we went on. When we reached the lake, we saw a family with a paddleboard and kayaks that we saw the previous day at Lago Rucachoroi. Park rangers were nowhere to be seen. It was quite windy and waves looked big, so we used our packraft to cross the outlet from the lake and walked along the beach to join MR that runs along the southern side of the lake until -39.43088, -71.2848, where we camped. We met a group of people fishing there but they soon left.
Day 7 - Lago Quillèn to Somewhere in bamboo - 13 km.
We started early (aiming for sunrise, we managed to be in the boat 45 minutes after it) and paddled on lake Quillèn to reach old buildings here: -39.42796, -71.42474. They were a (probably recentishly) abandoned border police station, as far as we could tell. The lake had some waves already in the morning but they were quite managable and it took us about 4 hours to paddle the 13 km or so. Along the way, there would be places to camp, especially on the beach here: -39.42164, -71.36282 where there is fresh water. After the police station, we got onto a beach here: -39.43593, -71.41508. We cleared a place for a tent and entry into the forest, did not check for water but satellite says there is a creek outlet about 50 m NW from there. Then the "fun" part started, at about 15:00. Natalie's many many warnings about the forest looking impenetrable turned out to be true. It is an ancient Chilean beech (Roble/Coigue) forest with a completely native understory of many shrubs but mainly just walls of bamboo. In the grand scheme of things, if we had stuck to the creek bed we would have made the crossing in two (long) days. But because we left the creekbed several times, this 5km crossing took us 3 days.
At the beginning, while we were not yet on a steep slope, we were moving at a healthy speed of maybe 400m an hour. We found a creek here: -39.43977, -71.41793 that allowed us to walk without obstruction for about 15m. It was turning into a canyon, which we did not like, so we continued to the east of it. Little did we know how foolish that was! In the beginning, as it got steeper, we would sometimes find an area full of flat dead woody bambo that would allow us to jump about twenty metres before fighting the green bamboo again. As we progressed (at a speed of maybe 250m per hour), we noticed we were on a side of a steep canyon made by erosion from water running down the slope. Details of the satellite map revealed that we were two such ravines removed from the main creek. We crossed one over a log, that was maybe 10 m long and was maybe 6 m high above the lowest point of the canyon. It was getting dark so we cleared a somewhat even spot for a camp (sorry forest). After six hours and some zigzagging caused by the canyons, we were about 1 km from where we started. Survey without a backpack (which makes moving around about three times easier) suggested we might be able to rejoin the main canyon the next day which was about 100 m far (and thirty metres below).
Day 8 - Somewhere in bamboo to dried creekbed - 1 km
New survey in the morning made us go backdown as the main canyon's wall seemed like a landslide and almost vertical. We started to follow down a ravine between us and the main creek, hoping it would join it. After three hours, 400 m of distance and two failed surveys in the direction of the main canyon, we finally manged to make a crossing. A rule for heavy duty bushbashing seems to be: always follow the water. It is not exactly quicker, but psychologically being able to see more than 5 metres in advance and not having to constantly put branches from one's face is a tremendeous benefit. It also helps with orientation and hopefully provides a possible passage. We of course set a turn-back time by which we would turn back if we did not reach the pass, but (Tomáš not being the responsible one), we failed to heed it after deciding we actually still had food for three more somewhat fasting days. We started to go up the creek at a speed of about 200 metres an hour, so after about 5-6 hours, we managed to get under the place where we slept. We agreed that we could have probably gone down there, saving us 5 hours of a detour, the canyon walls being steep, but in some places having enough bamboo to provide good (but never truly certain) holds. At about -39.44779, -71.41624, there was a confluence of two canyons, and we decided to go through a steep dry vegetation-wise more or less open slope to the right . After about 100m, we traversed back left to the main creek. It was now six in the evening. Still hoping to reach the pass (hey, just 500m of distance!) and facing somewhat overgrown waterfall in the main ravine roughly -39.45067, -71.41624, we again opted to go right, onto an even steeper slope. Somehow with the help of trees growing there, we reached a beech-bush combined with bamboo understory, slowing us down to maybe 50 m an hour. After an hour or so, we found a ravine that we partially followed and traversed back to the creek. It still had some waterfalls that turned out to be scalable and after 100 m (our speed returning to a solid 250 m per hour), it turned dry. It now being 9 PM, we built a camp inside of the creekbed. Looking back, especially the second diversion was a mistake and we should have stayed in the canyon (the waterfall was probably scalable with passing backpacks and such). The variety of plant and insect species that live in and around the creekbed was amazing. Luckily very little tabanos or other obnoxious insects, which was true for all these 5 km.
Day 9 - Dried creekbed to somewhere in bamboo II - 3 km
In the morning, Tomáš went exploring and found the other side of the pass much preferable, so around ten, we set off to continue. After an easy 40-minute 300m traverse to the pass (Lanin looks impressive even through the trees), the character of the valley changed a lot. Almost open beech forrest and relatively regular creekbed (with a creek) enabled us to reach -39.45964, -71.41716 in a superb speed of almost 600m/hour. From there, we followed the river through a dense old and amazing canopy. At about 400 m/ hour, we eventually got to a 20 m cascading (not vertical) waterfall here: -39.47088, -71.41775. To its left, we managed to cut a path with our machete, passing each other our backpacks on the not-entirely vertical somewhat crumbly climb-down. Unfortunately we do not think our holds will last long as we scaled it down in mainly mud and fragile rock (rope or bamboo bushing walkaround should do). Afterwards, our speed again decreased to about 200 m an hour, overcoming many logjams and much smaller waterfalls. We camped around -39.47449, -71.41901. Natalie somehow left her insoles there. All the scrambling we have done both up and down were mangeable (T4 to T5 on SAC scale), though a rope of 10 or 15 m or so would have been at certian moments quite useful.
Day 10 - Somewhere in bamboo II to Paso Mamuil Mamal - 17 km
In the morning, we took three hours mostly following the creek or bashing bamboo alongisde it to reach the shore (yay!), where Tomáš somehow left his beloved trusty headphones: -39.48276, -71.42544. Should you find them, give them a decent burial. We inflated our packraft and paddled across Lago Tromen (which offers tremendeous views) in about 2,5 hours to outlet of Rio Malleo, meeting people again after several days. Rio Malleo has probably too much of a drop to be packrafted safely but lookes tempting to Tomáš. After a long lunch, eating the last of our last food, we crossed the river and walked along the OSM trail to the National Park office near the border. Nobody paid attention to us there, so we walked to the Argentinian border control, from which we got a hitch all the way to Pucon, seeing Clara hitchhiking around the end of the Villarica Traverse. Pucon did not have Tomáš's favourite icecream like last year and in general did not feel as good as previous years (cherries were perfect though). We were very glad and maybe somehow euphoric we made it .
Overall, the forest was incredible. However, if we broke a limb or worse, we doubt help would come, so only do this if you are prepared for self-evacuation or face the consequences. We are however convinced that with good navigation, and staying mainly in the creek, it could take two long days to do the BB traverse, one for going up the pass and one down. The BB has difficulty 7 in GPT terms.
* '''17Dec2024 - 20dec2024 / hiking SOBO / RR from ~km30 - OH1 A/R (cumbre sollipulli) - RR - GPT15 OH1 / 4 days / Clara'''
