Cambios

TL;DR: If you like people suffering, skip to day 7–9 days 7–9. 

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). Natalie also found a MR route around the bush bashing and last two lakes (with some ridge options) for hikers. In either case, one can than connect to our traverse od the side of Lanin, which we published last year in GPT16. Had this not been our first section this year and had we not carried 1a packraft and food for ten days, this could have been done much faster. 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.