Cambios

Coming from Cochamo, where we had to organize getting a new neck gasket, we once again set off towards Lago Azul. The bus for the Lago Tagua Tagua arrived in Cochamo at 10:20am and ferry left at 10:30am (around here, -41.49304, -72.30553). It came five minutes after the bus that goes from Puerto Montt to the trailheadCochamo TH. We left Rio Puelo at 12:00 after ten minute break but missed the docked ferry by a minute or two. Only had to wait ~30min for the next one and the busses on the other side were still there. Lots of people, so Entel did not work. The bus did its regular stop at Llande Grande (~10min - they have a very good non industrial salami there) and then we got off where the road to Lago Azul goes around 15:30. We managed to get a hitch quickly, but it was short lived. There is a man watching a gate (7mil for the car owner, nothing for us) and the car was only allowed to go ~1km further to a parking spot (maybe because it wasn't 4-wheel drive, and/ or they only allow certain [local?] people to go all the way to the beach, not sure). The road to the lake has recently been "upgraded" and is quite ugly. 02B and 02C are probably roads too, based on satellite and a little foot survey where 02B joins 02A. At the beach there were a stand selling empanadas, a toilet, about 20 people and 4 cars parked. We started paddling around 18:00. First going west for ~600m to check out an alternative trail Tomáš was interested in that is on OSM leading to here: -41.92170, -71.87635. The trail exists, but might be somewhat unused, as there seems to be a new road for cars built above it. Anyway, it looks like a more attractive and shorter approach to Azul, somebody needs to investigate it (we only noticed the trail half way on 02A). The start of the lake outlet (20 m) is magical with its blue-green water, a nice detour. The waves got stronger near the middle of the lake but then eased quickly. Near the end of the lake we had calm water. We camped at a spot we noted last year when hiking: -41.98306, -71.84801. It has a small flowing creek but is near a cottage. Both years of being here we have not seen anyone in it, you can camp in the trees and be mostly hidden. People vacation in tents 200m along the lake shore. Lago Azul is very pretty.

The next day was straightforward. Lago Los Rocas was "reflection-like" calm, despite starting around 11:00. We were worried about the boat and the Chilean Carabineros (read Jan's description in the manual) so we put the boat and equipment into the duffel bag and placed it all outside the Carabineros building, entering without our luggage. Everything went well because the men were nice (same ones from last year). However, we were almost busted when they asked us specifically if we were going to Argentina on foot or by boat. At first we said boat, but then they asked who was taking us, and when we struggled to come up with an explanation, they seemed to take our silence as a language misunderstanding and asked us again, so to make things easier, we said we were walking. We then slipped down using Variant U. If you are uncomfortable about this, it might be worth just putting your boat in your bag and walking the 3km to the next beach along RH. Variant S does not exist. Lago Inferior was once again sadly not windy, we started around 16:00. We were hoping to have more but no horsepower from the wind... Tomáš and I had a small misunderstanding about our end goal at the lake. Tomáš wanted to walk up the river to scout the rapids and possibly run them back, and I, being completely unaware of the obvious, agreed. I thought we most likely wouldn't run them and just walk on the other OSM trail. What I didn't know was that the river flowed against us, despite looking at satellite images and saying, "why does it look like the rapids are going in the wrong direction?" And of and noticing it's called"lake inferior". Like I said, unaware of the obvious. When I realized the river went against us I instantly hated the idea, but we were already past the normal take out point, so in the end we went for it. The first longish set of rapids (class II, -42.10240, -71.73502) is north (river right), so you cannot just connect to the OSM trail next to the river. We crossed to southern shore of the river and had a slow 400m walk and 100m paddle up to a point we could safely ferry back to the northern (right right) side, -42.10413, -71.73233. It was slow because of the algae/didymo being very slippery and rocks in the river bed having gaps in between them. You will appreciate how easy entrapment could be here if water was deeper and faster. A pole in one hand will greatly improve your stability and also a leash for the boat (walk the dog). We paddled up to the second short rapid(class II+?, -42.10487, -71.72934). Walking along it's side was more involved as we had to lift the boat over some rocks and it was a bit sketchy trusting our dollar store locking carabiners on our leash. The last rapid (class III, -42.10487, -71.72934) was much easier to walk along, once again on our north/river-right. We filled up on water after the last rapid and paddled towards the lake. Surprisingly there was not much wind and the waves only started to be not small just before the Argentinian border patrol, so it was a bit slower than expected. Were it not for the border and a bit sooner, we could have gone to the lake end. All in all this option was probably a little slower than just packing your boat and walking to the border control and about as fast as deflating your boat, walking the 2km portage and reinflating your boat. It might be worthwhile the effort if you have a boat with cargo. If you are careful, it is not dangerous (slips permitting). When water levels are high, it might be a different story. It took us 75 minutes. Going If you go down the river in case you go , NOBO should be much easier: capsizing in , the first (going from Lago Puelo) rapid did not look safe due to had some undercuts, so better walk it down on the right, but the rest can probably be run (after scouting!) or walked.

The camping at the border was once again packed, and this time all toilets were locked or non-functional, pretty gross considering the amount of people. There is a stream on the west side. The evening was quiet but fierce wind picked up around 3am, the wind was better in the morning but still not great. The check-in with Argentina (open from 8 till 20) was very easy and we got our passports stamped. I had a bit of "boat fever" and wanted to walk out, plus I wanted to be conservative with the waves at this lake. Tomáš felt it would be totally manageable so he sailed on down to Lago pueblo and I hiked out to La Pasarela because I hadn't gone there last year and I was curious. It was an okay hike with a little bit of water along the way. It turned into a MR for a little bit but then went back into a non-native Douglas Fir forest and through a few settlers pastures. It was up and down basically the whole way and very warm. La Pasarela is extremely popular. There is a restaurant and a smoothie joint and many other food stands. Somehow I didn't get a hitch. There is a bus stop when you hit the main road around here; -42.05087, -71.59679. I went into town and caught the bus out front the hospital here; -42.05924, -71.59776 @ 14:15. It was 1.700mil and paid only in cash. The earlier bus stop would have been fine. Plum season is almost here, red ones are tart but edible, yellow ones need at least 2-4more weeks.

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 and then probably goes around town, taking a long time. The plan was to get off the first bus, look for Tomáš's inReach he had lost and then catch the second bus. Unfortunately, while we were looking for the inReach, the Laguna Ferry 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 Cochamo buses leave @ 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 (but no more buses to the trailhead for hiking the RRferry). We reached Rio Puelo at about 13:45. 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.)

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 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 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 flown 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 Bernardita Alegría's (referred to as "abuela" in earlier seasons) 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 issue, yet...

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 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 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 with the boat 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 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. 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 when putting it on, 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 Varras instead).

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 at this time of year unlikely 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. I saw only one rapid with possibly dangerous strainers ( -42.02042, -72.06173 if we postidentified it well). There are two possibly low class 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. I 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. I wish I filled up more because it was the last water until Bridge {22N} [7.4/137]. We got to our food stash near Ford 37.5 in ~3hrs. After lunch we headed towards the gorge entrance/hiking section (Rapids Start 6.2). 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. Tomáš thinks the river is at most I+, when Jan mentions "up to class III" in the manual, that either applies to November or is wrong, you can avoid all of the small rapids if you want and keep it strictly class I. We were totally surprised when we hit the gorge because we were fighting a headwind and thought we were moving slow. Turns out we were still moving fast (~13km in 1.5hrs) and therefore missed the first exit by a hundred metres - you do not want to miss the exit! (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 up and down trail. It is only very little overgrown 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 easy to loose it and it was only badly overgrown at the first beach after Settler's 7.7 gate (locked). 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. I often found the 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", 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. You can fill up on water at the top near Castanos or ferry across the river to a creek.

Rio Puelo was again pretty calm (and pretty) but then somewhat slow nearing the lake. Fresh (last that we saw) water not coming from humans here: -41.80219, -71.99786. We found a nice lunch spot here with picnic tables and nice views: -41.70008, -72.09018. No water but I recommend camping here if you know the lake is going to be too windy to cross and you don't want to take the ferry. However it looks like it sees day trip visitors from time to time. Our plan after lunch was to paddle to the start of the Parque Tagua Tagua hike. However, close to the ferry port the base valve in our middle seat inflation tube ripped (obviously a weak point in our boat as the same spot ripped on the main compartment while on the Rio Ñuble). Luckily it was just the seat but as soon as we could arrive at the port a ferry arrived so we had to wait to go to shore. I stupidly put Aquaseal FD on it rather than taping it and doing the permanent fix later, so we had to be very careful for the rest of the day. The Aquaseal was a battle. I had been keeping the valve clean but the first few centimeters of aquaseal in the tube had turned to concrete and we had to make a new hole to get some out, I wish I had two tubes (FD + UV). In the end it didn't matter too much because the waves and wind were so strong at the lake that we decided not to cross the lake to get to the hike. For camping we went into the trees and found a wind sheltered patch of grass: -41.70132, -72.11486. We boiled water from the lake, probably not great considering the ferry port was right there. It is probbaly probably 4-5 hours of padddling paddling from end of gorge to the lake.

We got started fairly early and the lake was easy to cross in about 100 minutes, even with some light tailwind. We stopped for internet at the north side. The first 5km of the Puelo before Rapids 68.9 were more like an extension of the lake, very slow (but pretty). It was easy to stay right at the small gorge before Rapids 68.9. We stopped to scout them and although they were not as strong as the rapids in the first gorge, they had many features we did not like (a giant wave and a possible hole and possible undercuts). If there was more water it would have been possible to stay to the far right of them, but at this time it looked impossible to do so without hitting rocks on our knees (it is possible to walk the boat through here too). So we walked the boat to the far right as GPX indicates, there is not enough water to float the whole way. At the end of the walk (-41.61433, -72.21046), there is a a rapid you enter downstream if you want to re-enter the river. After that we stayed right the whole way, passing some more minor rapids directly after. We hit our knees badly on the last shallow rapid because at the end we went to the left of a center rock, we should have gone right (that was here: -41.60956, -72.21677). We found a nice water supply here: -41.61519, -72.24686. The rest of the Puelo that day was easy and it got a bit slow, we had to paddle against the waves for the last few kms before Bridge 79.3 (it pays to follow the current, not chasing the shortest route). There was a fun small feature (possibly a hole) here: -41.63345, -72.25323 that we rode to the side channel of the river. At the bridge we got out and caught a hitch easily to Cochamo, and prepared ourselves to deal with the broken gear and online orders (the Post office in Cochamo is delivered to only on Mondays, so order your stuff to Puerto Varras instead - we had to go to retrieve the stuff in transit in Puerto Monttas to not wait in Cochamo for days). In Cochamo there are many hospedajes, the going rate seems to be 17mil per person. We chose Hostal Arcoíris (-41.49402, -72.30973), we got a small private room for 34mil. There is a large grass area in the back with outside showers to make cleaning the packraft easy, only downfall was it is very popular for Chilean campers. Good fruit shop here: -41.49456, -72.29692.