Cambios

===Idea for the Trail===

I did my first hike in Patagonia in 2002 and returned several times in the following years. As most casual hikers I used a trekking guide book (Lonely Planet: "Trekking in the Patagonian Andes") and ventured only onto trails described by books or printed on maps. It did not even appear to me to go beyond.

A few years later I was recommended the "Adventure Handbook Central Chile" from Franz Schubert and Malte Sieber. This booked introduced me to the often overlooked area between the Chilean capital Santiago and Patagonia. Before I always passed this area without seriously considering to stop before reaching Patagonia.

In 2011 my girlfriend and I planned to do the hike to the Laguna las Truchas that is recommended in the "Adventure Handbook Central Chile". But before we set out we were told by locals that the landlord does not let pass any backpackers. The locals recommended a different trail instead for which we had no guide books, no maps and no guide willing to lead us. After long considerations we eventually took our backpacks and hiked on our own to the impressive Laguna Dial. We were surprised to walk on a well maintained trails where maps are simply blank. In the following months and years we repeated this experience and learned that there are plenty of perfectly hikeable trails where maps show nothing but wilderness. When I reviewed our hikes on Google Earth I also noticed with surprise that these trails are often visible on the satellite images, in particular in areas without dense forest. This showed me a new method how to plan further hikes.

Two years later in 2013 I was wondering how far you can possibly walk through the Andes using the few published the many undocumented trails. More out of curiosity I started searching for a continuous trail in Google Earth trying to incorporate the best trails hiked so far. In a lengthy tedious search using Google Earth and all other material available to me I planned a constantly growing trail. I finally had a route that I estimated to be 1400 km.