Cambios

Day Day 0:The hitch, 5 km

We resupplied in Entre Lagos and started hitching after 17:00. We got one bus and one car that got us to turn-off for option 6 and then a brown bus came that drove us all the way to the start of the MR&BB. The bus leaves Osorno every day at five in the afternoon, arriving at the border around 1930. It leaves from the border, back to Osorno, the next morning at 7:30. We walked five km to Camp [8.0]. Met a German and a Chilian campsite there. They had just learnt about the GPT community and were planning on trying 21-22. We told them how to get the track files and gave some other advice. We wonder how they fared with the old osm gpt files.

Day 1: over the ridge, 17 km We started at seven, beating the sun and tabanos on the long climb. There is no bushbashing for a long time on the MR. When it started (about 2 km? - it doesn't slow you down much), we cleared some with our machete. If everyone just got one and spent one hour per day (when appropriate) on trail maintenance, we would have a nice trail I (Tomáš) think. Tomáš did the ridge via D and F. Natalie did not like the snow wall and followed RR due to time and an incoming storm. The snow wall on the ridge actually had an opening where the GPX tracks lead you and it was totally fine to get on the ridge: some walking (15 m) on 30 degree snowy slope, but it was soft and slip would end soon anyway, The pinacle after the summit cannot be safely scaled as Alexie has mentioned (loose rock, even when you have got the skills, I would not trust those holds). I chose to go left, between the rock and ice. It involved using my hands, SAC 5 I would say. In the middle, where there was only a small gap, I cut steps into the snow and walked on it, seeing it was very thick from below. This is not ideal - probably better go to the right right away, although that looks steep too. Found a very scenic sheltered campsite with water from melting snow (will probably last a few more weeks) at -40.79137, -72.14787. There is a 20 m deep volcanic cave there. Casablanca looks easy to climb from the pass through a ridge, but it was cloudy with rain, so we did not try.

Day 2: through bush to hot springs, 17 km. After crossing the plateau, we entered the forest. After the previous day's rain, we got soaked. The trail is there, sometimes more overgrown, sometimes less. We used our machete to clear some. No easy access to water at the water waypoint, but good accesses about 500 m further here: -40.82253, -72.17044. Last water was about 200 m before the X waypoint. About one km from waypoint "Important: Nobo: Overgrown Trails", we both, walking maybe 100 m after each other, independently got lost. In this part of the forest, there are many (animal? lost hiker?) trails. I, not looking at the GPS, followed an obvious trail while using the machete, suddenly realized I was in the middle between the TL&BB and the alternative BB trail. This at least used to be a man-made trail, as some old cut marks attested. However, it petered out. I walked in a circle, the forest being surprisingly passable at times. In the end I found myself on the alternative BB trail. It seemed like ages ago, there might have been a trail, but now it is (not so horrible) bushbashing. After an hour of being lost, I finally got to the X waypoint. I thought Natalie would be kilometers ahead but she was only waiting 5min. She stuck to the RR but still got lost/turned around a few times. Supposedly she had a few full body encounters with stinging nettle over the "log graveyards", accidentally went in a circle and ended up almost a 1km uphill, threw up from stomach issues and had not a great time, but she still agrees the BB is not that bad, just following the trail can be tricky. The trail from the X to lake is an actual trail. At the lake, all of a sudden, Tabaño hell started. About 15 seconds after we left the forest, aiming for the beach, about 50+ red tabaños surrounded each of us, buzzing viciously. They seem to strongly prefer open sunny low locations. We got to shore, pitched the inner part of our tent and used it to change into drysuits - they provide good protection from the horseflies. It was about seven when we got to our packraft, still surrounded by a dozen of tabaños. We set of against sizeable waves, hoping to reach the termas waypoint 7 km far. In over an hour, we hardly covered two km when Natalie spotted steam rising from a lakeshore here: -40.85792, -72.21726. There was a pool made from stones in the lake and a very hot (60 degrees? - painful to touch) stream pouring to it. Waves being high, the pool was quite cold. We improved the pool walls but when we were done. the waves already calmed and the pool got too hot, so we learned we should have never messed with it in the first place. We made a new breach into the pool wall, improving the balance of temperatures somewhat, but it was still at times too hot or too cold water. Nevertheless it was a beautiful location.The small beach provided a slopy place for a tent that was surprisingly ok.

Day 3: Hot springs to El Poncho, 5 km. In the morning, we started paddling. Turns out steam and hot springs (without pools) are present along the shore for about 1 km from our camp. The formal hotspring is here: -40.85944, -72.22694. The waypoint in the track files is off by about 2 km. It is a beach with dug holes in it and it sees regular traffic - a motorboat brought people both in the evening and morning. People had shovels and buckets - not exactly sure how it all works. There is a sign saying it is prohibited to camp there. It would be a perfect camp - there is a stream about 100 m west of the beach. There were several other streams flowing into the lake around this part. In El Poncho beach where you are supposed to boat out, there is nothing: no shop, no ressuply. There is a cell tower on the opposite bank, but only some 3g signal: I only managed to receive e-mails, but could not even send replies.