Patagonia- Day #7 - Friday, January 3rd
It’s 10:30pm - just back to the hut from another great dinner. Each day we have been given a menu at breakfast where we select between 3 starters, 3 main dishes, and 3 desserts for the evening meal. Tonight we had tuna and it was delicious. Each night has been something unique - pretty impressive.
Well - today we successfully completed the famous W-Trek in Torres del Paine National Park!!! Outstanding!! The whole circuit is 45 miles and roughly 9,400’ elevation gain. Today we hiked the first leg of the W which brought us to this magnificent lake - with the mountainous towers (visible from EcoCamp) in the distance. We stayed at the lake for over an hour - eating lunch and taking pictures. I think the pictures have turned out nicely - but sitting there was awe-inspiring. This location, with the perfect weather we had today, is on a very short list of most scenic places I’ve been in my life.
We started our hike at 7:15am — the earliest we’ve got out of camp this week. It was a 6.5 mile out/back hike (13 total miles) - with the first 6.5 miles broken into 3 segments. The first segment was a non-stop climb up this rocky, steep, highly exposed mountain slope. The 2nd segment was through the forest and consisted of rolling hills (my favorite segment of the day). The final segment was a really steep, staircase -like mountain slope which brought us to the final prize - a pristine glacial lake with the 3 mountain spires in the distance.
After all the pictures - we slowly made our way back to EcoCamp. The hike we did today is the single most popular hike in this region. Because of this, and because it was perfect weather, we dealt with hundreds of hikers on our return trek. We had to stop and take turns down the treacherous steps - taking us longer to descend segment 3 than climb it.
We stopped at a Refugio about half-way down the mountain where some of the team decided to partake in drinks. By this time in the trip - the guides know us pretty well - so they’ve given us some leeway. Greg and I really wanted to continue hiking - so we finished the last 3 miles on our own. I wanted to get back and check-in on my messages and upload my blog entries.
I spent 2 hours at a cafe down the hill from EcoCamp getting caught up on some things. We then had our team briefing at 7:15pm - followed by our 8pm dinner. Dinners are pretty late here - but I think it’s fairly common in South America
Tomorrow is our final active day on our tour. We’ve completed the W-Trek - so tomorrow we will do a driving tour and a picnic lunch followed by a short hike. The itinerary has this last day to provide some flexibility if the weather was really bad early in the trip - we could have flip-flopped days if necessary.
We get to sleep in a bit as well - with breakfast at 8am. It’s a great feeling to have successfully completed the W-Trek - now we get to have a more relaxing day in celebration.
It’s been an amazing trip so far - Patagonia has lived up to all my expectations- and then some.
Good night from a relaxed, happy, and thankful feller!!
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