On day two the the excursion to Pucon we set out trekking. Not to far outside of Pucon is the nature sanctuary of Cañi. The area is the remnant of a big volcano, which is now just a heavily forested lump in the landscape with a few old lava cones bumps on top which are only noticeable in maps.
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| She didn't have a backpack for the hike up, so she made a hobo stick. From Chile W7 Pucon |
This was my first time doing any real hiking in Chile and now I feel like I need to do more before winter fully sets in. It was a great hike. We were in the clouds for most of it, but now and then it would open up and we would get some blue skies.
The hike felt easy since it was low altitude (1500ft to about 4500ft) hike. Much easier than the cascades. But there was still a lot of up hill. After passing a few small farms the trail went strait up the mountain. Us gringos and our guide set off the conquer this mountain. For the people taking their second semester in Valdivia is was their second time on this same hike, but they still had a good time with it.
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| Robert and Erin with Robert's backpack going up the hill. She never noticed all the weight jokes and references. From Chile W7 Pucon |
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| After hiking for several hours up the steepest part of the mountain Robert tells Erin about the rock he put in the pack when we all first set off up the hill. From Chile W7 Pucon |
After we got up the the refugio the trail started to flatten out. From there we went past two lakes and several types of Chilean forests.
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| Our final destination. Last semester it was clear skies and they went up higher to a view point to see all the volcanoes around the area. But I guess a lake and some nice hot cups of mate is good too. From Chile W7 Pucon |
The hike took probably about 6 hours and was 10 miles. The only hard thing was doing the miles of steep downhill all the way back to the bus. I had some sore legs the next day.
Boy does this ever look different than our Death March hike into the Alpine Lakes! I like the different terrain, and especially like the cool old shacks along the way. Do people really stay in any of them? :o)
ReplyDeleteBadass! I love those rocky mountain side shots.
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