Patagonia Day 4 and 5

Torres del Paine Days 2 and 3

There once was a tale of two days. One 24 hour period of darkness and despairing that left me and my compadres quite broken. Another 24 hour period of sheer joy and happiness. I'm sure you all want the dark story first. So, I shall begin with this imagery: 8:30 am this morning, me sitting on a stump, wearing two ponchos, rain pouring around me, my tent laying to one side of me, my bag and belongings on another side, a zucchini about 10 feet in front of me (completely frozen), and I'm just gazing into the ground, eating a Milky Way bar. I can recall this so accurately because it was brought up multiple times by the crew! Thanks buddies, for remembering in vivid detail my darkest hour. Not to start this entry off on a super bad note, but that was my life. Let's get to the story...

Day 2, aka Christmas, began with us in chipper spirits. Tent breakdown was quick and breakfast was happy, despite our oatmeal containing half of the salt from the ocean. Basically inedible. First thing on our list when we return to Puerto Natales is to tell the lady that sold it to us that it is terrible. She asked for reviews, after all!

Approximately 4 minutes into our hike down from Camp Grey, the rain started. No matter, we thought, as we put on our rain gear. Ain't no thang. 

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it was a thang. The rain continued for the next 27 hours. In fact, it turned to snow after we passed Camp Paine Grande and towards Camp Italiano. Silver lining: we very much had a white Christmas and Dane kept marveling at this. Being a southern boy, he's only had hot and humid Christmases. "I've always dreamed of a wet Christmas" he mused at one point. Hehe

So as you can imagine, we were soaked. Despite rain covers, plastic bags holding all our stuff internally, rain coats and ponchos, every single thing we had was drenched and helpless. I feel confident in that blanket statement: we were so wet. 

The first half of the day wasn't bad at all though. The drizzles were pretty on par with what you expect from a drizzle, so we kinda figured we were okay. In fact, some of my favorite laughs from these past 2 days occurred in the rain yesterday afternoon. Ron said something at one point that made me stop and laugh and cry. I think it was at Dane's expense, sorry Dane! But the laughs were good and kept morale very high. ...then we got to camp Paine Grande. 

We knew we were gonna stop for lunch here, but after surveying our stuff and realizing the rain wasn't stopping, it lunch turned into dinner. We made quinoa and veggies and chatted with other hikers and passed around our Secret Santa gifts. I got Emily, and bought her a travel headphone jack adapter with 5 ports. Thought it was perfect for her since she travels a ton (do you know anyone who's been to Finland and many parts of Africa and Iceland? Among lots of other places? Well now you do, Emily) AND there's 5 of us...so...we can all play some beautiful music on planes or busses together. 

Dane got me for his SS and gave me a matê pot and serving straw. Matê is a South American tea-ish drink. You pour a bunch of this loose tea/almost weed looking substance into a cute little leather pot, pour in hot water, and drink the water out. Then you pour more hot water, and pass to the next person. Think of peace pipes, South American tea style. The rest of the crew discovered this contraption/drink in Buenos Aires and then bought the pot for me in Uruguay. Pretty nice and very thoughtful.

Gotta say, having this little bit of gift giving on Christmas Day made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I miss home, I love the holidays! Hi mom and dad!!! And Spencer and Kerkie and Bubbles. Miss you and love you. 

The warm and fuzziness soon came to a halt. In hindsight, we should have cut our losses and slept at Paine Grande for the night. This would've been the smart and sane move. But because we had a schedule and we thought we were tough or something, we continued onwards. 

The rain got heavier and like I mentioned before, turned to snow. Everything was a mess. Mud everywhere, views were ruined, clothes were soaked, and we had no idea what lay ahead at Camp Italiano. Would it have a nice kitchen and dining area? Would we be warm and cuddly?

Dear readers, the answer is no. Camp Italiano was deep in the forest, and we had to cross a 2 person only suspension bridge to get to it. In the snow. There was no shelter, no kitchen, just forest full of free wet camping spots. I found a spot for my lil tent and put it up in the rain - I had no choice - and got in as quick as I could to survey the damage. The only things that stayed dry, thankfully, were my sleep outfit and sleeping bag. I got in, zipped up the mummy sack, and prayed for my life. The cold was unbearable and the rain wasn't letting up, the thoughts running through my head weren't pretty: if this happened somewhere near home, thus would be okay. We'd have a wet car ride the next day but nothing would be too bad. This was a whole new ballgame. Southern Chile, in the middle of a notoriously strenuous multiple day backpacking excursion with my fingers frozen numb and all my belongings soaked? I was reaching a breaking point. 

A few minutes after I'd accepted my fate of the end being near here, in Chile, Ron swung by to see if I wanted warmth in the boys tent. The thought of cuddling with anyone else to save my life never crossed my mind before this. I scampered over with my sleeping bag and the three of us fashioned a giant quilt to lay under. Not to be sappy, but these guys saved my life. Beyond getting semi warm, we stayed up for a while laughing and chatting. The day, weatherwise, was miserable but without the whole crew, it wouldn't have been possible. The positivity everyone kept throughout it all is pretty amazing. Thanks friends!! Seriously, I can't thank you enough. 

I don't think I slept though. I couldn't. My legs were too restless and being jammed between two strong, sturdy gentlemen didn't give me much space to stretch out. If I had to choose sleep or warmth, I'd choose warmth, though, note to self. Around some early hour (i don't have a watch and, oh yeah, my phone got totally obliterated in the rain, so at this point it was in a bag of rice) I left back to my tent to attempt some shut eye. I got maybe 2 hours in, and woke up to Ron, again, coming by to let me know that our plans had changed. Everyone was broken. Everyone was soaked. The rain never stopped all night. We were turning around. 

I've been waking up rather dizzily and disoriented the last two mornings, and also I was pretty sure if I continued on I wouldn't make it, so I agreed and got up. Packing the bag was fine. The moment I stood up, though, to take down the tent, I started getting very dizzy and I knew I was about to faint. I'm a pro at this feeling at this point. I sat down to relieve the spots from my eyes, which worked, until I got up again and the spots came back. I chugged water, to no avail, and this is where the Milky Way bar came in. 

I sat on a stump trying to eat it (keep in mind it's frozen) and of course that's when people look over and think it's all a funny scene. Which, okay yeah it probably was. But I was really just trying not to faint. Dane and Ron kinda figured out what was going on so they took care of the tent rolling up and putting away. I'm not sure why this was fainting bit was happening, other than I couldn't feel my hands, I probably hadn't drank enough water, the rain was still pouring and I hadn't really slept. Other than that everything was just fine! 

I came to and felt better and ran to a tiny lean to shelter to finish the packing. Then we were off. 

And of course, the rain stopped essentially the second we start. This didn't deter us from stopping though; our stuff was just too wet. Also Emily's ankle was messed up. We trudged through the mud (and beautiful sunlight!!) for about an hour, until I noticed Dane was dragging behind a bit. "He probably just wants some alone time" someone mentioned, which was totally true. But the W was also Dane's whole reason for this trip, it's HIS adventure. Turning around made him so sad, although he'd never tell us that.

One of us stopped for a minute to de-layer and we came to an agreement to gently nudge Dane into continuing the W. Once he popped out through the forest, along beautiful lake Nordic-sounding-name, we told him our thoughts and urged him not to stop. After some thought, he agreed, and so we divvied up supplies, swapped out his two person tent for my one person tent, and off he went. 

Not that a good friend leaving is ever a positive thing, but I was pretty happy to see him continue. He would've regretted it. The rest of us decided, after we departed, that we had to stay in the park. We'd go back to Camp Paine Grande, Gucci camp there, then take a ferry to a stop on the northern right side of the trail. From there we'd hike two hours to a camp, drop off our stuff, day hike to see the crown jewel of the park: The Torres, then day hike back, camp, then return to Puerto Natales. Odds of seeing Dane until we leave for Santiago at the Punta Arenas airport is slim, but we have hope!

That's the plan, as of now, which is 1:08 am on December 27. The rest of the day after leaving Dane, AD, was basically the most glorious, joyous, happy hike there ever was. Not because Dane wasn't there, of course. I think we were all just so happy there was a (sort of) end in sight, and we had a great plan to still basically do the W, just skipping a day of it. Plus, the weather was incredible: clear skies, no wind, kinda hot, and every mountain peak was totally visible. Ron has some cool GoPro time lapses I'll have to post later. 

We got back to camp after playing some tunes and dance hiking along. Our mood couldn't have been higher. We then reserved some already set up tents (really nice two person North Face tents, shout out to my tent buddy Ron), laid out our wet stuff to dry, got pizza for lunch, showered, and had beers at the bar in the lodge. Talking at the bar was relaxing and up to the speed of the four of us. I think we could do the whole W if we had breaks like this day mixed in. This is a vacation, after all! 

Campsite night 2: Patagucci!

The only poopy part of this part of the day was that my really nice REI hiking pants blew away :(. I had them laying on a picnic table, pinned down by pretty sturdy rocks, but the wind got to them nonetheless. Really hoping for some good weather from here on out, because those bad boys were so clutch in the rain. I'll miss them. 

Speaking of poop, we've been coming up with trail names. Cristel is Sockfoot, due to her only bringing hiking boots and walking around in her socks during downtime. I like this name, reminds me of Little Foot from the Land Before Time. Emily is Angel, due to her letting us use her satellite phone to call home, among other nice things she's done for us. Dane is Chief, no explanation needed. So far I don't think I have a name, mostly because I'm leading this cause, although I did accidentally mash-up "shepherd" and "herd" together to make "sherd" while having beers, so I was coined the Sherder. Not sure if that will catch on. Ron, drumroll please, is Poop Bandit (although he's given us gold for lots of options) due to an interesting childhood story of his. I won't relay it here due to his and his family's privacy, but now you know: He is the Poop Bandit. 

Buddies 

Alright I think I'm all caught up. I sincerely hope Dane is okay. I'm sure he's enjoying a bit of reflective introvert-time and owning the trail like the Chief he is. Goodnight world!!