we were thinking since the night before we fell asleep to clear skies and woke up to rain, that it would only make sense falling to sleep to rain last night would mean waking up to clear skies. no such luck... in fact, the rain had somehow managed to pick up overnight and the wind was unbelievable. neither of us slept well, the gusts kept waking us and I was sure the tent would be torn to shreds around us by morning. but somehow, when we woke in the morning, not only was the tent on one piece, but we were almost completely dry inside (to both our amazement and that of fellow campers - we keep seeing this couple with heavy accents on the trail and at campsites and they remarked when we saw them later that day that couldn't believe a tent that appears so thin could withstand those weather conditions - oh but it did! like a pro!)...
tired of the rain we sought shelter in the cooking shack and made breakfast, hoping the wet and wind would pass. nope.
so we packed up the tent, our clothes we had left out in hopes of drying them, and the nearly-empty food bags along with everything else - all quite damp, which really adds to the weight. but as we started our long day to campamento torres the skies cleared and aside from the occasional light sprinkle we had a sunshiny day, that dried everything out far more than we had expected base on our rainy morning.
we left the mountains behind for a while as we hiked along grey green lakes backed by grassy rolling hills. and maybe you've pieced together from the sprinkly sunny day I just described, but boy were we entertained by vivid rainbows all day!! we were also... I don't know if entertained is the correct word... kept on our toes? by the wind.
the wind here is everything we expected based on the stories and then some. we had a tailwind for most of the morning, which literally feels like Patagonia is giving you a boost, especially up hills. but it can change direction in a second and it is hard to compensate with such weight on your back, so there was a time or two I was pushed right off the trail. I did have one incident where a particularly strong gust shoved me toward the steep downhill to the right of the trail. my foot stepped instinctively to the right to stop me from tipping over but there was no ground there and a second later I was seated, poles strewn about and one leg dangling over the edge with Pete holding to my pack for dear life.
the reason the wind is extra peculiar here is partially because of the directions it blows. one moment you are being thrashed from the left and the next it is slamming into you from the right. the other odd thing is that it comes in these wildly powerful gusts that sneak up on you. it may be totally calm when you hear the trees rustling in the distance and as that noise gets closer and louder you brace and it overtakes you, forcing your steps and swirling your hair and beating cold against exploded skin and deafening to your ears until 36 seconds later the gust passes and it is quiet and calm and peaceful and you almost wonder if you just hallucinated the whole event. but then it happens again and you realize, it's just Patagonia.
the wind was pretty much with us all day: when we stopped to rest on a beach all colors of tropical but far too cold to pass for hawaii. during a break we took for a photo op of the two of us, where the wind thought it funny to gust so hard we dominoed over, powerless against the weight of our packs (and right onto a thorny bush I might add - that was fun). and as we made our way up the valley to the campsite, where steep rock cliffs without railings (sorry mom) made it particularly interesting when the wind would blow so hard I was certain Patagonia was trying to do away with us. but turns out we've picked up enough trash that isn't ours here, and so Patagonia decided we were worth sparing.
we made it to our destination 9 hours later (who knows how many km/miles - turns out the map can be unreliable as distances go and we did take a shortcut that I believe saved us a considerable amount of time).
it is crazy the different environments we passed through. we started at the base of mountains in the forest then moved to rolling rocky hills then to grassy fields and up steep cliffs back into a forest. felt like 5 different worlds in one day.
we were short on snacks having only a few almonds and some dehydrated bananas for the day. fortunately that morning we had been gifted 4 bread rolls that made for quick carbs to get us through til our later dinner. Patagonia really pulls through when we're in need.
dinner was our only dehydrated camping meal we had purchased from rei for this trip - mexican rice beans and chicken, which was soooo good!! for an appetizer. too bad that is all the food we had, so we proceeded to drink cups of tea until we felt full, which isn't necessarily the best idea right before bed when you barricade yourself in a tent at night...
our campsite was arguably our favorite of the trip (except on each given night we might say that about each campsite :) ...in was in this incredible forest right below the towers on the wall of this valley and just gorgeous. our tent was set between the gnarled trees in the soft dirt. and thank goodness after last night it was dry and breezy, meaning that everything dried out quickly as we set up camp for the night. we asleep as the moonlight danced between the branches and lit up our tent, so bright it almost seemed like daylight. an almost full moon on a clear night! we prayed for good weather the next morning, when we would hike up to the towers in the dark to watch the sun rise. :) sleep time!!
No comments:
Post a Comment