Aviles Adventure

Feb 28, 2013

By Mike Howe (Gustavus Adolphus College)

Wow! We just returned from our five day backpacking trip on the Aviles Trail. The trail certainly lived up to its hype! On our first day, we departed from what is known as the “stone house” and hiked for about six hours to an old puesto. Our hike included crossing over a narrow bridge spanning the raging Aviles river, beautiful views of distant waterfalls pouring from the mountains on either side of the valley, and a multitude of small stream crossings. We had awesome hiking weather; fifty degrees and sprinkling on and off. The weather was not so good for setting up tents though! Right when we stopped at the puesto to camp the rain started to come down in earnest. Luckily, we had the puesto to shelter in for making dinner and drying off.

Hiking up the Aviles Valley

The second day of our trip started rather early and with rain sprinkling. Very early into the hike we reached our first obstacle: a river too wide to jump over. We ended up taking off our boots and fording it with our water shoes. At this point, we lost the trail for some time and ended up having to fight our way through dense forest and found ourselves in a bog! The bog was quite dry though so it was quite painless. When we found the trail again, the trail wound through a beautiful lenga forest covered in Old Man’s Beard. After a few hours of hiking, we came to our Aviles crossing. The river at this point was perhaps 5 meters across and the water came up to our knees (higher for the shorter people). Right after our crossing we had lunch by the banks of the Aviles, but quickly retreated into the nearby forest to escape the oncoming rain.

The group braves another icy Aviles river crossing

Once we resumed our hike, we crossed through more lenga forest which swiftly took on a mystical air as the rain enhanced the deep green of the forest. The next few hours of hiking consisted of switching back and forth between lenga forest and rocky floodplain. We flew through this area because it was quite flat with very little elevation change. Once we reached an old campsite in the forest, the trail changed dramatically and kicked upward. We continued hiking through lenga forest but left the comfort of the Aviles river behind. After about two hours of hiking on a rolling trail which certainly seemed to rise much more than fall, we reached the end of the trail. What an awesome sight we beheld! We were greeted by a massive ridge covered in a glacier with the top obscured by clouds. We had left the Aviles river valley and Valle Chacabuco behind and entered Reserva Jeinimeni. We stopped for a quick break to put on our water shoes for the real river fording experience. Our goal was to hike along the braided river to camp by the shores of Lago Verde. As we were putting our water shoes on we were greeted with an amazing surprise. The sun! After a dreary cloudy day, the sun was finally forcing its way through. The clouds abated rather quickly and we were treated to a view of the mountains clear of clouds, bathed in sunlight. It was awesome! We continued on our hike, fording Rio Maitenous frequently (>20 crossings total). We hiked for about an hour along the river frequently stopping to pick maiten and calafate berries and were surprised to find an old puesto about a mile away from Lago Verde. We decided to camp by the puesto instead of the lake and were able to have our first fire in weeks! It was great to be able to dry off our saturated boots and hang our rain jackets up. Right before dinner we were even treated to a rainbow arcing through the valley!

On the third day we woke to a valley covered in dense fog. We were dreading another day full of dreary rain. Instead we treated to a beautiful morning with the for lifting as the sun rose above the mountains. It was gorgeous! The sun was warm and very welcome! The morning was mostly free and I read, while others drank Maté in the puesto or laid out in the sun. After lunch we rallied for a hike to Lago Verde. What a beautiful lake! The water was a tropical green color, brilliant in the sunlight. A few of us (myself included), went for a swim in the frigid water. It was so cold! After laying in the sun for a few minutes, a group of us decided to continue hiking. We saw a cave on top of ridge that seemed like it could be an interesting hike. We were surprised to find a trail that ran along the side of the hill and brought us quite close to the cave! The hike was only about an hour, but we gained over a thousand feet in elevation! We left the trail on top of the ridge and climbed a scree slope to the small cave. It was really cool! After that, we hiked along the back of the rocky mass and found the summit! It awarded us with a spectacular view of the valley. Our hike back down was rather uneventful and we reached camp at around 6. The rest of the day we hung out in the puesto with a nice fire.

Our fourth and fifth days were rather uneventful compared to the first three as we were simply traveling back home. On the morning of the fourth day we traversed a swamp which was a very interesting experience! At some points the water in the swamp went well past our knees! It was one of those random happenings that make this program continually interesting! Soon after crossing the swamp, we hiked back to the beginning of the Aviles trail and traveled back to the puesto we stayed at the first night. The journey back, while pretty, was quite uneventful. On the fifth day, we got off to an early start and hurried back to the trailhead. We reached it by 1:00, and were back home in West Winds by 2:00. After backpacking for five days, we were quite tired and treated ourselves to a enormous lunch. The trip was great! I’m excited to see what other awesome opportunities we get!!

(Photos by Iris)