By Kendall Muzzy of the University of Vermont
Last research trip officially in the books! For the past 3 days, we have been in the Tamango sector of Patagonia National Park collecting data for the Least Acceptable Change (LAC) research project. This project focuses on the impacts of recreational tourism on ecosystems. To collect data, we split into groups to cover all of the trails in the park sector, and took note of poor trail condition, infrastructure condition, the presence of waste sites, undesignated camp sites, and social trails, trail experiences (viewpoints, waterfalls, river crossings, etc.), indicator species and visitor satisfaction. Vicky, a Round River instructor, and I, held down the fort on research group 2 and collected data on three different trails.
We started our first day splitting into groups and headed off to get as much data collected as we could. Because Tamango is a part of the park that is visited more than others, we had to stop almost every 100m or so to take data. We lucked out on the weather and got to walk in the sun for the whole day. Fueled by tuna and surrounded by beautiful views, we made our way along 5.5km of trails. Eventually, Vicky and I finished up our route and met with Sam and Gemma to pitch tents and set up camp.
We made burrito bowls for dinner: Black beans, dried veggies, tomatoes, cheese, “chipotle” mayo, and rice. Perfect rice in the backcountry is no easy task, and somehow, we succeed without rinsing or measuring anything. The groups camping about a kilometer above us were apparently not so lucky and ended up with rice that was both really burnt and really undercooked at the same time. Under our tarp, we stayed out of the pouring rain while we finished dinner, ate our sweet treat of the day (we bring lots of chocolate and cookies when we backpack) and boiled water for hot Nalgenes.
After a chilly night we broke out of our frozen tents to a beautiful sunrise. We ate a classic backcountry breakfast of oats and mate before saying our goodbyes to the other group and heading back down our trail to keep on LACing.
Vicky and I walked for about 7km along Lago Cochrane until we reached the campsite we stayed on our very first backpacking trip and took our last data point of the year—WOOHOO!
For the second night we camped with Gemma, Sam, Emily, Garret, and Maria Paz. We made our famous Pink Sauce Pasta (Spaghetti with red sauce, cream and dried veggies) and everyone told stories about their past few days: lots of snow, frozen tent zippers, snores and “accidentally” stolen peanut butter jars. We all watched the full moon rise of Lago Cochrane and then went to bed shivering only a little bit.
The next morning, we all got picked up by a CONAF boat and headed back to base camp. Being back in Tamango was the perfect way to start the semester wrap up. It’s crazy that almost 3 months ago we were backpacking for the first time in the same place. Now, we hike through it with lots of miles under our belts and can (kind of) confidently name all the plants and animals we pass. Cheers to an awesome semester with the best group 🙂