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| Glaciar Grey |
Slept late today, must have been relaxed
after getting the crux of the trip over. Finished up the last breakfast stuff,
bran buds cereal and boiled egg, we started out with 6 eggs, split one all mornings
but 1.
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| Cool Ladders |
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| Los Guardas Camp Toilet |
Mostly downhill to Los Guardas camp, but just as 'rugged' as yesterday. There are ladders to assist in traversing 2 gorges, one is easily bypassed. The other ladder is very helpful and fun to use, Elaine exorcised another fear downclimbing this one.
Los Guardas camp, about 4.5 kms from Paso,
is a similar parque operated facility(free) maybe a few less sites. Same toilet
system, this one a little better as door isn't damaged and actually could be
closed. The camp was unoccupied when we passed through. A short side trail leads to a fine view point
of Glaciar Grey.
The rest of trail leading from Los Guardas
to Refugio Grey is very good trail, it is clear we are getting back into a more
traveled area... The trail even has signs of improvement happening, a suspension
bridge was partially constructed not too far up from the refugio. Presumably a
lot more water flows earlier in year as gorge was easily crossed without bridge,
or maybe customers this close to the refugio demand a higher level of
infrastructure? Hopefully this expensive capital project will have ongoing
operating resources assigned. |
| Fire Fighters return from a long day |
We arrive at Refugio Grey after 4.5 hours,
GPS shows total of 7.6 kms from Paso. Here we see the first signs of the fire,
it came close with nearby patches of burned grass and a few trees that had been
cut down looked to be slightly burnt. Fire fighters were still around working
on remaining underground hot spots. The Refugio is very new, I understand, completed
in 2011. A
well built facility with rooms and dining as well as camping support building
with showers, store(well stocked) and cooking/hanging out area. We get a camp
site and, Elaine heads for the shower, while I am setting up camp, a spanish gentleman stops to ask directions, he has no english and me no espanol.. a short nonsensical and apparently unsatisfying discussion ensued, the highlight being when he plucked a rather large black Arana (spider) from my eyebrow and placed it on the tent guy string, I thanked him and he left to seek out more useful help... Elaine has a delightful warm shower as do the
Irish guy and his American hiking companion, when my turn comes around, i get a
little bit of warm water, then it runs cold, but still great to hose off the
trail dust etc, just didn't feel the need to linger....
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| Refugio Grey Lobby |
Well I am in shower Elaine books us a
dinner reservation for the early sitting, I am happy at the thought of carrying
the tuna and couscous another day. We enjoy a couple cerveza Austral in the
common area and chat with the Irish and American guys. They are machines,
having done in last 2 days what we did in 4 days, good to be young and fit....
They regaled us with tales of fog, fearsome wind from Perros to the Paso with deep
snow at the Paso.... We were happy we had been there the day before.
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| Refugio Grey |
Somehow we decide that we should get a room at the refugio (maybe I should have kept the spider story to myself)... Seems the refugio only reopened a day or 2 before....lots of good reasons not to camp, wind, rain, spiders, leaking DAM... I go and pack up tent, I give the camping tag to an Israeli who stops to chat, another Israeli takes the prime site we had occupied. $7000cl well wasted....
The room is $30000cl, bunk beds, but out of
the wind....and we got a 4 bunk room to ourselves.... Woohoo...
We head to the dining area at 7:00, the
table is set for 2.... We enjoy a family of 4 portion of smashed potatoes and chicken
breast each, shouldn't have filled up on the bread.... It was delicious... They
set the table for the late dinner sitting, it is for 8 , but all turn out to be
staff... We find out that, including us, there are only 4 people staying at refugio tonight...
the fire has been bad for business...
We enjoy a mini bottle of wine and enjoy
the rest in a firm bed that does not deflate....
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