A Cast at Riverbend
The boys head down to North Carolina for the weekend. The winding rivers nestled between the Blue Ridge mountains made for a beautiful backdrop. Dogs, good friends, and a cast at Riverbend.
Tag: brothers
Muddy Morning Coffee – July 11th
A weekend bolt down to the Blue Ridge mountains left us pretty worn out today, but holy crap was it worth it. Swimming pups, cold beer tucked in our waders, and the swishing of neon fly lines stayed fresh in our minds as we made our way back to Washington, DC late Sunday. It’s safe to say that we were left longing for more of those misty mountains.
River by day and whiskey by night. What a strict game plan.
A weekend bolt down to the Blue Ridge mountains left us pretty worn out today, but holy crap was it worth it. Swimming pups, cold beer tucked in our waders, and the swishing of neon fly lines stayed fresh in our minds as we made our way back to Washington, DC late Sunday. It’s safe to say that we were left longing for more of those misty mountains.
Here’s a little sneak peek!….Just be sure to check back later for a full write up:
A Cast at Riverbend
A Winter in Patagonia – Pt.2
At some point we had to poke around with our hiking poles just to find a rock to step on. What was originally a 2 hour trek turned into an all day ordeal. We ended up making the decision to climb Nieto which offered us an amazing view of the torres. It seems like guide-only trails offer the best seats in the house.
Warning: Long post…Lots of Pictures.
August 8th, 2014
8:15 AM Local Time
Hostel Maria Jose
The things that have happened in the last two days have been one part amazing and two parts crazy. There’s absolutely no one here in Puerto Natales to take us anywhere. It seems like getting to places requires you to pull a few teeth. It’s a miracle that we even got this far. We’ve been using the past few days to stage our gear and figure stuff out at this weird hostel on the eastern outskirts of town – The Maria Jose. So weird…it’s next to this cemetery and all the dogs congregate there at night. Josh and I will try and gather the last of our stuff and see if we can hitch a ride somehow to Torres Del Paine.
Gear shop:
Manuel Bulnes 497, Arturo Prat 297, Puerto Natales, Chile – Hopefully they are open.
August 9th, 2014
10:43 PM Local Time
Hostel Maria Jose
We got lucky. At a neighboring hostel, we were able to arrange a ride up to the park, it was pretty expensive, but it’s all they could do this time of the year. It wasn’t all bad because that’s where we met Captain Andy, Captain Smith, and Major Matt. Along with their gals, they were driving from Ushuaia to Alaska – all in a london taxi covered in faux Dalmatian fur. We spent the night drinking and talking about all the crazy stuff they’ve gotten into to reach this point. Tuk-tuk races across india, Mongolian rallies in a souped up bus, and this hilarious story of them paddling a Batman moon bounce. So awesome. We’ll need to wake up tomorrow at 4:00 AM to catch our ride out of town to Torres del Paine. Hopefully, we won’t be too tired…or hungover. I hope those British dudes get to where they need to go.
August 10th, 2014
8:13 AM
Guarderia Laguna Verda
We just made it to Torres Del Paine. Hanging out at the Guarderia Laguna Verde getting our things together. This morning we got up and met the bus driver…which ended up not being a bus, but some sort of passenger van from the 60s. It’s a miracle we even made it up here in the snow. I thought we would die with every turn and pothole we hit. We’re up here with some Russian chick we met this morning. It seems like she didn’t bring any gear and was going to rent it? Mmm…I don’t think she realized that nothing is open. Even the ranger told her they wouldn’t allow her to stay unless she had the necessary equipment. A Chilean guy going through offered to take her with him…God bless him because I don’t know what will happen to her if she doesn’t have a tent or sleeping bag at the least. Anyway, we’re going to start hiking into the hotel and start from there. Hopefully we can reach Camp Chileno by night fall. Supposedly a bad storm is coming in tonight…yikes.
August 10th, 2014
2:36 PM
Trail up to Refugio Chileno
It took us a lot longer to get to the hostel. The hostel is completely deserted for the winter. Everything is boarded up and nothing is open. It’s pretty nice. Absolutely no one to bother you. We just had a pack of Mountain House each and now we’re going to be making another 2.5 to 3 hour trek up to Refugio Chileno.
Personal note: This instant coffee we got taste like crap.
August 10th, 2014
11:00 PM
Refugio Chileno
So…we didn’t get too far today. I’m sitting here right now at Camp Chileno. We were on our way through when we met a guy named Victor. Awesome dude. He mans the refuge during the winter in case of emergencies or to provide shelter to people in the park in the event of bad weather. We were the latter…we were hiking through when we heard someone from behind us. “Psstttt!Chicos!” He waved us into the refugio that we thought had been closed for the winter. He then mentioned that a bad snowstorm was coming down the mountains and we would not be able to make it safely to the next camp…which wasn’t even open anyway.
Victor showed us around the refugio and told us we had been the only ones he’s seen in a couple of days. Must have been lonely. He prepared a lentil and chicken stew for us and we sat down together to enjoy a nice hot meal. Apparently, horses bring up around 100 pounds of food for him every week…so there was no such thing as rationing tonight. We feast.
August 11th, 2014
Not sure what time it is…
Refugio Chileno
Woke up this morning a little sore. I think we’ll be eating breakfast and heading out to climb up to the mirador. It’s colder than hell in here. I need some coffee.
August 12th, 2014
10:35 PM Local Time
Refugio Chileno
The past two days have been great. Victor really saved our butts by making us stay in the refugio. The snow on the trails this morning was above our waistline. The trail markers were buried deep under the snow. At some point we had to poke around with our hiking poles just to find a rock to step on. What was originally a 2 hour trek turned into an all day ordeal. We ended up making the decision to climb Nieto which offered us an amazing view of the torres. It seems like guide-only trails offer the best seats in the house. On our way down we met a guide bringing two Canadian women up the trails and none other than the man who took in the Russian chick.They had given up and headed back to the refugio. I almost forgot to mention…once we got back to the refugio the Chilean man told us that “The russian girl didn’t make it…” Holy crap. I couldn’t believe it. I guess the Patagonian winters here are no joke.
We’ve been sitting by the fire for most of the day. Victor introduced us to an herbal tea called Mate, which we happily passed around like a peace pipe while sharing stories. We’ve been conversing with Victor for the past few nights on many topics. Materialism, global politics, melting glaciers, and even women. It seems like humans have many things in common and share a great interconnection…regardless of their place on Earth and their nationalities. We were definitely on the same page with him. It seems like broken Spanish and a little Spanish-English dictionary goes quite far around a fireplace. Victor told us that he will come visit us once he gets off the mountain and we’ll go grab a drink. What a dude…
We’ll be leaving early tomorrow morning.
August 14th, 2014
9:15 AM Local Time
Steps of Guarderia Laguna Verde
Well…we’ve been stuck at the park since we left the refugio to hike down to meet our ride. There seems to have been a miscommunication with us, the rangers that Victor radioed, the hostel, and then the bus driver. We’ve waited two days….still nothing. We had hiked down to the hostel with two MIT kids that were doing a day visit. It seems like they needed to get off the mountains too. A couple of construction workers took pity on us and let us stay in their huts for a night after reports of cougars coming down from the mountains. The bunks were a little cramped and damp, but we were just glad to have a roof over our heads that night.
We did, however, get to go see Lago Nordenskold which was absolutely amazing. Not sure if I would want to spend another night out in the tent with the cougars though….After another frustrating night of waiting for the bus driver…who never showed…again. We decided to hike back out to the ranger station – which is where I’m sitting now. Breakfast and coffee on the steps as the sun rises…I guess life isn’t too bad right about now. After I’m done eating…we should probably find a way back into town….
Muddy Morning Coffee – June 22nd
The summer is in full swing now and we are all out and about! We’ve been blessed these last few days with amazing weather. We’ve got a couple of awesome post in the pipeline and we hope you are excited as we are!
The summer is in full swing now and we are all out and about! We’ve been blessed these last few days with amazing weather here in Washington, DC and I’m not complaining. We’ve got a couple of awesome post in the pipeline and we hope you are excited as we are!
- A Winter in Patagonia -Pt.2
- Gear Review: Gerber Suspension Multi-tool
- Top 10 Reasons to Use a Digital Watch for Hunting
These post should come online during the next couple of weeks – so stay posted!
Here’s a little sneak peek of A Winter in Patagonia Pt.2!
A Winter in Patagonia – Pt.1
However, we quickly ran into a problem, we were going in July – the Patagonian winter.While July meant swampy heat and humidity for Washington, it was the exact opposite for Chile & Argentina. High winds, snow, freezing temperatures, and the hibernation of the tourist infrastructure made for a difficult problem.
The ground rumbled as I watched the planes take off from the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The air was hot outside and the planes seemed to be floating in a sea of heat waves coming off the runway. It seemed like every airline at the terminal was rushing to get into the sky before nightfall. The sound of rolling luggage, taxiing airplanes, and the buzz of airline employees jetting back and forth on the tarmac – it all made me smile. In about 32 hours, well away from the stresses of everyday life, I would be 6,368 miles away in the farthest reaches of the modern world – Patagonia.
Patagonia is a sparsely populated region in Chile and Argentina known for it’s exotic flora, fauna, and vast natural beauty. It is highly regarded as South America’s southern frontier. A year ago, I read a description given by The Lonely Planet:
On South America’s southern frontier, nature grows wild, barren and beautiful. Spaces are large, as are the silences that fill them. For the newly arrived, such emptiness can be as impressive as the sight of Patagonia’s jagged peaks, pristine rivers and dusty backwater oases. In its enormous scale, Patagonia offers an innumerable wealth of potential experiences and landscapes.
The idea of a frontier at the tip of the Earth drew me in and I became obsessed with the idea of seeing the beauties that few could speak of in person. The remoteness, the spiraling mountains, the never-ending plains, and the wild horses. It seemed so vast to me, like Alaska, Montana, Canada, and New Zealand collided together and created Patagonia. I was definitely hooked.
Our obsession with this expedition started after a trip on the Appalachian Trail had fallen through for my buddy, Josh. Demoralized after finding out he would not be able to hike the AT, we started brainstorming different ideas of a comparable trip. After about an hour of doing so, we turned on Netflix and were halfway through 180 Degrees South when the idea popped into our heads. Watching the landscapes unfold on the screen and listening to the way people lived our their lives down there, we decided that Patagonia would definitely be our destination.
We used the next year to gather gear,information, maps, and scoured the internet for points of interest. However, we quickly ran into a problem, we were going in July – the Patagonian winter.While July meant swampy heat and humidity for Washington, it was the exact opposite for Chile & Argentina. High winds, snow, freezing temperatures, and the hibernation of the tourist infrastructure made for a difficult problem.
So we decided not to try and solve it…
This decision made everything slightly more complicated, but for some reason seemed right to us. Not having any plans or any sort of itinerary gave us the freedom of going down there and actually exploring, living, and learning what the country and region was all about.The plan down there was to have no plans aside from booking our flights.
Our flight itinerary gave us a hefty amount of airtime. 4 flights – DC to Miami, Miami to Santiago, Santiago to Puerto Montt, and Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas. That was 6,368 miles and two days of traveling – hopefully we’d still be awake by the time we got there. As each flight progressed, we watched as the layovers got longer and the people dressed warmer. We had gone from shorts and a T-shirt to winter pants and a jacket in less than 24 hours.
It was late into the night as our last flight skidded into the landing strip at Punta Arenas. The handful of passengers left on the connecting flight seemed relieved that we finally arrived. The airport was completely deserted for the night, only a security guard and a janitor had remained.
A three hour bus ride later from the airport, we made it to the sleepy town of Puerto Natales. It had been snowing for a good chunk of the evening and the streets were empty as the snow piled onto the ground. Josh and I managed to hitch a ride with a local (who absolutely loved mariachi music) to a hostel on the outer part of town. It seemed like no one was open aside from them. Nevertheless, we managed to get a room for the night and settled down pretty quickly. After about two days of travel, we were just glad to have a bed to sleep in.
The next morning and afternoon were spent gathering supplies, staging our gear, and exploring Puerto Natales. Since the town had gone into hibernation for the winter, we did not have to beat any crowds, the locals were not annoyed, and we had all the time in the world to take pictures.
Our journey of getting down to Patagonia had ended and we were now well on our way to starting the real one. I did not have any expectations nor any idea of what we were going to do or what Patagonia had in store for us and I was perfectly okay with that. Walking around Puerto Natales, I decided I would leave the next month in her hands and that was the beauty of it.
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