Trekking: Horcon de Piedra

A couple of weeks ago I bumped into my friend B. at the institute and she was kind enough to invite me along on the the next adventure of a local trekking group that she had discovered in Santiago. One of the disadvantages of not having a car here is the fact that you're a bit limited in terms of visiting some of the beautiful areas within about 40 minutes of the city that are pretty inaccessible using public transportation. Fortunately, this group meets at the metro, all of the participants hop into the cars of whoever is willing to drive, and everyone pitches in for gas at the end.
I wasn't sure exactly where we were going, and as you've probably noticed from some of my pictures, there is quite a varied terrain here in Chile, so I was a little relieved when I discovered that we were heading south of the city to climb a cerro at a private natural reserve called Altos de Cantillana and not straight up into the Andes somewhere. This particular area has an impressive view of the Cordillera de la Costa, a coastal range that runs parallel to the Andes.
The last time I attempted a full day trek was last winter and it resulted in quite an adventure. I'd like to say that this latest attempt wasn't as action packed, but I'd be lying if I said that we didn't get lost, have to climb over locked gates, discover a bunch of beehive boxes, or stumble upon a rather threatening looking cow/bull that didn't appear to be tied up.
If you don't believe me, ask the group who returned yesterday to hike a different area of the same reserve and was this time accompanied by a park ranger sort of fellow. Unfortunately, I now have to work on Saturdays again so I'm not sure when my next trek with this group will be. At any rate, here are some photos of the beautiful parts of the adventure, and sadly enough, I was too fearful to stop and capture all of the hazards mentioned above.

still looking pretty horizontal at this point

this is why we needed to bring 2 liters of water

am I back in Arizona?

pretty cool shadows from the clouds

check out the range behind those clouds

now we're up pretty high

I'm guessing this is a really old cactus

Less Isn't Always More

Living in a city without a car means whatever you want to take with you must be carried around, sometimes for the whole day. I have really tried to minimize the load in my book bag and only take exactly what I need for each class. At home I always considered myself to be extra prepared for everything, with one of everything carefully reserved in my car "just in case." I always say that I owe this learned preparedness to my 8 years of coaching Track and Field in the Midwest.  Weather forecasts mean nothing, and if it rains all day always have an extra pair of socks and a big trash bag to keep your belongings in!
Unfortunately, this concept should not be applied to hiking trips in the mountains of Chile, especially not in September. I believe when I requested weather and packing information from my friend Struan, his exact words were, "Don't go arctic..."

Really?

Struan did tell us to pack for wind and rain, so I was prepared with my lovely Patagonia H2no jacket and he was kind enough to lend me his spare pair of wool socks.  You can also click here to read his take on things..:)
Our adventure began with a plan to head all the way up to Banos Morales, the furthest point you can reach in the Cajon de Maipo river valley area, and it's also an easy and convenient way to get near the Andes on a bus from Santiago.

Some Argentinos singing away to the guitar on the bus

Heading into the park, we were advised to only go as far as the Aguas Panimavidas due to deteriorating weather conditions

Still enough rocks in this area to make it appear like a hike

Now this is why I came to Chile...

In case we weren't sure what we were doing here

I think this is when we knew the "hike" was over

The Aguas, or that little muddy blob of water that you see in the background

Our "picnic" lunch and when we realized that we needed to get down to lower ground before we all got frostbite!

Check out these before and after shots, thank goodness for this place, the Residencial Los Chicos Malos and their awesome chocolate and the estufa that saved our lives. I'm not sure how much she appreciated us taking off our hiking shoes and laying them out to dry on the estufa, but Scott and I did help clear some lunch dishes to help her out.

Before the hike

And after...

And in case you couldn't tell how much it was actually snowing, here is one more shot from the bus ride home

So the moral of the story is, when you are worried about carrying around a heavy backpack all day, remember that extra socks and gloves do not a heavy backpack make! Thank you friends for a memorable adventure, and I look forward to our return in early November for a hike all the way to the glacier!