The Greater Patagonian Trail Section 08, Volcan Chillian, 23-26/12 2025

An Introduction to the Greater Patagonian Trail (GPT) can be found HERE.

23 December — Tuesday

Having spent one day in San Fabian resupplying and resting from my adventures on GPT 06 and 07, I’m now more than ready to embark on another GPT adventure, GPT 08.

I walked to the main road going through San Fabian, sat down and raised my thumb trying to hitchhike back to Los Sauce. Several people stopped but everyone was only going a few kilometers out of San Fabian. After about 3 hours an elderly gentleman stopped, and said he was going about half-way to Los Sauce. I joined him to reduce the number of false alarms. 

However,  shortly after I struck gold. After hitchhiking with the elderly gentleman, I only had to wait about 10 minutes until two very nice guys, Mattias and Joseph, stopped to give me a ride. Not only were they going all the way to Los Sauce, they were actually continuing onto the initial dirt road of GPT 08, which is a bit of a transport section, a very scenic and nice transport section, but also a horsefly highway, to visit the Salto Los Minos waterfall. It was the first time I got to ride in a proper 4×4 pickup truck on some really shity roads. What a blast. 

Saying farewell to Mattias and Joseph, I continue hiking on the dirt road — I have about 2 kilometers to go before connecting to the trail. Walking on the road I immediately walk into a locked gate, clearly saying that entering is forbidden. Luckily, I’m a good climber.

 I continue walking, climb yet another gate and then connect to the trail, where I immediately have to ford a river that is about waist deep, but it is not rapid and therefore not overly difficult to pass. 

After fording, the very long uphill climb starts. Initially I walk in a forest, which transitions into grassland and bushes, and then rock fields to finally transition to volcanic sand and stone. While walking I have a bit of a jump scare, as I make a turn in the dense forest, ten cows, only about 10 meters away, are coming down the trail in full speed towards me, I throw myself to the side behind a large tree, however, as the cows spot me they come to a full stop, turn, and run back the other way. Cowards!

The volcanic landscape might be tough on the equipment, and the on the body, but it is oh so beautiful. I can walk in this for days, every view is another screensaver picture. I got some really great views of Volcan Chillian. 

As I summit the 2400 meter pass, the long ascent is finished, climb completed. I make my way down a small valley that to my delight has a hot spring or perhaps I should say hot river. Basically, there is one stream coming out the ground that is scolding hot but it connects with a cold water stream, and where they meet it is a perfect 38 degrees (guessing). I decided that I just must stay here, so I found a flat piece of grass, pitched my tent, and then went skinny dipping for half an hour. Absolute perfect day. The weather on the horizon looks a bit ominous, but my GPS says sunny days are ahead, and so far it has been right eleven out of eleven days. 

I have more or less concluded from today that it is my hiking pants that give me rashes. For bushwhacking and bad weather, I require them, other than that I will try to limit my use of them. Shorts for the win. 

24 December — Wednesday

Merry Christmas! Or not really actually. In Chile they celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December. But back home in Sweden it is Christmas time. 

The GPS weather forecast once again held true, no rain during the night and the sky is clear and sunny as I awake. 

I start the day by making my way down on the sandy slopes covered by small trees or big bushes, unsure what is which. As I descend the trail changes character and starts reminding me somewhat of the Pyrenees. On the downhill I take a bad fall and scrape my right knee pretty badly, but it does not hurt to walk, yet, only much blood. Some battle scars are to be expected. 

I continue walking in this low land bush/tree forest, up and down, constantly meeting cows. I have another jumpscare with a cow going full speed on the trail, stopping only half a meter away from me, at which it turns and and runs full speed the other way. Death by speeding cows would have been some way to go. I walk all the way to Camping Los Peucos, which is a CONAF operated campsite with several hot springs. I was hoping to find the campsite abandoned and take my own private bath. However, they were clearly in the process of preparing the campsite. I could not find a single person, but there was a car, the sprinkler system was on, and several lights and other power sources were engaged. Considering, there were several signs saying it was prohibited to bathe in the hot springs when the campsite is closed, and since my previous encounters with CONAF have not been productive, I decided to not try my luck. I ate my lunch, left some trash and hiked onwards. 

After the campsite there is a stretch of minor road walking, at which I take short-cut trusting that some animal tracks will lead me back to the road, which they did! Always nice when plans workout. 

Feeling full of energy I kept hiking until nightfall, a bit late to my liking but the trail was very overgrown for 5 kilometers, significantly slowing me down. I walked the last two 2 kilometers in a magnificent forest, before coming out onto open landscape. Since the sun is setting, I’m forced to accept a pretty bad campsite, bad in the sense as it is very dusty which makes the tent dirty. 

It was a long day today, 50 kilometers walked. My shoes and socks are completely breaking apart, but otherwise everything is good. 

I actually spotted one person from afar today, it is reassuring to know that I’m not completely alone. 

25 December — Thursday

Merry Christmas! To the folks in Chile. The day, however, was not so merry for me. Mostly the day can be summarized as horseflies! From start to finish, I’m harassed by these godforsaken creatures. The little solace I can find is that I killed hundreds. 

As the morning sun heats the tent I pack up and get going, feeling good despite the long day yesterday.

I continue along the GPT regular route until I reach the large Laja lake. From here I have planned to take an alternative route, essentially following the eastern side of the lake to the southern end. On the map (Gaia GPS) it says that the first 10 kilometers are on a road. I’m skeptical, but assumed there at least would be some easy path to follow. There was not, instead it was a long walk on slopes of loose stones, while constantly being swarmed and eaten alive by the horse flies. I was hoping to take a bath, in fact I was hoping to take several baths, but the thought of stripping down naked while being swarmed by horse flies did not appeal to me. 

After about 15 kilometers of walking on loose stone, there actually are diffuse animal paths I can follow. From here, the route makes a steep and long climb up the 2200 meters. At the moment, I was actually looking forward to the exhausting sandy climb as I imagined there would be fewer horse flies at the top. But I was oh so wrong, there is only rock and sand at the top, nothing lives there except swarms of horseflies. There is no escape. 

After summiting, I have two options: follow the ridge line or descend into a valley. Given that I was out of water I chose the second option. I thought I would be doing 12 kilometers of bushwhacking, but it is a pretty decent path and after about 6 kilometers a road emerges. Shortly after I pass a small puesto, that answers the question why there is a road here. Having walked most of the day in extremely exhausting terrain it feels good to stretch my legs a bit, at least it does initially. 

Today also became a very long day. As the sun is setting I’m still hiking on the road feeling good and strong, despite two long hard days, until I suddenly do not. Out of nowhere both my quads start cramping and not long after my hamstrings and groin joins the party. I have never experienced anything like this before and are unsure what I should do about it. Being completely alone in the wilderness, I have not seen a single person today, is not a comfort right now. 

Given that there is no chance for me to pitch my tent where I’m currently standing, I continue walking/crawling in some sort of weird crunched down position leaning heavily on my hiking poles. It takes me one hour to cover 2 kilometers on the road. I then finally found an acceptable camp spot, made my worst tent pitch ever, fingers crossed for easy winds tonight, and tried eating some sugar (honey) salt and plenty of water to see if it might help. It had no short term immediate effect. After one hour of laying down resting, I still have mild cramps in both legs. 

Tomorrow I still have quite some difficult terrain ahead of me, I’m hoping a good night’s sleep will do wonders. But the question remains, what should I do? I do not want to make an exit, but I feel it would be the “smartest” move given my current state. I might add that my shoes are also completely falling apart.  Basically a disaster waiting to happen, hiking this terrain without shoes would be difficult. Even if I decide to exit, it is doubtful I will make it to an exit point tomorrow. I will have to see how it feels tomorrow. Now it is time to sleep now and whimper in pain.  It sure would have been nice not being alone right about now.

This is the only day I have not enjoyed the GPT so far, not so much because of the cramp, mostly because of the worst horsefly situation I have ever experienced. They bite through my clothes, and putting on more clothes I will be fried in this heat. But I also know that when I look back at this day, all I will remember is the fantastic views, somehow I will have forgotten all about the horseflies.

26 December — Friday

I awoke feeling like absolute crap, my legs hurt and I’m extremely nauseous and low on energy. Basically, I’m sick. I laid in the tent resting until it got too warm by the blazing sun, which was not particularly long, prepared mentally for the onslaught of horse flies, packed up and started hiking. Not much else I can do.

I’m not hiking with much pace or grace, but I’m making progress. After a bit more than 20 kilometers the trail will pass by the Q-45 road where I have the opportunity to hitchhike. I can see the road while walking, it is on the other side of the lake, and it looks moderately trafficked. However, 20 kilometers is a long walk in my current state.

Luckily, after a couple of hours walking I start to feel gradually better, and to my delight, the horse flies are simply gone. Throughout the whole day, only one horse fly bothered me and I managed to smash that bastard within a few seconds. Instead today is a very windy and dusty day. I’m coughing and snorting dust all afternoon, and the evening is spent cleaning my ears from piles of dust. I do not require any sunscreen today, with all the dust I have natural protection. Due to my many extra ventilation holes in my shoes, I’m also constantly walking in sand filled shoes. 

After some painful and exhausting hours of hiking I connect to GPT Section 09 and thereby my GPT 08 adventure is over. Ignoring the horse flies and my minor physical setback — which I soon have forgotten all about — it was an amazing section. The only part I’m a bit pissed about is that I took this much more difficult option, instead of the regular route, partly to bathe in the lake. Given the horseflies yesterday and my state today, I never got the opportunity to take a bath, such a waste. 

You will have to wait for my next post to read about the continuation of the day. Will I break when reaching route Q-45 or soldier on and continue onto GPT 09?

My Route With Campsites