The Greater Patagonian Trail Section 07, Laguna Dial, 17-22/12 2025

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

17 December — Wednesday

Having stayed the night at a cabana after finishing GPT 06 the day before, my literal batteries are recharged — or almost, takes forever to recharge a power bank — I’m newly shaven and showered, and I’m more than ready to start my GPT 07 adventure.

My GPT 07 adventure started with me walking from my accommodation to the main road where I hitchhiked to Laguna del Maule. I only hade to wait about 5 minutes before a pick-up truck with 4 water company employees pulled over, made room, and drove me to Refugio para el Errante. From there I hiked about 6 kilometers on the road to the Laguna del Dial, where I connected to one of the optional routes of GPT 07. Good views all around, reminds me a bit of northern Sweden, and if that is the case, this will be a good one.

Right before the Laguna, Chile has their border control. Even if only visiting the Laguna, and thereby staying within Chile, the sign says you have to check-in. As a hiker I apparently did not have to leave any personal information. However, the border control officer said that I had to come back the same way and could not bring food with me when entering Chile again.

Since I did not have to provide any personal information, and I knew I would vanish into the mountains I just said “yes” and proceeded with my hike. It was unnecessary going to the border office in the first place, but I was curious. 

I hiked along the Laguna for a while, before cutting across the sandy mountains to connect to a diffuse not so travelled single-track trail that takes me Laguna sin Puerto before descending into a lovely valley that I followed for the rest of the day. The valley will eventually lead me to the small town Carrizales.

The valley hiking is a combination of rock, grass, and sand. The trail is poorly maintained, as most of the GPT it is not exactly a trail, but sporadic patches of diffuse cattle tracks. Eventually the trail takes me to a small puesto, that at the time was empty, from there a small, and sandy, dirt track runs all the way to Carrizales.

I found a nice little cave, with nearby water, to cook my food in and evade the scorching sun. Lunch consisted of quinoa, tuna, eggs and olive oil. It tasted much better than it sounds. 

I continued hiking for a while and met several horse rider that was in the process of herding their cattle up the valley. It is a sight to behold, such craftsmanship.

I eventually found a nice flat piece of grass to pitch my tent for the night. Tomorrow I have about 10 kilometers to go to Carrizales.

A good day but scolding hot. What is this a heatwave? And I thought the mountains would be cold. I can’t complain tough, it is always nice with sunny and clear skies.

18 December — Thursday

What a night. I sleepy with the outer tent slightly open to reduce condensation, and when I woke around 3 am I could see the Milky Way. I have never experienced such a bright night sky before. Incredible! The foto is basically exactly a copy of what I saw with my own eyes.

I thought it would be an easy stroll down to Carrizales along the dirt road, that turned out to be false. They were in the busy process of moving cows up the valley all morning. Without exaggeration, I must have meet about a thousand cows. Turns out that the cows are proper cowards. To not be in the way of the herders, I mostly walked 50-100 meters at the side of the road, in the sand, and bushes, and rock fields, well you get it.

When finally In Carrizales I checked in with the Carabineros, for some reason you must do this, which included filling in a rather detailed form. The Carabineros were extremely friendly, asked me if I needed anything, I said some matches would be nice since I forgot to purchase my own before starting my hike, they gave me a lighter. Overall they just seemed happy to see a hiker and they wanted to take photos with me.

Carrizales is a very small town with about 5 buildings, the police station included. In one home, a lady sells food, a bit unclear exactly what she sells because it is not a shop per see, she has some items in what seemed to be her personal fridge. I bought two of her homebaked breads, stuffed them full with olive oil, butter, and cheese. Good lunch. I also bought 10 hard boiled eggs, she boiled them for me. 

Leaving Carrizales I also found some plum trees, or at least that is what I think they were, regardless they were delicious. Now the climbing on cattle trails starts again.

Not far from Carrizales there is a supposed hot spring, which I’m of course interested in, despite being a bit of a detour. The hot spring was of perfect temperature, you can definitely bath in it, but I was a bit reluctant due to all the Alleges.

I seem to have entered horse fly territory now, some really irritating buggers. It is not that there are that many of the them, but once they have started circulating you, they never stop, until I kill them that is 🙂

I continue hiking on the regular route, I climb, go down, climb, go down, and climb one last time, and go down one last time, or sliding on my but, the sand and stones was really loose. I’m now in another large and long valley that I will follow for a long time. The view from where I entered the valley reminds me a bit of Rapadalen in Sarek, Sweden.

Before continuing hiking in the valley I take a short break to cook my dinner. Red lentils with half of my ten eggs and a rich amount of olive oil. When you hike, everything tastes good. 

In the valley the route basically runs flat along the river on cattle tracks, stone fields, and dried out riverbeds. I see a lot of people now taking care of their sheeps, goats, and cows. 

I continue walking late into the evening. A very long day, but my feet, legs and back all feel good. The issues I’m having is mostly that I’m starting to take some damage due to the long and really intense periods of strong UV radiation, like 12+ UV index for 6-7 hours a day for several days now. Also I seem to have acquired some pretty bad rashes on my legs. All that I can think off is the my hiking pants contains some chemical that irritates after long exposures. I have had similar upper body problems when hiking several days in dry-fits before. I will hike in shorts the coming days to see if the problem resolves.

19 December — Friday

Mid-night I was awoken by some horses galloping around my tent for some reason. I had to get up and scare them away. Another beautiful night sky I might add.

I made good progress on the trail yesterday. I’m now at the point where the trail switches to a small dirt road for about 10 kilometers so I will be starting the day with some easy hiking. 

I was aiming for a puesto about 6 km away that many other hikers have spoken highly about. Apparently the owner, Irma (Irma’s Puesto) sells goat cheese. My hopes to score some food are high. But no luck, there was no one at home when I passed by. This is day seven hiking and my hunger is really starting to become insatiable.

I continue walking and pass another police station in the middle of nowhere. Once again the Carabineros were super friendly and seemed happy to see a hiker. I eat my lunch there, chat a bit with them and take the opportunity to top-up my phone’s battery. It is four guys that live there with their own horses, goats and dogs. They stay there for one month and then a new group arrives.

Leaving the police station it is back to walking on cattle trails and off-trail. I enter another valley and start climbing upward towards Laguna del Dial. I found a very nice campsite right next to the lake and decide to camp there. It is still early in the day, but it has been some long previous days and I’m craving a bath given the intense heat — today I have consumed 7 liters of water — so that is exactly what I do, I take a bath and tuk in for the night.

One drawback with tucking in early is that the tent becomes really warm under the gazing sun. It is my own sauna, I’m literally lying naked in the tent sweating. I do not want to open the outer and inner tent for extra ventilation since the flies have been made aware of my presence and are waiting outside to join the party. 

In the evening, I call in a weather forecast using my Garmin GPS67i, and the forecast says blistering sun for another 7 days straight. I would actually not mind some clouds and shade right about now.

20 December — Saturday

Up early and away. A bit more clouds on the sky today so not as scolding hot. It is actually very nice hiking weather. 

I continue hiking along the Laguna, on the shore line, up and down along the slopes and so on until I reach the far side of the lake. Now the uphill of today starts. This very much looks like the northern mountains in Sweden, but without any other hikers.

I finish the uphill, cross the pass and begin my long gradual descent towards Los Sauce, the end of GPT 07. As I begin the descent, I meet four men that are in the process of herding their 300 sheep’s or so up the valley. It is very clear from the state of the path that this is a much more used trail. The animals actually keep the path clear enough to be easy to follow.

I pass a puesto and ask if they have any food to sell, they do not. My resupply is not going as planned. I find a small creek with shade from the trees and eat my lunch: red lentils, parmesan cheese, hazelnuts, and olive oil. If I’m to embark on GPT 08, I really require a good resupply in Los Sauce. 

After lunch the slow gradual decent continues, with a lot of fording. This entire section requires a lot of fording, so far all trivial though. As some very dark clouds starts to form, I start doubting yesterday’s GPS forecast and request an updated one. My Garmin GPS still claims sunny skies the coming seven days, and it is right so far as the dark clouds scatter after a couple of hours. 

After a while the valley narrows, and the trail now runs along the slopes. It is relatively nice hiking, with the major disadvantage that the narrow trail creates several choke points, and the herding continues. At one point, I had to wait 1 hour, not exaggeration, I timed it, as a thousand or so cows were passing by. It looks cool though, with the ever so happy dogs running around casually herding a thousand cows on narrow and steep paths.

Tomorrow I will finish GPT 07 relatively early in the day. The possibility of resupplying food will determine whether I continue on to GPT 08 or make my way to a larger town. Overall, I feel in great shape despite these relatively tough days, the GPT is not the average trail it is much tougher, most of the trails are as said previously not in great condition, you will slip, fall, and slide a lot. All good fun though.  

The only thing I’m worried about is my shoes, they are already showing signs of wear and tear, and I cannot blame them after this tough terrain. They are breaking at the same places as my previous pair, fixing these weak points and INOV8 will have created a perfect hiking shoe. Well, shoes breaking is the price paid for comfort. I mean I could have hiked in sturdy uncomfortable hiking boats.

21 December — Sunday

Today I’m hoping to score some food in Los Sauce. An all-you-can-eat buffe would be nice, but I doubt I will have such luck. 

As I enter Los Sauce, it is apparent that the food resupply options are somewhat limited. I will have to make my way to a larger town. I did manage to score some local honey — I could see the beehives from where I bought it — and butter. However, I’m not in the mood of walking another six to seven days on butter and honey only.

The bus from Los Sauce — it is quite amazing they even have a bus going here — departs in the morning. Not wanting to wait, I start walking on the road — walking some of GPT 08 in the process — with the hope of being able to hitchhike to San Fabian. After about 2 hours of walking, while being absolutely tormented by horse flies, a very religious Christian named Daniel comes by and gives me a ride to San Fabian. We listen to gospel, and he cites scriptures while driving like an absolute mad man. By the power vested in me, I now drive like crazy. Jokes aside, he is a really nice guy, and we a lot of fun talking on the ride to San Fabian.

San Fabian is a nice little mountain town. It does not take too long to walk around the whole town. As it is Sunday all grocery stores are closed, but from the outside they look descent enough for me to resupply.

I book two nights in a private cabin. I will rest and prepare tomorrow and then hopefully hitchhike back to Los Sauce early Tuesday morning, the bus doesn’t depart until 18:00.

22 December — Monday

Rest day in Los Sauce, running around ten different stores trying to find proper resupplies. I’m now loaded with cheese, nuts, seeds, olive oil, lentils, honey, dates, butter and dark chocolate. It will last at least seven days. I’m ready to hit the trails again.

My Route With Campsites