Grey to Paine Grande
I’m in my tent at 7:44pm with moderate rain falling and ready to talk about another awesome day.
Departing Camp Grey
First I think it is worth mentioning the change in volume of traffic. We are now seeing day trippers, overnighters at the lodge, and W trekkers either beginning or ending their trips. Still the same stalwart group of O trekkers that we are seeing and chatting with every day.
Looking back at Grey Glacier
The hike began with some easy climbing towards lookouts back at Grey Glacier. The further away we got the more we could see the other end of the glacier that wraps around the peninsula (or island?).
Weather was good with some clouds that only added texture to the blue skies. No rain, mild winds where we would only get chilly sitting exposed facing them.
Duck Lake
There’s an “interior” (non-glacier-fed) Duck Lake along the hike that was a beautiful contrast to Lake Grey. Different colors, more biological activity happening. We stopped and had lunch there.
The hike was a short 11.1 km with mild elevation gain (then drop). Most of the folks we crossed along the path were in day packs, which could mean they were day hiking or doing the W trek fully supported.
Crested Caracara
We reached Paine Grande camp, with the largest restaurant, hotel, and cooking area that we’ve encountered, at about 1:30pm. A pair of beautiful and curious (and likely well fed from tourists) crested caracaras greeted us as we entered the camp area.
We checked in, learned that our dinner would be at 6pm, then setup tents and prepared for some more wandering. After some hot soup and (literally) recharging our batteries, we headed south from camp to explore a bluff above the small bay below camp.
Soaking our feet and legs in the lake
There were great views of the core mountain range, and we also spotted a small black sand beach adjacent to a draw below the ridge we were on. We found an ad-hoc trail and made our way to it, soaking our legs up to the calves and skipping rocks.
Ferry docking at Paine Grande
As we walked back one of the catamaran ferries was docked and ready to pick up passengers for the 5pm shuttle. At the same time a trash pickup boat arrived on the adjacent beach. To the left can be seen camp Paine Grande.
We enjoyed a beer and pisco sour with our English friend Adam, then our scheduled dinner.
Tomorrow could be our longest walk yet, 24km, should we take the option to drop our packs at Italiano and do the side trip up to Mirador Británico. We will get an early start and defer any decision making until Italiano – high winds and maybe some rain are expected tomorrow.