The quest for Piedras Blancas (28km, 40km HTD) 12/29
I'm not sure if it was the quiet from the campground, not having the Stanford crew there, or us just really being tired but we missed the alarm and slept in until 7/8. That was a long nights sleep after napping for two hours but it felt good. When Andy got back from taking pics, we slowly made coffee and breakfast which consisted of boiled eggs, bread, cheese and salami. We needed all the energy we could get for the day ahead of us.
We started hiking before 9:30 and were the only ones on the trail as we made our way to Poincenot. We hiked up and up to the top of the mountain (we thought this hike ws going to be flat), the sun was barely shining and the slight breeze felt good. It was another perfect day to be hiking. We ran into two dudes we met on the W as they headed the other direction. Along the way Andy saw a little black/brown/yellow striped frog and got down on the ground trying to get a good shot. Then he decided to hold the frog so it wouldn't get away. Don't touch it, it could be poisonous! Oh yeah. He rinsed his hands off w water. I guess we'll see if it's poisonous if he gets kidney failure.
We made it to the campsite in under 3 hours and set up camp (12km), just under the view of Fitz Roy. There was only 10 other tents, very quiet. Time for lunch of mushroom soup and cheese and salami crackers. There was a light sprinkle of rain but not much, nothing to be bothersome.
Since it was just after 1 and we had the whole day ahead of us, we headed for Piedras Blancas, a lagoon and glacier south of Fitz Roy. We hiked down and down the mountain, probably an hour from camp until we realized we went the wrong way (10km RT). Fuck!
Back up the mountain, through camp, and back down the mountain in the proper direction. We hiked over a rock bed, on the side of the mountain, down a stream, over more rocks and streams and mud until we hit the bottom of the rock slide caused by the glacier. My feet were killing me and I was tired but I pushed on since Andy was going and at this point we have to see it.
Then we got to the boulders. I don't care for bouldering. I don't trust boulders, they can be slippery, they can move, plus my legs are hella short. Andy was frolicking over them w his hands in his pockets, I was climbing w all 4 limbs and sliding my body over the rocks. After 20 some min of bouldering, we made it to the lake w the huge blue glacier towering just above it (6km RT). It was a beautiful site. The wind was ripping too, just like in TDP. We didn't stay long, it looked like rain and I didn't want to climb rocks when they are wet.
When hiking back we saw the rain hitting our camp so we prepped for it but didn't hit any. A quick hike back up the mountain to our camp and we cooked dinner immediately. It was about 7 and we were very hungry after hiking all day. Pad Thai night, it's so good. Back in the tent because the wind was kicking too hard to sit outside. We had a nice camp area by the river, too bad we didn't notice themen area that let the wind knock the shit out of us. It was blowing so hard Andy had to get out to tie the rain cover down. When he was out it blew so hard I had to use my feet to hold it up. I'm glad he was able to brave the wind because I was too tired to get up. Munching on coconut strips, we called it a night. I buried my head in my sleeping bag so I wouldn't hear the wind. I definitely felt like I hiked 17 miles today.