Hiking Huerquehue

Hiking Huerquehue
(pronounced similar to---Wayrkayway)

We set out around 9:00 am. on Sat. July 11, 2009. We were headed for Parque National Huerquehue about an hour away. We traveled up a windy gravel road and parked near the river. We set off hiking in the wet forest. It did not take long for me to feel I had way too much clothing on. I was soon fascinated by the size of the tree trunks. Our guide ( a Chilean friend), the kids and I held hands and still only covered one side of the tree. Due to all the rain lately there was quite a bit of mud to slop through. My belief that I was in pretty good shape was soon despelled as I started to feel the cramps in my legs upon approaching the 943 meter marker. I also knew our destination was more than 1200 meters. The views were extrodinary. As we continued our climb we soon came upon snow. Then we came upon more snow. This was beautiful, but it did make the trail slippery and difficult. As we continued our ascent we found more snow, 6-10 inches. The Auracaria (monkey puzzle) trees were stunning. They are incredibly tall with all thier branches at the top. We left the trail to go visit and waterfall and had a snack of fruit. Back on the trail we came to the first of three mountain lakes. The spot where we had planned to have lunch was already taken by a couple of North Americans, two young students from Berkley. She is dueing a year abroad in her ecologist program. We continued to another lake where we sat on some large bolders and had lunch. It was awe inspiring seated at the edge of the crystal clear lake just beginning to ice over in spots and look out at the trees, mountains, and volcanoe, while nibbling down some yummy Chilean produce and sandwiches. It did not take long however, before I was glad to have the extra clothing to put back on. Once we stopped the strenuous hiking we got cold fast. After filling our bellies and having a much needed rest, we headed to lago verde (green lake) our last stop before beginning the descent. At this point we are a minimum of 2 hours from the truck and a 30 minute drive to town from there. Feeling full and rested we were climbing rocks and taking lots of pictures at the lake. Theodore was next to the rock I was standing atop, dodging snowballs being thrown by his uncle when the innevitable happened. I had seen him getting careless with his footing and was about to climb down to help him when it happened. Splash!!! He fell backwards into the lake. Everything was in except his feet. Although it was near the shore it was still deep enough that his entire face was under water looking at me. With in a matter of secounds I had slid off the rock and flung him with one arm onto shore, where my brother had now arrived. We removed his wet clothing so fast the water did not have a chance to soak through his pants to his long underwear. His shirt and jacket were soaked. By the time we had his clothes off, Ken, who was near the packs and farthest from us, had his spare jacket ready. We put his jacket, my extra coat, his scarf, and a back pack on him and set off. We made him carry the pack and walk in order to generate heat. I found out later that ken had matches and such to start a fire, had it been necessary. He had already considered this before we left and came prepared. It was not long before Theodore said he was warming up. We kept him well hydrated and fed. He was doing so well that we stopped at a few more places on the way down, including another waterfall. We came home to soup which had been simmering on the fire place all day. Although we were so sore and stiff we could barely get out of the truck or walk the next day, it was indeed a great day. I thank God everyone was ontop of thier game and filled thier parts well and quickly in getting Theodore handled. This could have been a much more serious situation if any one of us had dropped the ball.