Although this trip happened over a month ago, with all the earthquake mess, I haven’t had time to blog about it’s awesomeness! Mike and Erin Moniz, our dear friends from college came to visit us! (If you came to our wedding, Mike was a groomsmen and Erin played the cello.)
They are fellow outdoor lovers like Zach and I, so we decided to head to the Lake District to do some hiking around Volcano Villarrica. Mike had a hurt thigh from soccer, so our plan was to hike into the park to a place where we could do day hikes but leave our packs at our campsite.
When we arrived into town, we found the ranger station, told them our plan, and he politely helped us pick a place that would be a good for day hikes. Sweet! So far so good… Well, as we were paying our fees at the actual ranger station in the park, the ranger there told us that we couldn’t enter the part from the point we wanted to and recommended we hike around the volcano to that point. He said it would be a two day hike max and was not very difficult. A little more hiking than we had planned, but it didn’t sound too bad and a little exciting to hike around the volcano, so we agreed.
I’ll spare you all the details, but basically the ranger that told us the hike around the volcano was an easy two day hike had obviously never been on the trail. It turned out to be one of the most difficult trails any of us had done, and it took us three full days. The map was hard to read and water sources were uncertain. To say the least, it was an intense time. On the upside, a) we lived and b) the scenery was BREATH TAKING. Zach and I had been to Torres del Paine by this point, and I thought nothing could compare, but this definitely compared. Here are a few pictures to tell the rest of the story:
Erin and I at the beginning of the trail
Pretty close to the volcano. At night, it glowed red.
Forest we hiked in; monkey puzzle tree shown
Valley of Fire = a trail through lava flow
The morning of our second campsite; Mike doing dishes
Second campsite, volcano in the back ground.
feast after the third day of hiking; finally made it.
