The road chose me

I’ve been looking forward to hiking in world-famous Torres Del Paine National Park since the beginning of this adventure, and I’m excited to arrive in the little town of Puerto Natales where I attend a backpackers’ information session and stock up on hiking food & supplies.

Torres Del Paine

Arriving at Torres Del Paine National Park

Early the next morning I drive into the park and leave the Jeep at Hotel Las Torres before setting out counter-clockwise, taking enough supplies to complete the full circuit in eight days / seven nights.
A beautiful sunny morning through green forest sees me arrive at Camping Setón at about lunch time, and I decide to push on to Refugio Dickson, a stretch where I encounter some extremely strong winds and amazing sunshine while skirting around the mountains.
I arrive at Dickson a little footsore around 7pm after a long 28km on the trail for day one and am pleasantly surprised by the hot shower in the pay-only campsite. The plague of thirsty mosquitos is not so nice.

Setting out to hike the full circuit

On the backside

I lazily amble out of camp at 10am on day two, hiking through beautiful dense forest for the 9km around to Campamento Los Perros (another pay site), near a little glacier of the same name. I really have no idea what to expect on the “back side” and have been a little surprised by the remoteness and lack of people – I had been warned of many hundreds per day, and have only seen a handful on the trails, and about 30 tents at night in the campgrounds.

The campground at Refugio Dickson

The forests of the backside

In the morning I’m moving early with some friends from the previous night and we make good time up and over Paso John Gardner, the high point and hardest section of the trail. At the summit I’m dumbfounded by the unimaginably immense Grey Glacier, extending the width and length of the entire valley, looking more like an enormous lake than a glacier. Hiking alongside Grey for the remainder of the afternoon provides some stunning views and great rest-stops.

At the summit of Paso John Gardner

Immense Grey Glacier

I cook hot noodles at Campamento Paso before pushing on to the beautiful (and free) Campamento Los Guardas for a total of 18km for day three. Sitting above the glacier at the lookout is surreal, and although we hear plenty of activity, we don’t see a sizable chunk break off.

Nice spot for lunch...

Valley of giants

There’s a lot more to come on this one…

-Dan

The next month or two are shaping up to be pretty amazing, and  I’m now very aware they will also be the last of this adventure. I plan to drive “up” through the mountains of Southern Chile and Argentina, visiting the extremely famous National Parks along the way. I’ve been told time and time again how beautiful the area is, and I’m ready to spend some quality time hiking, camping and fishing for dinner with the cheap-o gear I just bought.

I’ve been looking into the requirements for selling my Canadian-plated Jeep down here and it looks like I can make it work (legally) in both Ushuaia, Argentina and Punta Arenas, Chile because they have “Tax Free Zones” where the customs & importation rules are different. People are always commenting on how great it is, and how they would love to buy it, but of course none have the money.
I’ll also try to sell it to a fellow traveller, which will make the paperwork a thousand times easier.
In all seriousness, if anyone wants to buy it, get in contact with me.

Jeep ready to roll on

As for what I’ll do with myself after this is said and done, I have some plans I’m currently working on, though I don’t want to say too much in case they fall through. Hopefully I’ll be flying to a whole new continent and starting a completely new (and different) thing…

Right now I’m out hiking one of the most famous circuits in the world and you can be sure I’ll be posting tons of pictures and trip reports for a while yet.

-Dan

Now that I’ve made it to the bottom of the world, I’m going to stick around for a while and really soak it in. Hanging out with Seth, Parker and Justin is great fun, and when we’re not out drinking, we seem to be constantly finding some other kind of trouble.
Somehow, all the locals that come to the campground know who we are.. hmmmm

Lots of colour on the map now

Dan & Jeep at the very end of the road

Our week…

• Tierra Del Feugo National Park, at the very end of the road where we camp a few days and pose in front of the sign.
• Throwing disc golf on green grass, soak in sunshine and have a BBQ and beers for my birthday.
• Inspecting all the local bars and empanada cafés.
• Towing firewood then Parker on his bike behind the Jeep. (“I’ve ridden all the way down, I don’t need to ride back!”)
• Riding around town on the back of Parker’s bike.

Sunset in Tierra Del Fuego National Park

The whole crew camping in Tierra Del Fuego

Beautiful. And fun.

Fox sneaking around our campsite

Jeep map complete

-Dan

I organize to meet Seth are Parker, my buddies riding bikes from Alaska, for our final night of camping in the wild. I find them fishing at the beautiful Lake Bombilla, where we have a fantastic night laughing and reminiscing about the road traveled. We’ve figured out a few times that we were within a day or two of each other in Prudhoe Bay Alaska, and now we’re going to arrive in Ushuaia on the same day. Very crazy.

Seth hoping for the best

Seth and Parker grinding uphill

A warm sunny day greets me for the climb up and over the final mountain pass, where I continually stop for photos with the Jeep. Rolling down into town and posing for photos in front of the “Welcome” sign does not bring forth the emotions I thought it might. I feel like I’m in any other town along my journey. Ushuaia itself is absolutely beautiful, surrounded on three sides with snow-capped mountains and the island dotted ocean dominates the forth.

Sunshine and blue skies!

On the final mountain pass

I post up in the La Pista Del Andio Campground and await the arrival of Seth and Parker, which kicks off a celebration of immense proportions. Many times during the night a phrase like “This is biggest achievement of my life” has us pondering exactly what it all means.
In the morning there are a lot of sore heads and confused people, and we tread very gingerly for a while.

Climbing mountains, all in a days work

I’ve driven a total of 55,580km over 558 days. That’s an average of 95km/day over one year, seven months and nine days. It’s really beautiful here, so I think I’ll stick around for a few days and let it all soak in.

Dan and Jeep in Ushuaia, 55,580km later

This adventure is far from over

-Dan