9.51 miDistance
2,064 ftElevation gain
1,225 ftElevation loss
6 h 15 mTime
Today would be an amazing day of walking along sandy and stony beaches (not something I had expected to run into down here), and through grassy fields. We would be making for Refuge Chileno, which is part of the "W" portion of the "O" Circuit, and the base of operations for anyone who wanted to hike to the Towers.
I saw some water spouts as we hiked along the beaches. This whole trek has been nothing but amazing views! After about 90 minutes of walking it was time to leave the water behind and head back into familiar looking territory, seeing as we walked through this same area about a week ago when we set out from the welcome center.
There were a lot of day hikers on the trail today, which threw us off for a moment because we had gotten used to wide open trails and low traffic over the past several days. Nonetheless, I was very nostalgic as this was the same route I had day-hiked 4 years ago, nearly to the day. It brought back so many memories, and things felt so familiar to me.
For this refuge I had booked a bunk bed because I was finishing the trek a day earlier than I had previously planned. It was a welcomed treat after having camped for the past six days. I did not purchase the dinner though, and made my own backpacking meal (my last). I was not alone though as others had also not purchased the meal, but I wish I had (it looked so delicious).
We went to bed early tonight because we were waking up at around 3 am in order to hike up to the towers in the dark in order to watch the sun rise over them.
