I was lucky enough to get to paddle the waters of Pumalin Parque for a six-day kayak trip with Reg Lake. Reg has spent part of the Chilean summers in the Puerto Montt and Patagonian regions for the past 15 years. He had two kayaks in the area and set up the logistics. The waters are in the vicinity of the Pumalin Parque, which was purchased and set up as a private park (~ 800,000 acres) by Doug Tompkins (founder of ‘Espirit’ clothing).
We camped four nights and spent one night at a ‘hotel’ or ‘B and B’ with a natural hot springs. Fortunately this also turned out to be the first and wettest day of the trip. We covered a total of about 60 to 65 miles on the water.
This is an incredible area of temperate rainforest with 2,000 to 3,000 foot cliffs adjacent to the water, beautiful fiords, numerous unbelievably high waterfalls and two volcanoes. The biggest challenge is the logistics. Unfortunately, the steady development (fish farming of abalone and salmon, new roads and commercial/tourism development) is slowly chipping away at the incredible wilderness character of the area.
This was one of the best places I’ve ever had the chance to kayak and camp. If you can make it happen, by all means go…
Pictures at:
http://photobucket.com/albums/a395/waterpowered/Pumalin%20Parque/
Tom
beautiful
pictures! What a fantastic place to paddle.
Thanks for posting them.
Sharon
Very nice!
Thanks for sharing, looks spectacular…
Jay
Photo of the week!
One of my favorite photos from this trip just got photo of the week here at P.net.
Tom