Exploring the Rio Futaleufu and its Surroundings

The last two weeks I have spent living in the Futaleufu valley and lets just say that the river, and the entire valley, have certainly lived up to all its hype.

After catching a bus from Esquel to the small town of Futaleufu, I hitchhiked up the road and hiked into Jon´s place. The next morning Jon and I woke up bright and early to finish our preparations for the start of a 10 day NOC Adventure Travel trip on the Futaleufu river that Jon was leading and I was helping with. One of our necessary tasks was to transport some of the kayaks from Jon´s cabin to the road. Luckily, I came to visit Jon just months after he got his new four-wheeler, so rather than having to carry all the boats out the trail like we might have had to in the past, we got to load them up on the four-wheeler and rode out. After getting the boats and the gear situated, I rode with Jon back into Esquel where we picked up our two guests for the trip, Wes and Lauri, from the airport.

Jon finishing up overloading the four-wheeler with boats and gear

Surprisingly enough, the guests arrived on time at the airport and after a quick lunch, we were on our way again back to the Futa valley. That afternoon we checked into the cabin, located right next to the river, where we would be spending most of the next two weeks and then hit the river for my first taste of the Futaleufu.

During that time I was still recovering from my earlier sickness and had developed a pretty bad cough. After two nights awake coughing, it was decided that I needed to go to the doctor. After a visit to the Futa hospital, I was diagnosed with Bronchitis. The doctor told me I needed to stay off the river for three full days. That was pretty tough news for me, as I had only gotten one full day on the river at that point and was dreading the idea of sitting around the cabin and not paddling. Long story short, I decided that my sanity was more important than my physical health and I was on the river by the next day (taking it easy of course).

Over that first week, my health gradually returned to normal and Jon, Wes, Lauri and I spent everyday exploring all the Futaleufu river had to offer. We paddled the Terminator and Bridge to Bridge sections many times, as well as the Rio Azul, a lower volume river that flows into the Futa. Among the highlights was Jon´s first bull riding experience, Jon and I´s evening surf session of the Moondocka wave and horseback riding up a mountain in the Futa valley.

Jon preparing for his bull ride, which lasted less than two seconds
¨If you´re going to be dumb you better be tough¨ -Jon´s new phrase

Jon and Wes about to head down river

Me paddling down the Rio Azul with a view of the ¨Tres Monjas¨ peak in the background (Photo courtesy of Jon Clark)

Doing some horseback riding in the Futa Valley

A view of the upper section of the Rio Futaleufu during the horseback ride

Surfing out onto the wave in Moondocka (Photo courtesy of Jon Clark)

Me surfing the wave

After a week of boating on the Futa, we decided that it was time for a little Patagonia road trip up to the town of Chaiten to check out a river Jon had been wanting to do there, as well as pick up some gas for the truck (there is no gas station in Futaleufu). So last Friday night, after a day of boating the Futa, we all loaded up in the truck and drove two and a half hours to Chaiten. The river we were planning to do the next morning was the Michimahuida and involved 16 miles of class 4-5 whitewater. We started the day early, knowing that it could potentially be a long day, especially since it would be everyone´s first time down. Jon, Wes and I (Lauri decided that she would rather sit that adventure out) were at the river by 7am, ready to get our boof on.

The run turned out to be more spectacular than we could have ever imagined. I feel like I say this in every post, but that river truly was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my entire life. It took us through deep deep gorges, that always seemed to remind you that you better have good lines, cause there was no way out of there besides on the river or in a helicopter. We were also surrounded by glaciers and the Volcano Michimahuida pretty much the whole time. Along with the scenery, the whitewater was amazing and good lines were had by all, making the overall experience an excellent one. Wes´s comment, while loading up the boats after the run, was that he felt like breaking his paddle and throwing his gear in the water because it ¨simply can´t get any better than that.¨

A view of the Rio Michimahuida with a glacier in the background

Me peeling out of an eddy preparing to run one of the class four rapids on the Rio Michimahuida (Photo courtesy of Jon Clark)

A view of the Volcano Michimahuida from the road on the way to the river

The sunset over the ocean in Chaiten (Photo courtesy of Jon Clark)

After another night in Chaiten, celebrating our successful trip down the river, we loaded up and headed out, without really knowing what we were going to do that day. There was talk of a hike, visiting some hot springs or just returning home to the Futa. Somehow or another we arrived back at the Rio Michimahuida and after speaking with some locals, decided the three of us would put back on, higher up than the previous day, and see what we could find. We had no idea what the section of river would be like and were pleasantly surprised to find the short section filled with classic class four whitewater.

Our ¨Go NOC AdTrav¨ pose on the truck while driving through a river to get to the put-in (notice the volcano in the background)

Jon and I drinking some Cervezas Negras riverside after the paddle

The final days of the trip were spent back on the Futa. With the fluctuating water levels, huge waves and epic surfs, there is certainly no getting bored on that river. One evening we all headed to Jon´s cabin to watch him do one of his newest extreme sports, paragliding. From his cabin, he basically throws on a large backpack with his wing inside, spends 45 minutes hiking up the mountain behind his land and then essentially walks down a few steps, allowing his wing to inflate. Within 10 minutes he was flying high above the mountain´s peak. He spent about an hour and a half in the air on what he said was one of his best flights yet, before landing in the field in front of his house.

A picture of Jon paragliding over the Futa Valley (look in the middle of the sky on the left side)

The trip ended great, and Wednesday morning we all loaded back into the truck to drive Wes and Lauri to Esquel to catch their flights out. Jon and I had lots of errands to run in Esquel and after surprisingly completing them all, we headed home. We were both pretty excited to get back to Jon´s cabin and relax after the trip.

Thursday morning we woke up expecting bad weather and were pleasantly surprised to find a nice day. Even though we had talked of not doing much productive that day, we soon decided neither of us were cut out for that and went on a mission to fix up Jon´s paragliding launch sight in preparation for the three paragliders that were to be arriving in the coming days. So off we went, with a rake, cutters, machete and weed whacker in hand up the mountain. We decided to go up the rocky path, since Jon did not yet have a trail cut all the way through the forest. It proved to be extremely steep and well, rocky. I really don´t know how Jon hikes that heavy wing up those rocks in 45 minutes, but he does lots of pretty crazy things, so its no surprise. After finally reaching the top, 1200 feet above Jon´s cabin, I was blown away by the view. Just from there I could see why Jon has fallen in love with paragliding. We spent the afternoon weedwhacking and raking the launch site, then continued down through the forest and cut and marked a trail all the way to the bottom. It ended up being much more of a mission than originally expected, and took us over 6 hours.

Jon doing some weedwhacking at the paragliding launch site

Yesterday morning we headed back to Chaiten, in order to pick up the paragliders that are arriving here on a ferry later this morning. After our discovery of the short section of the Michimahuida, we decided we could not go back to Chaiten and not do it, so we brought boats and a bike along (to run the shuttle with) and did a quick paddle yesterday afternoon. Following the paddle we drank some more cervezas negras and took a dip in the local hot springs.

The three paragliders arriving today are coming from the states to do an exploratory Chile paragliding trip with Jon. I am pretty excited to be around to see how it goes and am hoping to get some free lessons along the way. With any luck, I´ll be flying off the mountain behind Jon´s house next week (not likely really, but I´m being hopeful).

I plan to spend the next week or so back at Jon´s place boating and paragliding then I´m off to Bolivia to start the next leg of my adventure. I will be meeting my friend Brian, from North Carolina, there to explore some of Bolivia´s whitewater. Should be epic.