Day 2 started off with breakfast in the refugio. We had scrambled eggs, ham, cheese, toast, and yogurt. Probably the best fuel we’ve had before heading out on the trails. Usually it’s either oatmeal or a Cliff bar. Following breakfast it was time to pack up the tent and our packs before hitting the trail. Thankfully it was a beautiful sunny day with a slight breeze.

As soon as we hit the trail, I knew it was going to be a long day. It had been over 4 years since I’ve backpacked and it’s definitely different hiking with a pack. I knew I would be in decent shape to hike over the 4 days after just finishing training for a marathon in December. Plus I didn’t grow up backpacking like Grant had. He made it seem effortless on the trail that day. Meanwhile, I kept having him go in front so I could go my own speed…which was slow.

The views on the trail were again beautiful. Mountain views to the left of us, multiple river crossings, meadows. We learned that there had been a forest fire back in 2011 started by someone trying to burn their toilet paper. Still baffles me that someone would try to do that. They didn’t alert authorities quick enough and the fire burned through over 17,000 hectares. On our route to Camp Italiano, there were a couple of bridges that had been constructed by REI to help with reconservation of areas that had been burned in the fire. The hike to Camp Italiano was only 7km but it felt so much longer that morning.

After reaching Camp Italiano, we grabbed some snacks to refuel and refilled our water bottles before heading up to Mirador Britanico. The trail had quite the terrain varying between a rocky path with several boulders to climb over or through along with a dirt trail through a valley of trees. The first viewpoint was Mirador Francis which offered us the opportunity to hear the cracking of the glacier ice and some small avalanches. The video below shows a bigger one Grant was able to catch on camera as we were headed back down the trail. Upon close inspection of the glacier we could see numerous pathways of running water not quite powerful enough to call waterfalls but amazing in how the water melt was enough to create small streams that flowed underneath the ice at the bottom.

After a quick stop for water and sunscreen, it was off to Mirador Britanico.

This was when we realized we couldn’t really listen to the trail markers as their distances seemed to be off. One said we were only 1.8km from the outlook, however, it seemed to be closer 2.5km. By the end of the trek we realized almost every hiker had the same realization that they didn’t trust distances on signs the whole way. Getting up to the top was another climb through some boulders but once there offered an almost 320 degree view of the surrounding mountains around us. And of course was a hit spot for those “Instagram shots”. We sat at the top and admired the scenery a bit before taking our own pictures and heading back down. As we started to work our way down, we dunked our water bottles into a stream to refill on fresh glacier water – this is one amazing part of Patagonia in that nowhere on the entire mountain do you need to filter water!

The trail back down seemed to take just as long as going up especially through the rocky portion. It was then back on with the backpacks for the last 2km to Camp Frances, our campsite for the night. Grant will say my mood instantly shifted as soon as the pack was back on. I may have turned into “Grumpy Meghan” as Grant called me and it especially didn’t help when I took a spill on the trail. Thankfully that last portion went quicker than the morning and got to check in for the campsite.

Patagonia definitely has a great setup with these refugio sites. Where else could you get a nice hot shower on the trail plus a delicious salmon dinner?? And it was also nice to set up our tent on a platform to help reduce the amount of dust we were already accumulating on our stuff. Although it was a hike from our tent to anywhere else in the campsite, it was a nice quiet night to get some sleep before another long day of hiking.