On Patagonia + <3 To Besties
I know this was supposed to be a January blog post, but here we are inching into February, and I’m super behind on creative writing projects. Still, I want to pause and acknowledge the inescapable pinks, reds, and heart-shaped everything that signal Valentine’s Day—and take a moment to write about a few of my besties.
If you came here from the newsletter, you probably saw my little bio at the bottom of the page. My bestie Michelle wrote that (and also all the friendly nudges to finish this post 😀). Let me tell you, having a bestie write your bio is a move I highly recommend. The details she includes are all true—I do teach yoga, spend hours earning a PhD, play music, work at the Ray Bradbury Center, write, etc.—but the way she relates those details makes me feel confident, capable, and, heart-shaped everything.
Also, yes, I “like big hikes, and I cannot lie.”
Some years ago—and I’m not even going to pretend I remember how many, because doesn’t the fact that I don’t say enough?—my bestie Holly sent me a stunning photo of colorful tents nestled in the foothills of the mountains in Patagonia. That photo has hung in every home I’ve lived in since, including the one I shared with my bestie Kate. There are so many ways this story could go from here: meditations on inspiration, bucket lists, travelogs, or maybe a deep dive into my digressive way of writing (and thinking). But for now, in the interest of time—yours and mine—I’ll stick with besties.
Looking at that photograph one night, Kate and I decided we’d hike the W Trek in Patagonia for my 50th birthday.
Honestly, the story could’ve stopped there. Life does what it does. COVID happened. Besties scattered across the U.S. and Canada (Cathi recently moved to France!). I started working on a PhD. We bought houses. Began new chapters. But Kate? She also got to work (and I do mean work) planning our trip to Patagonia.
Here’s the thing: my biggest struggle in all of my creative endeavors is that I picture the perfect, finished piece in my head long before I start, and it hampers my ability to start at all, much less finish. Cue the writing style digression. So instead of aiming for perfection, I offer you a handful of photos from what turned out to be an epic trip, worthy of any adventurer’s bucket list.
Most of the 500+ photos in my folders are decent only because of muscle memory—I started making photos at my Papaw’s side when I was a kid (yet another digression waiting in the wings). These photos represent sixty-four miles of hiking over five days, a journey we started AND finished. And honestly, there’s no real way to describe it. Just like there’s no real way to fully capture the beauty of friendship.
Your besties inspire you, support you, believe in you, encourage you, hold you accountable, and love you even when the beautiful piece you wanted to share with the world is still a work in progress (just like we all are). Send your besties a Valentine (a blog post with their names in it perhaps?).
I promise you (and me), someday, I’ll publish a polished piece about this trip and every other digression–Michelle will make sure of it. 😉
On Patagonia: A Photo Gallery + Some Words by Carrie Cooper
A trip years in the making and nearly entirely planned by Kate, we three intrepid explorers (me, Kate, Cathi pictured left to right in the first photo) set out on an adventure: five days, sixty-four miles in Chile’s Patagonia region hiking the W Circuit in Torres del Paine National Park. We agree, a good trip always starts with coffee.
Kate very wisely planned for day one to be our toughest. The hike to Mirador Torres is one of the most iconic in Chilean Patagonia and it offers stunning views all the way up to Lake Torre at the base of the famous Torres del Paine granite peaks, known as the "Blue Towers." It’s about 12.5 miles round trip and roughly 3,300 feet of elevation gain. Skies had clouded over by the time we reached the lake so views of the towers were shrouded but the sunset and sunrise from base camp were stunning.
Funny story that wasn’t so funny at the time: We arrived at base camp to find that the tour company had not left any meals for the two vegans in our group and not nearly enough drinking water for eight hikers. But hey, we had wine and beer!
One of my favorite hikes on the W Circuit was the stretch between Refugio las Torres and Refugio Francés along Lago Nordenskjöld. The lake is named after a Swedish guy who explored the region at the beginning of the 20th century. It’s turquoise color is remarkable. When meltwater from the glacier enters the lake it brings finely ground powder which stays suspended, absorbing all colors of light except blue and green, creating the lake's intense color.
Amusingly, we made it as far as Refugio los Cuernos, stopped for a rest and a beer thinking we had just a short bit left to our base camp. Not so much.
From Francés, we hiked up to the lookout at Mirador Británico. The rumbling avalanches up in the mountains had us stopping every few minutes to watch and listen—wild! Británico was absolutely stunning, and we hung out for a while, chatting with other trekkers. One of my favorite things about this kind of travel is meeting people from all over the world and running into them again and again—at vistas, water stops, base camps. Refugio Paine Grande, our next stop, had a sweet little bar where we treated ourselves to pisco sours and caught up on postcard writing. The next morning, we all poked our heads out from under the covers to check if the clouds had cleared for sunrise, then quickly decided another hour of sleep sounded much better.
I can only describe the hike up to Glaciar Grey as astonishing. The icebergs in Lago Grey look otherworldly. We were hoping to kayak and get up close but the wind, which Patagonia is famous for but had held off hampering our movements until now, was too high for kayaking. Speaking of wind—I didn’t manage to get a good photo of the state of things heading back to Paine Grande from Grey. It will have to suffice to say they don’t call it windygonia for nothin’.
Cheers to the W and to adventures with friends.
To Kate and Cathi with love.
*most of the photos here are mine and if they aren’t they were shared with permission from Kate and Cathi.
