Trocha Union

Alright, update time. Just back from Trocha Union, which was without a doubt the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring hike of my life. Let me start with a little background: the Trocha (trail) runs from Tres Cruces at 3600m elevation to Pilcopata at 700m elevation, though there is currently a gap where the Manu road crosses at 1700m. Built by the Incans, it has been in service for at least the last 400 years. From what I can gather, it was built as a highway for workers moving fruit from the lowlands on the east slope of the Andes to markets in the highlands of the west slope.  Currently the locals use it to bypass police checks when trying to move coca out of the foothills (around Pilcopata – more on that later).

At around 12km long, the first part of Trocha Union could pass as an extreme day hike – though exclusively going in the downhill direction. With a drop of 1.9k in elevation before coming to the end of part 1, a good 90 percent of the trail is steep downhill. Going uphill, much of the cargo likely used to be transported by mule, which contributes to one of the coolest parts. Over the years, erosion and constant use have carved the trail deep into the mountain. Much of the walk is spent in trenches between 5 and 30 feet deep, with mud and rock walls just wide enough to walk through with a pack. Such a long history of continuous use has resulted in the trail literally passing under trees. Sections of trail merge into what can only be described as tunnels, made entirely out of roots. At their extreme, these tunnels can be hundreds of feet long and too dark to see in without a headlamp. As the trail slips slowly underground you find yourself standing at eye level with the forest floor.  

Though ridiculously cool, the tunnels are horribly frustrating. Given that the average height of most of the people using the tunnels must be close to 5 feet and they walk hunched over under the weight of large sacks, it comes as no surprise that almost nothing above 5 feet is cleared from the trail. This means constantly being hit in the face with vegetation, getting stuck on roots, and having to crawl through sections of tunnel with a heavy pack.

We began our hike at Tres Cruces, staying in a little research house at the top of the world (first picture) for the first night to get a good start early in the morning. If you’re lucky enough to have a clear day when starting your hike, you’re treated to a view of the entire Tono valley and part of the Kosnipata… from one of the highest points in the region all the way down into the lowlands. I’ve been told that Tres Cruces has the greatest sunrise in the world, and from my limited experience I would have to agree. Sitting at the top of the Andes with a 270 degree view as far as the eye can see, I can’t imagine many better views. Of course, I started the trip with condensation inside my camera lens, so managed to take very few pictures that actually even kind of worked.

Loaded up with camping gear, food for 7 days, and all of our research gear, the hike to our first campsite was grueling. Despite the overloaded packs and high altitude taking their toll, we arrived at our campsite (1km down in elevation) after about 3.5 hours of walking. Our supervisor, Jill Jankowski, had left at 3:30 in the morning to run point counts all the way down the trail. We found her waiting at our campsite.

(Team photo: Simon, Clifton, Me, Jill and Romulo) 

 After a quick lunch of ramen noodles we were back out clearing net lanes and setting up our banding station. We based banding station 1 out of our campsite, providing us access to 10 nets without having to hike every morning. Dinner was reheated ramen mush, as we had quickly realized that we were an entire day short on food, as well as having forgotten all of our powdered milk and oatmeal. As collecting water required an hour-long hike, we decided against washing dishes and simply tossed them out into the open to let the rain do its work. I went to bed cold, wet and hungry at about 6:30, despite wearing wool socks, fleece pants, long underwear, a fleece jacket and down vest.

At 11:00 I was rudely awoken by something big crashing into the side of my tent. Having had branches fall on me in Villa Carmen I immediately rolled to the other side of my tent and grabbed my headlamp. Looking outside my tent, however, I found no sign of fallen debris near the area I had cleared around my tent. I would later find out from Clifton that he had heard something large walking away immediately after the crash.  Startled and confused I lay in bed trying to drift back to sleep. 7 minutes later, something much smaller (small dog size) came sprinting past Clifton and Romulo’s tent, brushed past mine, and ran off into the distance. Perhaps a midnight hunt by a Cougar or an Andean bear?

The morning continued to provide surprises. Our soup pot lay on its side in the mud, claw and tooth marks gouged into the burnt bits at the bottom. My cup on the other hand, the one I had left a decent amount of ramen scraps on, had simply disappeared… Carried off in the night by some strange beast. Now, I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised about animals raiding our camp, yet in an entire month in the lowlands we didn’t have a single incident with the wildlife. Night 2 and 3 the creature comes back. We decide it’s a Pacca… some sort of highland mammal like a big shaggy capybara. It snorts and snuffles around, making incredibly strange noises and breathing heavily. We manage to find our pan after the 3^rd night, jammed between some roots where the Pacca got it stuck while trying to escape.

(A section of trail between station 1 and 2. The trocha runs down the entire ridge on the left)

After finishing our 3 days at station 1, we elected to set up the new station but remain at our original campsite. The second station was planned to cover a 2500m elevation plot, translating into setting up a couple kilometers down the trail and an hour long hike each way. However, with no water access anywhere except at our first station we decided against having to hike 2 hours with 20+ kg of water in favor of hiking with day packs out to our nets and returning for dinner. Station 2 was one of our slowest stations ever, second only to Station 1. With 26 birds at station 1 and about 40 at station 2, we were barely managing to pull in over 3 days what we normally caught in a day at Villa Carmen. That being said, the few birds we did catch more than made up for the slow periods with no birds. 

By day 2 of our second station we were essentially out of food. Having packed one day too little, we elected to hike out the night of day 3 rather than stay until the next morning. The night before we packed up our camp and headed to bed early. It was my turn to get water but I decided to bank on the fact that it had rained every night and hope that our tanks would fill up overnight. I woke up at 3:30 to find that it had, of course, not rained. Quickly packing my gear, I headed out in the opposite direction of our station to collect water. 20 minutes down a small game trail brought me to a tiny stream on the side of the mountain. How anybody had ever found it is beyond me... yet it is the only reliable source of water along the entire trail. The stream is so small that half of a pipe has been jammed into it so that the water flows along the pipe and then drops off a foot or two back into the stream. This is the only thing making it possible to even fill a waterbottle. 

Our last day went well, with this gorgeous jay getting snagged on our last net check of the station. We packed up our nets around 12, made a quick lunch and headed off down the trail around 2... leaving ourselves 4 hours of light for what could be between 3.5 and 5.5 hours of hiking (time estimates are generally varied and unreliable). Luckily we hiked it fast and made it to the end of the trail just before dark, leaving only a 2 hour walk down the road back to San Pedro. Our luck continued when a truck going to deliver stuff to San Pedro picked us up about half an hour in and dropped us off at camp. 

(How we catch birds - a Mist net)

So, coming back to the Coca trade. I wrote about it in one of my earlier posts but took it down at the advisement of my family. In retrospect, not a bad idea as I was terribly ill-informed. The real story (as far as I know) is a little more complex. Coca is a foothill crop. It is ideally grown in the hot, humid climate in the foothills of the Andes, just before you start hitting the real lowland rainforest. This makes the town of Pilcopata and the surrounding area (2 hours down the road from San Pedro) a great place for growing. From the lack of local produce and fruit (almost all comes by truck from Cuzco) it seems that the main crop grown in the area is indeed Coca. Now, this is not as big of an issue as you might assume. Coca is widely used in Peru for products other than Cocaine, from tea and liquor to simply chewing the leaves. It helps with altitude sickness, gives you energy and is just a generally all around useful herb. I drink coca tea any time I’m feeling under the weather and it seems to work on headaches, pain, stomach issues and pretty much everything else. Knowing this, the Peruvian government has set up a monopoly on the purchasing of Coca produced in the foothills. I’m sure I’m missing many of the intricacies but, simply put, all the coca in the lowlands is bought by the government at exorbitantly low prices, with no other legal option. However, once the Coca reaches the Andes and makes it onto the west slope it is fair game, and can be sold to anyone. As a result, many of the locals do their best to move their coca without government involvement.  The most hardcore walk up this trail, generally wearing sandals, in a single day.  

The majority of people are less hardcore and seem to take the bus or a truck. The police often set up checkpoints though and confiscate it. There seems to be no penalty for having more than your 1 bag limit... just that it gets taken. Anyway.. thats it for now. Trying to put up a post every day but I'm not really doing it in any sort of order, just most complete posts first. I'll try and organize them, but the website isn't letting me so far.