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Following the Guanacos' Trail
Saturday, September 11, 1999
 Vern | |
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Good Morning Mountain Zone, this is Vernon Tejas with Team Omega at the Trail in Argentina.
We're heading towards Mount Aconcagua. We went four miles yesterday in relatively deep snow. Fortunately for us, there are lots of animal trails out here. We've seen lots of wildlife, many birds: condors, a burrowing owl, water ouzels, eagles, ducks, all sorts of hawks and predatory birds, and even the little horcones, which is the namesake of the valley just to the west of us. It's a small, sparrow-like bird.
We're in the Vacas Valley, which we have not seen any of the namesake so far. We have seen coyote and dogs — wild dogs — and horses that belong to the border patrol. And we also have also seen a couple herds of guanacos which — very fortunately for us — have come down to the lower elevations due to the fact that we've had so much snow recently. And we're following guanacos' trails, so we don't have to plow through the knee-deep, fresh snow. Last night it snowed again, but fortunately it was just a little dusting; I think we'll be able to find the trails easily.
After three days of dealing with the bureaucratic morass of red tape, it feels good to be back on the trail. And we're looking forward to continuing these broadcasts from Aconcagua, Argentina.
—Vernon Tejas, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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