There are some moments from TJ Coakley’s trip to Patagonia that are etched forever in his mind.

 

“We were directly under the Cerro Torre Range and adjacent to Mount Fitz Roy. We stayed there for three nights and it was the first time it hadn’t been cloudy at night,” he said. “To witness the stars was out of this world. There was literally no light pollution so it was from horizon to horizon – a blanket of stars. And the Milky Way was clearer than I had ever seen it.”

 

The sight Coakley explains was experienced during his and his friend Sam Dooley’s recent trip to the southernmost tip of South America. From late-February into early-March, the former Bridgeport High School classmates set out to backpack across portions of Argentina and Brazil.

 

“We hatched the idea years ago – probably toward the end of college, so it was about 2011,” Dooley said. “TJ and I both love the outdoors and camping and Patagonia is one of the meccas of backpacking. The scenery is spectacular and the whole area we were in is really geared toward outdoor activities.”

 

A lot of thought was put into the trip which the guys knew could be pricey, but was an exciting alternative to driving to the mountains for a weekend, Dooley said.

 

In addition to purchasing plane tickets and obtaining visas, planning included plenty of strategy – making sure they had items to meet their basic needs, but keeping their packs as light as possible.

 

“Each of our backpacks weighed about 40 pounds,” Coakley said. “We took freeze-dried meals and stuff like that and packed light on clothes. We were in the middle of nowhere and we didn’t have to smell nice for anyone.”

 

The men flew into Buenos Aries, Argentina, where Coakley said he ate the best steak of his life.

 

“They are – in the true sense of the word – cowboys or rancheros there,” Coakley said. “Pretty much everything revolves around the cow and everything is made of leather.”

 

After exploring the city on foot and staying two nights in a hotel, they flew to El Calafate, the central hub of Patagonia and the trekking capital of the world.

 

“We picked a direction and walked out of town and ended up on a hiking trail,” Coakley said. With packs, the guys hiked between 50 and 70 miles, sleeping in tents and enjoying almost every minute.

 

“Our worse worry was when it storms in Patagonia, it really storms,” Coakley said. “And one of the days we camped at Lago Torre, a storm rolled in and we were confined to our tents the entire day. There were gusts of wind 70 miles per hour and ice and old rain coming off the top of the glacier. That was a rather miserable day.”

 

Other than that, the weather was ideal for hiking and sightseeing.

“It was the end of their summer so the daytime got pretty warm – into the 70s – and at night dropping into the 30s,” Coakley said.

 

One of Coakley's favorite experiences was fly fishing.

 

“I’ve been fly fishing probably since before I could walk, so it was really nice to be able to catch rainbow and golden trout in Patagonia,” he said. “We had an awesome guide, who cooked steaks and stuff for lunch, then we were back on the river until dark.

 

Dooley said having a Spanish-speaking guide put a cool twist on the fishing excursion, which he agrees was one of the highlights of the trip.

 

Overall, Dooley said he and Coakley were thrilled with the outcome of the trip.

 

“The scenery itself was incredibly different from anything we had ever seen. It put the Rocky Mountains to shame. It was awe-inspiring landscape and totally satisfying,” he said.

 

The Perito Moreno Glacier was the first glacier he had ever seen “up close and personal.”

 

“And we were there at a really cool time. It was very interesting because there was a natural formation occurring at the time we were there and a natural ice cave happening from the river on one side of the glacier connecting to the lake on the other side of it,” Dooley said. “It was really active and you could hear the big ice cracking a mile away. We were on a boat about 50 yards away from it – a half-mile long and 10-12 stories high - towering up over us. It’s something you can’t describe until you see it.”

 

Another highlight was meeting so many interesting people from all over the world, who in comparison to Coakley and Dooley’s two-week trip had spent some serious time on the road.

 

“The average travel time for most of these people was four to six months,” Dooley said. “We met one group of guys who went on motorcycles down to Patagonia through Central and South America. Another guy – from Chile – started in Alaska and over the last two years has gone through North and South America and is finishing his trip in Patagonia.”

 

Coakley and Dooley’s trip back to the states was about 36 hours with flights and layovers and they both agree that by the time they made it home, their own beds felt pretty good. And as they spent a pretty substantial amount of time without cell service or Internet and therefor out of touch with family, it was nice to be reunited with everyone back home, they said.

 

But they would do it all again in a heartbeat.

 

“We’ve already talked about it and said by 2020 we’ll be going back to Patagonia,” Dooley said. 

 

Coakley and Dooley are both members of the BHS class of 2007.

 

Coakley manages Domino's Pizza in Bridgeport. Dooley lives in Columbia, SC and operates his own dog training business. Since the Patagonia trip, Dooley backbacked and camped out west in territory which included Yellowstone National Park.