Six Weeks on the Carretera Austral

Day 33 – Tuesday March 29: Over the hills to Cochrane

 It rained and blew violently during the night, and everyone feared that we’d be facing a very uncomfortable day. But we started out about 10:00 and managed to stay just ahead of the squall line. We followed the Rio Baker downriver past the largest rapids we’ve seen so far, and then it joined with another large river, the Rio Chacabuco. At that confluence the Rio Baker comes in beautifully blue and frothy, while the Rio Chacabuco appears brown from the vast quantities of mud and silt it carries. From there on the Rio Baker is sand-colored. Just after the confluence the road headed uphill in a series of the steepest climbs we have so far encountered – at least 19%. Some walked and counted themselves lucky to have made it at all. Ultimately we picked up some downhill speed for the final push into the town of Cochrane. The nearly 50km seemed longer because of the steeps, and we had gained about 2800 feet.

Our B&B was the house of a jolly man who clearly liked having guests. Pictures on the wall suggested he was an empty-nester. The town of Cochrane itself occupies a crossroads. It has a huge town square, a couple of good cafes, a restaurant, a super Supermercado, and an internet café. Unfortunately the connection speed there was so slow that we couldn’t talk by phone on Skype or upload pictures. We enjoyed dinner at the restaurant and returned early for our next ride. The route was becoming a little cloudy now, a little unfocused, but we rose to a rich breakfast to set out on the next leg.

Day 34 – Wednesday March 30: Camping halfway to Caleta Tortel

Because of the ferry cancellation south of Villa O’Higgins, we were now trimming our sails to suit the wind, and David (through Laura) made arrangements for us to stay in a Campsite with a Refugio – Refugio and Los Nadiz camping -- a small structure with four bunks and a rudimentary kitchen. It lay at the bottom of another serious pass that traveled east to west, back into the wet landscape. More serious uphill and downhills took us over yet another pass towards Caleta Tortel.

At the bottom of a spectacular descent Steve and Steve Jahn and John, though, passed up the turnoff to the campsite/refugio and ended up many miles and hundreds of vertical feet ahead. In the rain and cold. Eventually they realized their mistake and turned back some 30km beyond the turnoff. Mercifully Tikka and Dario had come looking for them with the truck, and the three were able to get inside and warm. But the message was clear: we had no real other options in this deserted landscape, and we had to make sure that everyone was on the same page to avoid disaster. That night five of us slept on the floor of the refugio kitchen because it was so cold and windy and rainy outside.  The original ride to the refugio covered nearly 60km and 2600 feet; the three rogues had clocked in yet another 30km and perhaps a thousand feet more of elevation gain. Just about everyone slept fitfully.

A new big worry was that Tikka discovered his truck had lost its brakes, and he had to descend using the engine drag on the transmission.  This in turn meant that the next day Tikka had to return to Cochrane to find a mechanic to fix the truck while the rest of us would press on without support for a long day in foul weather to Caleta Tortel. Also, we had been riding steadily without any more days off, so everyone was getting tired. But more strenuous adventures waited ahead.

Day 34 – Wednesday March 30: Camping halfway to Caleta Tortel

Because of the ferry cancellation south of Villa O’Higgins, we were now trimming our sails to suit the wind, and David (through Laura) made arrangements for us to stay in a Campsite with a Refugio – Refugio and Los Nadiz camping -- a small structure with four bunks and a rudimentary kitchen. It lay at the bottom of another serious pass that traveled east to west, back into the wet landscape. More serious uphill and downhills took us over yet another pass towards Caleta Tortel.

At the bottom of a spectacular descent Steve and Steve Jahn and John, though, passed up the turnoff to the campsite/refugio and ended up many miles and hundreds of vertical feet ahead. In the rain and cold. Eventually they realized their mistake and turned back some 30km beyond the turnoff. Mercifully Tikka and Dario had come looking for them with the truck, and the three were able to get inside and warm. But the message was clear: we had no real other options in this deserted landscape, and we had to make sure that everyone was on the same page to avoid disaster. That night five of us slept on the floor of the refugio kitchen because it was so cold and windy and rainy outside.  The original ride to the refugio covered nearly 60km and 2600 feet; the three rogues had clocked in yet another 30km and perhaps a thousand feet more of elevation gain. Just about everyone slept fitfully.

A new big worry was that Tikka discovered his truck had lost its brakes, and he had to descend using the engine drag on the transmission.  This in turn meant that the next day Tikka had to return to Cochrane to find a mechanic to fix the truck while the rest of us would press on without support for a long day in foul weather to Caleta Tortel. Also, we had been riding steadily without any more days off, so everyone was getting tired. But even more strenuous adventures waited ahead.

Day 35 – Thursday March 31: Torturous road to Caleta Tortel

Complicated day today. We left the Camping/refugio site in the rain and started making our way to Caleta Tortel, which we thought was about 60 to 70km away. Tikka and Dario and Steve Jahn, who wasn't feeling all that well, headed back to Cochrane where they hoped to find a mechanic. And it trned out to be even more complicated than that, ...they found out in Cochrane that the rear end of the truck was trashed, as well as the brakes. They worked with an amazing mechanic who fashioned the part they needed for the rear end, and they were able to get things fixed by the end of the day and to come back over the pass to find us.

Meanwhile a lot of time passed, and in the very late afternoon we began to dribble into Caleta Tortel, which marked the end of the Carretera Austral for us. The distance, though, had turned out to be tricky, and as we were riding without support – that is, with most of our gear in the truck or the trailer. – ii was a bit unnerving. We had pressed on, and the ride turned epic. Long -- 97km on really nasty roads -- up and down and finally up and up to arrive around 5:00 in Caleta Tortel. It was still raining, hard, and we were freezing.

It is an amazing town, unimaginable. It's built on steep stone cliffs and until 2003 was only accessible by water. The town came into being in the thirties by building walkways on stilts between houses and shops, so you have to climb up and down stairs and along these walkways. Which were very slippery for people walking in bicycle shoes. The town is unbelievably situated looking out at a fjord. But the rain was really coming down and it would be dark soon After an hour we finally found our place to stay, which was warm and welcoming. Our guide David had ridden this ride to make sure we made it, and he arrived with Tom around 7:00. No sign of Tikka and Dario and Steve Jahn though, and then darkness dropped down. No streetlights in this town because no streets. And you had to park at one end, high up, where the road arrived and dead-ended. The owners fixed us dinner and we went to bed exhausted.

We feared the worst for the truck, but In the morning we came down to breakfast to find that everyone had made it, though not until midnight, in a water taxi.  The truck was fixed and we were all together.

We had some new directions to ride though, starting out that very day.

Day 36 – Friday April 1 – Another Patagonia

David had arranged for us to be transported back over the road we had just traveled, to Cochrane and points eastward in Argentina, since our way was blocked any further south into Chile. We rode from Caleta Tortel in a fairly new red Dodge Durango -- luxury!! -- with the bike trailer and truck following at a distance. In Cochrane we had lunch and got back into the Durango, heading north and east perhaps seventy or eighty kilometers to a little used pass through the Andes. The weather changed to sunny and windy – seriously windy, mainly from behind. Now we got to see the wild life of the steppes: herds of the deerlike/llamalike guanacos, their faces set with huge eyes and eyelashes like a camel. We saw Rheas, the ostrich-like birds that can run almost as fast as the car. We saw a couple of condors cruising high above. A couple people saw armadillos. 

The plan had been to be dropped off with our bikes near the border, cross the Chilean border station, ride the 10km to the Argentina border station, and press ahead to an Estancia – a ranch where we could stay. But by the time we got through the Argentina border it was almost six and we clearly couldn’t make the next 20 or 30km to the Estancia. There was no other habitation on the road at all. Just a few kilometers into Argentine though, we descended to the bottom of  a hill to find the ruins of an old adobe building with its walls pushed down and the bricks scattered, It was next to a beautiful flowing stream and we decided to set up camp. The wind was howling from behind the hill we had just descended, but it was calm enough by the tumbled walls to get the tents out and set up a kitchen tent, where we ate. The terrain was desertlike but filled with gigantic buttes and mountainous profiles. It promised to be cold, but we hunkered down anyway and went to sleep.

The next day was to be our last one on the bikes, and it looked like a long day, a long way to the tiny village of Baho Caricola. We had no idea what the day held in store for us!