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.
