Saturday, March 17, 2012

Stats updated, round 2

Stats to date 3-17-12

Time on road 3 months
Here are my stats:
Miles covered: 941 miles (1569 kilometers)
Total days on bicycle  trip: 90
Days on the bike: 41
Days off the bike:  49-is there something wrong with this picture???? No wonder I am in under 1,000 miles!
Average number of hours spent on the road when riding: 4 including stops for lunch, photos etc.
Nights spent sleeping in tent:  81
Nights spent “wild” camping on side of road somewhere: 37
Number of showers: 20
Number of beers:  27
Number of jars of peanut butter consumed: 4 and I can’t get find any more right now!
Number of flat tires: 1
New stat per my GPS, total feet/meters of ascent: 60,403 feet/18,304 meters-that is more feet ascended than if I climbed Mount Everest twice from sea level!!Woohoo! Of course, what goes up must come down, woohooo to that too!!
If you have any other stat you are interested in then let me know, I probably keep track of it too as that is what I do by nature, crunch numbers! I am such a bookkeeper at heart!

Burn Rubber

Burn Rubber
I had my first flat tire the other day. It was my first day on paved roads in almost a month. I had taken the time at the campground the day before to clean my chain and gear cassettes and make my bike all svelte for this wonderful paved road. I was six miles (ten km) into the paved road going at a snail’s pace up a huge grade and I popped a tube. Okay so I didn’t quite make 1000 miles without a flat, bummer. 

I patched the flat tube and checked out the tire to see what might have caused the flat and it turns out that I just plain wore through a tire! My bike has become an eating machine like me but it is eating rubber! An $86 tire no less! AND there were several other spots on the tire almost worn through as well and would inevitably be cause for future flats had I not had a spare tire to change out. 

Anyway, I took photos and kept the tire because I think it must be a bum tire for it not to last at least 1000 miles! Betty and I meandered 4221 miles across the entire USA each on the same set of stock tires back in ’94. Does anybody know any different, should I have worn through a tire already?
Could these roads have been the culprits??? They look okay to me!



Food Glorious Food

Food Glorious Food!!
Although located in a stunningly beautiful area, the Carretera Austral which stretches about 700 miles (1388 km) all dirt road except for about 135 miles (225 km). I have just finished riding my first 340 miles (566 km) on it and recently hit the small part that is paved in the middle. 
Villa Cerro Castillo and the paved road!

The road which is not the busiest road in the first place has been super slow due to the labor strike and it has been really nice having the whole road with only about six cars per day. There aren’t as many bicyclists traveling here now because they are afraid of getting stuck due to the problem of no fuel for the boat.
At times during this strike there have been road blocks set up in places and demonstrators weren’t allowing the passage of cars and/or only allowed passage during certain times. I didn’t have any problem in that realm because I am on a bike. However, not having transport available has caused some other problems for me.  I have become an eating machine and seem to be hungry all of the time. Fellow cyclists told me that on the Carretera Austral I would never be more than two days away from a resupply of food but because of the strike, the grocery stores in what few towns there are here are running out of supplies. In some towns I couldn’t get any bread at all, there are often no eggs, no butter, and few other staples. So I am stocking up whenever I can and continue to carry a lot of weight in food. Today I found cheese for the first time in 3 weeks and I got the last egg at the supermarket.  The owner of the campground on my last stop took pity on me and gifted me a loaf of bread after she found out I couldn’t buy it anywhere in town!
Finally I arrived in probably the only real city on the Carretera Austral, Coyhaique. I am now fairly close to the northern part of the strike zone and the government has insisted that road blocks be removed, so there is food in Coyhaique.  I shopped the grocery store and was as excited as a kid in a candy store or better yet Disney World! I had to stroll down every aisle as there was so much to look at, so much variety. I had forgotten about some foods which used to be staples but were unavailable for so long like salami. These things were calling out to me and I made a rookie mistake of shopping while I was hungry! Everyone knows not to shop while hungry! I paid for my mistake literally by buying about $55 worth of food and my panniers are now stuffed with enough food for a few weeks and I am back to having a super heavy set of front panniers.  But at least my first few days outta here won’t be on dirt roads!
Yummy breakfast-plain yogurt, fruit,coffee, juice, and toast with marmelade! One of my favorite meals!

Trekking with bici

Trekking with bici

I haven’t posted in a long time, I didn’t think I would be very diligent at this and it appears I was right! I have finally left southern Patagonia and have left the evil wind behind me.  But leaving southern Patagonia required a bit of an adventure.
About a week ago I met a Chilena named Sandra who was on a two month vacation and biking alone so we rode together for about 3 days. Sandra’s English, though limited, was better than my Spanish. 
Sandra
Bicycle in Spanish is bicicleta (pronounced bee-see-clay-ta) or bici (bee-see) for short and whenever the road was really steep Sandra would say “I trekking with bici now” and she would start pushing her bike up the hill. I hate pushing my bike and will try my hardest to rest and persevere just so I don’t have to push it.  I have had to push it on some steep inclines though as my wheels would just spin but every time it reminds me of my recent crossing into Chile.
There are no roads that cross into the southernmost part of the famous route in Chile called the Carretera Austral so the only way to reach it without having to travel in from the north and back track out again is to do it in a series of steps  which require one to travel by hike and/or bike, boat, hike (with/without bike), boat again, and finally hike and/or bike again.
This crossing first required a ride on an 18 mile (30 km) dead end dirt road half of which was in horrible shape. I reached the end of the road and thought I would have to camp there but instead I just barely made the last boat of the day to cross the lake. It was perfect timing because the boat had actually pulled away from the dock and then saw me coming and returned to let me on!
The weather was just gorgeous the evening I arrived on the north side of the lake and I had beautiful views across the lake of a famous mountain called Fitz Roy. 


Fitz Roy as seen during my hike the day previous in Los Glaciares National Park

On the north side of the lake is a peaceful little immigration outpost manned by three men who stamp passportsfor those leaving/entering Argentina and where it is possible to camp on the grass in front of the lake for free (one of my favorite 4 letter words).
The trip got kind of tricky here as the only way to cross into Chile is to hike over a mountain/hill for 4.2 miles (7 km). Biking this trail is not an option as the trail is uphill and very steep and also narrow in places from being trodden down by horses.  
There are large tree roots and rocks on the trail too, so although I tried in a few places, there wasn’t much point in climbing on the bike to ride 15 feet and have to get off again to hump over a big tree root.



Most people are traveling from the north to south and can hire horses in Chile to carry their stuff over the mountain if they want.  I had considered this option but a fellow cyclist told me that coming from south to north it is not possible to arrange the horses as the arrangements have to be made in Chile and there are no phones in this area and the radios don’t reach there. For some reason the Argentinians and Chileans aren’t working together to make this happen. Since it would be impossible, or at least undesirable, for me to push my 97 lbs (44 kg) of stuff and my 28 lb (13 kg) bike over this mountain, I had a backup plan. I camped at the border for two nights and used one of the days to hike twiceover the mountain with my stuff. On the first of my trips one of the border guards walked with me and he showed me a spot to ¨hide¨ my things which seemed to be (according to him) a point at which the rest of the trail was smooth sailing. So I only had to trek over the mountain the next day with my bike carrying a tent, sleeping bag, and a little bit of food. NO SWEAT! 
Tankita

At this point I was thinking how easy I had it. All of that changed the next day when I reached my cache, loaded up my bike and proceeded to go further on the “smooth sailing” part of the trail.  This is where I was reminded of the huge difference between talking to someone who is on a bike and talking to someone who is walking or driving, totally different perspectives and you can’t trust an opinion of someone not on a bike!  I really struggled with the last part of the trail. The trail was super steep in some places and difficult to get footing while pushing such a load. It also seemed to be steepest right where there was some monstrous tree root or log straddling the trail in addition.

At this point I really hated all of my “stuff” and was cursing myself for trusting the perspective of a person foreign to “trekking with bici.” But I got through it with only a few giant black and blue marks knowing what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! It was all worth it and I’m getting stronger by the day!
Next was a four wheel drive road for 6.8 miles (15 km) which fortunately was mostly downhill for me.  Folks coming from the other way can hire a 4x4 to take them up this road. 
I rode with a couple from Holland for a little while on the nice part of the road.

I remember thinking in the last couple of miles that I would hate to have to bike up that road. The rocks were huge and loose, there were a lot of sandy parts too. I was struggling to keep the bike upright in places while holding onto the brakes for dear life and skidding around corners; kinda fun, kind not.

At last I reached the Chilean immigration post and was stamped entry into Chile.  The only other civilization that exists here is a ranch where I camped for $4 and waited for another boat to take me across a much bigger lake.
I had started the crossing from Argentina just as a labor strike was taking place in the Aysen region that I was trying to get to in Chile. Three fellow Americans that were backpacking north to south informed me that the people working to deliver fuel to this area were on strike and no fuel was being brought south into the region. The nearest fuel was 400 miles north and this meant the boat may not have fuel to operate as scheduled. The boat operator had told the other Americans that is was the last trip until after the strike. I was thinking I may file for residency at the ranch because I certainly wasn’t going to cross back to Argentina again! Lucky again, I caught the last boat before the strike went full bore, I crossed the lake, and after riding 3.2 miles (7 km) on the other side of the lake I reached Villa O’Higgins and the southern point of the Carretera Austral!!

Stupid Raytheon-glad not to work for them anymore but still reminded of them like here on the boat! At least they paid me and that is how I am doing this trip! For that I am thankful!