06/13 It’s sure nice to be typing this from a warm bed after riding in 50F weather for 2 days and seeing it hit 31F in my tent last night (it was probably a tad colder outside). The route I took was kind of a last minute thing but it worked out nicely. It wasn’t easy though. After turning off at San Marcos the road was dirt but it was probably in better condition than any other dirt road I’ve been on in Peru. Sometimes the corners on the switchbacks were brutal and the grade got pretty steep at times but overall it wasn’t too bad. I managed to ride 24 miles and climb 4,436 feet.
I kind of thought there’d only be one pass yesterday but no such luck. After the huge climb up to the first pass I dropped down only to round a mountain and then have to climb right back up again. By this time I was beat but camping spots were non-existent thanks to mining companies scattered all over the place. At a zinc mine I finally stopped and asked the security guy if I could pitch my tent on a grassy area next to the road. He called his supervisor and I got the OK. The GPS had me at 14,149 feet which is the highest I’ve ever camped before.
Today was cloudy and cool with a nice cold headwind all day. I thought I’d be passing a town called Antamina but it turned out to just be a mining camp–no services available. I could have used some water at this point since there wasn’t anywhere after the villages the day before to buy some and even filtering it from the streams seemed risky thanks to the mining. I guess I could have asked one of the many mining people for some but the bottle I had left lasted all day.
After Antamina the gravel road met up with a paved one. There was a quick climb and then it was downhill until the signed junction to Huallanca. This road was gravel but it was also in great shape. It was downhill for the next 23 miles along a beautiful valley. I’d ride this way again just for this part.
Once again my map proved to be useless. The road didn’t drop down leaving me with a short ride to the east to get to Huallanca. As I soon found the town was 6 miles to the west. A guy in a truck told me this as I was standing at the unsigned T junction wondering which way to go. This is where I might have screwed up. I should have asked him how far it was because La Union (to the east) is where I wanted to go anyway and it’s downhill according to a PDF I have. Not sure how far it is so maybe coming here was a better idea. My legs weren’t up for much else after putting in 48 miles today.
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