PowerCycle

10/03 Chile is such a fascinating place. There are the roads that run straight up the steepest of hills ignoring such engineering marvels as switchbacks. Then there are the road surfaces that in the absence of pavement, turn into sandy, washboard-ridden rivers of dust. How they manage to washboard every single climb or descent I’ll never know. Finally there’s the complete absence of dirt. It just doesn’t exist here. As soon as you leave the road your tires are guaranteed to sink 2-3 inches into nice soft sand. Pushing is always a great way to end the day and a fun way to start it too. The back of my right calf looks like Chile chili now. I need to come up with some kind of pedal guard for times of extended pushing or some kind of quick release so I can store it away. With that said the scenery has been beautiful. The mountains all have snow on top and there were some great views the entire time. Today I passed Salar de Aguas Calientes which was rather spectacular with all its colors.

Rode along the Salar de Alacama all day leaving San Pedro. Very little traffic and nice paved road. Passed a forest of sorts which was a surprise. Had lunch at a cool little restaurant in Toconao. Crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn but there was no marker probably because it’s drifting north almost 50 feet a year. Moving the marker might get to be a hassle. At mile 46 I found a good river bed to camp in but the ground was all shale. Since this was the first time I’ve ever had to use just rocks to secure my tent it nearly blew away because the rocks were too small.

Did some housekeeping. The strap things that let me fold the fly door up out of the way were too long and the doors came undone in strong winds. I sewed them in half so now they can’t get loose. The fact that the fly door is zippered down the middle so the two unzipped sides can be folded up is awesome. The problem is that only the left side has a loop on the bottom for a tent peg. If it’s windy out (and it always is) the right side can’t be staked down to provide some wind protection. I sewed a velcro strip onto the bottom to fix that problem.

The next day was all climbing. Socaire was the only populated area and they had a couple little restaurants and a market. I stocked up on water since it might be 2 days before I find some more. Ended the day at 12,702 feet after riding for 22 miles (3,738 feet elevation gain). Had to bust out the cold weather clothes again. Saw a fox not too far away checking me out just after the sun went down.

Made it up the next day to 13,490 feet after a short 23 mile day. Only climbed 1237 feet but the roads were softer and my back tire went flat on me going up a hill. I just pushed the 1/4 mile to the top and found a (horrible) spot to camp that’s quite visible to cars passing by (only half a dozen passed me all day). The tire isn’t quite a goner if I can find a way to mend the hole. I tried making a boot inside but after inflating it with a new tube it went flat again. That might have been because the tube was bad though. I patched the tube and put on my only spare tire just because I didn’t want to mess with it anymore. I’ll get a cheapo spare tire in Salta if I can’t fix the old one.

Found a couple of pits full of water at mile 93 out of San Pedro. I filtered a bunch which should hold me over. It didn’t taste bad but it’s certainly not going to get bottled and sold anytime soon. Getting low on gas though. I knew I should have filled up in San Pedro but I thought for sure one of the two towns would have some (they didn’t).

Today was freaking brutal. The wind was fairly brisk in the morning but it was a tailwind so riding wasn’t that bad. It was very cold too. When I woke up at 6am it was 27 F in my tent (-3 C). The wind probably shaved close to 20 degrees off the temperature all day. Climbed a total of 3735 feet after riding 22 miles.

After hitting Salar de Talar and heading northeast the winds picked up considerably. In fact the winds today were stronger than anything I’ve ridden in on my entire trip. They were so strong and the roads so bad (loose gravel/sand) that I ended up pushing into the wind for about 3 miles. That was unbelievably hard. I could only push for maybe 15 feet and then I’d have to stop. Sometimes I’d just have to stand there and hold my bike and wait a couple minutes for it to die down a little. At one point I went to check a camp spot without my bike and literally had to walk tilted forward into the wind. I made a little video on my camera showing how windy it was but I started swearing a lot and had to delete it.

This first camp site ended up being a bad move because the wind was still way too strong. It even claimed the (not cheap Granite Gear) blue bag I use to keep my hiking shoes in. I saw it flying away but by the time I gave chase it was a good 100 yards away. I ran though and let me tell you, running at 14,000 feet sucks. I did manage to get within a couple feet of it when it went down into a ditch but then the wind caught it and I never saw it again. It’s probably well into Argentina by now.

The place I reluctantly have to camp tonight is right on the road. OK it’s a section of road that’s not used because it’s filled with snow but still. Anyone driving by will have a clear view if they glance this way. Traffic is non-existent so it’s not so bad. 3 cars passed me all day and I didn’t see the first one until 4 hours after I left this morning. No place to get water today except for scraping snow (I didn’t). I should be OK until I hit the mining camp tomorrow (and maybe Argentina). Huge climb waiting for me in the morning. It’s 30min after sunset (8pm) and 32 F. Brrr.

GPX track