Category: hiking

cycling the Carretera Austral, Chile do NOT post

During my two months in Patagonia 2018 I did a fair bit of research on a future cycle hiking trip.

  • what bike? (Surly Long Haul Trucker with 40mm tires is popular)
  • buy, rent or bring a bike with me from Canada?
  • exact route? (north to south via Chiloe sounds best to me)

I’d camp and hike en route.

The Carretera is far more popular now than when I did it in 2004 by bus / hitchhiking.

The Carretera Austral runs about 1,240 kilometers (770 mi) from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins through (sparsely populated) rural Patagonia. …

This area is characterized by thick forests, fjords, glaciers, canals and steep mountains. …

Among the world’s finest road trips, the Carretera Austral – or “Southern Highway” – is a 1240km route through Chile that’s mostly unpaved. Winding through millennia-old forests, it visits dusty Andean hamlets and turquoise rivers spawned from landlocked glaciers. …

Cyclists should have the skills and materials to repair their own gear, and should plan on taking a solid month for the entire endeavor. According to Italian cyclist Tomas Balzk, the hardest part was not pedaling the terrain, but ingesting enough calories. …

Lonely Planet

Cyclists-on-the-Carretera-Austral

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New Balance 1260 running shoes

UPDATE — Durability is not all that great. I wore through my first pair already.

Still … since I love the shoe I ordered two more pairs from New Balance Canada.

9 1/2 4E and 9 4E. CAD — $224 each in the wide size.

I’ll see which length fits better.

___ original post from October 2017:

Having once again misplaced my indoor Gymnastics coaching shoes, I bought another pair at New Balance Montreal.

Ex$pen$ive at over C$200 including tax.

But I love New Balance 4E. It’s the widest I’ve found from any brand.

These days I want as much cushioning as I can get. This shoe is good for road and trail running. So far I’m happy with the purchase.

 

ciou Bariloche, Argentina

When you hear Argentinians speak, it sounds like Italian.

Immigrants from Italy have had a big influence on the culture.

In the outdoor sports mecca of Bariloche you are just as likely to hear ciao as adios, for example.

Some final photos.

pizza is one of the best value dinner choices in Argentina

Llao Llao Hotel – perhaps the most famous in the nation

El Bolsón, Argentina

Pretty much everyone likes this little mountain town. I spent a week in and around.

It’s not hard to see why the hippies started flocking to El Bolsón back in the ’70s. It’s a mellow little village for most of the year, nestled in between two mountain ranges. When summer comes, it packs out with Argentine tourists who drop big wads of cash and disappear quietly to whence they came. … 
What’s indisputable is that just out of town are some excellent, easily accessible hikes and mountain-bike rides that take in some of the country’s most gorgeous landscapes.
The town welcomes backpackers, who find themselves stuffing their bellies with natural and vegetarian foods, as well the excellent beer, sweets, jams and honey made from the local harvest.

There are plenty of important things El Bolsón should be working towards … but instead they have been banning nuclear weapons and building a pretty bridge to nowhere.


I spent a week hiking out of one of the best hostels in the country – La Casona de Odile.

Tranquil and green.

turning northward in South America

This is as far south as I’ll get on this trip. The summit of Piltriquitrón.

Piltriquitrón

I did the 1800m ascent over 2 days.

This is the 42nd parallel. About as far south as the Oregon / California border is north.

Still. It’s March. You can feel summer ending in the Patagonian lake district.