Carretera Austral Day #14 Rio Resbalon to Villa O’Higgins
January 11, 2020
Rio Resbalon to Villa O’Higgins 55.81 km
Ride Time: 4:30
Pedal Time: 4:00
Tour Total Pedaled 1163.67 km
I slept reasonably well alongside the roaring Rio Bravo. It rained during the night, and the wind finally settled down. My tent didn’t break, and my Thermarest didn’t deflate. My poor frozen feet finally de-thawed and I stayed warm. At times during the night I was even hot.
At 7:30 I was awoken by someone outside my tent. I did my best to apologize and explain that it had been dark, rainy, and windy when I arrived. It was a campesino, ostensibly the land owner, along with his two dogs. It was absurd, because we were literally in the middle of nowhere. Yesterday we hadn’t seen structures or signs of human activity for hours. He wanted CP$3,000 (roughly $4) from each of us, which we gladly forked over. It was worth the story of getting caught stealth camping, and in addition he let me take his photo. The man acknowledged that it was still early, and suggested we get some more sleep. But we were up. This was the earliest Scott had ever awoken on the tour.
After packing all my bedding, the last thing I did was to put on my damp socks. They had partially dried, hanging from the inside of my tent dome. Cold wet feet is a lousy way to start the day.
I ate a Cliff bar and Scott gave me half an avocado. We went around the fence rather than over it this time. We had a 9am start. A bit down the road we saw the campesino’s house. Go figure.
We stopped fifteen minutes after starting for Scott to remove layers of clothing. We stopped again to fill water bottles from a stream. Scott wanted his double filtered but I just used the UV.
We began the first pass of the day. It was overcast.
At one point, Scott spotted condors flying above us. We noticed quite a few. I was awed by the blue edges of the ice fields on top of the mountains to the west. This was first time I could remember seeing such vivid blue ice features like that.
We hit a nice smooth section of rolled fine gravel and dirt that felt like asphalt. It was amazing how much easier and faster it was to pedal.
We encountered construction equipment that was grading and smoothing the gravel. Large red trucks were hauling the material in from further south.
There was a car forward, a northbound white van, so we pulled over to let him pass. He blasted his horn aggressively and I instantly flipped him off. I hope he crashes into a telephone pole, even though there weren’t any telephone poles anywhere around here.
There were sheep in the road, cows in the road and a dog taking a nap in the middle of the road. The oncoming big red dump trucks would stop for us to let us pass.
The handlebar tape finally wore through on the right side and was unraveling.
We encountered Lago Cisnes
and rode clear around it. The snow-capped mountains that ringed it provided a Kodak moment. I couldn’t stop for long though. The air was thick with gnats. Whenever there’s not rain or wind, one can always count on insects.
I could see Villa O’Higgins from 15 miles out, but we had to circle around the lake and then double back around a land mass the end of the lake making a big S. We crossed Puente Coronel Guillermo Van Schouwen F. over the Rio Mayer. It was the last major crossing on the Carretera Austral.
I began seeing structures including a large billboard that read O’Higgins protects the Huemul, the south Andean deer. I noticed signs advertising cabañas. I was back in civilization once again. And then there was one more uphill.
We arrived at 1:30pm. The first stop was the Robinson Caruso office to book a ferry ticket south, but it was closed. We then went to the office of Navegaciones Las Ruedas where we were able to buy ferry tickets for Monday.
The next order of business was food. We went to Los Leones Restaurant, a lovely place run by a French family who spends half the year here and the other half in France. I had two lasagna lunches and two pints of beer.
We went to El Mosco, a hostel and campground popular with cyclists and backpackers.
After setting up our tents and taking showers I went to the store and bought a couple of beers. We returned to to Los Leones for dinner.
Rio Resbalon to Villa O’Higgins 55.81 km
Ride Time: 4:30
Pedal Time: 4:00
Tour Total Pedaled 1163.67 km
I slept reasonably well alongside the roaring Rio Bravo. It rained during the night, and the wind finally settled down. My tent didn’t break, and my Thermarest didn’t deflate. My poor frozen feet finally de-thawed and I stayed warm. At times during the night I was even hot.
At 7:30 I was awoken by someone outside my tent. I did my best to apologize and explain that it had been dark, rainy, and windy when I arrived. It was a campesino, ostensibly the land owner, along with his two dogs. It was absurd, because we were literally in the middle of nowhere. Yesterday we hadn’t seen structures or signs of human activity for hours. He wanted CP$3,000 (roughly $4) from each of us, which we gladly forked over. It was worth the story of getting caught stealth camping, and in addition he let me take his photo. The man acknowledged that it was still early, and suggested we get some more sleep. But we were up. This was the earliest Scott had ever awoken on the tour.
After packing all my bedding, the last thing I did was to put on my damp socks. They had partially dried, hanging from the inside of my tent dome. Cold wet feet is a lousy way to start the day.
I ate a Cliff bar and Scott gave me half an avocado. We went around the fence rather than over it this time. We had a 9am start. A bit down the road we saw the campesino’s house. Go figure.
We stopped fifteen minutes after starting for Scott to remove layers of clothing. We stopped again to fill water bottles from a stream. Scott wanted his double filtered but I just used the UV.
We began the first pass of the day. It was overcast.
At one point, Scott spotted condors flying above us. We noticed quite a few. I was awed by the blue edges of the ice fields on top of the mountains to the west. This was first time I could remember seeing such vivid blue ice features like that.
We hit a nice smooth section of rolled fine gravel and dirt that felt like asphalt. It was amazing how much easier and faster it was to pedal.
We encountered construction equipment that was grading and smoothing the gravel. Large red trucks were hauling the material in from further south.
There was a car forward, a northbound white van, so we pulled over to let him pass. He blasted his horn aggressively and I instantly flipped him off. I hope he crashes into a telephone pole, even though there weren’t any telephone poles anywhere around here.
There were sheep in the road, cows in the road and a dog taking a nap in the middle of the road. The oncoming big red dump trucks would stop for us to let us pass.
The handlebar tape finally wore through on the right side and was unraveling.
We encountered Lago Cisnes
and rode clear around it. The snow-capped mountains that ringed it provided a Kodak moment. I couldn’t stop for long though. The air was thick with gnats. Whenever there’s not rain or wind, one can always count on insects.
I could see Villa O’Higgins from 15 miles out, but we had to circle around the lake and then double back around a land mass the end of the lake making a big S. We crossed Puente Coronel Guillermo Van Schouwen F. over the Rio Mayer. It was the last major crossing on the Carretera Austral.
I began seeing structures including a large billboard that read O’Higgins protects the Huemul, the south Andean deer. I noticed signs advertising cabañas. I was back in civilization once again. And then there was one more uphill.
We arrived at 1:30pm. The first stop was the Robinson Caruso office to book a ferry ticket south, but it was closed. We then went to the office of Navegaciones Las Ruedas where we were able to buy ferry tickets for Monday.
The next order of business was food. We went to Los Leones Restaurant, a lovely place run by a French family who spends half the year here and the other half in France. I had two lasagna lunches and two pints of beer.
We went to El Mosco, a hostel and campground popular with cyclists and backpackers.
After setting up our tents and taking showers I went to the store and bought a couple of beers. We returned to to Los Leones for dinner.
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