To the Bottom of the World

December 31, 2019 Villa Vanguardia to Parque Nacional Queulat 102.7 Km Ride Time: 11:04 Pedal Time: 7:55 Tour Total Pedaled 379 Km On our Itinerary we were aiming today for the town of Fresia, which existed on a map that I downloaded from a cyclist blog. However it didn’t exist on Google Maps or along Highway 7. We stealth camped in a sheep pasture 5km north of Villa Vanguardia. We set up right before dark and Scott cooked ramin. I rolled over two giant logs for us to sit on.  There was a sheep baahing outside my tent in the middle of the night. The grass was level and my pillow was inflated just right.  At 8am the inside of my tent was getting warm and it was time to get up. Everything that had been exposed to the condensation was drenched.  Scott made himself oatmeal and we began the morning routine of finding the best sun angles to dry our equipment. We leaned our bikes against the logs and spread our flies over the fence and bikes.  ...

January 1, 2020 Parque Nacional Queulat to Campo Grande 119 Km Ride Time: 12:26 Pedal Time: 8:16 Tour Total Pedaled 498 Km I got a pretty good night’s sleep at Las Toninas Camping, 5km from Parque Nacional Queulat. There was a guy in a tent adjacent to Scott’s who snored all night. It got cold and I had to zip up my bag.  I woke up at 7:30am when my tent got warm and I began the drying routine. I had Cream of Wheat and tea for breakfast.  Scott didn’t sleep well. Neighboring campers had stayed up until 3am celebrating New Year’s. I slept through it all. Scott’s bag of Cream of Wheat exploded when he tried to tear it open and the white powder went everywhere. It wasn’t looking like a good day.  I got one more shot of Amarula for the road. Happy New Year! Scott was still packing when I left at 9:15. I was hoping that we’d get away with not having to pay, but Scott got hit up right before he left.  It was predicted that there would be less ...

January 2, 2020 Campo Grande to Coyhaique 58Km pedaled  Ride Time: 11:30 Pedal Time: 3:59 Tour Total Pedaled 559.36Km I slept pretty well along the side of the road on Route 7, about 5km south of Campo Grande. I heard some cows mooing throughout the night as well as the ripple of a nearby stream.  I woke up at 7:30am as my tent began to warm from the sun. I began the usual drying of the equipment. I had been unable to pound stakes into the gravel the night before, so my fly wasn’t properly stretched. Beads of condensation were dripping on me in the early morning. Scott made cream of wheat which tasted like wallpaper paste, so I added some raisins.  Scott worked on his rear wheel. He blew out his second spare inner tube, so I gave him one of my spares. I’m now down to one. I lubed and cleaned my chain. It became overcast, which didn’t help the drying. I had a 10:30am start.  I was wearing the same outfit as yesterday, although I did rins...