Time for my riding challenges to resume, gravel roads hmmmmmm. I'm learning and will get better as we'll be on them for the next couple of weeks.
Camped at Jorge's fly fishing Hostel in the cow, cow patty pasture.
Such a pull of old ski places where we would stay in northern Wisconsin and the UP when I was a kid.
Cooked dinner on the outdoor wooden truck grease rack, a most excellent smoked salmon pasta with the an accompanying bottle of cheap, but good red wine. Fell asleep looking at the stars.
Cow, cow patty pasture
Breakfast in the Hostel with Jorge, nice little kitchen, warm, eggs, bread, Nescafe coffee. He's a fly fishing bum that made it work, like some mountain and ski bums I know. Great little house, a couple of rooms, a camp ground, boats, fishes everyday and smiles easily.
Feb 21st Chaiten, Chile, 43 degree south
Rain, misty, so, so SE Alaska like
Riding alone today through a large open valley surrounded by glacier capped peaks, Jim and Max ahead. The chase is over now, I ride for myself, we've agreed to discuss the route in the morning, pre determine check in points and ride as we feel, take pictures and truly enjoy where we are.
However the KTM is struggling for control of the trip again. The head set has now developed a problem, feeling like a missing bearing, notching the steering straight ahead.......hmmmmm. And somewhere along the way the end cap of the muffler fell off....... My vote is, ride it till it self destructs and then we'll give it a decent drunken burial.
LMAO recalling after leaving the last KTM shop Max said "I think the KTM Is now at it's best short term reliability" so true, as in "short term."
So much like SE AK
We find a nice little place to stay in Chaiten with a small kitchen. Red wine beer and rain, cozy room with hot water and heat.....yeah. With a kitchen Max cooks up a great breakfast and we have real coffee.
No Internet is perhaps a gift, perhaps it is a chance to collect, evaluate and ponder the meaning of life......he says laughingly. Pondering the power of a relationship for sure. Out touch is different from out of connection. Everyday there are moments when I feel a connection with my lover.
Feb 22nd
Looking down the street at the mountain, Corcovado I feel myself stepping into the movie "180 Degrees South". I can see it's pull.
Eerie and fascinating the town of Chaiten was evacuated in 2008 during the eruption of a nearby volcano. In the end 50 people returned leaving some buildings deserted while others show every sign of life. The town is now developing into a tourist destination complete with cruise ships dropping passengers off to tour the volcano.
Watching a cruising sail boat come in....ah cruising this archipelago would be fantastic, awesome.
We decide to do a tour today and head out to hike the local volcano.
First trail food at the market then the bank, with a no Visa ATM, crap, then a line at the gas station so we skip it. It's not far so we go.
Somewhere along the way Jim and Max pick up two girls hitch hiking the way we are going. They say they know where the trail is which will be helpful. We ride till I'm on reserve and Jim and Max are low on fuel and no trail head. Figuring these girls have no idea where the trail is and just wanted a ride further down the road we drop them off and head back towards town. We see a sign for a ranger station and head in.
We talk to Arron, the ranger there, he tells us where the trail is, back closer to town. We feel better when he tells there's no sign and unless you know where the trail is you'll miss it. As we did.
We run into two Belgians touring on bicycles, that we had talked to in Chaiten earlier, so cool. We talked about Belgian beers and invited them to Alaska for there next trip. Hope they make it. Great energy.
Back towards town again we find the trail. Jim decides to keep going to town, Max and I hit the trail.
On the hike up we run into a local couple. Talking about the town mentions other than tourism the only industry is salmon framing much to his disgust.......yeah!
The blow out area of the volcano
Steam from the top of the volcano.
Max and I have a good hike up to the volcano, nice to stretch my legs out.
I ran out of gas just as I rolled to a stop at trail head so we put our spare liter of fuel in the tank then tip the bike to the left to move a little more fuel to the pickup side of the tank. Heading back to town I'm unsure how far I will make it. Using every fuel saving tactic I could recall I make it just past the first round about entering town then push my bike a block to the hotel. So close.
More KTM tails. This time from a Brazilian Adventure rider we met at our hotel. "Yes, I had a KTM 990 that I really liked but then it began to give me problems so I got rid of it". "Really?"
Dinner at the place next door. Talked to some new friends from Santiago I met outside the Market earlier today (he went to school in Muncie Indiana) about the soccer game on tv. I asked them about our route only to find out that southern Chile is in a state of political unrest. Bridges are closed which means gas trucks are not getting through even if we could. So tonight we reevaluate route and tomorrow get as much gas as we can.
Morning coffee, disconnected from my lover, feeling the space.
Loving my IPad listening to my music, wishing I could hook into the Internet.
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Location:Los Alerces National Park, Argentina to Chaiten, Chile
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