Day 21 - Puerto Rio Tranquio to Bertrand - High Maintenance - 6 Week Carretera Austral - 2024

February 8, 2024

Day 21 - Puerto Rio Tranquio to Bertrand

Catch up day. Between limited Wi-Fi and cell service, it is now catch-up time for the last last few days.

We had a good rest day, and we’re ready for a good start to either Puerto Bertrand or shortly before there. The ride into Cochrane we have to be careful with since they’re closing the highway from 2 to 5 and we have to make sure we get to the one spot obviously before 2 o’clock. Objective is to get to Puerto Bertrand. It’s a bit of a longer ride, but makes the next day to Cochrane that much shorter. Again another tip you don’t know about road closures and that’s why talking to other cyclists is important because they will give you tips on road conditions road closures anything that affects your ride.

If not cycle touring on ripio Cochrane would be an easy ride.

Cochrane, Alberta and Ontario now I’ve been to a 3rd in Chile. I was looking for a Kenora dinner jacket, never saw one. For those who have no idea what that is you can just Google it for a good laugh.

Early morning get away and again always awesome scenery.

Very twisty roads with some good inclines and descents.

Even with the sharp turns, steep, climbs with the mountains in your view like that the riding is always easy. Well, I wouldn’t say easy, but makes it pleasurable,

Previously, I stated there were three types of repo and changed it to four, the fourth being the washboard. Well now I need to add a fifth, which is fresh gravel. Those of you that have driven a car down just imagine going down that same hill with a bicycle. To say it is not fun as a very true statement. Both hands on the brakes when going downhill, trying to have complete control of your front wheel to make sure it doesn’t slip too far left or too far right otherwise you’re going down. The fresh gravel can really catch your front wheel and it doesn’t take much to start slipping. Even other cyclist can’t give you advice on this since day-to-day it changes. depending even other cyclist can give you advice on this since day-to-day it changes, depending on how they are grading the road sometimes when you see the greater coming the other direction towards you, you know what’s up ahead and you just shake your head. When you see the grader coming the other direction towards you, you know what’s up ahead and you just shake your head.

This is where the beautiful vistas of the scenery makes the riding fun. It is also difficult to gauge time to get from A to B with the road conditions, also stopping to take pictures at all adds up.

I did loosen a few more fillings on this ride. A trip to my dentist is in order when I get back

The first time we had to wait for a cow crossing. Far better than looking at a train !

When you see them on the side of the road, hard to imagine them on your dinner plate.

Okay that was a baaaaa baaaad joke

My random dog shot, he was protecting the sheep from cars as well as other animals.

Haha , not this bad but some corners, you imagine this too.

We did make it to Puerto Bertrand. It was a long day and my brakes pads are starting to get worn down. The front brake I could pull the brake handle all the way to the handlebars for it to really engage. The rear break I still had about an inch of play between the brake handle and the bar. I could stop, but I was starting to get a little nervous. Again when you’re going downhill on the gravel roads, you’re almost with full brakes on.

I know I repeated this over and over, the views make up for the rough roads

Stopped at a Cabana for fresh water and scored fresh oranges. They had spectacular views.

Ahhhh the sign, close to our stopping point.

We arrived, time for dinner, shower to get off the layers of dust !

Tip, with trip planning on distance again you have to factor in stopping for pictures, snacks, lunch and really bad road conditions. You cannot factor in average of 25 kph riding speed because again the hills are so steep sometimes that you lose a lot of time going up and you cannot do 30 kph down them.

So far the 6 weeks David planned for this trip is perfect. We have enough days built into the schedule for rest days and not riding during the rain.

Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 1,124 km (698 miles)

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Rachael AndersonWow, 45 miles in really bad road! The landscape looks amazing but I couldn’t take all the bad road. We’ve done some really bad roads in the past but now we avoid them if at all possible. Be careful!
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