The Mind Goes Wandering

After Los Torres we had a 17 km day of rain, rain and rain.  Tony, who had cruised through here by bus in an effort to get back to Santiago in time for his flight home, emailed us about a place to camp with a kitchen and hot showers about six km beyond Villa Amengual.  However it's only open until the end of February.  For those paying attention to dates, we arrived there on the 1st of March.  Closed or not, we camped there through some of the worst rain yet.  I even tried to unscrew the bolts that locked the little camping kiosk so we'd have a dry place to cook.  No luck.

The next day was a ball-buster: 75km according to the map, 84 according to Chip's odometer including the 500m up and down over Quelat Pass.  Not fun, but not as bad as I expected.  Three or four "bonks" later (this ride sponsored by Clif Bar!) we made it to the Colgate glacier campground.  A "nicely appointed spot in view of the Carretera's most amazing sights," says our guide book, the hanging Colgate glacier which calves off into a valley far below.  Or so I'm told.  It was cloudy and we had to setting for listening to the calving glacier and crashing ice from our campsite.

There was a covered picnic table and fire pit which immediately became a drying rack for four sets of wet clothes.  The Quelat Pass was near freezing so there were plenty of layers that got exposed to the all-day rain.

4 Days of Rain + Dirt Road = Gunk

Today was our latest start yet: 4pm.  4:45pm for me as I needed to patch my rear tire (three times -- damn patches don't hold for shit).  I made the 27km to town in about an hour, probably my fastest average speed yet!  I think I'm getting the hang of riding these dirt roads.  Now if I could just keep my bike from breaking down.  I have to adjust my rear derailleur tomorrow or ride with only every other gear.

Note for the future: Find some way to keep the tons of grit and road gunge out of the drive-train.  I spent a good hour (and the remainder of the free t-shirt from Travellers) cleaning my chain, freewheel and derailleurs only to have them full of shit within 5km.  The road construction doesn't help.

I want to call Joanna and let her know that I feel like I'm at home here.  That is, it's 45 degrees latitude and raining under gray skies day in and day out.  Perhaps La Junta will have a phone -- we ought to be there tomorrow if Chip can fix some chain problems they're having with the tandem.  They've been having a lot of mechanical problems.  Their front rack, which they just bought in San Martìn de los Andes, broke and we ended up repairing it with a tent stake and a couple of hose clamps.

Recently, at one campsite or another, someone camp up with the idea for a packable French press that works inside a Nalgene bottle.  Obviously the instant Nescafé has been getting to us.  I've been thinking of an umbrella design while Amy envisions more of a shutter-leaf .  I need to think a bit more about how it collapses and cleans, but I believe the umbrella design is better.  It would only work on one size bottle so we'd have to come up with a whole line of them!

These are the things that run through your head during the long days riding.  It's hard to look at the scenery while riding as there are only narrow wheel tracks between the loose gravel.  If you start looking around too much you end up on the side of the road.  Amy, on the back of the tandem has been the tour guide.  Relieved of the duty of steering and no doubt bored with her view of Chip's backside she finds the amazing vistas and gives us a "Look left in three... two... one... now!" as we roll past a break in the trees.  We spend a long as we dare looking at the snow covered mountains that drop precipitously into the valley we're riding through and then return to stare again at the long, grey road.