Carretera Austral - Fully pack day

The day started as planned. A cold early morning breakfast, not in a rush but moving around to sort things and to keep warm. After packing my tent and loading the bike, I enjoyed the sunrise in the small beach of the camping site and saw a couple of toninas getting into the fjord. To continue warming up, I headed to the Queulat NP entrance and arrived a bit ahead of the opening. There workers were arriving and preparing to continue with the access road maintenance.

The Ventisquero Colgante

The entrance to the NP was smooth. To access the park reservations were necessary but payment had to be made at the entrance. I was amongst the first group of people to enter the park, together with a couple of Chilean friends and a couple of foreign tourist. After a quick debrief about which trails were open, I parked my bike and prepared to walk. First to the lagoon (Laguna Tempanos) were I got a clear view of the glacier, but as was taking my last pictures a cloud started to form in front of the glacier.

I calculated that I had to leave by noon if I wanted to arrive at a good time to my next destination or in case I had any accident or longer than predicted stop. So if I wanted to reach the lookout closer to the glacier I would had to run a bit. With the pressure of time and the clouds forming on the mountains, I rushed to the lookout. Even at a faster pace, I stopped at the few lookouts on the way, and even to listen and record a woodpecker singing. The trail is relatively steep at the beginning, but after the climb it goes relatively flat with smooth ups and downs. When I arrived to the lookout the hanging glacier was covered, only the water falling could be seen below the clouds. Knowing the trail and that descending is usually faster, I waited for a while. A friend told me that he waited for a couple of hours, I didn’t have that much time, but I was satisfied after seen it from the lagoon. I waited long enough that people I passed by on the way up and tourists that arrived later caught with me, then I rushed on the descent.

On the way down I saw a couple of foreign tourist, not quite convinced with continuing up, and one of the cyclists I met on the ferry of the second day. Since he was wearing a lot of clothes in the ferry, I didn’t recognized him, so in my rush down I only said hi and ask how he was doing. Arriving at the parking I saw his bike and realized it was him. I arrived to the parking at noon, had something to eat, refilled the water bottle and headed out.

Gravel and amazing roads

The paved road was soon replaced by gravel as the road started to travel along the Queulat river. The section before the cuesta Queulat had some paved sections, part of unfinished works done by a company that ran out of business during the pandemic, though some people said the company wasn’t the best for the job even before. Either way, these sections provide a bit of calm from the jumpy road. With a wide river head joining the sea at one side, many people say that toninas can be seen in that section, but I wasn’t lucky or maybe I was too late. As the road was approaching the cuesta, I was thinking what would I do I had a mechanical or wasn’t able to continue. The road seemed at that point very solitary and quiet, so my mind was going to dark places even in a bright day.

The cuesta Queluat is a series of hairpins that climb some 500 m over 5 km in the toughest part, and some people say the most difficult part of the Carretera. As soon the first hairpin arrived I got into some problems. There you can find a path to a waterfall, so I stopped to the side of the road but couldn’t find a place to leave the bike (my bike doesn’t have a kickstand). Even keeping the bight up straight was difficult, more so getting back on the saddle, because the road was dry and covered by loose dust with little grip. It turned out most hairpins were like this, and in some of the lower flatter sections the dusty roads felt like riding in sand. So much so, that I had to stop in a section because I couldn’t keep up straight and a driver in small truck coming behind me offered to carry me, but the climb was just starting so I just said thank but I was going to continue trying. Knowing that people are kind in this part of of the country helped to overcome those dark thoughts I had in the middle of nowhere.

After a few hairpins I got a grasp of how to face them, basically going wide and not getting in my lowest gear. By the top, they were less dusty. I saw a few more cars going up and down, but this time not being completely on the high season was in my favour because even with these few cars I got to cross their dust clouds. Closer to the top the views got better, with snowy peaks on each side and a bright day throughout. At the top also, the road was was replaced by brand new tarmac, so the descent to the Cisnes river valley was very smooth.

The ride down to valley had some amazing views, so were the views in the valley. Here the road follows the Cisnes river into an open valley with some large farms and surrounded by breathtaking mountains. The next town along the road was Villa Amengual. Although some people recommend to stay there, it seems that there aren’t any camping sites and hostels are not the best. A cyclist refuge use to be in the village, but some people reported that it burned down and that the current status is not as good. So I considered two other camping sites before the village.

The first one I passed soon after getting into the valley, but I only considered this one as a backup if I was running late. The second one was recommended by the owners of the hostel in Villa Santa Lucia. I contacted the owners of this camping when I stopped in Puyuhuapi, as I learned that some places were still closed. The camping (Refugio Río Cisnes) is a large place next to the Cisnes river. I was the only one camping that night, but days before a large group of foreign cyclists had passed by. This was one of the best camping sites on the Carretera Austral. The camping has a cafe for people traveling by other means, where they offer food. Most of the reviews recommend their pizzas, however when I arrived they didn’t have the ingredients so they were out buying. Nonetheless, their cinnamon buns were amazing and their sandwiches replenished my energy levels after a long day on the saddle.

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