Jama

Very limited Internet connection here, so just one photo and more tomorrow or Friday from Chile!

Susques

Under 140 km, but a very long and very spectacular day that started with the lengthy climb from Purmamarca to 4170 m above sea level. From Purmamarca, the road keeps climbing steadily at what I would think is a grade ranging between 4 and 7%. I read somewhere else 10% but that seems a little high; and, looking at a topographical map before this trip, I consistently got under 10%. On the way up, there are three sets of half a dozen or so switchbacks that are truly spectacular.

The climb was followed by the descent to the Salinas Grandes. I arrived in Susques just after dark and am staying at a very friendly place a little west of town.

Purmamarca

Very exciting day! The gradual climb of over 1700 m to 2300 m in Purmamarca was not very noticeable most of the way except for a short stretch between San Salvador de Jujuy and Purmamarca. Once I had passed San Salvador de Jujuy and the surrounding communities, the decrease of traffic was a delight, and I saw a bunch of other cyclists. And it has been quite an experience to suddenly be surrounded by the mountains after seeing them from the distance for a few days.

Purmamarca is as overrun by tourists (including the author of this post) as one could expect for a charming village that is immersed in stunning natural beauty.

I am one day ahead of schedule, so I decided to have a day of rest on Monday and enjoy this beautiful place before heading up to Susques on Tuesday. Filtering out the tour buses, armies of street vendors, etc. won't be a problem!

General Guemes

I was not sure what the traffic would be like on RN9; at least I was hoping it would be benign in comparison with the stretch from Jesus Maria to Villa del Totoral this past Monday.

It started off ok until San Jose de Metan, a place that seemed pleasant with many vendors of pottery products and other things.

Then I saw this sign

and (I am sure with no causal relationship to the presence of that sign) from there I was riding on a four-lane road with one lane for myself most of the time all the way to General Guemes.

I hugely enjoyed the rolling hills and views of surrounding mountains, which more than made up for some headwind.

Rosario de la Frontera

Getting out of the city was a breeze, and what followed was a fantastic, headwind-enhanced ride offering some mild hills and awe-inspiring glimpses of the Andes. The ridges northwest of Tucuman appeared like differently scaled and dramatically augmented versions of some of the mountains in the LA area - especially the Verdugo Mountains - lined up behind each other.

San Miguel de Tucuman

Just as I wanted to upload yesterday's video last night, the Internet went down, so am starting with a summary of yesterday's ride followed by today's.

The day before yesterday after dinner in San Jose de Las Salinas, I looked at the weather forecast, in particular the wind forecast, for yesterday, and I was delighted to see that the wind was supposed to cooperate. And it far exceeded my most optimistic expectations. (If I had mounted a pinwheel to my handlebar, it would have spun in reverse most of the day.) As a result, I was able to do in one day what I had planned for two. A little over 240 km to San Pedro de Guasayan, and that sort of distance never felt so easy before. Adding to the experience was the stay at the Hosteria Termal last night. Soaking in hot water was not the worst thing to do after I got off the bike!
As can be seen in the video, there were some Califonia Style stretches of the road, mainly in Catamarca Province, and the road got a bit better after entering Santiago del Estero.



Today the wind was calm, which, after yesterday felt like "no wind is the new headwind," and it was a relaxing ride of just under 140 km. Before I entered the city with its traffic (and a political protest), the were many sugarcane plantations along the way in Tucuman.

San Jose de Las Salinas

It was warmer than yesterday, and, after about 10 km on a dusty and bumpy dirt road, I was going pretty much straight northwest on RN60. The ride was made interesting by the fact that northwest turned out to be the direction of the day that the wind was blowing from. Wow! That was quite a workout. Notably, drivers, like yesterday, were very respectful, and the surface of RN60 was amazingly smooth. I kept wondering if it could be a good idea for a US congressional delegation, or maybe Pete Buttigieg, to visit Argentina and learn how it is possible to keep roads maintained so well in the middle of a grave economic crisis.

Villa del Totoral

What an amazing start of the biking part of my trip.

Yesterday in Cordoba, the temperature was over 30 centigrades and there were strong winds from the north. Today, temperatures were 10 to 20 degrees lower, and the air was coming from the south, ferociously at times, providing nice tailwind for most of the 110 km to Villa del Totoral.

Thanks to advice from Juan Patricio, whom I mentioned yesterday, I had decided to take the route north on E53 past the airport and then E66 east from Ascochinga to Jesus Maria. I very much enjoyed the gradual decline of traffic and the increasingly picturesque scenery on the way. This way, I avoided RN9 with its bicyclist-vicious traffic on the segment from Cordoba to Jesus Maria before taking that very busy highway from Jesus Maria.

In Villa del Totoral, I thought it could be a good idea to use google maps cycling directions to guide me through town to my hotel. As you can see in the last minute or so in the video below, I was directed to what evolved into a hiking trail. Then I switched the option for directions to car travel ... and for a moment it looked like I had to cross a knee-deep stream. Fortunately, there was a (mostly-intact) pedestrian bridge nearby and from there it was only a few more minutes to my hotel.

Cordoba

After a long flight with a massive layover in Lima, I arrived in Cordoba on Friday early in the morning along with my baggage. (A big thank you to LATAM Peru and all baggage handlers.)

I spent the weekend relaxing, exploring the area,

and getting my bike ready at a very pleasant accommodation in a nice neighborhood not far from the Estadio Kempes.

As I was preparing for my trip over the last months, I contacted Juan Patricio Bianchi, who has a company called Cordoba Bike Tours. Juan Patricio was extremely helpful regarding questions about my planned route, and he also recommended Gonza Bikes as a bike shop to go to just in case I need some help. My bike arrived fine, but I decided to go there anyway and say hola; I had the pleasure of meeting Gonza, who put some finishing touches on my bike with his floor pump and an allen wrench that was longer than then one I have as part of my pocket tool for the pedals.

I plan on heading north tomorrow and expect to be posting regular updates.

Kelowna

The relatively short riding distance yesterday almost felt like a day of rest, and today went by quickly.

The first 20 or so km were flat, which was ideal for warming up.

After the hunting rifles the other day, there was some other cargo that went overboard from a truck today, this time a road bike. I felt sorry for the guy, but I am sure he will learn to secure the bike in the future.

Then came a substantial uphill portion heading south on Highway 97, and thanks to the shorter day yesterday, the truck brake check area for the northbound traffic seemed to appear sooner than I would have anticipated.

There was more traffic than expected, especially from Vernon on; but, around Wood Lake, there was a very scenic and clearly signposted bike detour before getting back on Highway 97, and then on a bike trail leading into Kelowna.



It has been quite a journey since my departure from Fairbanks on August 15. In order to prepare for inclement weather, engine issues, etc., I had numerous contingency plans, and, to be honest, I did not expect to arrive in Kelowna as I had sketched in the most optimistic of my scenarios.

I hope that there will be an update from South America in significantly less than ten years, even though by then the extensive senior benefits might outweigh the decline in speed and the resulting lengthy travel time.

I would like to thank my sweetheart for allowing me to disappear for a couple of weeks. And I would like to thank my parents, who started understanding decades ago that my dream vacation may look a little different from what many other people are longing for. And I would like to thank my sister and her family, whose annual vacation coincided with my trip, for their patience in light of my tardiness or even absence in responding to their vacation posts.

Kamloops

Today, it was only a short spin to Kamloops before the finale to Kelowna, from where I will be flying home.

As I briefly wrote last night, yesterday's ride included a long descent that was also facilitated by very smooth pavement. This video shows the entire downhill part from the truck brake check area (which is from where is usually gets interesting), so it's kinda long:



And here are a few short clip from today's ride to Kamloops:



What a difference in landscape and vegetation, and, not surprisingly, in temperature.

Barriere

Today's ride was very scenic and included an exhilarating descent of around 3000 vertical feet; I will post a video tomorrow. Dinner time now :)

Lac La Hache

The morning was a little chilly, and then it got warm, and then even warmer. What a difference to one week ago when I happened to barely avoid the massive snowfall that had left the unseasonal amount of 30 cm of snow in the Dease Lake area in northern BC. Timing is important, but so is good luck.

I arrived here well before dark, and (speaking of luck) my arrival happened to occur five minutes before the store at the gas station closed.

Something "interesting" I saw on the way:

Along a winding part of the route between Quesnel and Williams Lake, I noticed a guy who looked like a teenager running against the direction of traffic. First I thought he was jogging, but his outfit, a sweatshirt and jeans, didn't seem to confirm that idea. Then, I noticed there were a bunch of things scattered on the pavement, and the kid was picking them up, and I also saw a pickup truck towing a trailer with a boat stopped on the shoulder with the hazard lights flashing. In addition to the boy I had noticed first, another kid and an older guy, presumably the father, were frantically picking up the things that had apparently fallen off the truck. The things (I'd say there were a dozen or so of them) turned out to be hunting rifles. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera running then.

Quesnel

Here is the video from Monday showing a few clips of the ride from New Hazelton to Burns Lake; one of the hills is - aptly but also unfairly, at least for cyclists - named Hungry Hill:



And on the following day continuing from Burns Lake to Prince George:



The blurred appearance of the first couple of clips is due to the dust, which, in turn, I believe is due to the many trucks transporting saw dust and wood chips.

It seems that at least some of the stuff is being used to produce wood pellets for use as fuel. Passing the numerous pulp mills, paper mills, pellet plants, etc. gives the impression of riding through an industrial area, which is effectively true. This also reminds me of the various aspects of the sugar industry that accompanied my on the ride from Tapachula to El Salvador a while back, including the sugarcane pieces I saw there scattered along the road; here it looks a little as if people had the habit of chopping wood along the highway.

Today's ride from Prince George to Quesnel was little shorter, and offered some impressive vistas of nature as well as machines.

A picture showing the north-east part of Prince George:

And a plant along Highway 97 just south of Hixon:

Beautiful scenery that, along with the light, reminds me of some parts of Scandinavia.

Prince George

I made it to Prince George well before dark after spending the night in Burns Lake.

The last days included some above-average mileage on this trip, and (especially the day from Hazelton to Burns Lake) climbing and descending, and climbing and descending, and ... But I think the hardest part was getting to Prince George with vivid images in my head of decidedly-non-beyond-meat food items along with various chilled fermented beverages, just to have to ride through kilometers of strip mall lined streets with restaurants whose exhaust vents made my olfactory system send unambiguous messages to my stomach. But after checking in at the hotel I was able to get some food and all is well.

I will post videos later on Wednesday, but for now, here is a question: after about 50 or so kilometers this morning, I noticed that my glasses, my camera, and other parts attached to the front of my bike were covered with white dust ... what might that be? I asked a few locals on the way, and they seemed to never have seen that before, I think I may know the answer ... more later.

New Hazelton

It was a great experience staying at the camp in Meziadin Junction.

A little bit similar to the place I stayed at in Delta Junction a week and a half ago, the camp at Meziadin Junction mainly houses contractors working on projects in the area. This was the third time I stayed overnight at a place of this kind; before Delta Junction, a while back, I spent a night in Coldfoot, AK. Based on my limited experience, these things seem to be no-nonsense accommodations where everything (including the WiFi, for example) is working as promised. Plus, this morning I noticed it has a helipad.

Picturesque scene near the Highway 16 junction at the southern terminus of Highway 37:

Most remarkably, it was dry and warm today, allowing me to shed my jacket, and then later arm and leg warmers!







And here is the video of last Wednesday's ride from Teslin to the Highway 37 junction:



And the following day continuing to Dease Lake:



And from Dease Lake to Tatogga, showing a somewhat longer portion from the sdescent to Skitine River:

Meziadin Junction

I am using the blazing-fast data connection from the camp I am staying at (Meziadin Junction, it's quite a unique experience and I will take photos tomorrow) to briefly catch up.

The last couple of days included a little bit of everything: rain, snow, sunshine, hills...and today more bears than I would have expected to see during my whole life.

Wednesday started in Teslin with a crossing of a steel bridge with a super slippery wet grating. It was a challenging exercise and I was glad I made it without crashing.

Then there was a lot of climbing in wet and cold conditions, which was fun, albeit in an unorthodox way.

About at the halfway point, I stopped at the Continental Divide Lodge and from there it was dry and mostly downhill. Just as it was getting dark, I arrived at the place where I was staying near the cutoff to Highway 37.

Then on Thursday, I said bye bye to the Yukon and hello to British Columbia.

Lots of ups and downs and spectacular scenery. For a change, the day started with sunshine and ended with rain.

A short ride yesterday from Dease Lake to Tatogga, and then today to Meziadin Junction. I lost track of the bear count at 7 or 8. During the entire day, I must have passed far more than a dozen. Once I spotted a bear, it turned out to be a reasonable strategy to proceed cautiously while trying to imitate the sound of a delivery truck backing up into a loading zone. See the last two segments of the video, especially around 00:41 and the portion from about 00:53.



During a climb close to Meziadin Junction, it started raining, and unlike on numerous similar occasions over the last days, it felt pleasantly refreshing; it's much warmer here than much of the route before!

I will upload other videos from the last days at a later time.

Dease Lake, British Columbia

The last couple of days included a little bit of everything: rain, snow, sunshine, hills, spectacular views,...

Cell service seems to be down here, and there are the usual Internet issues, so for now only a brief hello from BC and a photo. More later!

Teslin

Very pretty scenery, quite a lot of headwind, a pleasant and informative conversation with a local from the Marsh Lake area (according to him, it's "the Yukon," and not "Yukon," and, of course, it has to do with politics), and a very friendly guy from Teslin, who gave me an anti-bear escort with a pickup truck just west of Teslin. It's a bummer that I didn't have the camera rolling to capture the moment. A little later, I ran into him (the guy, not the bear) at a convenience store and had the opportunity to thank him.

He had passed me a few miles north/west of Teslin and then stopped and started honking after he had spotted a black bear just off the shoulder. Then, he waited for me to give me a heads-up. This was so nice. It was fun to watch a large black fur ball jump up and down and then jump in the ditch off the highway while the horn (standard Mopar stock item, I assume, based on the sound) was sounding. And I was thinking it could be even more fun to see the bear's reaction to an air horn.



And here are a few segments from Monday:

Whitehorse

I arrived in the city early in the evening after the first day of riding with some headwind.

No bear encounters en route but a fox just off the highway. For some reason, as I was riding and getting hungry, I developed a craving for Chinese noodles. When I arrived at the hotel, I was told that the Internet wasn't working and that they were trying to fix it. I briefly thought about trying to find another place to stay, but the view of the Chinese restaurant right next to the hotel outweighed any technical concerns. More thonight from Teslin.