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| Flying to summer in January |
We emerged dirty, vacant and bruised from the red wine and sleeping pills that had shrouded our sanity throughout a night of true discomfort.
The logistical stress of dragging our massive bags from car to boat to bus to plane before the final red eye flight took us to the limit even before we stumbled overdressed and pale into the sweltering high noon of summer in Santiago, Chile. But it was only the 3rd of January and we had begun another exciting season of competition and travel so above everything else we were feeling pretty stoked!
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| You need to have great friends! |
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| When you travel like we do |
Claus’s airport pickup was another reason to celebrate along with the immediate shuttle to his compound in the city where we were able to sleep off the worst, build our bikes and get the keys to our Chilean wheels.
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| Riding dirty and heavy |
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| Sweet to be back in Chile |
After a detailed shuffle and re pack were on our way to Pichilemu, our preferred coastal retreat just a couple of hours drive, but worlds away from busy Santiago. Pichilemu has undergone a rapid transformation from quiet to bustling over the past decade but there's something about the dusty international surf destination that keeps us coming back year after year - oh yeah, it's the surf!
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| Punta de Lobos looking a bit morning sick |
It took us a week to get back on track and adjust to the vibe of high summer. The 6 extra hours of light cost us some sleep but did allow the time to get in a good bit of training and preparation for the upcoming races.
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| Switching out the clips - (Crank Brothers Candys) for flats - (Crank Brothers Stamp) |
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| Theres a lot of quiet dirt road riding in the hills surrounding Pichilemu |
The hours in the saddle came so much more easily in the warm weather and like a lowlander fortunate enough to find their way to the Rocky Mountains even on “the worst snow winter ever” my surf starved perspective allowed me to ignore the details of the weak swell and hungrily focus on savaging any available bump or ripple!
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| With Mary's steady photo hand it actually looks pretty solid here! |
Driving south to the races -
To make the most of our time on each side we made the 800km drive from Pichilemu to the competition center for the
Trans Andes Enduro at the foot of the mountains of the Lakes region of Chile in one long ass day.
It's a straight shot down Chile's main artery (Route 5) surrounded by vast open landscapes that change from a scorched brown to a thriving green
throughout agricultural nothingness interspersed with small towns and cities that overflow chaotically into the highway. Along the journey the glaciers of dozens of giant Andean volcanoes shone in the near distance shrouded by smoky clouds that hung perpetually in the hot summer air.
We made our destination of Neltume in fading golden daylight to see the face of change as obvious as the pavement that was being laid over the main street for the first time.
This was just the first sign of the "benefits" of being on the radar of at least some percentage of the adventure tourism crowd that flocks to the incredible "Lakes Region" in the holiday months.
Much of this change can be attributed to the efforts of the Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve. The organization that oversees the reserve altered its M.O. from forestry/logging to tourism years ago and has since been working to forge a presence for itself as a destination.
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| Incredible Old growth forests in Huilo- Huilo!!! |
Since incredible tracts of temperate rainforest on the side of a volcano aren't enough to set it apart in a region so rich in natural beauty, Huilo Huilo has developed all manor of attractions including a unique hotel, spa, micro brewery, museum and a whole lot more.
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| We were some of the first to utilize the new Huilo Huilo lift for bike access! |
Most pertinent to Mary and I are the efforts of the organization to invent itself as a top notch mountain bike destination. The latest example being the installation of a Swiss gondola that has been repurposed to offer 18 people + bikes easy access to the 1800 vertical feet of lush temperate rainforest that towers above the preserve’s hospitality complex.
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| 600 meters or 1800 feet of vertical gain |
Once released at the top the vastness of the preserve comes into perspective. Square miles of ancient old growth/ re established native forest that instill the all too rare feeling of being a small insignificant spec within a massive living ecosystem. Many visitors would agree that the beauty of the Huillo Huillo Reserve is tough to match worldwide for those who enjoy the beauty of natural places.
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| So much potential energy from up here! |
On the riding end, a near perfect mix of dark organic soil and volcanic pumice allow for plenty of wheel drift with just enough composure in tack to avoid the perpetual rut or nasty, often only recognizable at the last second due to the speed that the open vertical terrain allows.
Competing at the The first ever Trans Andes Enduro -
The Trans Andes Enduro took place over three days each including three special stages. The first and third day started out with the breathtaking gondola ride before cutting us loose to sample of the fresh cut natural trails of the mountain resort.
On day two we rode a full couple of hours, to the tree line on the impressive Volcano Mocho - Choshuenco. Here we dropped blind (without preview) into precious kilometers of well established tight and tricky single track.
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| The riding in this temperate rain forest is rad! |
Some would say that overall it was a peddaly affair and it certainly took a lot of muscle to bridge to the really fun bits, but most seemed to agree that it was a legit enduro experience and certainly more than impressive even as we literally broke the trails in on in it's first edition.
In typical enduro fashion we had the chance to get to know our competitors throughout the excitement of racing and we were stoked to make many new friends over the three day adventure.
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| Compadres at the finish of the First edition of the Trans Andes Enduro |
The tribe of the bike is as strong in Chile as anywhere we have had the pleasure to visit and what better way to make new friends than ripping the best trails in one of the worlds most beautiful places!
Here is a short video of us racing the enduro in Patagonia that Alejandro Urzua made for us:
Next up ... and 2 days later... our adventures at our eighth Trans Andes Challenge!
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| Mary on the top step!! (Maria Paz Lezama and Camila Rencoret) |
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| A close battle with the best gravity racers in Chile (1st-Jorge Verduga, 2nd-Gustavo Ortiz, 3rd-Mike Broderick) |
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