Local Treasures

Fun weekend playing in the North Cascades of Washington. NE Buttress of Mount Goode. 2800ft of great rock climbing.

Erik Koch leading the perfect rock midway through the long ridge route.
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To Pacasmayo

I made one final beach run from Puerto malabrigo to Pacasmayo. Was about 22 miles. The first 12 of which was desperately soft sand. Granny gear and walking. I don’t know if it was bad sand or just because it was closer to high tide. But it was brutal. Then things cleared up in the afternoon and it was beautiful beach riding for the last 8 Miles. Pacasmayo is an immensely pretty Beach City, but it not hold the charm of Puerto Malabrigo (aka Chicama). So I double back via bus and I think I’ll chill out in this famous surf town for a couple days. I’m a little tired of biking and getting bowled over by big waves on the beach. Even if the riding is spectacular.

pets or dinner. Cuy are undeniable cute
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A splash from our beach town.

What was a nice little Ocean side Villa is now an excellent drying rack
we discovered avocados the size of watermelon
huanchaco and it’s lovely coast
nearby archaeological site, chan chan. Bikes not allowed, oops
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El fin.

14 days and so many miles. Happy to see a break from the pedaling. But will be sorry to end this chapter of the trip. Next up for us is some sedentary Beach life. Maybe we will learn how to surf. I’ll still post some pictures but less frequently. Coming home June 15th.

parking the bikes at the new accommodations.huanchaco.peru
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Day 14. June 3.

after a night in Santa Ana ‘s only hotel. Several mosquito bites and pillow less accomodations. We bolted early and started pedaling for the coast.

flat farm lands. The final stretch
river crossing in the ag district
yes. The ocean, finally!
?what…? Alpacas
pollos too
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Day 13. June 2. Will we make it to the ocean!!!??

the climbing is brutal but the road is good. The high pass comes at about 10am.

High voltage line, vaca. Y Tyler

back at 4700 meter sobre el Nivel del mar. Wow. Does this mean we have 15000ft of downhill riding over 65 km to the sea board. Chimbote, here we come!

Keep going down down down
still up high in the arid mountains
moving down fast now. Vegetation, cows, horses

but in the end we couldn’t make to the ocean in one day. We held up in a small town called Santa Ana. With so so nights sleep well try to finish this trip tomorrow.

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Day 12. June 1.

one night in Caraz. On the rio santa. We could follow the river on a main highway but instead we opt for a marginal road that goes through the foothills climbing passes and following ridge lines for about 80km.

Santo toribio. Last town and lunch before the climb begins.

The route we picked climbs a whooping 9,000ft from the valley floor.

chocho and ceviche for lunch
Camp. 1,500 more feet of climbing to the pass.

9grand in one day! Didn’t happen. Great camp spot, final good bye to the high mountains.

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Day 11. May 31.

today we have a huge amount of elevation drop mostly on trails of varying quality. Next town we’re going to get to tonight is at 7,000 ft.

just after we break camp in the morning
Tyler looking stoic.

we have to push our bike for miles. Because the big rocks and the steep terrain doesn’t let us ride until we get about halfway down the trail.

finally riding a bit. Cute bridge.
beautiful views down valley. We still have miles and miles to go.
that narrow slot was the canyon we exited. Now we’re out in the farm fields and back on roads.

Just a few miles of downhill riding and we arrive in the city of Caraz. That brings our trail riding in Peru to an end. Tomorrow will start another biking segment but all dirt roads. We actually have three good options to go from where we are now to the coast. One reasonable, one hard, one extremely hard. That choice will be made very soon, stay tuned! Any guesses…?

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Day 10.May 30.

so are big day begins 6:30 in the morning. Big breakfast in town at the first restaurant that opens. We have about 12 miles of road biking before we get to the trail. 10:00 a.m. in the morning we passed the last small village Huaripampa. Then the killer day on the Santa Cruz trail begins.

if you’re not bike packing, this is what you can expect life to look like in Huaripampa.

After the last town the trail climbs to an incredible 15,000 ft. Tipping out at Punto Union.

when the meadow looks so enticing but you find out it’s full of swamp sucking mud… good flutter kick Tyler.

the final climb to punto Union was unbelievable. My cell battery went dead and photo evidence is non-existent. But just 40 minutes before nightfall we ascended this 300 ft Stone staircase that was likely hundreds of years old. We drug our bikes up we cross the pass and we drug our bikes down just fast enough to get our tent set up before or the rain and the darkness went crazy.

Dry and inside
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