Author: dwood

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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…?

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.

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

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.

Yanama a nice little mountain town with plenty of views. A great place to hold up and let our legs recover. Tomorrow we have a 45 km trail ride that will take us from the east side of the high Andes to the west side. We’ll go over a pass known as Punto union. On a very famous trekking trail called Santa Cruz!

today was about 30 miles bike riding on good gravel roads. And maybe about 4,000 ft of climbing. After all these days that’s feeling like a light day. Arriving in the small mountain town of Yanama with plenty of light and time to get a hotel. And check out the views!!!

After leaving the last town yesterday afternoon, we motored (biked!) up the switchbacks to Laguna Purhuay. This is the start of our trail and the start National Park Huascaran. Five mile of very steep and rough trail got us up high and to a great campsite. Now just 16 mile more.

surprise surprise the trail did not live up our anonymous internet poster’s exuberance. This turned out to be the hardest section of the trip so far. What we thought was going to be smooth sailing and Good biking turned into completely abandoned trail of grapefruit size rocks, ankle deep swamp, and unbelievably straight and eroded trail to the pass of nearly 16,000ft. If even for a minute I thought I was getting myself into shape, this trail told me otherwise.

when we finally did Crest the summit. Were we rewarded with wonderful smooth single track biking trail…? No! We did strenuous hike a bike down almost the whole thing the last quarter or 5 miles held a glimmer. We finally found some well loved and maintained Park trails. Lot of work for a short stretch of Good biking. And the icing on the cake for some reason three very impressive Gates blocked our exit from the National Park. The final hurdle and the final gate! We finished up pretty much in the dark. Through the skin of our teeth we made it to Chacas and a nice hotel that evening.

Tyler Smallwood put together this crazy ensemble of a track we’re doing our best to follow. It was loosely based on a few trip reports he found on line. Then a bunch of map scanning and satellite imagery scanning. So far it’s been pretty top-notch. Of course the trails have been hard going 70 to 80% of them push the bikes. But when we get a nice downhill trail ride it’s pretty rewarding. And if you’re going to travel close to the real mountains like we are, you have to expect some rugged trail conditions. One stretch in The Cordillera Huayhuash in fact was so rugged they wouldn’t take the mules over it. Tyler and I managed to be the mules for our bicycles on that pass.

road riding in Peru is fun. A lot of the roads are in good gravel condition. They don’t have an overwhelming amount of traffic. And the traffic we do see is actually quite respectful. And Peru is not known for a relaxed driving culture. Nonetheless this afternoon we’re ditching towns and tarmac. We’re heading off on a 22 mi trail route that Tyler discovered via a vague trail report. Should be interesting stay tuned…

From Chavin we get a nice early start and start pedaling on good gravel & asphalt roads North and slightly West. They say in Peru this is the dry season. But I have some photo evidence to suggest otherwise. We found refuge on the side of the road under a small roof overhang. And shot the gap between rainstorms eventually finding our best cup of coffee so far in Peru.

the woman and some girls in the highlands of Peru wear typical traditional outfits. While the men only modern looking clothes. Except when they’re in a school parade.

if we don’t look wet ragged and in desperate need of real strong coffee in this photo… You’re not looking close enough. Still have like 20K more to pedal before we get a hotel tonight. Oh wait, we might be camping tonight and back to the trail ASAP. Yeah we really needed that coffee. Wish us luck!!

On our second day of biking I took this short video. I tried to post it previously but it wouldn’t upload. It’s from May 23rd and I’ll see if I can get it to upload now.

following an amazing three nights and four days traveling by mountain bike and camping every night (completely self-supported). Now we finally made it to civilization and more reliable roads to bike for the next few days. From Huallanca we head north and west on a good paved road that climb several thousand feet. Before descending the backside of a pass. We turn off the good highway and continue to lose elevation and wind through a gorgeous canyon of limestone walls with a tumbling River to follow. Few photos existed from today since it started pouring rain at about 1:00 p.m. and it was a steady downpour with mixed hail and sleet! Our Frozen to the Bone fingers and souls would not stop long enough to take pictures. Pedal pedal keep moving is best and we did. So pics for today are a bit bare Bones. One of Tyler at a huge fossil exhibit on the side of the road before it started raining. And one at the hotel in the town called Chavin. Hot shower is the best way to stave off hypothermia!!! Chavin as it turns out is a wonderful little town rich with archeology history of the pre colonial inhabitants.