27.5 mi / 6.5 mph / 2645 ft. climbing
Home: Rio Barrancoso Wild Camp

With Rett’s pedals now longer “buzzing” from her worn-out bottom bracket, my freehub still spinning fine after I overhauled it in Coyhaique, a few new zippers pasted over the broken ones on our tent, and another stretch of clear weather, we were ready to tackle our final 5-day riding phase of the Carretera Austral.

Before we reached the Southern Highway, my biggest concern about the temperatures was that even in the peak of summer, we would be too cold. The exact opposite has been true up until now, which made today a notable surprise: it was the first day where we needed to focus on staying warm rather than staying cool! Still nothing too bad, especially the mostly-sunny skies, but wearing our down jackets at lunch was new.

I first mentioned Jenny and Curtis Shaw on our journal more than seven months ago, two days after we started riding in Peru, thanking them in absentia for the world-class campsite that they had scouted out 7 years earlier (which still remains the most-incredible place we’ve ever pitched our tent). They have a passion for wild camping, and their journal from their 2016-to-2019 Alaska-to-Argentina ride has been tremendously useful to us in South America, and surely to hundreds of other bike tourers (it’s in the top 1% of the most-read journals on crazyguyonabike.com). Like us, they had made themselves “homeless” before that multi-year trip, and upon returning to the US, eventually re-settled themselves into a new life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, as legends quietly retired from the scene.

So I was hit with a joyful shock four months ago when I stumbled upon news that they were heading out on their bikes again! It was a bit like learning that one of your favorite bands, one that you only discovered after they had already broken up, had reunited and was returning to the road. And wait, the road they were returning to was THIS ROAD! The Carretera Austral, in the summer of 2025/26!

Since that news, we have been in touch with each other, thinking that there might be a chance where our paths would cross in Chile. Even though they’ve taken a more smell-the-roses approach this time compared to their initial race across the Americas (which turns out to be a major reason they returned here), they’re still faster than us, so we were never quite able to catch up to them as we trailed them south from Santiago/Valparaiso.

But they love the Carretera Austral so much that they did something unprecedented (as is their style!) when they reached the southern “dead end” at Villa O’Higgins: they simply turned back north, to ride it a 3rd time! I didn’t even know that was allowed! But it meant that we’ve now been heading toward each other for the last few days. When we learned that they’d be arriving in Cochrane the day after we were leaving, my initial thought was “crap, that’s too bad, we could have gone out to dinner with them here if my bike part had been delayed long enough to make us extend our stay. Oh well, it will still be nice to spend a few minutes chatting with them whenever we cross on the road”.

But the closer we got to our planned wild camp destination without seeing them, the more chances increased that they had decided to stop at the same place. And spending the evening wild camping with the Shaws would be 100 times more-appropriate and more-amazing than meeting them in town. If the Adventure Cycling Association did a charity auction, “A Night Wild Camping with the Shaws” would honestly be one of the top-dollar prizes!

So it was both expected yet still completely unbelievable when we turned off the road and saw Jenny, Curtis, and their bikes with their familiar Arkel panniers standing in the open forest, in this remote corner of the world. After quick introductions, their virtual generosity continued in person, with them encouraging us to take the prime campsite in the large area, even though they had arrived first.

After we got set up I strolled over to their “house” to get to know them a little more-personally. And I’m so glad that they were open to talking about topics much deeper than roads and tires and places to camp. Even amongst the hundreds of other bike tourers here in Patagonia, there are very few people in the world who can relate to the issues around relationships, “homelessness”, and changing abilities, all of which are amongst the “big picture” issues that Rett and I are faced with in our unusual long-term nomadic lifestyle. Since they have already re-planted roots, they are ahead of us there too, so it was just as wonderful to be able to tap their experience with pathways through life as we’ve previously done with their experience with pathways along the road. Our bike touring styles are very different, so it was almost a surprise to discover how many similarities we have as people. But I suppose that “two people who can spend years living side-by-side, with almost no one else” tends to filter a certain type.

When our discussion turned toward food and seemed not able to veer away from it, I finally forced us all to shut our mouths, and we went back to our “house” to cook dinner. But then afterwards, just like small-town neighbors, they came over to our front porch to visit after dinner. What an absolutely perfect way to spend time together with these new friends. One thing we do have in common with them as bike tourers is getting up early, and thus going to bed early, but somehow two rights made a wrong this evening, keeping us all up later than any of us would have done on our own. And it was totally worth it!