Day 6

24.2 mi / 7.9 mph / 2496 ft. climbing
Home: Nancy’s AirBNB

After a day of rest, it was time to try a longer, higher bike ride. It would still be an unloaded out-and-back (or more-accurately, “up-and-down”), but this time on pavement the whole way.

It quickly turned into what must be one of the most-spectacular day-rides in the world. Minimal traffic on the narrow road made it feel like our own bike path for most of the time, a bike path that in a mere 12 miles takes you from a bustling city of 120,000 people to a world-class National Park of towering mountains (or barely 6 miles as the crow flies!)

Normally on a mountain-climbing ride, you’re able to observe changes in vegetation as altitude increases. And while we could definitely do that, proximity to the city meant that in addition, we could also observe human-related changes in the same way. On our initial cut across the city (which initially dropped us 100 feet) we passed dozens of bustling shops and services, and then began climbing eastward on a PE-14A, a less-busy road taking us away from the city, but one still felt very urban.

When the switchbacks began, the road narrowed to little more than one lane, but remained smooth asphalt all the way up. The “city” dwindled into a series of small “villages”, where most of the houses in between had small agricultural plots (frequently with some corn), and sometimes livestock.

As we rose higher, the settlements dwindled (though never completely vanished), and the views opened up into Huascaran National Park. The grade averaged something like 5%, but there would be sections of 9% to challenge our breathing as we crossed 12,000 ft., the highest we’ve ever been on our bicycles (though unlike our previous high at 11,990 ft. Loveland Pass in Colorado, we didn’t pedal ourselves all the way up from sea-level).

Pitec is the name of the place where a hike to an alpine lake (Laguna Churup) begins. There is one house, a parking lot, and essentially a tent where women cook food over a fire to sell to hikers. There were half-a-dozen hikers hanging out, waiting for their rides to take them back down to Huaraz. We continued 50 yards further down the road, clambered up a small rise of rocks, and set up our chairs to enjoy our packed lunch with 360-degree views. Satisfied with our ability to climb 2500 feet in 12 miles, and sufficiently tired, we will save the hike for another day! (also, the afternoon clouds were darkening, so it was time to head back down the mountain anyway.)