Llico, CL to Rancura, CL

18.6 mi / 6.8 mph / 1660 ft. climbing
Home: Eliana’s AirBNB

We had a “short day” today so we made the most of our most-expensive lodging in South America and didn’t roll out until 10:45am (that expensive lodging was without electricity for most of the night and well into the morning, but the gas stove worked and the water worked, so it barely affected us). We’d be near the cold Pacific Ocean all day, so we didn’t have any heat to beat, and any afternoon winds would be tailwinds, so it was a perfect day to “sleep in”.

While we were able to dodge yesterday’s steep up-and-down gravel hill by taking a 7-mile detour, there was no avoiding today’s version if we wanted to get back to the coast. By the statistics, it was a bit easier, but given how difficult it was in real life, it made us even more glad to have missed yesterday’s. It began with a steady 12% grade, thankfully on decent gravel (if occasionally pebbly), which allowed us to ride up most of it. At one point the grade ramped up to 17-20%, clearly impossible to ride, but pushing was barely easier. Once at “the top” we had still had plenty of steep ups-and-downs, with one 17% downhill requiring me to walk both of our bikes down down it, because the ball-bearing stones on the surface were slippery enough that the bikes would start sliding out sideways if they got even a touch off vertical.

Rett climbing the initial 12% grade up from Llico. In just a quarter-mile, it’s already raised us high above the valley.

Lake Vichuquen. We could have stayed down along its shoreline, but eventually we would have still needed to climb over this mountain that separates it from the coast.

At least we had fog to keep things relatively cool for the strenuous climbing.

At times the fog was dense enough to condense on the pine needles and drip down on us.

When the hills weren’t too steep, the gravel surface was smooth and easily rideable.

Some nice quiet forest riding, if only it wasn’t so much work to get up (and back down) this hill!

This recently-cleared area with a view of Lake Vichuquen seemed like a perfect lunch spot, until the sun came out for the first time all day, two minutes after we stopped.

Luckily it was still cool enough that sitting in the full sun wasn’t too brutal, and the lake view was nice!

An even clearer view of the lake appeared a quarter mile after our lunch spot.

The slippery stones coating the minor downhills within the “flat” section at the top of the hill had me fearing that once we hit the real 1200-foot downhill, it would take us at least as long to gingerly walk the bikes down it as it had taken to ride them up. But thankfully the surface changed to a fairly-sticky packed dirt, with few stones, so we could ride much of it with our brakes squeezed. We still walked down some of the 17% sections, but they were easier than sliding down the ball-bearings had been.

It’s always difficult to capture hill-steepness in photos, but that section ahead that returns up after this downward section? That’s actually still a 4% downhill!

The town of Lipimavida appears down on the Pacific coast.

Walking downhill is ok when it’s a nice view like this.

The hill descends so steeply that Rett has already lost the view of the water that I have from up here.

A horse enjoys his pasture near the bottom of the hill.

It took us nearly three and a half hours (including a half-hour lunch break) to complete the 9 mile, 1300-foot up-and-down to get us back to the coast, and then would take only 75 minutes (including a grocery stop) to complete an equal distance to our destination. Most of the difference was because the now-paved coastal road was almost perfectly flat, but we got the bonus of a tailwind sweeping down off the ocean to make it even easier.

As we rolled south, the density of traffic, humans, and tourist-focused restaurants steadily increased. We had apparently reached this popular coast via the northern backdoor, whereas most of the weekend drivers arrive via a paved highway further south, and then trickle northward up this effectively-“dead end” road. Despite all the activity, we passed multiple grocery stores that were closed on this Sunday, so we stopped a couple miles earlier than we normally would have when we passed an open mini-market. The “mini-markets” in Chile have generally been quite good, usually stocking at least some produce, often with a deli section, and for us tonight, frozen pizzas!