the spoke count

The Desert Trail

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 01:01:00 +0000

We set out to hike from the Mecca Hills, near Salton Sea up to Last Chance Mountain, at the very northern edge of Death Valley National Park, a journey of over 500 miles, entirely self-supplied. The hike was mostly overland, with the occasional dirt road remnant from days gone by. Because you're wondering, we saw 4 snakes, tons of tarantulas, and 1 scorpion. We saw wild burros, coyote, kit fox, bighorn sheep, mule deer, kangaroo rats, lizards, ravens, hawks, jackrabbits and cottontails, and many different birds and bugs.

The desert is known for its skies, and it didn't disappoint. Sunrises, sunsets, stars, crazy cloudscapes, etc. were spectacular. Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park were definitely highlights in their scale, variety, and undeniable beauty, from starkness to intricate succulent gardens, from windswept dunes, to brilliantly colored canyons laden with veins of ore.

It's not an official trail, but we can make it look that way by standing at a BLM map kiosk!

Hoo-ah, it's happening! We are going for a walk in the desert-- cannot find ourselves on the map within 20 minutes of leaving the road. This is gonna be good.

Still in search of the route we found a nice steep 750-foot face to climb

Finally up on the ridgeline of Orocopia Mountain, with Salton Sea (and Slab City) in the background.

Hydration... we had about a 5 gallon carry capacity, and used it.

continuing with my series of out-of-focus pictures of pastries and mountain vistas...

yeah, we have some food and tequila buried riiiiiiight abooooout here.

I brought along this car door so if I got too hot, I could roll down the window

wiped out in the only shade for miles.

waiiit, what's underneath that old head gasket?

CANDY!!!!!

first in a series of Sherman reflecting floral expressions. OCOTILLO!!

Sunrise in Joshua Tree NP

Fan palm oasis is welcome shade, but full of snakes and tarantulas, FYI

desert bighorn

i never get tired of seeing these little cacti, bursting from the rock in hot pink "elbows out" style

using your fleece pullover as pants is a classic move in the art of "cozification." note taped toes

getting an education on orienteering

come out with you paws up! burrows are EVERYWHERE out here, making a cool and humid, shady spot. we always wondered who lived in each one.

this is what mistletoe does to a tree

welcome shade in Joshua Tree

emerging from the bushes with a food cache and 6 gallons of h2o.

Abandoned rail line to Eagle Mountain Iron Mine

blister popping and taping time

tomorrows destination: Coxcomb Mtns.

tracks of visitors to the dried up watering hole

migrating butterflies pass through Joshua Tree on their way to Morelia, Mexico

many climbs had the same pattern, which was sand, brambles, boulders, cacti, summit.

10,000 years ago, Joshua Tree had a forest surrounding a big lake, which was heavily inhabited by humans. small traces remain after the artifact scavenging boom of the 1920s (when everyday people could first afford to drive out into the countryside and haul a bunch of junk home)

find sherman

the Coxcombs are definitely Joshua Tree's best kept secret.

in between the mountain ranges are wide open valleys, with 10-40 miles of sand, rocks, and the resilient creosote bush.

these sandy places are home to the kangaroo rat, which digs burrows that you can collapse into over and over again.

despite how featureless it looks from the window of an airplane or car, the desert floor is perpetually changing. this section was covered in pebbly remnants of a volcanic blast.

creosote flats, in front of a freight train, in front of the marble mountains, in front of the providence mountains. -- a week's work lay before us.

it keeps going

and going

to the rails at last, after hearing them rumble through the desert silence over the last 30 miles

an old tricycle, mangled by a train and left to die

this would be fun to resuscitate!

getting our kicks on route 66

after miles and miles of creosote bushes, one blue bush stood out, and 15 feet away was buried our cache...

found this note in a glass jar on top of a lonely peak in the trilobite wilderness. he's probably well into the 600s by now. There's 756 for those of you scoring at home.

not too many snakes out at this time of year

these Arkansan ladies were walking coast to coast on a 3800 mile route. Only 8 days from completion.

we crossed paths at an I-40 underpass. just 2 ladies with a stroller, walking through the desert... and i thought unicyclists got strange looks from motorists!

this cache was marked by a yucca stump

luckily this trap was too rusty to be dangerous.

more floral impersonations

where's matt?

i think this moth was trying to mate with my gaiters

the nice thing about getting stabbed with cholla is that the spines are strong enough that they don't break off when you pull them out

upside down tree in the granite mountains

pinyon pine sunset at 5800 feet

Granite Mountains in Mohave National Preserve

our first look at the Kelso dunes

hidey camp spot nestled in the rocks

Bull Canyon was so brushy and cliffy it took about 10 hours to go 5 miles.

quartz veins

any canyon with springs is bound to have lush vegetation

finally, an excuse to use the p-cord we brought

diggin up dinner

the largest creosote bush ever.

demonstrating proper technique for standing up with your pack already on

the wind and black sand made some nice patterns in the sand

dirt tattoo! just add dirt, then wipe away!

Kelso Depot is a restored Union Pacific whistle stop and now park service visitor center and museum. good place to chill out and wave to passing train riders

horseshoe mesa

hole-in-the-wall

these rings were handy

foot bath at the campground

we watched this fearless bunny hop around and munch leaves for about 10 minutes. we had to leave before death by cuteness

hollow tree

once upon a time, the mojave road linked crucial watering holes and springs in a path from the Colorado River to the San Bernadino Mountains. now a graded dirt road is a relative highway

joshua tree impersonation

lunch on the porch of an old mine / homestead

old conveyor belt was still in place

we didn't see any tortoises, but they are normally hiding in their burrows this time of year. lots of carapaces though

caught in the act!!!

old boxcar

canned salmon party tray

as a result of the race to complete the railroads in the west, many unsuccessful attempts were later scavenged for lumber and scrap metal. this is one of many corrals in the preserve

a real energy bar

these are called coyote melons. unfortunately, not edible. they look so delicious though

inside a cholla is a good place to build a nest

volcanic rim

a 13-year-old's dream road schwag

the Crusty Bunny Ranch

not impressed with Eugene weather in the Mojave

fog storm's a comin

birdcage primrose

the great thing about a rainstorm, is that all tracks are fresh the next morning. these are ant trails

first flowing water in a month on the trail. the mighty Amargosa River

Tamarisk and Mesquite in the Amargosa Canyon

rocks of every color

subtle rainbow

China Ranch date farm was a welcome oasis

the first and only "town" of the trip is Tecopa, with the festive Death Valley Brewing Company lighting up the night.

I thought so hard about beer and burgers over the last few days that they manifested!

Then these guys were parked by the road. Gypsy time travelers

good excuse for a zero-day!

laundromat

local hot springs known as the "mud hole"

yep.

downtown Tecopa

live blacksmithing and storytelling

good sign for a road-side hotspring

shade and tent-drying at the same time!

Death Valley NP boundary

metal canisters are handy for caching food

the full moon brought us a visit from the legendary Jeff Larson

Jeff scouts the brutal terrain we took him through. He was tough as nails to take on that section trail-fresh

detailed navigation on a large scale map is always "fun"

Alex's blackberry wine "Yeti's Reserve," was a sweet reward to our first vista of Death Valley and Telescope Peak

straight up glampin'

the final saddle above Sheep Canyon

that's a lot of inner thigh

makes for a hearty stew

recent rains saw tiny green sprouts pushing up everywhere

Death Valley!!!!

hey guys i found the cache!

crossing Badwater when it's wet and muddy is surreal. The mud and alkali take on every kind of shape and texture

sometimes it can be very slow going

especially when the next 40 miles are along the valley floor

we sought out gravel as much as possible to ease the mud walking

WHO LIVES IN THERE????

STORM'S A COMIN!!! and nary a shrub for shelter

a wall of rain approaches, blocking out 7000' peaks immediately behind

and the mudwalking continues... on and on...

i thought we came to the driest, hottest place in north america to avoid this crap!

crystals of so many formations that the mind could never imagine, some as high as 2 feet, cover the landscape

and then a cold norther swept it away, delivering several feet of snow to the higher peaks. shade was once again required

after hundreds of miles without a cell signal, it was time to call home from the lone gas station at stovepipe wells

marble canyon narrows

lemme just clear this outta the way

Biscoff Cookie Spread! Say no more.

we found the ancient equivalent of a Denny's placemat

a recent flash flood left a food of mud on the canyon floor, and a water line 4 feet high.

you can see where a second, smaller flood event laid a narrower swath of mud on top of the first layer. it cracks as it dries. then water has carved a creekbed down the middle

diggin up another cache

old seabed

Hidden Valley playa

Sherman stands on the famous Racetrack playa, marking the spot where this rock started leaving a track. when the playa floods and wind blows on the ice, the rock slides along, leaving a trail and mystery behind.

each rock pushes up a pile of mud in front of it as it goes along

unfortunately, many of the rocks have been stolen, leaving behind these lonely tracks in the mud

USE YOUR ARMS, LADDY! USE YER ARMS!!!!

desert pavement

time for dead reckoning in the fog

black and white volcanic debris makes an interesting contrast

all the sun we saw for several days

Eureka Dunes

Raven tracks

toxic waste dump... an abandoned open-pit sulfur mine

i went down into the mine to check it out and about 100 yards in only found one set of tracks. mountain lion. going in... that was a good time to mosey

if you've done much desert trekking, you know that mylar balloons are almost the only modern litter

cut a hole and put your insole inside it, then stuff it into the shoe

waterproof shoe liners for the snow

high elevation was a winter wonderland

ammo can poking out of the snow on Last Chance Mountain

Atop Last Chance Mountain, our goal, more than 500 miles and 6 weeks from Salton Sea

looking at the Inyos

glad to have waterproof sneakers now

dropping back down into the snowless Cucomungo Canyon and a dirt road out to the highway

Wintertime desert hazard... snow-covered cacti

just putting some ornaments on the tree...

plastic bags! perfect when your boots are soaked and you want to leave the tent to pee

just another few miles of snowy trudging to top it off

thanks to the SPOT!, Sherman's folks picked us up at the highway

we swung by the ghost town of Rhyolite to check out the open air art museum

the best rendition of "the last supper" ever.

Strategic Squirreling in the Mojave

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 20:19:00 +0000

Here's the plan... accumulate 6 weeks worth of food and water, bury it in 25 different locations spread across 500 miles of Mojave desert, then walk from cache to cache, never carrying more than a few days' supplies, yet accessing some very remote and dry places.

Start location: Orocopia Mountains, just south of Joshua Tree National Park
Finish location: Last Chance Mountain, at the very northern end of Death Valley National Park

We'll roughly follow a route known to few as the Desert Trail, a connection of federal lands and a navigable route stretching from Mexico to Canada. We'll go through the Mecca Hills Wilderness, Orocopia Mountains Wilderness, Joshua Tree National Park, Joshua Tree Wilderness, Sheephole Valley Wilderness, Trilobite Wilderness, Kelso Dunes, Mojave Wilderness, Cima Volcanic Field, Mojave National Preserve, Kingston Range Wilderness, Old Spanish National Historic Trail, Ibex Wilderness, and finally, Death Valley Wilderness and Death Valley National Park.

This post has pictures from our cache assembly and the trip to bury them along the route. We will hopefully have an update with lots more pictures and stories come Christmas time. Until then, you can track our route on the "desert map" tab. Buck Nelson, the only person to have hiked all of the Desert Trail, was helpful to us in tracking down some mapping resources. His thorough trip report is here.

Browsing intently for long shelf life, high calorie goodness, we found some strange things...

POWER CAKES!!!!

INJECTABLE BUTTER!!!!

DEAR LORD...

put your food in a box that looks like your food!

Oh man, these Cheez-its taste soooo "BIG!"

Just when you thought Handi Snacks couldn't get any more bad for you...

number one ingredient? Biscoff cookies. Pretty legit.

What's the shelf life on Snickerdoodle flavored non-dairy creamer?

You have to give it to Wally World... they know their clientele...

Sherman disguises herself amongst Snickers and Bit O Honey

Whey protein? NOM NOM NOM

Scrabble edition Cheez-its!

we lined up 23 bins and got to work divvying up the supplies... canned salmon, triscuits, jerky, dried fruits, etc.

This should be a familiar scene to all the long distance backpackers out there.

Lord Underfoot, the cat, supervised the whole process.

I can has Cheez-its?

Sherman did an incredible job preserving pears, blueberries, apples, strawberries, peaches and plums. There are also almonds, peanuts, and sunflower seeds. This represents close to 200 lbs of fresh fruit!

This shows the "candy, bar, and candy bar layer" of the sedimentary cache formation.

Now you can see the cheetos/chips layer and the "bonus tuna" layer

general cross-section of the junk food layer.

caches lined up, ready to go in Sherman's invaluable Tacoma

They just fit under the sleeping platform!

After all that trouble, we found that WinCo sells cache buckets with "up to 25 year shelf life"! But are they mouse proof?

We stopped along the way to visit the White Mountain Bristlecone forest, home to the world's oldest tree-- 4650 years old.

Then, it was onwards to Death Valley and some serious squirreling

See the white rock? There's water under there!

Cool unrestored Packard at Scotty's Castle

Aptly named Teakettle Junction

Old International KB dumpy at Goldbelt Spring

Food and water cache just above the roof on that hill over yonder

These internationals don't rot away in the desert...

Food and water cache number 15 under those rocks!

hey dad, i found your christmas present!

cache number 10

cache number 8

saw a train full of military trucks go by.

then a wagon train headed for furnace creek... moments later they were passed by a caravan of big pickups towing massive campers towing jeeps towing quads towing lord knows what else. it was a strange juxtaposition.

entering mojave national preserve

cache number 6... this one might be hard to find... we had a bit of a discussion about "this bush, no that bush"

Lizzie fell asleep reading Lonesome Dove, like we do most nights.

midnight moonlight snack attack

cholla forest in Joshua Tree National Park

cache number 1, under a palo verde, marked by a head gasket

wrapping up the caching, time to mosey to Vegas to pack the packs...

ok, so we're bringing a tent...

time to hit the road

Colombia, and the Journey Home

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:55:00 +0000

After visiting the mountains, we hopped on our bikes and pedaled for Boyaca.

what you need on any climb is cheese melted in hot sugar water

crossing la linea, one of colombia's most famous mountain passes

ironic that they call the semi-trucks "mulas" here, when they are still using real mules

what? a bike path?

sleeping at the fire station in girardot

two days of continuous uphill and we were in cundinamarca

misty sewage waterfalls and all, the outskirts of bogota are pretty toxic

speaking of toxic, gas stations dinners are always delicious

i didn't know the raj had a second home in colombia

on the highway, magda adopted us for a few days

i spotted this grandma spinning yarn. her grandson runs an internet cafe, she told us

Magda was considering joining us for a leg...

flat tire

i love handmade hardware

the massive cobbled plaza of Villa de Leyva

Celebratory banana split. This time, WITHOUT cheese

Land Rovers lurk behind every door.

the brim i added to my helmet saved my face. but the climbing was still HOT

Noooooooooooo!

crossing the Rio Magdalena

back in San Antonio de Prado finally

Jan and Karina show off their old Rohloff sprockets

oh yeah, that is my hernia. you're welcome.

even hernia surgery couldn't slow down my cheeto comsumption

a quick visit to Apartado

Perro, never without a good dose of rubbing alcohol in his system

My good friend Beltran, in his shop in Apartado

He always seems to have an appetite for spare parts

My Suzi, looking pretty, and no longer mine

A send-off gathering with the local Semillero

Careful: Affectionate Dogs

This game is called rana. You through brass discs and try to land them in the frogs' mouths. I can see it catching on bigtime in the US

Manuela, just about the cutest ever.

The Semillero Juvenil de San Antonio de Prado shows off their skills

A final goodbye to Manuel, Manuela, and Marta of the casa del ciclista in Medellin. Great friends and hosts that I will miss dearly.

Yohnni and Justy were true warriors and came with me on the pre-dawn airport expedition

homeward bound

After winding down the cycling tour of Colombia, I decided it was a good time to get my hernia patched up, and a good time to head back to the US to recover, to visit family and friends, and to put some money en el banco. So I sold the motorcycle, packed up Tatanka, and boarded a plane to Indianapolis. After 2 years on the highways of Latin America, I came to love it. There are so many places I never got to see, but it was a good run. I had wanted to ride around the world in one go, but lost my way, most likely in my crossing of Darien. I'm going to take a break from posting to the blog for a while, at least until I have some interesting roadworthy content. I hope to be back on the move later this year.

Thanks for following along and for supporting me with your comments and encouragement. I hope you are inspired to take a step outside, to check out what lies on down the road.

Colombia hiking

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:11:00 +0000

we took a week off from the bikes to explore Parque Nacional Los Nevados.

rocky trail goin up up up

enjoying some lower GI distress trailside

pull the stem out of the avocado and squeeeeze out the goodness

first night's camp

the fog came and went every few minutes, opening and hiding a new view every time

still sick

silence, walk with care. this is the home of the wind, the water, and the bunnies. true dat.

laguna otún

night 2

as you may know, any adventure with me involves leaving the trail. susi is not a fan

paramillo santa rosa

havin an arepa in front of paramillo quindio

rainbow kiss

cookin oldschool style with my tuna can stove

night 3

at around 4300m elevation

nice trail. naturally i found another route

nevado tolima

follow me to the hot springs!

colombian cowboys

wacky primitive plants

brushing teeth with a view of a smoking, snow-covered volcano. check.

extreme moss climbing challenge

welcome to the jungle

and like that we were back in the city

and i was breakfasting with a monkey...

Colombia, again

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:57:00 +0000

Back in Colombia, I set to work on making the most of December and getting ready for a transition back to my bicycle. That's right, back on the bicycle :)

Making natilla on the fire-- a mix of milk, sugar, flour, and spices made during Christmas season

Esmeralda's birthday starts with cake fresh from the wood-fired oven

spanish practice :)

adrian and cat

bike frame is back from paint. hott yellow!

Manuela is learning to unicycle...

Birthday cake! big 3-0

long lost brothers?

they made me a great piñata!

white russians fo my birthday

2 yellow horses :)

getting ready to head out on tour

leaving san antonio

cars for sale

if you've read tom sawyer and have a cool bike, you can get this guy to ride it up the mountain for you

we're in indiana! or are we?

alena and hardy from germany are headed from alaska to argentina

how many germans does it take to close a saddlebag?

traveling back in time

tatanka, in amarillo pollito.

camping at an abandoned army base

the road gets rough

potato harvest

road gets rougher

now it's just a trail, but a nice one

abandoned country home

now we are following the cows

time for bridge jumping

russian import

chiva AKA bus escalera. mountain transport

after 2 hours of hard climbing, we hop the bus

dizzying drops off the road edge. routinely the driver hangs a wheel over the abyss

morning in aguadas

super duty, colombia style

aguadas

long way down and back up the other side. an afternoon's work

ice cream earned

salamina doorways

beautiful morning for a climb

monstertrucks from green bay, wisconsin in manizales at the fair

drug store! with drugs!

20 bananas for about 55 cents. yesss pleeeeeease.

more adventures to come :). it feels good to be abck on the road, if only for a month.

Iquitos, Peru to Medellin, Colombia

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:05:00 +0000

After a trip to Colombia to see some dear friends and replace burnt motorcycle documentation, I was headed back to the madness that is Iquitos.

the buses of the Amazon. ours had a 750 HP Volvo Pentax

then we were headed up to the birthplace of the Amazon with our canoa

screwing around at sundown on the shores of the mighty Amazon

it's handy to take pictures of maps when you don't have any

a motorbike is the only AC around

Vinnie heads for Nauta

Adrian puts the canoa to work hauling timbers

puttering through town with the peke-peke

meet francesca

she loves to ride around on your head

and eat popcorn

after a week of lethargy, i loaded Suzi on the lancha and headed upriver for the highway

setting posts for a new house. 100 bucks for a lot on the river.

jimmy and sandro joking around

the shores of Nauta, at the birthplace of the Amazon

petroleum barge

the lancha stops at communities to load and unload produce, bootleg liquor, passengers, etc

typical jungle town

this is where you sleep on the lancha. 3 square meals a day and the constant hum of the big Volvo

lots of action when the lancha arrives. it stops just long enough to hop off and buy yourself a 75 cent pint of the hard stuff, flavored with ginger and coca leaf. or so i've heard...

all the ladies come on board to sell mangoes, popcorn, bananas, pet monkeys, parrots, soda, bread, whatever

Suzi ready for a speedy exit

keep your chickens from escaping by tying them to a motorcycle.

back on the highway and headed back into the andes

utcobamba river

and out into rice growing country

signs you have dengue fever

Intense and continuous abdominal pain
Bleeding, Vomiting, General crappy feeling
Irritability
Chest Pain
Persistent Fever
Little urine

Leder shows off some massive papaya

The local cows check out the skull on the front of my bike

fresh home from school and ready for a ride

the family of Gilmer Prado Mondragón and Evercilia Aguilar Terrones

Going for an evening ride with good people

waiting for the border to open at Las Balsas, Ecuador

Fried flying ants are a delicacy

Crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside

at Vilcabamba I met some great bikers who slowed down enough to let me join the fun

Gas stop with the Loja custom club

Headed for Cuenca

Sean has 50,000 miles on his Honda Super Cub 90

here is his blog.

the nice thing about burning all your stuff is there is room for watermelons on the bike

At the Colombian border, I met some Argentines headed for Alaska in their 89 Cadillac Limo

look for these great people here. They would love to meet you when they roll through your town.

the colorful chiva buses tell you that you are back in Colombia

and the precipitous drops off the highway tell you that you are still in the Andes

and the warm people that invite you in (Gato Collazos) to stay with their family tell you that Colombia is the best.

Isabella the Mujer Maravilla traded in her golden lasso for a scooter

near Ibague, I took some time for a trek with my friend Nilo

Waterfalls near some perfect hotsprings

an inviting path

the palms and fog tell you that you are in colombia

and then the cops hauled Suzi to motorcycle jail for out of date inspection papers. 250 dollars and a day later i was back on my way

land rovers and terra cotta roofs tell you that you are back in san antonio del prado with good friends.

The Rio Napo

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 18:53:00 +0000

After a tedious and frustrating search, we buy 2 canoes in Nueva Rocafuerte, Ecuador, and head for the Amazon River via the Rio Napo. After securing our transport, we load the motorcycles into the boats and make a hasty departure. Our impatience to get underway easily transforms into a giddy, reckless abandon once we are moving downriver. We will pay dearly for this attitude. The steamy and buggy jungle drifts slowly by as the 9 HP and 5.5 HP motors chug away. A glorious self induced breeze sweeps the sweat and bugs away from our skin. We stop to float in the silence, slowly spinning in circles. The jungle looks back, a solid green wall teeming with life. We cook rice and lentils on a camp stove. The sweat and bugs return. We begin to chug along once again. We camp on a beach and sleep under a million stars. We cross into Peru, evading the sleepy authorities at dawn. The trip begins to flow...

beer and reversible miter gearboxes get me dreaming. you too, huh?

gaston's all about the tea-bagging. literally.

old yellow, not so much

In Quito, I got to work in Bernardo's workshop

Bernardo works the plasma cutter

Bernardo is a talented sculptor.

His specialty is converting line drawings into 3D

Suzi getting peed on in front of the 50 tonner

Long day...

The andes melt into the steamy flat jungle

jungle water spigot

Examining the patterns of reflections in the river, I was reminded of my friend Leah Wilson, who paints from this inspiration.

Vinnie and I went down river to check out some boats

Are there holes in the roof?

We finally made it back to Coca, the biggest town on the river after several days.

only to find olli in jail for assaulting the guy who had his flashdrive with all his pictures. He didn't get the flashdrive back.

Olli was in better spirits than some of his cell mates.

bug bites

Vinnie and I share some brewskis on the bridge to talk about our options.

the call of the river cannot be ignored

2 points if you can guess what they sell here.

olli free, we loaded the bikes on a boat and headed downriver to Rocafuerte

Boatloads of stuff and people

Fishing for a deal. No luck

Meet the cargo boat. 11 meters, 5.5 HP motor.

Meet El Campeoncito. 9 meters, 9 HP motor

We traded this guy some gasoline for bananas, papaya, peppers, and some other fruits with forgotten names.

The honda engine with the propeller is called a peke-peke. I think they were invented in Thailand. They have a long tube that bolts to the engine. The drive shaft is carried by oiled wood bushings. They have a small, cast aluminum propeller.

drinking aguardiente (fire water) and making a boat at 7am. welcome back to Peru. color filtered

underway. pure heaven.

Adrian smiles as he learns for the first time that boats steer reverse.

The engine frame broke and we almost lost the motor in the river. Sooo, we ''fixed it'' with motorcycle parts and assorted boat junk.

and then we put the raging fire out...

As best as I remember, we wave to a family on the side of the river and pull up to their shore. Vinnie and Adrian are driving the other boat. We want to trade some sugar or oil for yucca. He wants to buy gasoline with money. We reluctantly agree to sell him a gallon-- we wanted yucca. Olli holds the jug and funnel and I overfill the jug. I set down the bigger container and put on the lid. The boat erupts in flames. The stove is lit in the bottom of the boat. Like idiots we were cooking near the gasoline. Like idiots we pour the gasoline close to the stove. The heavy vapors settle onto the floor of the boat and drift back into the stove. We jump out of the boat. Olli has a tighter position and burns his foot and lower leg in the process. The family on shore stares in horror. The women jump out of their canoes and climb the bank. I yell at them to get back, because I fear the other 100 liters will explode. I yell for a shovel, but the bank is hard packed clay- there is no way we can throw enough dirt. No shovel. So we grab a bucket and cook pot and begin to throw water on the fire. The gasoline spreads to other parts of the boat on the rising water. But the water keeps the boat from burning so quickly. The boat begins to drift downstream. I yell at the boy near the front of our boat for pulling the stake out, thinking he is worried about the flames burning his nearby canoe. Probably, the rope burned through.

The boat settles 50 meters downstream against a fallen and submerged tree. I ask a young man to paddle me to it. I climb on the precarious branches and begin to throw water. Another man comes from shore with another pot and helps. He saves our motor with his efforts. Olli joins the canoe. He tells me he is realy burned. We throw water and throw water. I am out of breath. It is really really hot. My arm and back ache. Gradually the boat fills with water and the fire subsides. It begins to sink as the fire goes out. Adrian and Vinnie help. We remove the Peke Peke. I lift the boat enough to stop the river from pouring in and they begin to empty the water from the boat. I return to check on Olli's burns and Vinnie and Adrian continue to drain the boat. I am exhausted. After a while, I come back and we begin to sift through the wreckage. Bits and pieces of things remain. Curiously, one half of the cookpot is burned away. In the other half remains unburned rice. Everything is coated in black slime, a mix of burning gas, oil, tar, paint, and grease. Olli's motorbike is destroyed. Despite our shock, sorting through our burnt possessions is interesting. We take the boat to a beach and bury all the toxic stuff. Knowing that that is what will happen no matter where we take it. We set the boat in an eddy and continue downstream, still reeling. It was a serious fire. We were given a tremendous gift in this lesson about the dangers of gasoline vapors in closed areas. Just lost our stuff and Olli got burned, but nobody lost their lives or limbs. We are grateful for that.

olli's bike

and this was the end with the least damage

my helmet. the patagonia stickers burned, but colombia survived. a sign?

Adrian's backpack

Olli's foot

continuing by paddle

camping on the beach

olli's foot the next day

adrian says: first time in my life i bury motorcyle.

pantsless polish pirate marks the spot

we made it to a small and decidely worthless clinic

infected

sundown in Angotero

The dishonesty we faced on our journey was so frequent that it became comical. This guy had heard I could weld and asked me how much to weld up something for him. I said, buy me a beer and we are even. He said no problem but then after everything was welded and cleaned, he gave me the classic BS phrase of latinos: ''mañana''.

not quite as fun crammed into one boat.

but all is good with the river

as the sun goes down, the browns and greens drift to black

with only a few dollars left, we bartered for bananas and other supplies

floating gas station

where the forest is going...

the Napo (right) meets the mighty Amazon (left).

We turned west and headed upriver towards Iquitos

Adrian grins as we discuss our new river dream, powering a boat with a Lada Niva down the Yenisey in Siberia.

3 watermelons for a buck!? Get outta town!

I never thought I would pass through Indiana, Peru before Peru, Indiana.

big boats on the hard

watermelon and grilled plantains with Iquitos in sight

what is left of my papers. The picture of my family survived!

Have some watermelon and take a seat by the fire, my friend. Let me tell you a story about the river...

Olli is recuperating after we got him to a legit doctor. The boat is in Iquitos awaiting sale. The boys are waiting for new documents and bank cards to arrive. The motorcycle boat-drive mechanism was damaged in the fire and we never got to test it out.

"They have heard its voice and listened to it, and the river has become holy to them, as it has to me. "Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?" That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future."

Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

Cusco, Peru to Quito, Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 22:32:00 +0000

After a month of dickin around in Cusco, I got Suzi patched up and hit the road hard (new rear shock, new piston rings, new seals, new starter, new relays). Riding dawn til dusk for the next 12 days to reach Quito, Ecuador. I followed the Andes as high as possible most of the way. Plenty of time spent around 13,000 feet up. Lots of dirt, switchbacks, camping, and even some asphalt thrown in for good measure.

replacing the chinese POS shock with original suzuki (thanks mom!) has softened the ride.

apparently i had a dirty suspension

guinea pig is a traditional dish here, so we went to the clay oven guinea pig place

before

ryota, a japanese cyclist who rode down from mexico shows how to eat your pet

dirty head from bad gas, altitude, and worn piston rings

I finally realized I could solve my starting issues by making an adaptor plate for a yamaha starter motor. my bike starts easy for the first time since february.

have you listened to ''on the road again'' by Canned Heat? way better than willie nelson's version.

pretty poor in the rural areas

hard to read, but the brand of the trike is ''Defrost''

usually it was overcast and cold

lots of enduro camping. rallying through fallow fields to find a quiet place at sundown

advertisement for a guinea pig farm

i liked the sunshine on my Suzi

main street is happenin

long way down?

there's always more roads to explore

a little frost on the pumpkin up high

i scrounged a new 90/90 pirelli mt21 for the front here. this guy kindly twisted the tube on install , so i got to spend a while on the side of the road later on.

guard dog on an old honda

hit some paved for the altiplano

This looks fun! Here it is on youtube

lunch stop. veggies, meat, rice, soup, and a drink for a dollar fifty.

tiered agriculture is a lot of manual rockwork

this plaza has a giant glass beet and some ceramic mushrooms. why not?

i met this romanian riding from mexico on a bicycle.

one lane twisty

popcorn hanging out to dry

ruined tube thanks to the mechanic who changed my tire. there is usually a good reason the labor is cheap here. But the level of work is SO bad, they should pay you to mess up your bike.

climbing to the Cordillera Blanca outside of Huallanca

Cordillera Blanca

me and my girrrrrrrrrl

Dropping down the other side from 4700m

A gal makes sandwiches like that, I could make room for her on the 200!

Big mountains down here!

Cañon del Pato

I stopped counting tunnels at 30

stockin up on oranges in the desert

back into the canyons on the 1 lane twistys

back to dirt in 10 minutes and it opens up

Pallasca downtown

livin on the edge

patchwork farmland

i stopped counting switchbacks at 30

this one should be paved by the end of the year. make a note...

old graveyard

These guys from Andasmarca were on their way to a soccer match, 2 hours walk away.

stopping to ask directions from the miners always leads to a friendly chat

best town name of the andes. hands down. Shitabamba. I wanted to add some hyphens for effect.

Victor on his 135 led me to Cajamarca, getting rid of the chicken strips on my knobbies.

the women are serious about their hats in the andes and you will see everything from tiny bowlers all the way up to the 10 gallon variety. it absolutely cracks me up. but i hate taking pics of people i don't know without asking. many plazas have a gazebo showing the local style.

dropping into Cañon del Rio Marañon 10,000 vertical feet drop in 30 miles. 2 cyclist friends lost their bikes over the edge when the wind blew them off their kickstands! Bummer guys!

it's tropical at the bottom

bad time to have a problem with my horn...

fog at 11,000 feet

shut up, shut up! (what it means in spanish)

coming back down outta the fog

the ride along the rio utcobamba was fast and sweet

back on blacktop on the rio utcobamba

just another dawn patrol

and then i was in the amazon?

i caught up with jolly olli on his 70cc Honda. Dealing with helicoils thanks to a Peruvian mechanic overtightening his head bolts. The local farmer, Wilmer, offered us bananas and papayas straight off the tree!

local ladies with my ride

ceviche, a traditional peruvian dish

Olli gets excited about another ridiculously adorned mini-bike.

mud rallying to the border with ecuador

i like the giant puddle in front of the immigration office

we made it!

and just like that, we was in ecuador

sharing maps and a pitch in dinner with steve, 3 years out of england on his bicycle. his blog is here

dawn on the first day in ecuador... good things to come!

i have long believed that brushing your teeth is more fun with a good view.

this guy cracks me up. Olli left Germany in 2008 on an XT600 and switched to this hoss in Pakistan.

dawn patrol

ecuador is way ahead of peru in infrastructure

got the bike washed off. the carhartts needed a rinse too.

wearing out the middle part of the tire on the Panamerican highway coming into Quito.

I'm in Quito waiting for a Brasil visa. Gonna buy a boat next week and put Suzi in it and ride down the Amazon. Stay tuned for more shenanigans.

A visit from family in Cusco

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:01:00 +0000

My mom and uncle came down for a week of family time and some excursions to the remains of the Incan empire. We had a lot of fun and nobody threw up. Great success.

Ollantaytambo

getting adventurous with chicken on a stick

there we are in all our glory (formatting fail)

there's llamas at machu picchu

there are quite a few switchbacks on the road to the ruins

late day sun on the ruins of the sacred city of the inca

waffle with the works

sibling time on the train

mom's all tuckered out

my mom is awesome

brother and sister

a visit to the ruins of pisaq

thankfully mom didn't fall off the trail

no shortage of awe inspiring earthworks here

corn.on.the.cob.

say hello to my new travel companion

shell and skeleton of some wacky prehistoric critter found buried in cusco

a young woman works on weaving while tending her animals. paso abra cuyuni

we definitely stayed in the nicest hotel of my whole trip.

mom at the ruins of Sachsaywaman (pronounced sexy woman, approximately)

naturally, we had to go to the Russian circus. it was rad.

Sucre, Bolivia to Cusco, Peru

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:32:00 +0000

After the lonesome southwestern desert wanderings, I made my way up to Sucre, then Cochabamba and La Paz on more established routes. Lots of time with friends and family.

the Sucre market has a great Jell-O selection, complete with hand-whipped cream

the cobbled highways stretch on for hundreds of kilometers.

good kiwis around here

dinosaur footprints at Toro Toro National Park

i love trash can.

we had to escape from the T-Rex in the main plaza

rummaging for scrap supplies with carl

willy's

me and Susi at Toro Toro

i spent a few weeks building some sheet metal tools for an NGO that makes efficient woodstoves in Cochabam

Freddy loves his new brake!

safety glasses are a good idea when strapping down a grinder

Suzi's all torn up for a shock repair and carb rebuild

hi tech stove fab at Biosol in Cochabamba

a look at the new sheet metal brake carl and i built for them

and then it was snowing?

simple sheet metal hole punch i made with a die block and an old motor valve

so i NEEDED some traditional parade attire...

i've been thinking of blinging out the moto in similar fashion

watching the school of mines students in the parade. they had a cool rhythm going with the hammers and chisels

ahhhh, backpacker hostels...

La Paz sprawl

valle de la luna

great place to get water out of the carb

lake titicaca

ole burnt a valve so i finally caught his speedy 70cc butt just outside cusco

dynamite? 50 cents a stick in Bolivia. So naturally we are gonna set off 8 sticks. in traditional festive attire...

boys and explosions....

cusco at night

Susi goes for a spin in her new duds

ok, EVERYONE needs traditonal attire and we are going clubbing

Vinnie was a huge hit with the ladies

Seeing this NEVER stops being funny. photo: Ole

loaded up, as usual

Estrellita. the motorbiker and cyclist´s choice...

just what I need, a Chinese motorcycle that runs on emotions! How many smiles per hour?

i wonder if the aggressive FU-250 would sell in the US?

oh yeah, Vinnie was into the dynamite as well

Ole is thinking about an upgrade...

Southwestern Bolivia

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:51:00 +0000

Ride report on one of the most incredible off-road sections of the last 7 months in South America on the DR-200. Pictures of the last few months in Chile are coming later.

sundown in the chilean desert

you think you're remote until google streetview rolls by.... shit.

when they tell you need a big bike, they mean if you are in a hurry. Adrian is headed for Alaska on a 150, and Ole rolls 70cc. Me on my macho 200 on the right

Ole has over 12000 miles on his Honda 70cc, bought new in Pakistan.

Ole's Honda 70 in all its glory

If you want to host this amiable German nutcase when he comes through the USA, contact me...

Headed for the Chile-Bolivia border, and high altitude

All the truckers rest after making it over the pass

the only snow was on the road!

Bolivia immigration lets me in

Laguna Blanco and Laguna Verde Altitude 4300m (14,107 ft)

Laguna Verde. I fell crossing a river and was riding in below freezing with soaked jeans and boots

This is what I look like loaded up with an extra 2 and a half gallons of fuel

Desierto Dali

Thank god for hot springs

Customs at 5020m (16,470 ft)

It was so cold (-5 Farenheit) they let me sleep inside

the nice poster on the wall had been inspected by the controlled substances unit

customs, super official

you can ride anywhere you want, as long as it is full throttle

Laguna Colorado with a geyser

the jeep tours can be seen from a great distance, so i turned off on some back roads to escape the dust

flamingos at 4000m

quality time with Suzi Smackdown, when I should have been tightening bolts

the set-up

endless washboard roads

and gone is the drive sprocket retainer screw... luckily it is the same thread as the brake drum brace, which can be replaced with a different thread pitch bolt... how exciting

nothing like being broken down out here

dusty deserted towns

nice gas station

IH barn find

rough roads continue

the reveal incredible landscapes

llama crossing

i rounded a bend and caught some campesions bringing their herd in for the day

lots of little lakes around

and shepherd's huts to break the wind

every morning i had to run my stove under the motor to get it warm enough to push start since the battery is dead

when it turns to llama tracks, i start to wonder if this is the main route

nobody really knows how far it is to uyuni or tupiza, my destination

they all have colorful ear adornments. more creative than number tags

llamas on the ridge and rock houses tucked in the cliffs

sharing peanut butter and rock throwing techniques with the local kids

good place for a flat tire. slime didn't work well below freezing.

mineral deposits in the riverbed

into the great wide open

and the patch didn't hold... time for a new tube in san pablo de lipez

i stopped for the night at this little hut. note the size of the bike alongside.

it was too small for my 5'3'' frame to stretch out

but it didn't stop 2 smugglers from squeezing in to pass the cold night huddled under alpaca blankets

some forks in the road necessitate using the force to decide the route

here, a mine bypasses the tailings pools and dumps straight into the creek

i wanted to see the place where two wild west legends were gunned down

San Vicente, Bolivia. I ate lunch in the mine cafeteria

you can just see the road i took

i came around a turn and looked down to realize how close the road was to a long way down

big truck battles donkey train

coming into Tupiza 4 days later with a broken frame (3 places)

here, they don't have your normal acetylene setup

they drop calcium carbide into water to make the welding gas.

i was checking out their custom 2 stroke Kawasaki chopper. it's so small!

i couldn't resist some SWEET new graphics. I look so sponsored now!

goats ahead... lots and lots of goats...

Chile and Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 03:47:00 +0000

photo essay of 2 months in Chile...

no word exists to say that which you feel. every word will be non-useful when you feel the love.

getting ready for the ferry to Puerto Montt with a cool Willy's wagon

puerto montt

getting friendly with the 3 legged statue. they look happy!

shopping list at Felipe's house. If only we knew who those 2 strippers would be...

making new friends (australia, chile, usa, germany)

enduro camping

nothing is worse...

nacho finds humor in my ability to pass out in 2 beds at the same time

lazy sunday foam fight

lunch with francisco, nacho, and jose

time to clean the moto

2 glorious weeks of dog sitting for Lorraine

time for a new sprocket

pisco and coke, garnished with a crab. naturally a great sundowner

luiza, the russian, whips up her chocolate caramel treat

lunch on deck

Lorraine's at sundown

Dog

Happy to see their mommy.

yeah, that's a chocolate fountain. francisco and his wonderful family. and wonderful friends from colombia and uruguay

pisco soure with sriracha sauce?

not the best idea...

Holly heads for Alaska on her old trek

we got hose

afternoon tours of Santiago with Holly

Rodrigo and Tomi in Javier's apartment

i miss my bicycle

Javier Aguilar, a great friend and a bike lover. I can't say enough good things about him.

Tomi is good for 45 minutes in the backpack before he starts squirming

Felipe is an awesome engineer, dad, friend, and heavy metal fan

can't watch a soccer game without meat.

it's fine if it's small, so long as it's intense..

painting skulls with Francisco

he's right, horse skulls look like backwards alien skulls.

thanks to Analaura and Francisco, my motorcycle is more colorful

Yerka, Javier's mom, makes wonderful food, art, and used to dominate the Patagonian rally scene with her hotrod Mini.

chinchilla crossing. no shit!

precaution. zone of curves and steep grades.

looking skyward out of an earth tube dome

Marleus is building some earth bag houses in Valle Elqui

better than the highway

following the coast northwards

panam highway chile

empty highway

oh no, i forgot to put my oil cap on!!!

never fear. chilean truck drivers will make you a new one from the dumpster!

motorcycle and semi shown for scale. the bed goes on a different truck

i finally got enduro serious and changed out my front tire. from wombat to combat.

visiting the valley of the moon.

salt crystals

camping in an old bus

mica crystals

now you know how to say mine field in quechua.

i found an old bus to camp in

the only tree in the desert makes a great rest spot

yep, it's salt

the plain of patience

salt and lithium deposits from the mineral springs

salt sand and sky

roasting chiles with cheese over the fire

exploring without roads

motorcycle rides at 10 degrees are a little cold for Susi.

time to warm up in the geyser bath

Just catching up on maintenance

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:32:00 +0000

Location: La Ballena, Chile

workshop with a view

Thanks to Lorraine Chittock for supplying the workspace. New sprockets, chain, and seals.

Northbound: El Chalten to Puerto Montt

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 05 May 2012 02:57:00 +0000

argentina road signs have classic style

looking back's a bad habit --marshall cockburn in True Grit

scratched on a road sign, it reads: if you want to die, hitchhike here. Claire and Nico from France

land rovers await you in El Chalten

old truck in La Siberia, a ranch in the middle of nowhere

3 days of hitchhiking the desolate Route 40, I had a beer in my hand as Pako and I zoomed into the desert to rock climb

the desert guards its secrets

once a salt lake, now 3 miles of perfect rock climbing routes

Pako, from Perito Moreno knows all the routes

there's Pako, most of the way up

to climb some routes, you need to hammer spikes into the rock to clip into

and then he drills a hole with his Hilti hammer drill

after inserting an expanding bolt, he clips into the ring and moves up.

do you partake in sports that require a hammer drill? hellyeah!

the desert is full of secrets

taking the boat ride back north

sundown in puerto ibañez

when you find a piece of paper on the road at dawn that says ''crowned matthew'', it's going to be a perfect day. and it was.

mountain ahead

frost is gettin long

the enchanted forest. bosque encantado

back at Paul's place.

there is not a word to say what you feel. every word will be futile when you feel the love.

paul and konomi's earth bag house. cozy in the hill.

i went on an adventure to visit a japanese family that moved to patagonia to escape the radiation back home.

of course i taught them how to launch apples from the orchard with bamboo poles. 100 yards easy.

koichi

taking a bath in a barrel. patagonia is awesome.

Patagonia the beautiful part 2: El Chalten

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:08:00 +0000

This is part 2 of more travels down south, my time in El Chalten, Santa Cruz, Argentina. El Chalten is the original name for Mt. Fitzroy.

El Chalten, Argentina. Likely soon to be the number 1 town to visit in Patagonia.

Gandalf

approaching Fitzroy with friends.

The forests of Patagonia are very Ent-like. Treebeard in Spanish? Barbol.

3 day expedition to climb the pyramid.

El Chalten is at the confluence of the 2 rivers. not a bad setting for a town.

mystery cloud

Maxi and El Coronado

The descent was very steep.

staying in an old refugio

Always fun to share a snack with friends on the mountain

Making pollo al disco with Jesus, my host for a month.

Pollo al Disco (Chicken a la Disc)

You take a disc, as in from the agricultural equipment, and weld a small flange on to make it like a wok. Build a rebar stand to elevate it about 1 foot off the fire. Weld on some handles out of old horseshoes. Heat up some oil in the disc, then add a few pounds of chicken or sausages or chunks of meat. pour in a bottle of white wine and add onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, beans, peas, corn, and salt. Add everything over time so as not to overcook anything. Cover with a piece of sheet metal. Later on, add oregano, pepper, and give everything a flip to evenly mix the spices. To spread it further, add a pot of rice or lentils. Serve with bread and wine. Feeds 15.

getting ready to go fishing in Argentina is more complicated than Budweiser.

4am and we are tromping through the bushes with rope

seriously guys, WHERE are we going?

Now Maxi has his waders on and homemade spears.

Maxi fishing for salmon at dawn

at the end of the salmon run, they are like zombies. they swim so slow you can walk up to them and spear them. but they are already rotting, with their scales falling off. not for eating.

wonderful handmade pen holder in the park office

Jesus handles small welding projects all over town. The streets are filled with his scrap metal sculptures.

go for a walk?

that mountain is called Huemul, after the Andean deer. It is a 4 day walk around the mountain.

Day one you walk along the river to the lake. Day 2 is crossing the pass (lowest point in the background)

the start of day 2, with the pass beyond

there is a section along a glacier

who needs crampons when ya got sticks?

looking out from the ice cave

looking into the ice cave. probably the most beautiful blue ever.

the ridge of the andes is granite, and the foothills sedimentary. in between, you find metamorphic rock like this. folded and twisted and melted.

one glacier crossed!

snow falls at the top and compresses into ice, then slides down the mountain.

for every cubic foot of ice, you need 1,000,000 cubic feet of snowfall.

maurico and the glacier

looking out onto the ice sheet. ice as far as you can see. as the ice grinds past mountains, it carries the rock with it.

venturing out onto the ice is serious business

the ice pushes piles of rock, leaving ponds and a nice setting for a refugio, a small hut with a table and bunks (and mice)

the second night is in the refugio and day 3 follows the ice sheet down to lago viedma

the morraines show the flow of ice over the ages

extreme brushing

the lenga forest is very old, but still only a few meters tall due to the extreme climate

yep, there's my new tattoo

the glacier descends down to the lake, where it drops icebergs the size of houses

has from colombia, and my siberian brother ''el russo''

it is seriously windy here

reinforcing tents at jesus' house was a daily chore. harsh sun and high winds shredded 3 rainflies in a week.

Jesus looks out the window at his bicycle, which will soon carry him on his own long voyage

with so many good people sticking around casa de jesus (that like vodka), late night laps around town are inevitable

countries represented: france, usa(3), colombia(2), kazahkstan, chile, poland, venezuela, argentina(2), and spain

lots of places to swim, as long as you like glacier water

goodbye el chalten, i will miss you.

Patagonia the beautiful: La Junta, Chile and another trip south

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:27:00 +0000

Current location: Puerto Montt, Chile

I have been off the air and mostly off the bike, spending quality time with quality people in one of the most beautiful places I have ever known. Here is a 2 part photo essay...

Argentina plates always have 3 letters first. other good finds in traffic yielded FUK and SEX

my arrival in La Junta, Aysen was the first vehicle to enter Paul and Konomi's land.

I was returning to La Junta to spend time with Paul Coleman and Konomi Kikuchi. Paul has walked almost 50,000 km (30,000 miles)all over the world planting trees as a symbol of peace (more about his journeys at earthwalker.com). He met and married Konomi in Japan and since 2009 they have been developing a sustainable lifestyle in Patagonia, building a home from bags of earth, and growing all kinds of delicious foods. You can see pictures of their house and how they built it here: ourlittlething.ning.com. I helped them with some digging and bagging, but mostly I ate Konomi's delicious food, which comes from their garden and greenhouse. And

it feels good to get muddy

the view down the valley Risopatron from the house. You can see the excavation for the guest house and where I camped for a few weeks. They are building an earthbag house.

the bridges in aysen, patagonia are orange suspension style

japanese babies and skulls... awesome combo

one more payment and it's mine!

blackberry in spanish: mora

La Junta, Chile

big nalca leaf

looking out from Fort Coleman

using a hose filled with water and two sticks, Paul and Konomi check the building site for level.

Each stick has inch marks. the water level will be the same height, so the difference in the two measurements tells you how far you are out of level.

The house is dirt, and half underground, but well connected to the outside world

my feat started itching, so i went for a 1000 mile hitchhike down to southern patagonia

peaceful protests against the chilean government blocked the road at every town.

at least they have a stimulation room?

headed out of green chile for treeless argentina

awesome 4x4 mercedes battle camper

hitchhiking south on the Ruta 40 in Argentina is tough. Some days fewer than 5 cars go by. My strategy is to walk, because people are more likely to stop when you are in the middle of nowhere.

Pastry in Patagonia

just me and my backpack and the great wide open. for hours and hours

the trucks are the best rides because they are usually going far.

difunta de corea. this shrine appears all over argentina.

the shrine commemorates a woman who went walking in the desert to bring food to her husband, a soldier. She died of thirst, but continued giving milk to her baby until it was found and saved. Today people leave bottles of water along the road as offerings.

where i come from, the bullets do more than chip paint.

in south america, you can't get a powerstroke.

wide open spaces on Ruta 40. people can't just leave you here. or can they?

Truckload of hay in Tres Lagos.

The road leads you to amazing places...

a visit from my brother

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:41:00 +0000

My brother came down to visit me. We wandered around Buenos Aires and Uruguay for a few weeks. It was great.

Chances of being scalded or blasted with cold water? 80%

nice to see somebody down here doing some nice custom work

aaaaand some ridiculous custom work

the port was full of great looking bows and sterns

the streets are full of shady sycamore trees

schwinn varsity crossing!

always up for a beer and a good chat

in a cafe or as the sun goes down over the river

this motor is a winner!

rolling in the CheryQQ308 (actual model name of our chinese rental)

then i caught dinner at the montevideo water treatment plant

the ''AC'' went from little hot to lotta hot

gatorade comes in ''blue'' flavor here

camping with CheryQQ308

Uruguayan rally racing

pleasant cobbled streets of colonia and a cool crosswalk sign

cool hostel had a moroccan door

the darts game went a bit astray... sorry celiar!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN TITS IS CLOSED?!?!?!

cute Mateo was a true hat thief

the waves were breaking overhead directly on the shore

uruguay has great sandwiches. this is a milanesa, which goes: bread, mayo, lettuce, breaded tenderized steak, grilled ham-cheese-ham, mayo, tomato, lettuce, chimichurri sauce, hot sauce, grilled peppers, bread

so does the whiskey come with the pringles or do the pringles come with the whiskey?

me and my bro

yeah, there was a full circle rainbow.

double full circle rainbow oh my god!

a monument to motorcyclists of south america.

renting bikes and cutting through buenos aires traffic reminded us of frogger

T can't resist launching into the ball pile. we peaced out when the disgruntled fat guy started our way

there are some amazing buildings in BA

the cemetary looks like New Orleans, but most of the burial vaults are massive, extending downwards

i caught a bus back to patagonia, which affords a unique perspective from the second level.

yeah, patagonia is awesome.

old car photos

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:09:00 +0000

This post is a collection of car photos I have taken over the past few weeks...

daihatsu diesel pickup in bariloche

self portrait

RHD model A ford!

series 3 rover in buenos aires

merc for sale in uruguay

double headlights among the many goodies on this rover

1948 Ford Fordson pickup, made in England

downtown buenos aires

series 1 beach rig

rover shop

extended cab toyota bandeirante pickup with merc diesel

fiat multipla with roof rack

americar?

old citroen needs watering

austin pickup

buick roadmaster

fiat topolino

looks good with a visor

vauxhall

rugby

renault maybe?

guy wanted 6k for his KB2. HA!

vespa pedal car WITH side car. among other goodies

fiat pickup

check out the wacky bus

humber command car. alumnium body! front fenders are steel (obviously)

jewett? shoulda used the old dodge brothers logo. hehe

ready for export BACK to the USA

weapon of mass instruction

Cormac McCarthy excerpts

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:10:00 +0000

''...an old man came forward and addressed him in a spanish he could scarcely understand, speaking with great earnestness into the boy's eyes and holding his saddle fore and aft so that the boy sat almost in his arms. He was dressed in odd and garish fashion and his clothes were embroidered with signs that had about them the geometric look of instructions, perhaps a game. He wore jewelry of jade and silver and his hair was long and blacker than his age would seem to warrant. He told the boy that although he was huérfano still he must cease his wanderings and make for himself some place in the world because to wander in this way would become for him a passion and by this passion he would become estranged from men and so ultimately from himself. He said the world could only be known as it existed in men's hearts. For while it seemed a place which contained men it was in reality a place contained within them and therefore to know it one must look there and come to know these hearts and to do this one must live with men and not simply pass among them. He said that while the huérfano might feel that he no longer belonged among men he must set the feeling aside for he contained within him a largeness of spirit which men could see and that men would wish to know him and that the world would need him even as he needed the world for they were one. Lastly he said that while this itself was a good thing like all good things it was also a danger.''

and another one...

''Long voyages often lose themselves. You will see. The road has its own reasons and no two travelers will have the same understanding of those reasons. If indeed they come to an understanding of them at all. Listen to the corridos[stories] of the country. They will tell you. Then you will see in your own life what is the cost of things. Perhaps it is true that nothing is hidden. Yet many do not wish to see what lies before them in plain sight. You will see. The shape of the road is the road. There is not some other road that wears that shape but only the one. And every voyage begun upon it will be completed.''

-Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing

the darnedest thing... books make me think!

Pure Patagonia

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:26:00 +0000

Location: San Carlos de Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina
Estimated distance ridden since Colombia: 16,000 km
different Argentine border crossings: 9
most extra fuel carried: 16 litres
midnight roadside carb cleanings: 1
culvert camping count: 2
Southern highway (Carretera Austral) towns that begin in C: Caleta Tortel, Cochrane, Chile Chico, Coyhaique, Cisnes, Chaiten, etc etc

all you can eat (AYCE) lamb, chicken, and steak? yes. i threw in the towel after a wimpy 4 hours. definitely have not been riding a bicycle recently...

glacier perito moreno flows out of the southern ice fields.

it is massive, and the cross section shows how it has scooped up rock and folded back over itself over the ages.

when chunks fall off (called ''calving'') it makes a huge splash.

thanks to a lifetime of stupid gum ads, i felt an overwhelming desire to brush my teeth. the other tourists were either jealous or disgusted, not sure which. after reviewing this photo, i decided maybe i should stop storing my toothbrush in with the wrenches.

getting ready to carry fuel for the next 700km without functional gas stations...

the sky is always amazing along Ruta 40.

evening solo cruising in the loose gravel and washboard along Ruta 40

around 11pm, after dumping in the last of my reserve fuel, my carb blocked up and i cleaned it on the side of the road. 20kms later, i tucked into this culvert for the night. i used the moto to deflect the wind.

the real reason people ride the famous Ruta 40 is to access the Andes, like this beautiful Ruta 41.

with some irrigation, the farmers make the earth green.

paso roballo, the argentina gendarmeria nacional.

this is the chilean side of the border. about equally tranquilo

shadows sweep across the valley as i bump along to suzi's familiar hum.

the salty lakes have flamingoes. i promise.

guanaco

riding along the rio baker.

pinochet sold the rivers themselves, so now a company is planning to make a massive hydropower project that involves running powerlines to the north of chile (for the mining region) in the longest continuous clearcut ever. not to mention they will dam and flood one of the biggest, most beautiful rivers in patagonia. if you like fishing, or forest, or free flowing rivers, visit this site: Patagonia without Dams. The Patagonian people are mixed on the project, but almost everyone in favor supports it because HidroAysen has offered them generous incentives to vacate their property or similar.

I stashed the moto at Olga and Simon's farm for a few days to walk with Sylvie, the Belgian walking all the way to Punta Arenas.

halfway done at 1000km mark (mas o menos)

days of empty gravel road, mountains, and rain

the waterfalls were all going off full bore thanks to the rain. nice to stop for a drink.

demonstrating proper use of cane poles for hiking.

Lada Niva sits by the Rio Baker. many people live on the other side of the river and use rowboats to get back and forth.

classy digs for the night

if you want to go further, you'll have to take a boat.

reduzca velocidad (reduce speed)

my rain gear is no longer waterproof at all, so i adopted some plastic sheeting from the road crew

walking in the rain is nicer with a friend

then, all of a sudden there is a smashed Corona and the fjord pops into view

at the end of the road, there is a parking lot. beyond that, a town accessible by 7km of boardwalks

beyond the boardwalks is the bleakest playground ever

about all i felt like doing after reaching the swingset at the end of the boardwalk at the end of the road was going inside for some cocoa.

tidal boat parking in Caleta Tortel

Berta makes great empanadas. AND she gave me a sheepskin for the moto

Caleta Tortel, Chile

Olga and Simon's house is a great place to chill out and do some maintenance

The lakes' colors are dictated by their watersheds. a minor divide makes a big difference!

more pastry in patagonia. this one is called a sopapailla. dough fried in pure beef fat. behind is lago general carrera.

thanks to my maintenance, the brake plate bracing arm came loose, locking my brakes until they shattered. so i carry cookies, to ease the pain of such moments.

what is left of my brake shoes

dawn patrol near cerro castillo

this unimog looks like it is making a wisecrack out of its PTO hole

gauchos roam the backroads

steak, potatoes, onions and peppers on the fire. not pictured is me passed out in a cow pie next to a bottle of Flor de Caña rum.

replacing loose hardware with whatever i could find. luckily my brake shoes are the same as the indian-made HeroHonda 125.

crazy whitewater

owain makes use of the foliage

the plants here are massive!

like a true friend, i waited under owain and hannah's tarp while he fixed a puncture in the rain

apparently i had time to get creative and give suzi a nice floral arrangement. just a further reminder not to take myself seriously

a delicious treat from the panificadora esquel, in Esquel, Argentina. The sun came out the moment i crossed back into argentina. gas got cheaper too.

I am stashing to moto for a few weeks to visit with my brother in the Buenos Aires area. Catch you in March...

Mischief in Patagonia: shipwrecks, glaciers, and more enduro camping

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:35:00 +0000

Location: El Calafate
Mileage: unknown, thanks to a broken speedo
Days without license plate: 29
Nights in a hostel since La Paz, Bolivia: 3

In case you are new to my humor, I will point out that the part about me riding a vintage snowmobile to the south pole was a joke. I have been puttering around Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia for the last 3 weeks, exploring lakes, capes, and out of the way valleys. Since my trusty Panasonic camera was stolen in Ushuaia, all the pictures until the big shipwreck at Punta Arenas are from Owain and Hannah, two Australians I have been riding with. From here on, you will be looking at shots from my new Canon D10.

headed out of ushuaia, rainbow overhead

junk piles have always attracted me

inside the hut was a train set 25 years in the making. the eccentric owner started when he was 24 and has been adding pieces slowly over the years.

a pleasant wooded site off Lago Fagnano

At Cabo San Pablo, an old (German built?) freighter lies beached and accessible at low tide.

Desdemona slowly returns to the earth.

scaling a cable and using the crack as traction, we climbed aboard for an inspection

a pirate's life for me

all the fittings are completely fractured by the oxidation

you have to watch your step... the frame of the lifeboat remains

most of the brass portholes have been scavenged

owain climbs the smokestack

the waves now enter the holds

cabo san pablo en moto

an andean condor came to check us out

the trail leading up to the lighthouse

the leaning lighthouse of san pablo

now to find a flat spot for the tents...

lighthouse and the full moon

cooking hobo dinners (sausages and chunks of potato, carrot, onion, and veggies) on the fire on top of the cape

crossing suspect bridges

major dandelion infestation near lago Yehuin

a kind Rio Grande family took us out for a boat ride

Lago Blanco. They always talk about ''riding off into the sunset''. they rarely mention that you just end up finding a camp site 15 minutes later. oh yeah, looks like my tail light's out.

classy digs for the night. perfect place to cook up some argentinian bacon, smuggled into chile in my PVC tool tube.

back roads put you in contact with some friendly locals. this logger invited us in for home baked bread, coffee and a break from the rain.

rolling into small hamlets cold and wet sometimes means the next day will be sunshine. hang in there!

a foxy family plays at pali-aike national park

Owain, guanaco, and a KLR. They have spent 2 years riding through South America, visiting every country in about 60,000km

Guanaco on volcanic crater rim

first pic with my new camera, Punta Arenas, Chile

a camera really needs to depict the sky well. rolling through open country towards puerto natales

the main starter shaft seal leaked and filled my starter with oil. after a day of push starting, i was able to track down some new brushes and seals for a rebuild

of course the brushes were the wrong size and had to be filed down and soldered in place

owain got to work modifying the seal height to match the original

just lubin up the o-rings and needle bearings

that big slab of meat is called matambre and is amazing when fire grilled. the rum is called Flor de Caña. it goes great with some CocaCola, lime, and matambre.

campground barbecue with long distance cyclists and motorbikers. good company!

southern approach to the famous Torres del Paine National Park

the road draws you in like a tractor beam

excavator porn

After arriving in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, we stashed the bikes behind a maintenance man's house (known to the youngsters as Tio Juan), loaded up our packs, and set out on a week long hike. to see the awe inspiring rocks, ice, and valleys.

owain and hannah in valle de los torres

Torres del Paine, AKA The Towers of Pain!

they're not as big as they look. i broke a piece off the top as a souvenir!

Oops! It was a big piece that broke off! It fell with a thunderous crash onto the glacier below. Awesome show!

back at the main hotel of the park, someone made the crappiest junk display ever

let's take a bunch of broken metal, paint it black, and put it in the front yard!

it will look really classy with our 4 star hotel and mountain backdrop

remnants of older forest fires

Eddie Van Halen's white pony?

at dawn, the sun plays tricks under the clouds

torres del paine did not burn down completely, so there is still plenty to see and do (for tourists and arsonists alike)

rapids disappear into the canyons

we hiked up to the pass, the lowest point on the ridge in the upper left of the photo

click on the pic for a bigger view. there is owain at the bottom. grey glacier behind

ice ice ice, all piled up and creeping along

you can see the ice flowing down from the icefields, bringing streaks of rock with it

view from a ridge above lago dickson

our hike was full of stealth missions to explore off trail.

the mosquitos were voracious, especially for hannah

I was voracious for Calafate berries. there is a mosquito on my nose

Cabeza del Indo, AKA Indian Head... I noticed the Indian has a furrowed brow

this little owl was just chilling on a branch about 10 feet away from the trail.

full of little lakes and tourists, i was dying for a robotic Nessy.

This is why I seek out small border crossings. It is pretty laid back. Help yourself to the stamps, and table tennis...

ok, you have been out too long when it seems like a good idea to buy a kilo of low-grade sausages. ps it is time to cut my beard.

Suzi Smackdown with pampas stretching all the way to the Torres del Paine on the horizon. You may notice that I have added a ''totally sweet'' guanaco skull to my headlight fairing... further theft deterrent on top of my main method (the fact that it is a 2003 DR200)

The Aussies headed for El Calafate, Argentina.

on down the road i go...

20 Horses and a December to Remember

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:34:00 +0000

WARNING: LONGEST POST EVER...

Location: Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Distance ridden from Medellin, Colombia: 12,500km
Days from Medellin: 32
Rest or repair days: 3 (Cusco, La Paz, Christmas in Patagonia)
Km per day: 390
Police extortion incidents: 2
Times they got money from me: 0
New parts: timing chain, bearings, rear suspension, tires, chain
Camping nights: 16
Highest Pass: 4818m (15807 feet)
Bees stuck in my helmet: 2

This was one tough ride. The little 20hp Suzuki ran strong despite extreme abuse and carried me to the very end of the road down here in Ushuaia. I can't make it to Cape Horn (the southernmost point in south america) as it is an island, but this is good enough for me. 600 miles from Antarctica. The details of ''what next'' elude me. But I guess life is to be taken one step at a time. So I will just worry about dinner tonight and the rest will come. Here is a photo essay of the journey, starting in Ecuador. Ecuador northward is already posted in December.

Hello Ecuador.

The fog spilled so fast down the mountain, that sometimes there was a tunnel of clear visibility just over the road.

cheap gas in Ecuador! prices in US dollars per gallon

when your shortcut crosses a bridge of mud and sticks, it is time to reconsider

when your shortcut heads into the desert, you know it will be really good or really bad.

when your shortcut spills out into endless dunes, it is time to swallow your pride and turn around.

plenty of sand traps in peru's backroads to check your speed

lovely neighborhoods in the wasteland.

gas prices in peru. in Nuevo Soles per gallon

peruvian flags, burning trash, blowing sand, and a dead straight road for the next 2 days. this will be lots of fun at 50mph

Darude's Sandstorm came on my ipod as sand whipped across the road. well done, random function.

more blowing sand. i sat through a week of it, so you can sit through 2 pictures worth

it's so boring that people get in these horrendous accidents just for something to do, i guess

lots for sale. Own your own home! Near the beach!

Peru has these female traffic cops that wear sexy equestrian apparel and ride motorcycles. I didn't see any riding crops though.

The only way through Lima traffic is median enduro riding. very fun.

the best part of Lima is leaving. and heading back into the Andes

They need Panthro to fix that thing up!

The world's highest railroad crossing. 4818m. Light snow. Heavy fog.

Just before reaching the top of the pass, I stopped at this adobe cafe looking for something hot to drink. The abuela was dressed traditionally, with a gentleman's hat, and about 8 layers of wool sweaters and skirts. She had the traditional waist length twin braids. I enjoyed the warmth of wood fired coffee and the authentic flute music of the Peruvian highlands as I looked outside at the wind, rain, and fog. I marveled how such an authentic experience can't be bought or sold-- it is the gift to the independent traveler. Just then, the radio crackled into the next song, Berlin's Take My Breath Away. I caught grandma's eye and realized it was time to pay my 25 cents and hit the road. Only much later did I realize that my encounter was more authentic and far more memorable as a result. Maybe I'll stop back in on my way north... good coffee.

After a breakfast of quinoa, two cute gals asked if they could take my picture. I get this all the time (which I attribute to the fact that Chuck Norris vaguely resembles me). I was not prepared for the two children they pulled out of the bundles on their backs and plopped into my arms. Wow I am not ready for kids.

The peruvian highlands are full of rough and precipitous dirt roads. the 200 was perfect for these roads. it turns tight, rides light, stops quick, and goes faster than you would ever want. light on gas too.

not much of a guardrail here...

a silt rich side stream dumped into the green river, changing it to a muddy red.

scenid, dusty, rough... rolling through the heartland of the shining path

one town had enough dead rats lying around i found it notable. here's a couple

corruption capitol of peru, or so they told me. go figure the cops kept stopping me.

welcome to enduro camp. come prepared. 4100m

horses are welcome at enduro camp. good morning!

about here i noticed my rear bearings and brakes were both nonexistent.

so i did a number on my timing chain engine braking for the next few days

hidden inca towns

the houses blend into the landscape

roads wind along the mountainside

¿como te llamas?

cultivation takes place on every surface

the towns look close on the map because they are. it just so happens that the road is 100km of twist

Peruvian switchbacks, with a town in the distance

Hello Peruvian Andes!

The agave grows down here too!

Granny sips some fresh juice while running errands

this car/truck thing is AMAZING!

The whitewash and adobe wear away, leaving red streets, red roofs, and red walls.

Donkey looks on while man carries heavy load of corn.

altiplano. farming at 14000 feet.

this family was living in their land rover and touring south america. the hot water heater has a heat exhanger with the engine coolant. very cool!

I caught up with some Argentinos riding down from Las Vegas.

Cusco Peru has Norton Rat's Tavern, a biker bar with a book full of entries by motorcycle travelers.

The kids dress like their parents.

more altiplano on the way to lake titicaca

lake titicaca

entry fee for Americans: $135. Average Bolivian monthly income: $85

A new country always brings the risk of accidentally ordering weird food. It is french fry and onion soup with steak, egg, and hot dog on top. garnished with olives and mayo. WTF?

enter Raul, street motorcycle mechanic.

change is... to live better. night in La Paz, Bolivia

the shop floor is sloped from years of accumulated grime and motorcycle parts

they swapped this worn out timing chain for a new one, but in the process left off my engine mounts, stole my new sparkplug, and let rain get into my carburetor. why they removed my oil filter seal when i told them not to touch anything other than the timing chain eludes me. well done, gentlemen. it took a second trip to get everything sorted out. i guess that is why you will stay street mechanics.

In Oruro, Dante let me stay at his house and generously helped me change my rear tire.

You know me, always headed out into the desert...

llamas of Bolivia

in case you didn't notice, there's a big crater over there

no really, a big meteorite made this divot.

the continuous washboard roads finally launched my keys out of the ignition. but i luckily heard the metallic jingle and returned to find them. phew!

hours and hours of riding over washboard. enduro riding at its finest

beware! glare hides llamas! shortcut north of Uyuni

coming over a rise, i looked out over the world's biggest salt flats. Salar de Uyuni. It took my breath away.

and you thought all the houses looked the same in your suburb?

there is a dirt ramp that takes you out past the soft salt to the hard surface

riding across the salt at sunset was surreal. a highlight of the last year for sure.

riding across the Salar de Uyuni! a rare video treat!

the salt has dried over the years to form a hexagonal pattern

there is an island in the middle that is actually an old coral reef. now inhabited by 900 year old cacti and llamas

at dawn, i could see the rest of the ride would be wet...

there were two suns staring me down

i had to stop frequently to scrape the salt off the moto to stop it from overheating

intense glare as i rode the mirror

you can navigate by following the jeep tracks in the salt

once out of the flooded region, i found some tourists to snap my picture. the jeeps can't ride the salt or it destroys them.

international display at the salt hotel

i might as well be riding in the american midwest right now

that can't be good

pressure wash, followed by a thorough coat of machine oil

more desert. more ambiguous junctions

little house on the altiplano

a lonely place to die

typical bolivian campesino town

i dropped into this unusual mining town in a canyon. a receptacle for old vehicles, i enjoyed the 15 cent ice cream cones and admired the relics

little boys pretend to drive this old International KB-series

A series one land rover with a jeep inspired grille?

winding out across the desert

i came across some zinc miners. they work without gloves or respirators.

i joined them for a game of soccer in the desert at dusk.

welcome to enduro camp

heading for argentina and coming down out of the Andes

washboard and a verdant valley

am i in utah? here my speedometer broke :(

bolivian home stretch

i swear they make some strange food in bolivia

welcome to argentina! ushuaia only 3000 miles away!

What you should have been doing with all those America Online CDs... making an awesome christmas tree!

welcome to enduro camp

northern argentina

finally out of the tropics! it seemed like a lfietime ago when i crossed into the tropics way back near Mazatlan, Mexico

Now that is some food! complete with espresso. I was ashamed to have the thought that the salad didn't look real. we come from a industrial food country, and when food looks how it should (red tomatoes, green lettuce), we are shocked.

thought i would swing by the gay hardware store, maybe pick up some spare nuts and bolts...

headed for cafayate, south of Salta

welcome to enduro camp...

you know you have been on the road long enough when you think your boot is a great place to set your sandwich.

Argentina and Chile have the best depictions on their road signs!

Why the Ruta 40 is famous, I don't understand. The road is a brutal, brutal ride.

Enduro Camp. Seeing how far I can get into Argentina without showering I guess.

Dawn patrol

stone reinforcement and guardrail on an old inca road

never seen one of these before. would be awesome to race Dakar in that!

at the hostel, they wisely had me park with all the other trash.

a night out with other travelers

That is Aconcagua, 22841 feet. The tallest mountain outside the Himalaya. For all you dreamers...

washboard and sand....

rolling through the Pampa, I decided to ride at night to catch up with my friend Ted. I took a nap in the bushes, keeping my helmet and gloves on to stay warm and cozy in the thorns. I cranked my ipod and chewed coca leaves and starburst as dawn came. At a gas station, wolfing down a 2-day-old sandwich, I nearly choked when I realized I had lost my license plate in the last 12 hours!

watch out for dinosaurs! RAWR!!!

i noticed some weird clouds on the horizon... a rainstorm?

it became an ash cloud from a volcano! that's great for the motor, i'm sure.

but i broke through the other side for a glorious intro to Patagonia

Patagonia. I have arrived

In Bariloche, I got to work at the decal shop, supervising the creation of a counterfeit plate.

they even had the perfect reflective yellow in stock!

This one is dedicated to someone who will only be named as BRC. Thanks for the inspiration!

Ted and I rode out of town together, and I promptly towed him back due to a blown fuel pump membrane.

wildflowers out = spectacular sneezes in the helmet. try to get the faceshield up in time!

Ted on his KTM 640 Adventure.

speed lines? VROOOOOM!

back on gravel and headed for the great southern highway

here is where my romance with coca leaves ended. agricultural products are not allowed!

christmas eve in futuleufu, chile

i wanna jump in!!!

i think i'll make a coffee table book: Pastries in Patagonia. Any takers?

Danger: Fire and Brimstone!

i love the signs. here my camera fell out of my pocket and a 40km backtrack found two cyclists who had picked it up in the dust. thank you!

arrival in villa amengual at sundown for a night on the porch and catching up with Sylvie

we went for a Christmas cruise and found this hole in a cliff above the River Cisnes at Devil's Bridge. We decided we should catch a trout through the hole and Sylvie set to work with her tackle

Sylvie. Ready for anything.

Suzuki DR200 and tree. Patagonia

Christmas dinner. Trout and pasta.

beetle invasion!

giant beetle attacks helmet!

violets, blue sky, and a brick road make for great riding

enduro camp

where is a DRZ400 Supermoto when you need one????

Cerro Castillo

headed back into Argentina, it gets browner immediately

In the desert, a great place for the bike to die

removal of the chain cover showed a cut wire in the charging circuit. splice and go! i lost a bolt in the sand, but had a spare in stock! dad would be proud

this hopping border is still computer free.

after 70km of loose gravel and wind, i sat down for a chocolate bar and noticed my licence plate fell off again! shit!

an hour later, i found it in the sand. what a day.

more Ruta 40 at sundown.

Follow your dreams and you too can wake up alone in a culvert on your birthday in the middle of windswept desolation.

the motorbikers down here sure love to put stickers on closed down gas pumps...

999km from Ushuaia. I had wanted to get photos of each thousand mile mark, but the 5k, 4k, 3k, 2k, and 1k were all missing! It's like I had been there before :)

Happy birthday to me. Thanks to Anita for accomodating my obsession with finding some cake.

I'll have that to go...

Ruta 40. empty road for 5000km. sweeeeeet.

down here, you will find that the Germans take their RVing seriously. MAN battle camper...

This is me burying my rear tire at the Straits of Magellan

The ferry to Tierra del Fuego. kinda unreal to be here.

''end of the road''

chile has refugios, little huts to shelter you from the weather. bunk, table, fireplace.

The Falklands are Argentinian!

getting closer! wait, something is farther than ushuaia? i must go there!

TDF FTW!

Ushuaia

Liberen los secuestrados ya!!!!!!

I had to take a lap around the sign in my undies. I think that distance to AK must be as the crow flies... Remember, always wear good boots, gloves and a helmet!

Great success!

Representing Belmotos of Apartado Colombia!

celebrating new year's with several kilos of meat on the fire.

these japanese riders are clearly having a good time

toasting hot spiced wine for midnight.... and rum and coke in the other hand. oh dear.

here's to 2012. Let's make it a good one.

sunrise. ushuaia. january 1 2012

still carrying that pirate flag, jeff!

confession... i met some arctic explorers and we are gonna fix up old snowmobiles and ride to the south pole... saty tuned!

Hold your horses!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:54:00 +0000

I´M ALMOST THERE!!!

Cuenca, Ecuador to La Paz, Bolivia

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:04:00 +0000

Location: Mendoza, Argentina
Distance ridden: 8600km

Average fuel economy: 120km/gallon
Days since leaving: 21
Days offroad: 6
Days of bike repair: 2
Nights camping: 10

The Ushuaia for New Year's Rally continues at a butt-numbing pace. With a top comfortable speed of about 50 mph, most days have me riding about 10 hours in order to get 300 miles in. Highways go through many twists and towns at times. Other times there is nothing but wind and sand. My route took me towards the Peruvian coast. In Lima, after too much of the wasteland riding, I turned inland and headed up into the Andes, cresting a mountain pass at 15,807 feet (the highest altitude I have ever visited). From there, I followed river valleys and altiplano (high plains) to Cuzco and the heart of the old Inca empire. After a day of bike repair(new suspension, new bearings, and an oil change), I cut for Lake Titicaca and the Bolivian border. In La Paz, I put in a new timing chain, a new tire, and replaced a leaking oil filter cover seal. Back on the road, I crossed the world's largest salt flats and rode through the desert down into Argentina. In Argentina, I picked up the famous Ruta 40 and continued rolling through more desert to Mendoza.

Ushuaia lies ahead on the home stretch. 3300km left to go in about 10 days. I am looking forward to reaching Patagonia after being on my brain so long. Pictures will have to wait until I get a new USB adapter because the salt water from the famous canoe incident finally cooked mine.

Party in Ushuaia for New Year's. Free airport pickup! Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, or whatever else you might like to celebrate.

Colombia and into Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 02:28:00 +0000

Current location: Cuenca, Ecuador

After leaving Salento, I detoured over to Bogota with a motorcade riding for Peace and Liberty, but specifically to raise awareness for the plight of the kidnapped in Colombia. A bus accompanied the 15 day tour of Colombia, full of ex-kidnapped and their families. Each stop was quite emotionally charged with personal accounts, and speeches. Police escorts, good company, and lots of delicious food, too! They were happy to attach a flag and pick up another rider. From Bogota, I headed south, to Mocoa, then up over the Andes to Pasto, where I crossed into Ecuador. A night in Otovalo, and then down to Cuenca, via Quito and Riobamba. Tomorrow, I hope to cross into Peru.

The goal is Ushuaia for New Year's Eve. About 11,000km in a month. Why do I have to go and make everything so difficult?

Sprockets imprinted in the sidewalk in Salento

awesome Land Cruiser, eh?

getting off to a muddy start

joining the bike rally for freeing the kidnapped

a round the world biker showed up on his Yamaha.

the line-up

showing off my new dome protector

hogging the highway with a police escort

arrival with much fanfar in Ibague

lunch stop at the army base. tamales!

there were quite a few characters present

Rafael says thumbs up to free gas courtesy of the Colombian Army

we rode through torrential rain, a beer truck crash, a landslide, and heavy traffic. then there was a big moth on my tire. Pirelli Scorpion for all you tire geeks out there.

meet the press. with fantastic extensions. everyone though rafael and i were brothers, despite the fact that he is swiss and i am american.

it's 2am and we are at a mcdonald's in bogota, still in wet riding gear. WTF?

at 3:30, we finally got to sleep in the barracks of the presidential guard. too bad they rise and shine at 4:30

skirting the edge of the Tatacoa desert

tree tunnels remind me of indiana

death roads remind me of the andes, which is where i am

welcome to high altitude

approach blind corners slowly

yeah, it's like that

fast descent into a bucolic valley

terra cotta roof is par for the course

last sunlight of the day! time to camp

good morning colombia!

a rare blue sky

the line-up at customs. my DR200 dwarfed the Honda Transalps and Kawasaki Versys

hello Ecuador. you are brown.

Ecuadorian Dodge Power Wagon

Good morning Ecuador

passing glance

beetles in the urinal at the gas station

most of ecuador looks like this so far

high visibility

finally got out of the fog this afternoon. smooth sailing on the Panamericana.

By the way, I crossed the Equator today.