May 16, 2017
Some tears were shed today even from mother nature and she poured with rain for about a half hour.
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Huamachuco, Cajarmarca, Peru
Destination: Wild camp on L1-115, Cajarmarca, Peru
43 km trip, 5:31 time, 47.9 km/h maximum speed, 7.4 km/h average speed
1226 meters climbed, 430 meters descended, highest elevation 4134 meters
Route Description:
You leave Huamachuco in a nice paved road with a shoulder. This is highway 3N. At about the 15K mark outside of the city you reach a huge mine and a small town. You continue a gradual climb. Just past the 20K mark and a few hundred meters after the gas station on the left there is a restaurant on the left on a corner. You continue to climb on the paved road and the grade becomes steeper. You crest at about 4130 meters. You turn left at the peak on a gravel road which is the L1-115. NOTE: If you’re following our GPS tracks we initially missed the turn by about 2K and had to turn around. On this day we continued only for another 5-10K because the sun was going to set and we camped just before the 005K marker. There seems to be lots of clean water flowing up in these areas. The condition of the gravel road wasn’t too bad.
Accommodations:
There were no accommodations of any sort in this area. It is very remote and aside from the restaurant we saw there was nothing happening. Plan accordingly and buy food in advance.
What happened…
Andrew writes: Well, we set off with the best of intentions to climb up out of Huamachuco, and ascend to 4200m (our highest ever!) before dropping back down a little bit lower by arriving in Cachicadan. If it weren’t for a pesky rain shower delaying us underneath the eaves of a house, we might have made it. As it was, we finished the climb just as the rain started and by the time it stopped and we had changed into dry clothes, we only had enough time to find a spot to wild-camp, somewhere along the road to one of the nearby mines.
I will say though, that as most of today was back on a real road (asphalt) I really enjoyed the ride, even if it was a ton of uphill. In fact, it only got unenjoyable when we went off-road to find a wildcamp spot; nice views though.
Amanda writes: Today was a tough one. Not just because of the climbing but the mental game caught up with me. I was unclear on the route today and Andrew mentioned a couple of times a different route. I never clearly understand him and I thought he was trying to propose a new route. With that I was a bit irritated and then the skies opened and I couldn’t find my rain gear quick enough. I remember when we were packing up our panniers in Cajamarca while preparing to ride again I said ‘I’m sure it will take a while to get back into the groove with our things’. Boy was I right. By the time we managed to find our rain gear we were soaked and freezing. We were at our highest elevation to date and the rain was like hail/snow/rain. Then I ended up taking a wrong turn because I didn’t see Andrew behind a car and he had actually turned a different way. So I’m bombing down a hill the wrong way. He finally catches me and we decide to try and find cover. We do and in the process I get a flat tire. Fortunately the rain stopped and it gave us a chance to put dry clothes on, change my tire and then climb back up the hill I took on the wrong turn. The whole process took over an hour and again we were closing in on sun down.
So we headed down the correct road which was not paved but not actually in that bad of shape. We tried to descend to at least below 4000 meters so we didn’t run into any problems sleeping at high elevation. We found a flat spot and set up camp just as the sun was setting. In the end it worked out fine, just a few extra wet clothes. I think we’ve come a long way because while that one hour sucked, we were able to put it behind us and enjoy the rest of the ride and sunset. I also give Andrew full marks today as we was pretty patient through the whole process as I shed a few tears of frustration.