July 7, 2017
Another day
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Cañon, Ancash, Peru
Destination: Just outside Llocchi, Ancash, Peru
26.7 km, 6.5 km/h average speed, 20.3 km/h maximum speed, 4:00 time on the bike
1546 meters gained, 365 meters elevation descend, 2575 meters maximum elevation
Route Description:
Start the day heading left on the road by the town and up the hill. This is the PE1N highway and it has very light traffic. The only traffic we encountered was mine traffic. You start a gradual climb along the rivers edge. The road is gravel and in good condition You reach a small town and then start a steeper climb with switchbacks. Get water at the river before starting the climb because there is no water along the way until much higher. The road continues to be in good condition. There are hot springs about half way up but they didn’t have water either unless you want to drink the hot springs. We managed to get water as marked on the GPX tracks and camped just after this in an abandoned house just shy of the town of Llocchi.
Accommodations:
Again a day with no accommodations. Even if you make the town of Llocchi there are no accommodations that we could find here on the next day. There is a small shop you can buy a couple of things. Plan water and food accordingly.
What happened…
Andrew writes: Not a lot of excitement today. We cycled along the river towards Tumac, and were stopped for about 20 minutes while we waited for some construction equipment to navigate the narrow, twisting road. We were caught in its’ path and so we just sat and waited until it managed to get by. A short while later, we passed a waterfall. Somewhere we had read that it would be a good place to fill up with water. I mistakenly assumed that meant I could fill about 2L of water, and then get more in a town further down the road. Whoops. That town (Baños) ended up not having any water, or being much of a town really. It was two houses and a thermal bath/pool. When Philip and Nici stopped for some shade and lunch at the bottom of the climb, Amanda and I kept going. We climbed and climbed, until we couldn’t climb any more. Then we kept climbing because we didn’t have enough water to camp. Amanda protested every inch of the final 5km. About 2km from Llocchi, there was a small stream, and an abandoned house, so we called it a day. Tonight was definitely the full-moon it was so bright!
Amanda writes: I really enjoyed the first part of the climb today. The condition of the road was great! It was still gravel but almost as good as pavement. It was a nice wide road with a gradual climb along the rivers edge. And while it was wide for us and cars, the big equipment was another story. The trucks were so massive! The views and the colours of the valley were so incredible. I wish I knew why they were so colourful. After finishing the gradual climb we knew that we then had some steep road to tackle to get to the top so we stopped for lunch. Nici and Philip were quite hot and declared they would be taking an extended break after lunch. So we parted ways and figured we’d see them down the road.
After we finished lunch and started climbing it also wasn’t too bad. That was until we reached Baños and realized there was no water. We met a couple of people walking and asked them and they said “mas arriba” which just means higher. And so we kept climbing. I was pretty done at this point yet couldn’t stop because we needed water. And so we kept going and going for what felt like forever when in fact it was only about 5km. We finally found water and then a place to camp. It wasn’t the ritz but it was out of the wind and the sight of others and so we set up in a our little abandoned house. And while Andrew wasn’t too thrilled about not making the town of Llocchi it turns out that tomorrow we learned that would be for the best.
The aerial view of our ride: