Taking on the rigorous challenge of biking through portions of Patagonia were Chris O’Brien, Buck Benson, Scott Bergstrom, Jane Alexander and Lee Bergstrom. Photo courtesy of Buck Benson
A group of five locals recently returned to Cook County from Patagonia, a remote region of southern Chile and Argentina, following a six-week bicycle tour on the Carreterra Austral. The small party included Buck Benson, Jane Alexander and Chris O’Brien, and Lee and Scott Bergstrom. All recently completed two-week self-quarantines because of their recent travels abroad.
The idea to pedal the 770-mile chunk of ripio called the Carreterra Austral originated with Buck Benson, who bicycled the length of South America back in 2014. He previously had to skip this isolated section of gravel because a support crew could not follow by car. “Not that many Americans go there and think of going there,” told Buck. “You say the name Patagonia, and everybody thinks of clothing, but it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth.”
The group successfully made it to Bariloche, Argentina with large cardboard boxes containing their broken-down bicycles on February 6. “The sheer joy of seeing four relatively unscathed bike boxes coming into the luggage area can only be understood by those who have gone on an overseas bike adventure. No bike, no adventure!” explained Jane Alexander on her blog.
Before leaving Bariloche, the five unpacked, reassembled their bicycles, and sought out last-minute purchases in the city. Because some stretches of the road were scattered with so few people, the group had to fit everything essential for their trip on bikes including two to three days’ worth of food.
Leaving Bariloche, Buck, Lee, Scott, Jane, and Chris pedaled their way south down the Argentinian and then Chilean side of Patagonia for the entire month of February. They averaged about 10 mph on the sharp ripio of the Carreterra Austral, road through numerous national parks, and sometimes relied on rural ferries to cross large bodies of water. Most days, they shot for 60 miles.
Early in the trip, south of El Chalten, Buck’s iPhone 11 bounced off his bike undetected on the dirt road. Lee found it later, a short way back, crushed by a truck. All his maps, route research, photographs of the trip, and communication capabilities, were suddenly no more. “You realize how dependent you were on that one piece,” Buck recalled.
Nevertheless, with no way to repair the phone along the route, the small group of cyclists developed ways to communicate along the road. A red flag hung on the road’s edge signaled for the others to stop. Most nights, they camped at hosterias, pitched tents, or “glamped” at small establishments.
At the end of one long day, looking for a place to sleep, Buck and the Bergstroms came across a small hand-carved sign. In Spanish, it read: comida y campamento. The trio hung the red flag and followed the long driveway up off the road where they discovered a ranch. The homeowner, Oraphina, invited them to pitch their tents on the grass and come in for food. Once Jane and Chris had arrived, they all sat down for a surprise.
“We just had this wonderful pot roast with beef, potato and carrots that came out of nowhere. Our expectations were low, and we hadn’t had any food like that on the whole trip,” recalled Buck. “Not only was it good but there was so much of it. You know, when you’re biking every day, she brings in this one platter and you think, ‘Well, that’s plenty for all three of us and you find out it was only for one person,’ it’s like wow.”
About 1700 miles from Bariloche, the Grand Marais group reached the harbor of Puerto Natales, where they loaded bikes and gear aboard a ferry. From southern Chile, the group motored four-days north up the Pacific back to a coastal town called Puerto Montt. The arrival back on land signaled the tail end of their trip. With only a short distance to go, COVID-19 started to reach center stage across the globe. The group watched as international borders began to close around them and flights back to the United States were canceled. Forced to improvise, the bikers slipped onto the last ferry into Argentina and then talked their way onto a flight to Brazil. “All the doors were closing right behind us all the way,” recalled Benson.
By the skin of their teeth, the five cyclists made it back to Minneapolis on March 22. Because of their recent international travels, the group immediately started two-week quarantines to protect Cook County from COVID-19. Buck, Jane, Chris, Lee, and Scott all recently finished their 14 days of isolation on March 5. It’s a good time to be home.
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