1/6-Part 3-Taking Our Bikes For a Walk in the Woods

The sign for Argentina was the end of the road. From here to Lago Del Desierto it was a singletrack trail. This is the part we had heard a lot about. As a hiking trail, it was relatively easy. With a loaded bike…not so much. There were numerous creek crossings, very steep uphills and downhills, and a pretty fair amount of mud. 

The beginning. Small bits were rideable. If I was a mountain biker, I probably could have ridden more. I’m not…

Keeping one’s feet dry was a challenge. Eventually, I just gave up and walked through the water. At one bigger crossing, Markus took his shoes off and walked through barefoot. Unfortunately, he dropped one of his shoes in the water! So much for that idea. 

More walking. 

Alex’s muddy shoe. 

We helped each other get up the steep parts. Alex would help Markus, then Markus (or Alex) would come back and help me push. As I was in the back, I only helped Alex once get her bike up. It would have been very difficult to do it alone. 

Another Matt sighting. This was perfect because at this point, Markus was wondering if we were still going the right way. We were. 

There were also “trenches” that were easier to navigate by walking our feet on the top sides while sitting on the bike. 

Finally we came to where we could see the lake at the point where we would get the next ferry. 

Now steep downhill. 



Almost there!

Hallelujah! We made it!

Markus getting stamped into Argentina. 

The gendarmerie did not even ask us about food we were carrying. Alex’s theory is that because it’s such a remote border crossing, and only accessible to hikers and cyclists, that they don’t want to take away the limited amount of food we are carrying. Makes sense. 

Everyone else was here except Pedro, Tom, and Caroline. Pedro came in shortly after, and Caroline made it too (Pedro carried her front pack on his bike). I didn’t see Tom, but he probably made it too. 

Now we are all gathered here to take the boat tomorrow at 5:00pm. 

Thus ends the three part post. Now we are officially in Argentina!!! We have no Argentine pesos yet, but we’ll deal with that later. There’s nothing to spend money on anyway.