Cycling Chilean Patagonia with Kids
The Carretera Austral is the iconic road running through one of the planet’s truly great wildernesses. This young family did it by bike.
All images courtesy of Rachel Bertsch @ Meander the World.
For the panoptic outdoor enthusiast, Chilean Patagonia is one South America’s most epic stretches of natural space— even the very word “Patagonia” conjures up images of wild pampas, steep terrain flanked by glacial peaks, isolated roads leading to, well, the ends of the earth.
One of those roads does go on for thousands of kilometers— 1,200 of them, in fact. Called the Carretera Austral, it has become a magnum opus of sorts for travelers across the globe. But what you don’t see out there on a regular day is a family going at it, by bike.
Rachel Bertsch, a Canadian writer, photographer and guide who shares beautifully candid glimpses of her family’s nature-immersed life (they’ve been spending the summer on their sailboat in British Columbia), began a multi-month, multi-continent cycle tour with her young family on this very length of road.
Attempting the Carretera Austral with her husband and their two children (both under the age of five) is an undertaking of massive proportions, as any parent can even begin to imagine. The route has really only existed the past thirty years, after a a series of border disputes between Argentinian government and General Pinochet’s dictatorship led to building a better infrastructure between the more remote outposts throughout the region. But Rachel’s honest play-by-play of the hardships— ditching gear to drop weight, restocking food in mountain villages along the way, and the ultimate question, how are the kiddos handling it?— makes us believe that anything is possible.
The CA is suited for cycling, and one can argue even with little ones hitched to a trailer— the slower pace invites more stops for roadside playgrounds, catching mosaic-colored mariposas, and simply being in nature— all things as we know kids are naturally attuned to.
The best part? Bertsch doesn’t claim to be a badass cyclist herself, which makes the entire operation seem relatable, if not someday even attainable for the rest of us. As she shared their incredible stretch cycling across Spanish Andalusia with us earlier this year, “just start pedaling” was her motto. Which seems to be the common thread on this site— with enough planning, and a bit of community, it’s all possible.
The Route
We followed the Carretera Austral from North to South, a route that is about 1,250km long. The northern half is mostly paved, while the southern half is mostly gravel. It’s a route that was created during the dictatorship and cuts through what would have been the Chilean wilderness and includes everything from fjords to grasslands making it incredibly scenic and diverse.
We started in Puerto Montt at Mile Zero, continued to Hornopiren before catching a ferry to Caleta Gonzolo into Pumalin National Park and continuing onto Chaiten. We completed the entire length of the Carretera Austral to O'Higgins before retracing our steps to Tortel and Puerto Yungay to catch the new 36 hour ferry to Puerto Natales. Ferry has only been an option for a couple of years. From Puerto Natales, we ventured north to Torres del Paine, after which we took a bus to our final stop at Punta Arenas as the wind was so severe on the pampas. Most other cyclists were continuing onto Ushuaia, but this is where we flew to Spain.
Note from the Road
One of Chile's highlights is this 1,200km ribbon of gravel and paved road that cuts through numerous national parks, the mountains of Patagonia, and along the Pacific coastal fiords.
Almost everywhere has friendly locals. And almost every country has a highlight worth seeing.
There are towns to restock food every 50 or 100km as we understand it, and places to wild camp or cabanas to rent. Water is plentiful as I've already lost count of how many crystal clear streams we've passed. Populations are low, locals are smiling, and the region that surrounds us is beautiful.
Where Kieran and I differ in holiday plans, is where our level of comfort changes. If I had the budget, I'd splurge way harder than we do on luxuries to make the journey feel effortless. Kieran loves a sufferfest and dirtbagging it.
I'm not sure how I got comfortable with the idea of relying on my own strength to propel myself halfway across one of the longest countries in the world. Or being ok with the vulnerability of finding a spot to pitch a tent each night with two young kids.
We've let the sound of the rivers and ocean waves be our white noise to distract from the wild dogs that sniff our gear hoping for a free meal. Watched as fishermen tried their luck in catching dinner in the river beside us as we hid in the shade after a long day of heat radiating from the pavement.
100km in, it's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. But more on that to come. Bear with me as I post photos and words in a public diary style to try to help remember why I am doing this and what challenges we faced amongst the celebration of making it through another day.
On Camera Gear
I had been thinking for the last 200km that bringing my good camera and tripod was a waste of weight since 99% of the time, I can only manage the quickest of snapshots with my phone.
Every pound matters, especially when you need to carry all your food, gear, and selves over mountain passes.
So I kept staring at the camera and tripod thinking, what a waste as it is the only thing we don't use daily.
But then I found the smallest of lupine patches and watched as Eli frollicked and snapped a couple shots not on the phone. And came to realize, I am glad I brought my better lens and need to use it more because there are some memories that phone cameras don't do justice to.
Clothing, Amenities + Weight
We had a mountain pass this part of the trail that was gravel and a beast of 10%+ grades. We abandoned it once and decided to hitchhike the hardest 5km in order to not break our bikes because our egos might get bruised. (When the grade surpasses 10%, we generally have to walk since one bike got damaged during the flight down and the back axel nearly always starts to wobble when we are pushing too hard to get the 50lbs + in the bike trailer to the top).
Our clothing supplies have dwindled to two outfits for Kieran and myself (one while cycling, one while resting) which was made rather awkward when we camped at a farm and got farm dung on both outfits but generally works fine. The kids have half a dozen outfits each, but I console myself with the fact their outfits are smaller those clothes in their stuff sacks double as pillows while we camp.
I donated about 15lbs of stuff the second week we were here, even chucked the shampoo and lip balm in an effort to get lighter bags.
It wasn’t our first time cycle touring with kids, but it was the first multi-month cycle tour with two in a location that was isolated enough that we needed to have all the supplies with us in advance. So, our first days on the bike we had way more than we needed. We donated so much gear it was hard to remember what went.
My bike weighed in at 45kg before food and water were added, Kieran’s was at 40kg. This included our kids bike seats with handlebars specifically for them and the bike trailer we towed behind us to bring the kids along in. But that weight was before we put ourselves and our kids on, with added weights of 15kg and 20kg respectively.
We could never pack enough food. Snacks and meals were a constant concern for us, as grocery stores were 100km apart in some locations, and it was too early in the season to forage any fruits and if we had to survive off our fishing skills we would surely perish.
It became obvious early on that the weight of the bikes with all our original gear was too much. We needed to keep the two double sleeping mats, even though one was redundant, but the ground was too wet that is always saturated through our tent that we needed the extra pad to keep us dry. Our tent was a 4 person, 3 season one weighing in at >3kg, but we could have gone smaller to a 3 person tent however the extra space in that cavernous tent was appreciated, particularly since we had to seek shelter from the rain often. We zipped two 0C sleeping bags together and had a mountain blanket below us to stay warm. Kids always wore one of our puffy jackets to bed. We had a lightweight kitchen set up, one pot, 2 bowls, 2 cups, 2 sporks, and a MSR multi-fuel stove and refillable fuel canister we could put white gas in.
Those were the essentials, and everything else was optional. Priority in the bags needed to be given to the couscous and lentils, dehydrated potatoes and sole spice seasoning, and the endless bland oatmeal that I could do with never eating again. When we had rid ourselves of enough weight, we added the luxury of powdered milk so our teas and oatmeal were slightly more palatable.
Lanterns and headlamps were quick to go, a phone flashlight did the trick if needed. Bug spray went, but sunscreen stayed. Although our faces were so wind burnt it was hard to tell if the sun was also doing damage. Every town in Chile we donated clothes in, until the clothes went down to the bare minimum. Kieran and I had one outfit for cycling, one for camp, the kids had a few more options. All four of our clothes fit into one 20L bag.
Unfortunately, diapers took up equal space to clothes I would have preferred having only a couple reusable cloth diapers, but they just wouldn’t dry in the first weeks of continual rain. We at least could use the diapers in dry bags as pillows since we didn’t have enough clothes to be repurposed. Books and anything made with paper went for the same soggy reason. The total of toys was never larger than a bag that could hold a snack sized amount of trail mix. The amount of waterproof bags was excessive, and we strapped gear stuffed in those sacks to any surface we could.
Rachel Bertsch and her family cycling Chile’s Carretera Austral.
Cycling the Carretera Austral: is it Family Friendly?
Yes and no.
We brought our kids. Was it a good idea? Verdict’s out.
Our kids have loved bikepacking with us for the last 600km. The cabanas have all had room for four people, our tent can be pitched easily at many wild camping spots in between, and they get bribed with sugar on a daily basis because we can't find better food half the time.
We just completed the "easy half" of the trail, and that's why the verdict’s out. Up next is 600km of gravel, loose gravel that the bike trailer is not built for. And in getting recon for what's ahead, it's hard as not many families are out here doing this (except for one that has given us hope it is possible!).
We like that our kids see us getting challenged physically on the tough terrain and trying to figure out logistics for nearly every aspect of the day, see new places in awe with us, and fumble with the language with us. We like that the environment is safe from dangerous animals and/or intense crime.
It's an easy going bike ride that might just kill our legs with the never ending hills, but it's still half manageable with kids.
