Hike a Biking Lago Del Desierto

Lago O’Higgins

The first stage is a 50 km boat ride from the remote town of Villa O’Higgins to Mancilla. Two companies make this trip: Las Reudas and Amigos Patagonia. I chose Las Reudas since I could book in advance and availabilty during peak season can be a problem. Both companies are easily reachable by WhatsApp for more information. The cost of the ferry when I took it was CLP 60,000 ($63), and it was nearly 2 hours, including loading and unloading the gear.

Normally, the ferry leaves three days a week at 7:30 am, but this service is very dependent on weather as the lake can get very dangerous in high winds. In my case, they decided to move the ferry to 6:30 pm the previous afternoon. I later learned that it was the last ferry possible for nearly a week.

At the port which is about 7km from town, I was surprised to see over 20 other cyclists there as well. I looked at the tiny boat and thought there was no way it was possible to fit all of our bikes and all of us on the boat. To my awe, after removing all of our bags, the workers had no problem carefully stacking all the bikes on the roof and the bottom floor. I guess I shouldn’t doubt them; they have been taking cyclists across this lake for a long time. Some of the bikes got pretty wet during the crossing, so be sure to remove anything that you don’t want to get wet.

The boat ride was rather comfortable, even through the nasty waves and Patagonian winds. I could see now why the ferry is dependent on the weather.

We arrived in Mancanilla around 9 pm, with the sunlight fading quickly. The obvious answer is to go to the only campground up the road, which costs CLP 10,000. I had heard wild camping is very hard here and you will get yelled at if they find you, which only fueled my desire to wild camp. With the howling wind and uneven terrain, I found it very hard to find anything flat and wind-protected to camp on. With darkness closing in, I settled on a flat section of a hiking trail that had no wind. It was only big enough for me to cowboy camp (no tent), but it would have to do. The wind around me was terrifying; thankfully, I had a little bottle of wine to help me sleep.

Paso Dos Lagos

After a slightly sleepless night, with visions of being blown off the cliff, it was time to start the migration process. The Chilean side opened at 8 am, and I was first in line. It is very important to complete an online form called “Salvoconducto” the day before. It is a police background check to make sure you are allowed to enter / leave Chile. If you don’t do it in advance, it will take an extra hour or two at the border.

From Chilean Migration, it was a lovely 14 km double track to the Argentinian border. There was a steep climb at the beginning, but it smoothed out after that.

At one point on the road, I was surprised to see Mount Fitz Roy show itself. I knew that I was heading towards El Chalten, the town at the foothills of Fitz Roy, but I wasn’t prepared to see Fitz Roy yet.

From the border of Argentina, things got a little more challenging. The doubletrack road turns into an 8 km long single track hiking trail.

The difficulty of this section will depend a lot on your bike setup. Very few parts are ridable, and it will mostly be pushing your bike along a rocky trail full of roots. My light bikepacking setup made this easier, but if you have a traditional touring bike with large and heavy panniers, this will not be fun.

With my setup, I finished the 8 km trail in around an hour and a half, but I had heard from other riders with more traditional setups that they took nearly four hours.

The Argentinian migration is easy and beautiful. It is situated on a large beach on the lake with a wonderful view of Fitz Roy, where you can even camp for free.

From here, you are left with two options. Wait for the next ferry across Lago Del Desierto, or, if the first 8 km of hike a bike didn’t scare you, continue on a 12 km hike around the lake to the other side. The ferry service here is much more regular, usually running twice a day, and costs ARG 60,000 ($56).

Hiking Lago Del Desierto

There are a few good reasons to skip the ferry. Maybe you want the challenge and the adventure, or maybe you just want to save some money. Either way, as long as you know what to expect, it will be a rewarding experience with incredible views. What to expect is at least 7 hours of pushing, carrying, and even dragging your bicycle over and under endless rocks, trees, and roots.

I was very thankful to meet Flo the day before on the ferry. He was the only other person on the ferry who was crazy enough to want to hike around, so we planned to do it together. Suffering alone can be pretty hard and depressing, but suffering together is how great stories are made.

Before we started, there were a few things I learned from my first hike-a-bike that I shared with Flo. Having a backpack helps immensely. We put as much of our heavy gear as we could in our backpacks and then redistributed the weight on the bicycle to the back so the front could be light and easy to maneuver. There would be a lot of picking up the bike and pushing it up steep climbs, and the lighter the bike, the easier.

We both started very strong and confident. We would see a big climb in front of us and push up it unwaveringly, only stopping for brief moments to appreciate the incredible views of glaciers and Fitz Roy.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it; it only became harder. As the day went on and our muscles weakened, our pushes grew shorter, and our breaks between grew longer. As cyclists, we only have a few exceptionally strong muscles. Everything else is weak and was failing us quickly.

As cyclists, though, we have an innate ability to keep moving forward, no matter how slow. It helped that we got into the habit of handing each other cookies when energy was getting low.

Since we started our day at Chilean Migration, we knew we couldn’t cross the entire lake in one day. We planned to camp on a beach about 3 km from the end of the trail. It would be easy to complete the entire hike in a day if starting at either end of it.

We were very ready to be done by the time we got to camp. My body was in pain, and I needed to rest. While we camped here, a boat drove by and pulled up to yell at us for camping here, telling us this was all private land and camping was prohibited. The man initiated the conversation quite aggressively, but after explaining our day and our trips, he softened a bit and ultimately allowed us to camp. I tried to contain my anger and opinion as well; this land was breathtaking, a true marvel. No one should be able to own this land. It should be public for the people to enjoy.

I thought that a night of rest would help my body recover, but everything was stiff and painful in the morning. A hearty breakfast and plenty of coffee helped loosen my body, and soon we set off for the final three remaining kilometers.

The final stretch was quick and easy. We looked back at the lake with pride, seeing the thick forest we had gone through. It took us nearly 7 hours total to hike the 12 km.

At this end of the lake, we got a soda and snack, being sure to save most of our hunger for El Chatlen, where we planned to use some of that money we saved on a big burger and a cold beer.

To El Chalten

Being back on a gravel road felt amazing after the past two days pushing our bikes. Only a 35 km steady descent along a river lay between us and those delicious burgers now.

We arrived in town, exhausted and hungry. With ARG 60,000 saved, we figured we could treat ourselves to a couple of nice meals guilt-free. We walked into the first good-looking burger place we saw and were blown away when it said that a burger cost ARG 27,000 ($25). We found a slightly cheaper burger before retreating to a dorm bed to rest our aching bodies for a few days.