Hacking My Way to Tierra del Fuego & Ushuaia

[mikepa]

[quote=NorthernStar]Where will your next adventure take you?[/quote

We've had so much fun on this ride, The Seattle Contigent is going to sign-up for the MotoDiscovery High Andes Expedition (this time next year) as soon as we get home.

Our bikes are being return shipped to Houston. When it's time for pick-up, we're toying with the idea of flying down, servicing them, then riding into Barranca del Cobre (The Copper Canyon), then taking an coastal route home.

As a guide for GlobeRiders, there is a possibility of my guiding either our Africa or IndoChina Adventures later this year, though with the current dismal state of all things economic, the needed bookings may not come through.

When I get home, there's my new UberHack 3.0 (WarBird) project to manage, then debug. I also plan to go completely through U'Hack 1.0, then ship it off for long-term storage in Heidelberg, Germany. That way, even if nothing else materializes. my wife and I can hop a cheap flight to Frankfurt (yet, they do come up ever now and then) and tour the Alp and Dolomites.

Of course, I still have the 1st floor of the house to trim-out. . . .

[Bozola]

Having recently read Dallas Murphy's "Rounding The Horn" it was great to see the country up close and personal. Not quite the ogre of legend.

I knew I wanted to do a trip down to Ushuaia, I just didn't know how much I underestimated it's desirability. When you guys get back up here, you need to do a slide show somewhere.

[Nata Harli]

Originally Posted by mikepa

I owned around 30 different "bikes" before taking up piloting a hack. The primary reason I ride a hack - my left leg was amputated in 2004, and since I prefer riding off-pavement, I knew my liability would be keeping the bike upright if I needed a "dab" with my left foot, or, picking up a bike if it went over.

In the 2 vs. 3-wheeled discussion for a trip of this type, as I noted earlier, I was the Envy of Ruta 40. Yes, my rig was lifted a couple of times by the wind, but I had an immensely stable platform compared to the guys on bikes. Crossing a grader berm, or the swale between deep gravel tracks was not a problem for me, I could drive pretty much anywhere I wanted, at any time.

Not falling over also meant I didn't suffer the dings, scratches, and the occasional broken lever, mirror, turn signal, or tweaked pannier. A hack has enormous storage capacity. And finally, the hack is a center of attention everywhere, and is a great catalyst for meeting people.

Best,

Mike,

Thanks. I have both my legs but seem to have had a problem staying upright lately . Other than that, all the other reasons seem to be the same as mine are in looking for a hack.

You've pretty much convinced me that this is the way I should go for my trip down south. I've heard Ruta 40 can be a real killer on 2 wheels and I would like to have the option of heading off road whenever I have the urge.

I think I'm going to look for a used Ural to learn and practice on then if I still think that's the way to go purchase a new(er) one in the spring of 2011 and get it ready for my trip.

Hope to see you on the road sometime. Thanks for a great ride report and the info.

[mikepa]

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
(excerpt from The Walrus and The Carpenter - Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

I hadn’t planned on writing a Final Chapter. Having reached Fin del Mundo, our journey was complete, our mission accomplished. But having a free day in our final port of Punta Arenas, Chile, the bikes shipped, my gear packed for check-in, my GPS waypoints, tracks and photos backed-up to a ruggedized portable drive, I find myself at the keyboard once more, to talk of many things. . . .

I should introduce you to the participants of the MotoDiscovery Tierra del Fuego Expedition 2009. They are as fine a group of people and riders as you could hope to travel with; no one got voted off the island.

Frank Leonard (now Franco Leonardo) of Shoreline, Washington. Frank manages a commercial HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) company, and has toured with me in Africa and Japan with GlobeRiders prior to this tour:




Frank was riding his new BMW F800GS, perhaps the best adventure-touring motorcycle available today – the only thing it lacks (for those of us, like me, who are chain lubing and adjusting averse) is a shaft drive:




Jerry Ivy, of Seattle, Washington. Jerry has so many businesses in cosmetics and real estate that no one (perhaps not even he) can keep track of them, but they seem to be well managed enough that he has also ridden with me in Africa and Japan:




Jerry was hauling *ss on his BMW R1200GS:




Dan Mclaughlin, of Issaquah, Washington. Dan own two auto body repair and paint shops in Seattle. He single-handedly keeps the KTM and Touratech motorcycle accessory businesses profitable, and has been the beneficiary of one of the toughest winters (with all the attending fender benders) in Seattle’s history:




Dan was roosting and dicing it up on his powerful and capable KTM 990 Adventure:




Pat and Bernie Boltz (aka “Fernie” from Fernet-Branca, google it!) won a recycling operation in Honolulu, Hawaii. I name them Wonder Woman and Iron Man, riding these roads (and dealing with the winds) two-up is an accomplishment worthy of any episode of Survivor:




Bernie and Pat motored along on their BMW R1200GS Adventure:




Ralph Schmitt is a chemical engineer from Thousand Oaks, California. Ralph had a GPS, but left it at home, because he was the only person on the tour who could determine the position of North from the sun’s shadow cast in the southern hemisphere:




Ralph had purchased a new KTM 530 for the tour, and it was a cantankerous beast that refused to start on more than one occasion. A super-lightweight and focused off-road machine, he probably had more sheer fun riding than any of us, but the bike’s light weight allowed the Winds of Patagonia to push him around with alarming frequency – note to self, next time, bring extra sparks plugs and levers:




Roger Davis runs an industrial electrical contracting company in Cimarron, Kansas. At first unhappy with my pushing for an early breakfast and early “clutch out” in the mornings, once he heard the winds were calmer then, he was usually the first one out:




Although Roger has a number of larger-displacement bikes at home, for this ride, he chose to bring a venerable Kawasaki KLR 650, and bike that has been in production for well over a decade, and is perhaps the best value in a dual-purpose motorcycle today – it costs about 1/3 the out-the-door price of a BMW:




And last but not least, our favorite son of Ireland, landscaper James Barrett, of Country Cork, Ireland, who we all hope to visit again someday:




James has a BMW F650GS Dakar at home, but due to the cost and hassle of shipping from the United Kingdom, chose to rent a Suzuki 650 from the MotoDiscovery rental fleet:




Our most capable guide, originally from Germany, has lived in France, holder of both German and Argentine passports, speaks German, French, Castellano (the South American variant of Spanish), now living in San Carlos de Barriloche, Argentina, Klaus Zinggrebe:




And chase vehicle driver (trading places with Klaus on their Honda Transalp at times) and artisanal carpenter and wood-worker (and Klaus’ brother-in-law), holder of both British and Argentine passports, also quadrilingual, Mark (Marco) Hughes-Hallet, also of Barriloche:




This is as wide a variety of makes and displacements (the motos that is) of any tour that I’ve ever been on. All the machines did fine, and fortunately, all the participants were a generous, affable and competent group. But of course, my favorite rig was Das UberHack 2.0:




For those reading these trip reports in the Hack Forum on ADVrider.com, the combination of the German-built BMW R1150GS Adventure and Russian-built Ural “tub”, married and rigged by Jay, Doug and the crew at Dauntless Motors in Enumclaw, Washington, was (for me anyway) the perfect vehicle. I’ve never done as much gravel and washboard as we did on this ride, but the rig performed magnificently. Except for the shock failure, and the bottom of the jerry can carrier fracturing and falling out, everything else held together just fine. With the zero-dive/rigid TeleLever front-end, a near 10-gallon fuel capacity, high-output alternator, and lowered 1st and 6th gear ratios (unique to the Adventure variant), the R1150GS is a great Swiss Army knife tractor to base a sidecar combi on. The all-steel Russian “chair” is tough, has good shock-absorbing body mounts, and has the right mix of retro styling. The custom Dauntless chassis, sub-frame, rigging and trailing-arm suspension are robust. The only changes I plan to make for future tours are better running, turn and brake lights for the chair, and possibly going to a twin-shock suspension system for the tub, as I hope to have my wife along on future tours, and the added weight would overly stress the current single shock set-up.
Of course, we also met some new friends along the way (thanks for the pics “Franco”):













As noted previously, our farewell dinner was held at the gorgeous Los Yamanas resort hotel in Ushuaia:




It was only fitting that Cordero des Las Cruce(Lamp on a Cross) was on the menu:




The starter was baking in a traditional wood-fired barrel oven:




And a quick peek within revealed a sheet of empanadas turning a nice golden brown:




Of course, no local “barbeque” would be complete without chorizo:




For this occasion, I had hauled a bottle of Japanese sake all the way from Seattle, and the staff were happy to put in on ice for a round of toasts (good sake should be taken at room temperature, or chilled) – Sake in Ushuaia, has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?:




The salad bar was presented:




. . . and the beef, boiled egg, tomato and herb-stuffed empanadas kicked things off:




We moved on to the salad course:




Then our Cordero Master prepared the main:




The view from the office:




And a great hand-crafted berry ice cream to finish it off:




Pisco Sours, cold local beer, sake, lamb with all the trimming, the special camaraderie that springs from a group ride, everyone hale and hearty in body, mind and spirit - what more could anyone hope for?:




For me (and from what I heard, for others as well), our final day in the saddle was “work”. We had stood at the “End of the World”, anything after was a denouement at best.

Because the closest ferry was down for maintenance, we had to backtrack almost 500 kilometers, cross the Straights of Magellan again, process through the last of 16 border posts, then bend around south to the city of Punta Arenas (Sandy Point in English), Chile, population 120,000, and the port from which we would ship our bikes home. 10 days earlier, 110 knot winds had roared through here, the highest on record. Everyone made it in, and we made our way to a nice Spanish restaurant, where I had the best Paella of the three I tried this tour, but I think we’ve seen enough photos for foodies ;<)

On our last official day of the tour, the first order of business was to wash the bikes. I’m amused to note that this is the first tour I’ve ever been on where NO ONE ever washed a bike, not once, nada. We were only doing so now because customs authorities the world over are (perhaps correctly) concerned about bacterial, viral and insectoid nasties lurking in encrusted mud, dirt, and splattered guts on windshields. A very efficient duo, one with a medium-strength power washer, the other with bucket and sponge, prettied up the bikes, for around USD$3.00 per machine:




Then it was off to the freight yard at Punta Arenas:




A final view of the cockpit:




And close-up of the final Trip Computer readings:




. . . and one by one, the bikes were pushed in, nested sideways, and strapped down:




A parting shot of a stuffed container:




The doors were closed, and the tamper-proof seal applied:




If visa stamps are collectables for tourists, stickers rule for riders, and even the border posts are happy to join in the fun (can you imagine the a stern and unsmiling US Customs Office allowing this?):




So get out there, do the ride, and get yours:








As my favorite sig line says, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page”. Our ride is over. Tomorrow, we fly the milk run from Punta Arenas to Santiago, then our first international hop to Lima, Peru. From there, the longer haul to Los Angeles, then a domestic run home to Seattle.

Hope to see you on the road someday, and thanks for joining in on the ride, and for all you kind replies:




By the way, remember my TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) field repair, with a HAM radio operator, soldering iron, JB Weld and my Leatherman? The rider, Bernie, did receive a new part way back in Barriloche. However, he was on a mission to prove that my field fix was as good as the original part. He never installed the replacement, and finished the tour with my McGyver fix in place.

Saldos and Best Regards,
Mike M. Paull – Punta Arenas, Chile

[PU Skunk]

Great trip report!!

[dirtymartini]

Incredible report, Thanks!

[johno]

Fantastic ride, fantastic photos.

What more can us armchair travellers wish for.

Great, thanks MIke.

[sandgroper]

great story and pictures

ed

[claude]

It's making me hungry

[mikepa]

Originally Posted by rapidrider

Great ride report Mike.

Hope you do some local presentations when you get back North. Always enjoy your trip recaps and talks at the WSBMW rally.

Take care...

Ken B

Thanks Ken. As it so happens, I've been asked to present a "slideshow" about my ride at South Sound BMW in Fife, WA on Sat 28 March, so maybe I'll see you there!

Best,

[once a stella rider]

Originally Posted by AceRph

This is a good spot for this report Mike. Safe travels!

Great spot for the report, great place for a ride. Chilie and Argintina are both very welcoming places, in my tiny bit of experience. Love your rig, my spouse's (Dr Jim) is quite similar.

[monkeyfez]

How did I miss this Great thread?! I've just spent the morning not working on my SQL servers. Thanks for the voyeuristic journey.

Absolutely awesome!

[mikepa]

Hola TdFers -

I've put a 5 minute "slideshow video" together of some favorite pics from our run to Ushuaia. A link is provided below. It's a pretty big file (74MB).

Depending on how your PC is set up, it may auto launch/auto play your media player, in which case it may take a while to download and buffer up. Once it's done so, you should be able to save the file locally.

Or (ideally), a dialog box should open asking if you want to Run or Save the file. If so, I'd suggest saving it first, then playing the saved file:

http://www.globeriders.com/downloads/tdf_total.wmv

The music/song is "Relax" by the Mexican group Mana. Although I did purchase the CD I ripped this track from (in fact, have purchased every CD they've ever released), I obviously do not have copyright permission to use their song in this "video", so you've been forewarned, and I encourage you to also purchase their music, good stuff!


Warmest Regards,

[Abenteuerfahrer]

Beautiful Mike...enjoyed the video slide show. Wifey wants to go there next after AK..wooooo....love this Portugese/Spanish peoples culture....

[mikepa]

Originally Posted by Abenteuerfahrer

Beautiful Mike...enjoyed the video slide show. Wifey wants to go there next after AK..wooooo....love this Portugese/Spanish peoples culture....

Not as inspiring perhaps as the first video, but I also put another slideshow together highlighting the fauna (wildlife) we saw along the way, here's the link (and this is a much smaller/lower-rez file, will download and play much faster):

http://www.globeriders.com/downloads/tdf_fauna.wmv

Cheers,