Amazingly we met Liam, the young American in question, in Cochrane on the southern section of the Carretera Austral in Chile. We camped together for a couple of nights in the town and then bumped into him along the road a few days later. My journal entries for Cochrane and Camping El Risquero have references to him (see Cochrane and El Risquero).
Despite his comment that "so we never ended up skipping anything, thankfully", our recollection of the events around that time are clear that he didn't cycle the whole way. He had told us he took a ferry to escape a large section of the Canadian west coast. He also took the ferry from Caleta Tortel to Puerta Natales (which he persuaded his mother to pay for and booked while we were together in Cochrane) to avoid the infamous crossing from Villa O'Higgins to El Chaltén and the winds on the Argentinian pampas south of El Chaltén. Nonetheless, this was an amazing journey and a wonderful experience for the young man. The fact that he is not taking the easy way to get back to the USA speaks volumes of his character. Hopefully this won't be the last of his adventures.
I always listen to NPR while driving and heard most of the story a few days ago. It was captivating for a cyclist, but being robbed is just too much adventure for me! So I guess I won't be doing anything quite that adventurous...
Very interesting that you met this young man! And you have insight to an interesting twist.
Still I agree with you that this is still a phenomenal accomplishment, especially for someone so young. My guess is that he will do more great things. And in this day and age he may be able to support himself with things like youtubeing his adventures if he has that knack?
I would love to do something like this, though I agree with George that worrying about being robbed, especially in the jungles of South America, are a little too much for these old bones. 😂
NPR (National Public Radio) had a great bike touring story today. It's well worth a listen...
Bike Tour Story
11 months ago