For Ecuador I will mostly follow a route mde by Cass Guilbert: The Trans Ecuador Mountainbike Route. It offers all the coolness pushing and carrying your bike but without all the planning! And what also good and bad: knowing that there is a way through.

It was a rainy climb out of Tulcan under the suspicious looks of the Ecuadorian dogs. Many bark and chase but a piece òf bread shuts them right up! Cant bark with your mouth full, huh?

There seems to be more order to the endless farms and housesseem to be in clusters rather than spread out like in Colombia.

At 4 I spot a wooden cabin and as much as I'd like to keep going a windless night with a stream nearby is too hard to refuse.

The road winds itself up to the Angel paramo, seemingly lost and forgotten. The puddles get deeper and the fog thicker.

The downhill was a chilly rainy and a little bumpy ride.

I stop to warm up my hands with some dogs

A long drawn out breakfast lasted a good hour while I warmed up and although more expensive than Colombia the food was still reasonable.

not easy work in the potato fields but carrying your kid on your back all day? woah!

Near 4 again, it looked that there woudnt be that many great spots down in the canyon so I set up for a windy night on a hill. With the new REI tent things were completely different. You can sit comfortably in it and cook with the door open, first class leg room and a better warranty if something goes wrong.

Couple of hundredthousand cobblestones lay between me and the valley botom. These roads ride almost like pavement on fatbike but must have been a whole lot of work to building the first place.

The valley bottom at 1000m was quite hot but I made it to some shade and icecream by 12.

The climb was slow and steady. Almost never too steep

a constant battle between me and the autofocus

not just a number! They have names, homes, hopes and dreams!

Despite a nice rural school I wanted to camp in the pramo. A scouting mossion at the last pasture discovered a good compromise between a view and shelter from the wind.

horse weather station preditcs strong winds, cold night and a chance of sunset

And at 3400m, a fire seemed like a good idea.

Next day a torrential wind came from the pass and I did not really get to ride my bike until the top where the wind direction changed and I was flying down.

Somehow this place felt more remote than any road in Colombia, maybe its the size of the rocks or the endless view not obstructed by clouds.

I rolled up to a small village, Piñan to find the little store with double or triple prices. All small stores in Colombia were on par or even cheaper than the city but not here.

A neat singletrack led towards another road, at times rideable and others not really, main issue is trail width and pedals. I imagine a non-fat bike woud do better here.

I totally thought I could ride across that river, once water went over the knee the bike flouted out and I walked it the rest of the way. Might as well go for a swim since the shoes are wet.

A trail led off several kilometers to the lake and it seemed like good camping.

In the morning I met a man and a kid, running a pipeline (hose) from a spring to a village nearby. The little trail gets a lot of horse traffic and to be honest they move pretty quick!

Another trail meandered down to a river, at times too steep to ride safely and even when rideable it was a little too steep to be type 1 fun.

Unlike the sketchy colombian crossings things here were different, it felt like crossing the goden gate bridge..

i went up those switchbacks, not as bad as it looks

The downhill was 99% rideable except for that one puddle and the next town had a nice store. 10 boiled eggs, coca cola and lemon dorritos.

A paved road popped up out pf nowhere and I began climbing. At 2400m, i started scouting for camping, no way I can make it to 3500m today.

Then a truck sowed down to wave at me, I got the back - a really ergonomic design with 3 different hand positions and a rope! They were slow but we made good time, switchbacks and parts with missing road were sketchy but never too bad. While holding on I wondered how something like this would be a big no-no anywhere else. I once tried to grab onto the back of a tractor in spain and the guy just turned back and gave me this half worried, half scared look that said it all.

Camping on the other hand continues to surprise and the new tent is completely changing the game. but wether i like it or not i need to find few days to rest, the altitude, the cold and hard work (be it carrying or holding onto back of trucks) is taking its toll. Lemon dorritoes were too intense to eat so they went in the soup.

the little critter looks like a stick! woah

There seemed to be volcanoes popping up everywhere, some with snow and some without.

Maybe the route was tougher than I thought and my last few weeks in Colombia were pretty easy. It seemed the best decision to book it down to Otavalo and find some burgers, a place to sleep and a hot shower.

What a great idea! On the way into town I chased down a japaneese cyclist, also biking from Alaska. Although normally fully loaded I convinced Yohei to ride with me up to the pass without his gear.

first we had to get some fruits for the ride up

We even found ping pong on the way up

I dont think he enjoyed the cobblestones as much as I did but it was all worth it.

"Look at the camera, there," nope, dogs dont listen to him and look at the mandarine instead. The little beasts have found the perfect spot, steady tourist traffic that will feed them, water and nearby decent shelter.

Yohei went back to town and I went off toward the clouds

An old rail line and later irrigation channel offered some great riding back into civilization.

and I traded the wide open doors for few days to rest up and write blog! till next time