It’s happening. Nearly ten years ago when Kevin and I were on our multi-year open ended bike tour we met multiple cycling families and dreamed of someday bringing our own kid(s) along and showing them this way of life. Now, we get to. Kinda.

We will be going back to the basics; camping every night, cooking on our small gas stove, pedaling during the day, bathing in rivers, and stopping whenever we please, unsure how many miles we will cover a day or where we will end up that night. That being said, this trip is also incredibly different from our open ended tour (which, in my heart, is still what “real” cycle touring is) because we have a start and end date/location, six weeks (a pretty short time frame for cycle touring) in between, and our phones with maps and apps on them which may be the biggest difference compared to the mapless (literally, sometimes not even a paper one) and researchless exploring we have done before by bike. The biggest and best difference though, will be our 25 pound dead weight and her 25 pound trailer which will ensure a healthy dose of type two fun for us all in the coming months.

We have chosen to go back down to Patagonia because it checks some of our most important cycle touring boxes: good easy beautiful wild camping, quiet(ish) roads and relatively easy cycling (except for the insane winds), stunning mountains (with fish in the rivers for Kevin), and perhaps most importantly, the ability to cycle it during our winter when Kevin can get time off. It feels wrong in some ways to return somewhere we have already been while so many new places are on our list, but for this trip, our first as a family, and the time frame we are working with, it just feels right. 

Our prep for this trip has consisted of and buying new waterproof socks and gloves to replace our worn out one, and while we meant to cycle at least one day fully loaded, sickness and snow prevented that from happening. This means that our first day down there will be our first day cycle touring as a family! 

We leave next week and expect a very long tedious 30+ hours of traveling to get down there. I don’t plan to update the blog so if you want to follow along on our adventures, check us out on Instagram (@awanderingphoto) where I will post updates!