Let's Not Panic: driving from San Francisco to Patagonia and definitely not panicking

[Vince Evans]

Hi,

I've been stuck many times, living in the NW. But, I always carried a come-a-long and some cable. Out in the open you can bury your spare tire to make an anchor and pull yourself out. If you do not have any extraction device you can bury your spare tire and wrap a tow cable around our front tire using it as a winch and pull yourself out.

At 16,500 ft elevation, could you have waited until first light when the mud would have solidified a bit or frozen to get yourself out. Mud gets softer in the afternoon sun.

Good Luck,

Vince Evans
Phoenix, AZ

 

[aawolf]

Any reason yall didn't adventure down to central America and ship your truck from there? Me and the wife are considering doing the same general thing yall are doing! im trying to get all my ducks in a row and make sure we're ready (ready being a loose term)! hopefully alls going well!

Irrational fear? News reports, rumors, and general perception of Central America can be troubling and as we got closer and closer to our departure date these things got to us. That and the fact that no matter what, you have to ship your vehicle on a container ship in order to cross the Darien Gap (between Panama and Colombia).

In retrospect, our fears were certainly unfounded and we believe all would have been well crossing through Central America. We've briefly considered crossing through it on our way back North, but don't really have time to do it justice.

The only thing I will say, now that we're more experienced and have talked to a lot of other overlanders on our trail, is that border crossings in Central America sound like a huge pain in the ***. The longest crossing we've had in South America was less than 4 hours, and we've repeatedly been told that this was baby town frolics compared to the average crossing in CA.

Good luck with your trip!

 

[aawolf]

Looks like you did just fine...if you were hoping to not get stuck, a South American adventure may not be the best thing or going off that "road", and or being on that "road" in the first place.
Had you ever been stuck in the mud before? Preparedness and knowledge are the only things that would have helped, luckily you have both now.

Thanks for this comment (and for the others who echoed similar sentiment after you).

Months later, this is how we've come to think about the whole 'Stranded at 16,200' experience also. We needed an experience like what we went through to give us experience and perspective. We have that now, and we're ready for the next time.

Your comment planted that seed in our minds back when we were still agonizing about this. :beer::bowdown:

 

[aawolf]

Sorry everyone, we've been a bit negligent in posting updates here on ExPo but the podcast is still going strong! A big thanks to everyone who gave us advice and lent us support through our Stranded at 16,200 ordeal.

And, a bit of news: we made it to our goal!



That's Maggie and I at the southern-most drivable point in the Americas.



And here we are leaving Ushuaia and heading back the only way we can: North. Next up are 5 or so weeks getting to Buenos Aires via the Argentinian Patagonia and the Chilean Carretera Austral. The adventure continues!