It feels incredible that we are into November as I sit here writing, thinking about this past blueberry season and the winter adventure ahead.

It was another record breaking year in the blueberry field! Even with the drought, the berries were beautiful, big and plentiful, and for the first time, everything felt seamless. Maybe I’m just getting used to the pace but it’s more likely because I hired out some of the work this year so I still had energy for the fall chores. Which is also a first! I often cross the finish line of the season on my knees with a real estate agents number clutched in my dirt caked hands. Instead, this fall we re-mulched the plants, spreading 20 full tandem dump truck loads. That’s a mind-boggling amount of mulch. Let me repeat: 20 full dump truck loads! And even though it was a staggeringly huge job, I enjoyed it. Day after day I breathed in the smell of fresh pine as I weeded and spread mulch and imagined the plants’ joy at being so loved and cared for. Those are the sweet moments when I want to grow blueberries forever.

I recently booked my flight to Santiago, Chili on January 5th.

My plan was to bring my bicycle and ride the Carretara Astral, a remote, mountainous, mostly gravel 1200+ kilometer road through Patagonia, but after watching numerous youtube videos of bike-packers who have done it (many of whom were 20 and 30 year olds, who look like seasoned, muscled road warriors) talk about how challenging it was between the weather/terrain/road conditions, I changed my plans. Let’s face it – I’m about 40 years and 200 cheesecakes past those guys (who am I kidding – it’s way more than 200). I don’t mind hardship on an adventure, I really don’t; I even perversely like it. But while no one who knows me would ever confuse me with being delicate, I’m also not looking for a total suffer fest. So instead of riding the Carretera Astral I’m going to ride wherever I please. I’ll likely head south from Santiago towards Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia. I feel compelled to ride this year and want to take my same bike that I took on my first international adventure.

My first really big adventure was riding my brand new bicycle for a year and a half across Europe and North Africa when I was 19 and it changed my life. I imprinted on the freedom of living life outside pared down to its most basic needs, experiencing different cultures rurally and authentically, while traveling under my own steam. I know the way I generally choose to travel with my backpack and tent has an expiry date and you never know when that window will close. So the thought of riding again feels like I am completing a circle that is calling to be completed. The only thing is, the frame on my 50 year old Norco is slightly bent and my arthritic hands can’t reassemble what needs to be disassembled to be boxed for the flight. If it can be somehow banged back into shape, I’m good to go. If not, I’ll be hiking after all.

If I can ride, I will. And when I am finished, my plan is to give my bike away and hike the ‘O’ circuit (a stunning 120 kilometer hike) through Torres del Paine National Park. It is a legendary hike and I am hoping that, by then, I will be conditioned enough to do it. Patagonia is remote, vast and breathtakingly beautiful. I think it’s going to be quite an adventure.