Upshift Issue 29 - January 2019

The day of our salt flat adventure finally arrived. A fantastic 21 mile section of dirt road put grins on our faces before getting to the Salar itself. When we ventured over the last hill, at first I thought I was looking at a lake with white clouds, and then my eyes adjusted…this was it, the salt flats in its full glory. We stood in awe and then ventured down to the entrance which looked like a small runway heading out into the vastness. As we got to the edge, the islands on the Salar that we could see from the hill above quickly vanished, and I realized just how far away everything really was.

We were now at an elevation of about 11,995 ft. The curvature of the earth meant navigating by line of sight was out and Maps.me was in! The entrance provided its own challenges. The edge of the lake is the wettest part, so we had to weave our way around the huge puddles and sludgy salt in order to not get dug in or completely cake our bikes in corrosive salt. We made it, and it was surreal. The perfect hexagons with their slightly raised edges went on for as far as the eye could see…but don’t let that fool you; apparently in some areas holes can form that can swallow bikes whole or at least cause some serious injury, so we proceeded with an element of caution. That said, my fear of the surface being slippery was fortunately quickly put to rest. It was truly an amazing experience that far exceeded our expectations.