Chaitén is a town that was almost removed from the map. In May 2008 the volcano of the same name, which nobody had thought to be dangerous, erupted without warning after thousands of years asleep. Ash covered the whole region, the Río Blanco burst its banks and carved a new channel straight through the middle of the town, and the government ordered a complete evacuation. For a while there were plans to abandon the place and build a new capital elsewhere. Many people returned anyway, and today Chaitén has a few thousand people, rebuilt streets, and a lingering sense of resilience. On the hills above, the volcano still steams, and you can see the grey scar of the lava dome from the road.
For motorcyclists, Chaitén is a pivotal point on the Carretera Austral. It is where the ferries from Puerto Montt dock, which is how many riders arrive, and it marks the beginning of the long, wild run south toward Coyhaique. Buy fuel in town, since the next pumps are a long way off, and sort out your supplies, because after here villages become small and sparse. The ferries need to be booked well ahead in summer, and weather and tides sometimes change the schedule.
The landscape is the real attraction. This is the Valdivian temperate rainforest, with giant alerce trees, tree ferns, mosses and fuchsias, and it receives staggering rainfall. Just north of town the Pumalín park, created by the American conservationist Douglas Tompkins and later donated to the Chilean state, protects hundreds of thousands of hectares of it. The road through the park has short trails to waterfalls, fjord views and groves of ancient trees, some of them well over a thousand years old.
Expect gravel, wet roads, damp gear and a shifting sky. In summer, daylight lasts very late, and the best riding is early morning when the air is still. The hot springs nearby, along the coast, are a fine way to wash off the ash and rain, and the local seafood, particularly the salmon and mussels, is hard to beat.