Tricepilot's México: Off-Road Through the Sierra Madre From Durango to Mazatlán

Did you take that bike to the Wild Bunch hacienda??????

That route was gnarly!!!

(story at the end of the ride report about us following in Pedro's footsteps to find the filming location of the grand finale of The Wild Bunch)

Post up those photos, Dave

Like I said a few posts back - this Sierra Madre ride all but killed any fear I might have had about any terrain.

Why?

I explained it to Jimmex in a phone call about 1/2 hour ago:

You are so beat up, so tired, and so wanting to get to the cabin at Mexiguillo or the hotel in Mazatlán, that your survival brain takes over and you just push through stuff that in an academic environment when you have time to think about it would stop you in your track.

Deep sand washouts next to a 2,000m drop? Gun it.

Down hill reverse switchback with no discernable line? Oh well.

Remember: Plenty of guys on ADV grew up with their dads on dirt bikes and have great ride reports of dancing all over all kinds of terrain.

Guys like me, up until very recently, puckered at the idea of deep sand and riding dirt in the rain.

Well, you can go to Rawhyde or take a few years and dabble in it.

Or come on the Ruta ATV from Durango and get it over in 2 days!

I was lucky SR hung onto his DRZ and let me have use of it for this ride.

Like I said, it wasn't dialed in for my height, and I had never rode (ridden?) it before, so those two things combined were factors, but didn't stop me from really enjoying it. When I say "enjoying it", let me be clear - I never had to worry about the ability of the bike, or it's power, to get me to the end of the day.

I did wish the bars were on risers, but hey, that's a minor point compared to the fact that I was, on the opposite hand, impressed by the DRZ400's get up and go.

I had, by the way, had recent experience on Richard's (Trailboss) Hill Country 500 Challenge. We swapped my KTM 500 for his DRZ400 for a stretch.

Because Tom, you love México, you love challenges, and really, you can wait to see the photo and the video of my 2 wipe outs. They are on the way!

Everybody goes to NASCAR to see the crashes.

My luck was SR had his camera out for mine

Bonus: want to create a NASCAR race at home?

Flush the toilet and drop in a bag of Skittles

SR is as we speak enroute to the states for a well-deserved 2 week vacation.

He uploaded his massive photo card to his new Smugmug account.

When he tells me he's settled, we'll launch the in-the-dirt portion of this story.

You'll never guess who we met in the backcountry. Not sure we should talk about it.

Hint: They had a lot of guns

You'll get over it, Willis.

But you got to hang it out there, and be willing to fail.

Big Bend Desert Challenge, Fall Edition

It has your name on it.

Given screen name "Big Dave".....I picture and

I hope the photos we're about to throw in here inspire you to dig into doint this ride for yourself in 2014.

Or, you can come to Tecate in September and watch me flail from there to Cabo over 9 days! If you come along, I'll buy all the food you can slam and all the bebidas you can slurp.

The Tecate to Cabo run was something I thought would be my "training" ride. Forget that! The Sierra did that for me!

SR had his camera clipped to his jacket, and took tons of photos and cool video...it will all be in here. Stay tuned amigo.

I bet you never thought you'd "star" in one of my ride reports, well, here you go!:


<IFRAME height=375 src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/69353758" frameBorder=0 width=500 allowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen webkitAllowFullScreen></IFRAME>

Our man Going South is actually "Our Man in Mazatlán", so voted by, well, our panel of those who know who.

Jim was there with Schizzman as I met him for the first time, on Saturday night last week, when I rode in, a total physical wreck, from the final day of the Ruta.

They found me at the registration desk of the El Cid, at night, me with still my gear on, drenched with sweat, stinky, kinda out of it, in a daze, and he handed me a beer.

I know some nice guys, but Going South is a nice guy's nice guy.

And he loves México and Mazatlán.

For ADV adventurers, you can consider Jim "Our Man in Mazatlán"

He was part of the after party at the beach where we all had lobster, shrimp, drinks, and fun. Plus, he took us up to the rooftop bar at the Freeman (video and photos later), for a fab afternoon and a nice 360 view of Maz and the ocean and the harbor.

Jim is back and forth for work up north, but if you can catch him in Maz, you must.

Great guy!

Lot's of us have seen the Sierra Madre from the comfort of the Espinazo (paved Mex 40 libre)

I think this will be a really rare view of what is out there in those hills everyone sees in the distance

There are lots of Baja ride reports, I hope this will be a good glimpse of what its like out there in this cool part of the mainland, where books and movies tell stories about

We had that last week in México, at El Salto!

Here's SR:





México in June! Don't forget to bring your all-weather gear if you come to the Sierra in the summer!

Yikes!

Get stuck out on the trail with no bivvy or at least a really good jacket:

The weather risk on this ride is huge!

One rider got lost and was stuck out in the Sierra in the cold/rain/dark for a day and a 1/2. When they found him he wasn't good!

And I, your resident Bad Example, when the dirt event was over, left my jacket with someone in Maz and rode up the paved Espinazo towards the stashed trailer in El Salto, wearing only a t-shirt and body armor.

Yes! And down came the freezing rain for an hour and a 1/2!

I used a borrowed scrap of plastic sheeting to survive!

Wait 'til you see SR's video of my wipeout - textbook example - I did everything wrong! This is why they hire me at dirt riding schools - as the clown!

Future Ruta Riders should consider this:

Trucking your favorite "mid weight" dirt bike is the way to go, IMHO

The entire route depicted below, all cuota today except for the soon to be opened 40D from DGO to MAZ, is, IMHO, safe for a gringo truck with a bike in the back. Usual caveats about daytime etc. apply.



That's 85 from Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey, and 40 everywhere else (40 runs Matamoros on the Gulf to Mazatlán on the Sea of Cortés - Cortez if you prefer)