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

Curious, if a small group of ATV or dirt bike were to want to do this route on their own time without being included in the rally, is it doable? Or is it highly recommended to be part of this organized event for few reasons such as traveling through private land and such? Just wondering!

And where can one obtain the track or is it owned by the promoter? If possible, can the map/tracks be purchased at a price just like TAT map?

Hey look, its El Alacran!

At first I thought "no way I'm watching a 26 minute plus video--don't have the time for that"....

http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21792634&postcount=94

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30 minutes later...



The guy on the 07 KLR has the same flavor as mine. Hmmmm....

Man - for quote purposes I had to change your red font to white because my eyes were not ready for the 4th of July!

But yeah, a trophy truck might have done 1/4 of this ride, especially the first chunk out of Durango - but once thick into the Sierra - fagheddabouddit!!

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Oh no, senor. I meant a truck to haul one of those little bitty dirt bikes from Austin to Durango, not for the ride of a lifetime!

Mike <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

These kids don't care about handouts of candy or little trinkets. They always ask for the same thing, "caballitos". What they want is a wheelie show. At 40, I'm getting a little old for wheelies but the new WR-450 does them so well, so I try to oblige, for good community relations.

What more can I add to what Tricepilot said? The actual route does not go through private land. It goes through several Ejidos and Walter gets permission from them for the event, mostly as a courtesy because it's a large group. Like riding in the western US, if you come across a gate leave it as you found it.

The Sierra is a big region and there are lots of options for exploring it. You don't have to do huge crossings through extremely isolated areas the first time. You could stay up in some nice cabins and explore around and bite off smaller chunks. Groups of ATV come from Monterrey, Torreon, Saltillo, and other places often to do this. However, there is something rewarding about actually crossing the sierra, the journey with the altitude and climate change.

An organized ride like this is a good way to get comfortable with being up there. I don't think I know anyone who goes way back in there alone, my buddies and I have and will do it, but always in a group of 3 or 4 guys. Isolation is the issue.

I'm not sure how protective Walter is about the route. Naturally he doesn't want people getting the route before the event and then not signing up. That's why he changes it every year and we load the GPSs the night before the event after everyone is signed up. If you get serious about coming down pm me and I will send you the route.

subscribed... caught up...and enjoying this tale

Looks like it's time now for my photos from the afternoon of Day 1.


After lunch we continued west for a couple of hours on a relatively well maintained road, toward the edge of the Barranca Country. We passed one last little logging outpost and then got some good views of the Upper Rio Presidio River Valley.


Mosaic looking SE.


Mosaic looking SW.


ATV in upper left corner for scale. I was looking at the topography in Google Earth. If someone fell off this cliff, it would be about 800 m straight down. For those not familiar with the metric system, that's about a half a mile. That's why I had a parachute in that earlier photo!


Tricepilot has a strong survival instinct. Here he is skirting around the inside of the curve.




The road back up.


Tricepilot can describe this area with more flare than I can but I will say, it took us about 3 hours of downhill switchbacks to get to the bottom of this Barranca, then we crossed a river and it took another 2.5 hours to get back up. This is just one of six or seven huge E-W oriented deeply dissected drainages located in western Durango.

Good. God. Almighty. SR. That is outstanding!

Let's see. Lose 50 pounds. Buy a little bike. Learn to ride. Get treatment for acrophobia. Talk TXJames or the nephews into coming with me to get me outta the deep shit when, inevitably, I get myself into it. This could happen.


Oh. And the picture of Bob hugging the inside line? P'shaw. You ain't ever seen hugging the inside line till you see me. I'da been dragging my left grip against those rocks. There could be a rock the size of a washing machine to negotiate in the inside line and I'll still choose it over the cliff side line. I'll choose the mountain side wheel track every time. Trice had it right.

Thanks Slowoldguy. Hugging the inside line is a good survival instinct, but it can be a bad habit in places where another vehicle might be coming the other direction around the blind corner. In this case there probably wasn't a truck on the road within 80 kilometers of us.

Yeah, well. That makes a lot of sense. And I preach lane discipline all the time. Ask anybody. But I'll still take the possible head-on with the probably slow moving truck rather than the certainty of the blackhole sucking electro death magnet that lives 800 meters down from the cliff side wheel track.

JK. Your point is well-made.

I'm already shopping for the little bike but I need to start working out more seriously. By the time I have a little bike and the needed skills the kids should be old enough for me to leave the hacienda.

Or just bring TXJames and make him clear all the rough stuff for us. Sounds less risky that way.

If my wife kills me it'll be SR, Shcizzman, and JDowns fault.

If I get myself killed riding south of the border... it's their fault too.
Sent from my HTC using magic.

Man this looks like big fun!!! My 450 wants to go!