Not riding the switchbacks down into Urique at night was a good decision. We should have been so wise. I suggested camping at the Urique river that night, after we had similiarily drowned out a couple of the bikes in the river and it was starting to get dark by the time we got going. We took a wrong turn trying to get into Urique and it was 1:30 in the morning by the time we got there. Luckily one of the local policia helped us out by waking up one of the motel proprietors and getting us a room. We should have been happy just to get a room but what do we do? It just so happened that the proprietor also owned the store next door which had cerveza. We bought a case of cerveza and partied for a couple of more hours before turning in. Those young guys, almost killed this old man. sorry didn't mean to hijack your thread but you just brought back a lot of memories. That ferry was quite a hoot too.
Great ride report, yamafitter. Reading your report makes me want to go back and sooner rather than later. Question: What map set are you using to document your ride? It has a lot better road coverage than the set I had in '06.
I have the 2010 Edition of the E32 Cartografica Topo mapset. Please be aware that the mapping did not match a number of the backroads we took on this ride. I believe this was due to the vectoring used to develop these maps but having said that I believe the latest edition of E32 is the most accurate mapset available for the Copper Canyon area. The government and the mines are constantly building new roads in this area so everything is in flux. For example in a few years the road from Creel to Batopilas will be all paved. As an ADV Rider I feel this is almost criminal.
Thanks for the great report. Seeing the beautiful weather and great riding conditions makes me want to "get there" ! Keep it coming
Today would be all pavement to move the group from the coast to the tourist town of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1lace>Alamos</st1lace></st1:City>. The original plan was to have a layover on the coast but then a long ride back into the canyons all the way to Chinipas. It was a great call by the staff since missing out on Alamos would have been a great shame.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> Poor Ivan was a little worse for wear after the night at the fights. My arm was just starting to get some circulation back into it since Ivan was squeezing my arm throughout the entire title bout. Did I mention Ivan is a fight fan? Ivan was stuck with driving the support truck since the start of the trip and was itching to get a chance to ride. After breakfast Scott offered Ivan a ride on Scott's 530 KTM and Ivan was on the bike and down the beach before Scott had a chance to say another word... Ivan was much impressed with the power of the big thumper... We won't mention the riding attire since Paolo was not much better and had been riding all week. Our lead guide, Alphonso was leaving his bike behind at this point and borrowed Shelly's bike for the rest of the trip. This put Shelly behind the wheel of the support truck since it was her personal truck anyways and Ivan in the co-pilot position. After riders' briefing we were off and stopped in Huatabampo for gas for those who had not filled up on the previous day and to find an ATM to get some more pesos. After a short stop we were headed up the highway towards Novojoa. We stopped at the edge of town to gather everyone up and waited. Everyone showed up expect our sweeper Barak and the support truck. We found out by radio that Barak was changing out a rear tube. It appears that eariler Barak had pulled beside Joe and wanted to have a lttle inpromtu drag race to see who had the faster DR-Z. When Barak took off, the extra traction of the pavement was enough to spin the tire on the rim and Barak ripped the valve stem out of the tube. Oops!! Fortunately the support truck had a supply of spare tubes and it wasn't long before Barak was rolling again. Since we knew Barak was OK and the support truck was with him, we decided to continue and got safely through town and stopped at a bus stop just before Alamos to once again gather everyone up... The day was just over 100 km (60 miles) and we quickly found the hotel's bar and watched the bartender demonstrate the proper technique for making margaritas from scratch. No pre-mix was used in the making of these. These were some of the best margaritas on the trip. Muy Bueno!!! Now properly refreshed we went for a stroll over to the town square... There were quite a few of the locals out enjoying the day... The colonial influences on the town were quite evident in the buildings around the square... After the stroll I needed to get some work done on the Yamaha. I had not yet changed the oil and it was well overdue. Don is fluent in Spanish so I took him in tow and we went to find a bucket to drop the used oil into. The hotel staff could not help us so we had to ride back through town to try to find a service center. The Pemex stations sometimes have service bays for this purpose but it was Sunday and the service bays were closed. There was a hydralics shop across the street from the Pemex station part way out of town and there was a truck service shop right beside it that wasn't closed. The only person there was the janitor Carlos but Don explained that we only needed a bucket to drain the oil and we would take care of he rest. I had packed some fresh oil and a spare oil filter for just this purpose. Carlos not only found us a bucket but he also supplied a clean sheet of cardboard us to lay on and wanted to help out anyway he could. In short order we had the oil drained, the oil filter changed out and the fresh oil installed. Carlos initially refused to accept any money but in the end graciously accepted 20 pesos for us interrupting his day. We then returned to the hotel for more margaritas. Later that evening we went to dinner at the hotel. The chef was highly recommended but service was very slow and unfortunately the meal was a disappointment. The margaritas on the other hand were muy bueno!!! Alphonso then explained to us what the locals refer to as Q-Tips. The term is used in reference to older gringo tourists that have white hair, skinny & white shoes. Scott was having fun with this pointing out all the old American ladies that fit the description until Russ stole Scott's hat and pointed out that Scott's white hair, skinny build and white running shoes made Scott a Grade A, prime Texan example of a Q-Tip. We almost pissed ourselves laughing. Fortunately I did not spill my margarita as Russ also pointed out that Scott was a Goober. The night was concluded by a Mariachi Band in the hotel's courtyard as we finally called it a night. Next Post - the road to Chinipas
I forgot to add the stats -AGAIN!! It sucks getting old. Here are the Day 6 - Huatabampito to Alamos stats...
The ride today was my personal favorite. We were in a little more pure rock terrain which helped with the dust and the decent into Chinipas was rocky and somewhat technical in sections. I'll start you off with a little video from my helmet camera of us leaving Alamos. Make sure to use the full screen mode... <IFRAME height=260 src="http://contour.com/stories/120220/embed?map=false" frameBorder=0 width=800 scrolling=no></IFRAME> The dirt / gravel roads were well groomed to start with and we made good time on the road... We then started climbing over the mountains. In one of the towns, our guide stopped to ask directions of some local to confirm we were headed in the proper direction. Those of you that speak Spanish won't find this all that funny but at the end of the video Scott's response, who knows just enough Spanish to be dangerous, cracks me up for some reason... <IFRAME height=260 src="http://contour.com/stories/120337/embed?map=false" frameBorder=0 width=800 scrolling=no></IFRAME> The road now got fun with switchbacks, rocky climbs and a few tricky decents that demanded your focus. It was fun. Here's Scott... Followed by Chris as usual... Don & Paolo were further back... Don was having some trouble with the soft suspension & weight of his Beemer, "Miss Piggy" in the rocks. Phil stopped to enjoy the vista across the valley... Don also stopped for a nice photo op... Shelly was riding sweep today... A little further along Scott found a nice crevise to fall into that took some time to extract himself. I was somewhat more careful about line choice and worked my way up to the next section. There was a whole series of little climbs and decents over the next 10 km or so. I was starting to develop a little bit of arm pump on some of the decents from trying to hold my weight back on the rear wheel. I have never developed arm pump from my rides at home... Paolo still smiling... Note the cool shades. Shelly on the gas... Note the use of a trials tire on the rear. An excellent choice for the rocks. The ride came to an end for the day in Chinipas. A few of us said, "we don't need no stinkin' bridge" and forged the river... <IFRAME height=300 src="http://contour.com/stories/120323/embed?map=false" frameBorder=0 width=800 scrolling=no></IFRAME> Remember to watch in full screen mode. After we got to the hotel the owner was no where to be found with the keys for the room. Alphonso called the police chief who rounded up the manager and finally got us into our rooms. Shelly decided to change the rear tire for a knobby and Paolo being the typical Italian was not about to let a woman do a man's job. Unfortunately this was not a Vespa tire and after watching for a while it was becoming far too painful for me to watch and I went and got my proper tire irons out of my backpack and schooled Paolo on proper tire changing technique. Shelly wanted to put the tire back on the bike to help develop her own maintenance skills so we held back and offered a few tips in the way of assistance. Russ provided the photo documentary... Dinner that night was in a small resturant that was more like someone's kitchen. We had a bean and beef broth and a local drink that was sort of like hot chocolate but made with an extremely hot small chili. Some got spilled over the side of my cup and I then made the mistake of rubbing my eye. Did that ever burn!!! We didn't have any hot water in our room at the hotel and the whole town had kind of a wierd vibe to it. There was no proper place to store the bikes so we chained them up for the night. At 3 AM I awoke to the sound of a truck rolling into the parking lot. Pat and I got up and I went outside to see what was going on. Pat speaks some Spanish and all the local told us was to go back in our room which we did. In the morning we found nothing missing but it was certainly strange and did not leave me with a good feeling about the town. Here are the stats on the day... Next Post - A fun night at the Parasio del Oso Lodge
Very nice, I hate to admit, I too would have concerns about safety so I will be keeping an eye on your report, as I would love to make this trip myself. Be safe and keep us posted!
We had a good time in Chinipas, but on subsequent trips, some of my friends picked up a kind of weird vibe too.
Actually there were upgrades to the ferry... The running lights were moved from the top of the ramp posts to part way down and they had added hydralic rams for the gate which had broke at some time in the past and they had gone back to the chainfalls. They also painted part of the cabin and added some corragated metal to partially close in the motor. They also got rid of the tire bumper since someone probably needed their spare tire back. I'm not quite sure from your photo but I think the tug dingy got upgraded with a Yamaha 4-Stroke.
Bill, Great Job with this ride report, love all th pics, especially the GPS maps. Just a couple of points of clarification. Barak is the one that got the flat. Not that getting a flat is a bad thing, just want to make sure he get credit for that one. And our faithful mascot was DONNA the wonderpup who by the way is settleing in very well to her new life as a ranch dog.