"Fly-ride West ride Canada to Mexico & points between

OK, I'm back.
I could not miss the 9th annual ADV Eastern Rendezvous. This was the 3rd year for me. Took the Strom the last 2 times. Took the Husaberg this time. It was great!!!
Didn't get any pics at the RDV but there are plenty nuff on that thread anywho. Did get some good ones of some exciting trails I found on the way back however. Here they are:
Tennessee: Buffalo Mountain










West Virginia:

Almost made it!!!

Looped her






Unfortunately only got 1 good pic at the actual RDV, of Adam, trailside in Virginia.

Now back to the Beach house in Baja Fly-Ride report, below.

So this was really cool. Mike & I rode down the coast to the next town down. It was lunch time and we had thought
this was where Sheri said her sister in law (Mexican) ran a restaurant. So we asked a local and he told us to go to
this Pink house just right in the middle of subdivision looking just like any of the other homes. No sign that it
is a restaurant. Anyways we go to the door and the lady cannot speak any English but it was "oh yes come on in". So
here we are in her Kitchen/dining/family room with her and her 3 cute kids. She makes us lunch. Hamburgers. The
Kids are quite intriged by us but can also not speak any English. Anway we all communicate as we can and we enjoy a nice lunch. It was really cool! So we pay & leave twice as much $ as she asked for. Then everybody comes out to bid
us adue. Here is the picture. (By the way it was not Sheri's sister in law & we were in the wrong town.)

Last nite, at the beach house. That is Shari on the right. Nice lady. She has various accomodations at Bahia
Asuncion. www.bahiaasuncion.com

These pics are right off her back deck. She has the nicest location in the whole area. It would be nice to stay
right there, which is possible if available.
Gorgeous!


Time to move on. I needed to call home & get a few things organised b4 I got going so Mike took off & we would meet
back up in Gerrero Negro.

I had a wee spill on the way. Was pretty tough to get the bike back up.

Met back up with Mike in Gerro Negro. We rode right thru Catavena which is spectacular in nature. Mike needed to get home however & so we took no pics & rode thru to El Rosario just Before dark. I do have a lot of pictures of that area in my Baja2009 report below.
Mike left for home next morning. I stuck around for a bit to do some laundry, then rode north to Erindera & Coyote Cals Hostel, on the pacific coast once again. I had stayed here last year when I dirt biked Baja. Beautiful location on the Pacific.






Met Matthew & Barnaby here. Brothers, here from England. Here on a surfing adventure. Really nice guys. They had actually travelled across the US making a movie prior to this. www.thisisalongshot.com So in fact they are actually movie producers. Cool!



Love that surf crashing in on the rocks.



First nite here was also my first nite getting sick/diarria in Mexico. Ended up being a good cleanout of my system but I didn't get much sleep that nite.
Next day headed out to San Pedro national park.

Elevation here was ~9000 feet & had snow & ice, & a sign NO MOTORCyCLES.



It was a great curvy road but suface condtions at time had light loose gravel which was hard to see. Coming back down the mountain I came around one corner & suddenly found myself in a 2 wheel drift. Keeping the bike upright put me off the road into gravel & rock leading to a cliff. I was able to hang on & slow the bike & turn back toward the road with a very limited amount of time before a big ditch opened up as the road started down. Went thru the upper part of the ditch & bounced back up onto the road just in time. Exciting! Whew!:

Hi Roland, As always, nice pic's.

Glad your two wheel drift worked out for ya.
I am not a fan of the two wheel drift.

You would know Todd I was lucky there wasn't any guard rail.
Thanks for comin ta visit.

I still want to know how you got the Husie out of that mud hole. lol.

Ya

Well Ronnie, let me just tell you that it involved a lot of this .
& then

Yah, it was a real draaag!!!

But finished with

Lol. It looks like you're having a great ride. The seashore pictures are some of the best I've ever seen. Thanks!

Best thing about staying at a hostel is the neat people you meet.
This is Mike & Sarah, Rock climbers from Zion.


This is Bob traveling solo on a Honda crf230, riding from home in Venice beach near LA. He was on quite an adventure, riding as much offroad as possible he had to camp out twice overnite trying to get thru particularly difficult trails. Lost his sleeping bag prior to the last overnite. I believe he had been as far south as Loreto. Amazing he was doing all this on a 230. :huh
Prior to leaving home, getting his bike ready part of the challenge & sprocket combo was so he would be fast enough to outrun a dog . Well that would be good! Especially in Mexico. He was fairly well equiped for any emergencies. Sounded like he was having some good times. Always cool to meet people like this. Hey Bob!



Matthew & Barnaby


The ADVer Salute:fyyff :fyyff :fyyff


It was really great time at Coyote Cals. The People, hey guys! & the location.

Passed thru Ensinada on the way back.

This apparently is the bridge they start the baja 1000 from.

Then went across hwy3 east, saw this on the way.


Spent last nite in Baja as the first, in San Felipe. Met a few other riders. Had a beer with these guys. The one on the left is Steve. ADVer from Tennessee. His brother took the picture. We had some good laughs together & hit it off pretty good.

Steve had already it it off on the trail with his KTM. Extra adventure. Pretty good bash there Steve. Whoh! Dented right thru his bash plate cracked his casing & was spewing oil.

He did get her fixed up with steely putty.

On the way back to Vegas I met the back of a major traffic back up coming into Quartsite. I just hit the passed lane but soon had to pull back in with the traffic bumper to bumper. It was tough to find a lace to pull in. Saw a fellow biker & quickly went to pull in beside hime then saw there were 2 bikers. Oh well no choice now it's 3. Buddy tells me it's just all traffc backed up from the lite a few kilometers up the road. Well i gotta make time. Got a flight to catch. I look over to the side of the road & notice just a ways off the road is an ATV trail. Awright! I head off the shoulder thru the ditch & over to the trail. Well now I'm going somewhere. All the traffic is staring my way with jealousy all over thier faces:huh while I'm standing up bounding down the trail 7 passing them all on my Dual Sport. Yaa!:
I got up to the lites, cut back onto the road & away I went.
Up the road in lake Havasu I stopped at a Wall-mart for some oil, I'm at the cash register & this kid is pointing me out & whispering some thing to his parents. Now they're all lookin at me. So I say, "ya-ya that was me passin everone offroad". The Guy says "Wow you looked just like one of those Dakar rally riders"! Cool!
Next stop, Vegas. Get Suzi back in storage, Fly-home.

Hi Roland, I would like to ride the burg again some day, in better conditions!
I remember this cool and rainy day. Good thing you had the heated grips!

Hey we still had fun & now I've got a great Tennessee T-shirt. Thanks Buddy!

Copper Canyon Mexico
This report is going to be a quickie as I am behind on Ride Reporting. This will be just highlights & best pics. There is so much detail especially when it comes to going into Mexico but just not enough time to tell. It is certainly very different down there & many times I really felt like WOW "I am really out there!" especially the fact I was riding on my own. I never felt unsafe or threatened at any time and for the most part all the people I met were wonderful. The trip was unfortunately too short as I was only in Mexico for a total of 6 days.
First order of business on the trip was bike maintenance as Suzi got beat up pretty bad in Baja. This is at my storage in Vegas. Which was my storage & Fly hub. Start & finish point.

Well this is fast forward right to the Copper Canyon, some amazing twisty roads to get to Creel where I was staying.
This rock would rock back & forth so Rockin Rollin had to go out & try it. Fun!




Stayed at the Hostel in Creel.

Parked the Bike in the Kitchen.

This Girl is Laurence. I was fortunate she was on the tour I took & was the only person Who could speak both Enlish & Spanish so she was my interpreter.
Interestingly she is actually French from France & now lives in Mexico, running an adventure compny that provides spanish lessons while people come out for
various adventures. http://www.adventuremexicanschool.com/ We had no sooner come back from the Copper canyon & she went back out on an atv adventure.
Cool!
Hi Laurence.

The Hostel (Not Hostile) greeters!

This area is the area of the Tarahumara Indians. They sell their crafts to tourists. I had brought along a bunch of stuffed toys to give away to the young children. They would have to accompany the mother. This young girl was such a happy thing & was dancing around. She was thrilled to get the little toy.
They wear very bright colourful clothing.

Tomorrow I ride to Batopilas.

Leaving for Batopilas.

Cool rock formations around Creel.






Rugged road going down to a deep canyon. Batopilas & tropical climate at the bottom.
It is so beautiful it can be easy to loose your concentration. Alas!



















Getting to a place like this I like to be right in the heart of the town. Well this was it, A guest house right across from the town square. The concern however security for the bike. Well no problem. A few bricks to get up the curb. Couple more to get up through the front door, ride thru the front vestibule, kitchen dining area & right down a ramp into the courtyard. Park right outside my room. Cool! & Secure!




The lady here is the owner. Her name is Monse, she took good care of me the short while I was here, like a mother, very nice.
I enjoyed my first ever fresh bananas right off the tree, grown right there in the courtyard. Yum!


My room was right there to the right of the hamock.

Coming out of my room.

This was sunday & fortunate for me there was a Fiesta happening that evening in the town square. Right out the front door. Nice, a 12 person brass band,
Mexican music of course. All the people dressed up beautifully. It was really nice.


So here was something interesting. A few Dogs seemed to actually be a part of the party. Actually there were a number of them kind of trapped in the raised courtyard which was enclosed by the people. & it was just totally ignoired by the people. Normal! Well at one point when the band was on break 2 of the dogs are going at it right in the middle. Again nobody seemed to pay any attention at all!!!

I faded about 2 in the morning & could enjoy the music further laying in bed. The fiesta went till 5am. Woh, these people like to party!

OK Roland your making me jealous ..... be safe

willie

Heading back out.

This was a beautiful guest house overlooking the river just outside of town. I met & spoke with the owners when I was on my way into town. Artouro & Victoria. Nice people, they offered me a beautiful room for only $50 for the night. If I was
with my wife this would have been the place. Being on my own however I prefered to stay in town & that was only $20 which
was the average I spent for accomodation while in Mexico.


Stopped here & went for a swim in the river. It was very hot & so felt great.


So I had just come around the corner and find myself staring at the grill of a truck moving at high speed swinging to my side of the road coming round the corner. I swerved to miss him but then was blinded by the dust. Well you can see what happened, I ended up running into the side of the mountain. Ouch! Banged my elbow pretty good. It was bloody, even with the fact I have armor on the elbows. Good thing!

It was a tough time getting back on the road.





The views were so spectacular!!!



Shrines are everywhere in Mexico.



Heading back up from Batopilas I will be heading for Sarafina to see more of the Copper Canyon

The Copper Canyon at Sinfarosa.




As you can see it was late in the day here. I didn't know for sure where I would be staying for the nite. This always keeps the trip exciting. I checked out the closest towns but didn't like the look & so ended up riding an hour & half into the nite to go back to Creel which was now on the way back north. I had to start heading back to Vegas tomorrow. It would take at least 2 long days riding to get back.

There are a lot of different things to be aware of when in Mexico. Here are just a few.
One is Topes, which are speed bumps which will usually have warning signs as you approach as you can see here. Problem is when there is no sign & you don't see them early enough. WHAM!!! UGH!!! Not Fun. They are a pain but do their job of controlling Speed or getting tuned in pretty good. The other interesting thing is I never did see any other type of speed enforcement ie. radar. So you do tend to ride a little faster.

So here is another common sign & something you better watch out for aas well as many other animals which could be on the
road at any time. Watch out round those blind curves.

Evidence! Just about a kilometer past the sign.

Oh hello. You winking at me?

Next: Back in the USA!!

​

Back in the States it was now early evening. I'm in Arizona. Decided to stay the nite in Bisbee. An old mining town with a huge open pit mine,wh ich I never got a pic of. Did get these however. Interesting & artsy town. & good pubs, restaurants.


Ended up spending the nite in the town Jail.:huh


So now it's back to Vegas put Suzi back in her little garage & fly home.
Next trip back to Vegas, to Death Valley, Califonia coast at Morrow Bay. Ride the California Pacific coastal highway 1 to Monteray. Head east to see the Sequioa nationa park. Yosemity NP. Then finish in San Francisco.