loco gringos on the loose in Copper Canyon

[osii]

Well boys and girls this is our first report from Creel in Mexico.

This is day three and we find a great hotel in Creel for $50.

Day one was pretty uneventful. Crossing the border from Deming was not too bad. At the border you need copies of your license, registration, passport and credit card. And then you are in. Except for the little punk beggers it was not too bad at all.

We ride to Nuevos Casas Grandes (new big houses) and end up in a crappy hotel. The ride was brutal. Incredibly windy. It was a real bitch after riding with the windshield the last few days. I took it off for the trip.

From NCG we read that there was this great off road route to get to Madera. This book says it is a wonderful ride and if you get lost just ask for directions from any rancher. Well, I think we got on the wrong road from the start and the names of the towns he mentioned were wrong. We kept asking for Huracon, and the real name is Mesa De Hurican. We got lost and almost ended up crossing over the Sierra Madres. We backtracked and finally found our way (maybe) and it starts getting dark (and cold), we have no idea where we are, running out of gas, and me and Pete get separated. I keep going cause the roads keep geting better and I finally come up on this logging town that was NYC as far as I was concerned after freaking on the whole ride. I plan to find the author of this book and light a bag of flamming shit on his doorstep. Oh yeah, crashed 3 times in the mud. I doubt we ever got on the right road.

Pete rode in a few minutes behind me and we get a real shit bag hotel for $30. The guy wants to sell us tequilla and put porn on the TV. We say no thanks.

We ride from there to Basasiechic. We get to the park and it too is a total dump but the camping is free. And freezing. It got down to about 25F and we both froze our asses off. This morning we walked to the falls. The falls and the canyon are spectactular. We get some lunch and hump to Creel.

Fantastic dirt road and the last half we are flying. Get into town and find a fantastic hotel, internet cafe and more beautiful girls than you can imagine.

I will have some pics when I get back. So far the bike is holding up ok.

Later,

Mike

tomorrow we go to Batopilas

[Gerg]

Credit Card???
Let's hope it's still of use when you get back

[k7]

Originally Posted by Gerg

Credit Card???
Let's hope it's still of use when you get back

I could be wrong.... but as I recall, if you don't use a credit card when crossing the border, a much more substantial cash deposit is required. I've never had a problem with use of a credit card when crossing the border but... I do check it closely when I get home!

[ARRRGGGHHNUT]

Spartacus,
GOod to hear you're back, I can't wait to hear your adventures at the songdog party!!!
Inform the Gorilla King the silverback!!!

[fish]

and the photos are where, exactly?

[Bubba]

Spartacus is still on the road, look at the posting date and read his last sentence again.

[Ostrich]

Originally Posted by fish

and the photos are where, exactly?

[Gorilla King]

Hello guys,
for those who might care...I heard from Spartacus last night. He is out of Mexico, in Tuscon and on the way back to Reno. Report and pics to follow in a few days.
Sounds like he had a great Adventure!

[osii]

I put the pics in a word document. There are three videos on the bottom.

It essentially starts at the bottom and ends at the top.

I'll put up a more detailed report later. I'm so busy these days with my new gig I don't have time to even review all the porn in my inbox.

try this link

www.makarov.net/copcan.doc

It's an 18 meg file with 100 pics and three videos, so be patient.

[Rogue 1]

welcome back mike... great pics and damn good to see you again!

[osii]

OK,

Here we go.


First I guess I should outline our route. The original plan was for a three week trip, but I ended up getting a job after 5 years and could only put it off for 2 weeks before getting started.

We met in Deming, NM. I rode down on the GS from Reno (through the snow) and Pete Trailered his KLR from Tallahhassee, FL. I got to Deming a day ahead of time and used that time to get the bike checked out at the BMW dealer in Deming and some new tires put on at SWMOTO tires in Las Cruces 50 miles away. The Deming BMW dealer is a multi-brand dealer that did some fantastic work for me right away for a very reasonable price. I wanted to put on some dunlop 607’s at SW but they don’t make ‘em anymore so I ended up with Michelin Anakees. Pretty much the same tread design only higher priced.

We overnight it at the Motel6 and head out for the border the next morning. I stop in at the BMW dealer and pick up a new set of brakes for the GS to install later when I get some time (when I got the tires changed the prakes were looking a little weak).

After about an hour in unreal winds and rain we get to the border. As we pull up the Border Patrol is dropping off the illegals to send back into Mexico. We go into the Passport office and the guy mentions that we never got exit stamps when we left Baja a year ago (later when we got back to the states the US border guys said it wasn’t necessary). Anyway, he just stamps the passports for another 6 months and let’s us go. We then go to the vehicle import station and produce all the paperwork for getting the bikes legally into Mexico. I already had insurance and pete had to buy his on the spot there in town. Even though they have a copier in the office we had to go across the street to make copies.

While we’re there little fuckers are coming up to us and just demanding money and cigarettes. The border towns are somewhat scary places. Everyone was checking us out and I couldn’t wait to get moving.

We head off the Nuevas Casas Grandes to overnight. With a stop in some small town for some coffee. It was still damm cold, but at least it stopped raining at the border. We hit out first checkpoint around 100 miles in and get through with no difficulties. We get to NCG and find a hotel and unload and lock up the bikes (2 chains, and a disc lock). We walk around NCG and find a restaurant and of course they screw up the order. In mexico they are NO SUBSTITUTIONS ALLOWED on the menu. This happened to me quite often.

The next day the real adventure bigins. We read about this great alternate route that will put us on about 150 miles of dirt. So we head out for a town called San Diego. We never find it. Apparently we went the wrong way as soon as we hit the dirt roads. We show up in a village and ask where is San Diego and no one has any idea. One thing you need to realize is that in these small villages, a lot of these folks have never been out of their village, and they have no idea what is even 20 miles away, let alone 50 or a 100 miles away. So, needless to say, good directions were hard to come by.

So now we start heading west towards the mountains. We can see a road cut on the side of the mountains far away and start trying to head towards it. We follow what looks like a road or wash and eventually end up in the middle of nowhere with no decernable roads anywhere in sight (check out the pics that have no road in them). But unbelievably, we find people out here. There are surveyers and they point us in the right direction. However we still are not on a road and we get into some trees and really bad washouts where we find some more surveyers (it is the wierdest thing to find people out here). Eventually we turn east and start looking for roads again. I can see some barb wire fencing north in the distance so I start heading towards it. We find a break in the fence and eventually find the road into the mountains and towards one of the villages we are trying to get to.

So now we’re just riding along, catching some great views. The roads are not impassible but they do require your undivided attention. There is almost no chance to just relax and ride. So things are going good, and then the mud comes!! I crashed 3 times running through these huge mud obstacles. It’s like riding on snot on ice. We end up pretty high in the mountains and start seeing snow. It seems every instinct we have is wrong as far as which way to go. We make about 3 wrong turns and end riding for hours in the wrong direction. We come to a water crossing and we find some people there. They tell us the snow is waist deep up ahead AND we’re going the wrong way. So now we head back, through the mud again. Only one wipe out this time. We find some educated folks and they finally give us some great directions. The only problem is we’re still about a hundred miles from where we want to be. Another thing about Mexican directions. Everyplace is a half hour away. I am convinced that Mexicans have absolutley no sence of time, space or dimension..

So we get back to a place we were before and our instructions are to ask again for directions when we get there. Good thing too, because the road we need to take is concieled by weeds and doesn’t look like mush more than a wash. We head up the “wash� and eventually get to the next landmark. I tiny little place with nothing, just a few houses. They tell us to keep going. Oh, by the way, we had the name of the town wrong. Not Hurican, but Mesa de Hurican. Apparently, no one knows where Hurican is, but they do know where Mesa de Hurican is. Another road. This one is a little better, but again we make a wrong turn and end up in the snow right where some locals run out of gas. After I get unstuck, I head off the right way and somehow get separated from Pete. This is very bad. It is cold, getting late, and I am running out of gas. Of course I think he’s ahead of me, and since it’s a good logging road, I’m blasting out as fast as I can. I stop sometimes to see if he is behind me and wait a while, but Pete is a no show. I can’t go back because of my fuel situation.

Now it’s getting dark, I know just enough spanish to get slapped in the face, and the spanish I learned in college is not only useless, it’s downright wrong is some cases. Every now and then I try to ask for directions, but eventually it all comes down to using the FORCE to get to civilization. The roads keep getting better but there is nothing in sight. I think about just pulling over and camping, but the ground is either covered in snow or muck and mud. So I just keep going. Eventually I find this town, Largo (which everyone kept saying to me and I thought meant “that way�). It’s a logging town and a complete mud hole, but it looke gorgious to me. A few minutes later, I see Pete roll up and I waive him down. He tells me he was heading to Mesa De Hurican and almost didn’t see me.

It’s pitch dark by now and Pete’s headlight is not working. We find some gas, ask about a hotel. Find a hotel, and take some pain meds. The proprietor plays stupid for a while, but it turns out he’s from Arizona and speaks perfect english (this is a trait we found often in Mexico). He asks us if we want to buy some tequilla and he says he’ll put some porn on the TV for us (yikes!). We pass on the tequilla and porn and settle in for the night and cook up some freeze dried in the room.

End of Day 2 . . . . . . . Thank God!

The next day we head out for Basseachic Falls. Paved roads all the way (yippie!). The roads in mexico are in pretty good shape, and the drivers generally will let you pass. You get the ocassional macho dude, but he don’t have a chance against a GS going uphill. We get to Madera for lunch and find a restaurant. Everywhere we go, people are checking us out, so we ask the proprietor to have someone watch our bikes while we have breakfast.

We get to the falls late in the day just in time to set up camp before it gets dark. We are the only ones camping and we luckily find a level spot free of cow shit. We buy some wood from the “ranger� (I use this term very loosely) that turns out to be green. It’s a real bitch getting it going, eventually we use Pete’s air mattress pump to stoke the fire (they are fantastic for stoking) and get a good fire going after about two hours. Good thing too, cause it gets very very cold that night. Even with zero degree bags we are both freezing. Even with a gas lantern in my tent I can still see my breath.

End of Day Three . . . . christ I’m cold!

I left my XM on all night and in the morning the battery is dead.


My fingers are tired now, more to come later

[osii]

river crossings

The water here was waist deep so we had to push the bikes across.

[ARRRGGGHHNUT]

Originally Posted by osii

river crossings

keep'm coming Spartacus!
Say hi to Pete!! Is he coming out west again this summer?

[osii]

proper preparation is the key to a safe water crossing

[osii]

an unprotected crossing