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9 or 10 to 3: The Copper Canyon Sprint

As we rode down, we played leapfrog with a couple of trucks. We would pass them and then a few minutes later we would stop to take pictures and they would pass us back. After doing this a couple of times we arrived at the Mirador Cerro de Gallego (Gallego's lookout hill - what we would call an observation deck). It looked like a combination of picnic area and observation deck. The gate was closed but it wasn't locked, there were no signs saying keep out, and this is Mexico. As we were parking the bikes one of the trucks we had passed a couple of times before arrived at the mirador. It too stopped and the two guys in the truck promptly opened the gate and started walking up to the observation area. I told them I wanted pics and they indicated for me to come on up.
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Wow! The views were inspiring. Clearly this was a great spot to build an observation deck, yet it appears to be mostly unused these days. Who knows why. :shrug:
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Gallego's overlook has two features designed to enhance the visitor's experience. First is a suspension bridge over a multi-hundred foot drop. It appeared to be safe so I walked across it but have to admit to being a little apprehensive - was it being maintained and would it bear my weight?
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After surviving the bridge, I arrived at the next feature - a deck extending out from a cliff with a see-through floor. The logical part of my brain said it was safe, the emotional part said "what the heck are you doing Rich?". You can see the deck sticking out in the above picture of the bridge.

Thomas and Jeff had remained at the bike so I shouted out to them that they didn't want to miss this view and to come join me. One of the two guys from the truck - Mondo - spoke English and offered to take our picture on the deck.
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Urique Canyon, Rio Urique, and the town of Urique from the observation deck. Mondo told us that "urique" means hot in the Tarahumara language.
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Hot, as in lava, or hot, as in it gets hot here in the summer...? :-P
 
Speaking of hot and cold, it would be tough to pick a time of year when you wouldn't see wide swings in temps between the top and the bottom of the canyon.

If it's 60 degrees at the top of the canyon it would likely be 90 degrees in the bottom. If you are anything like me, then 60 degrees is too cool for my mesh riding suit unless I'm wearing a windproof, insulating layer under it. 90 degrees is hot riding weather, meaning I need to be wearing nothing but my mesh and, even then, I stop as infrequently as possible so that windflow keeps me from overheating. If it's 30 degrees in Creel, it would probably be 60 degrees in Urique. I'm not sure there is 1 riding suit that is best for such a wide swing in temps.

We alternated daily between being cool (or cold, depending on whether you asked me, Thomas, or Jeff) and hot. For this trip I wore my winter riding suit - i.e. non-mesh. It is a fairly typical, waterproof, riding suit. I knew we would see wide swings in temps, ranging from the low 30s (or maybe colder) to the 70s. but we weren't expecting really hot weather (80 degrees plus).I figured we would experience more cool than warm temps so I opted to leave the mesh at home, resigned to sweating when temps got warm. I brought extra layers to handle temps below 50 degrees. It proved to be the right choice for me.

It was hot enough in Ojinaga at noon on Sunday to make me sweat but was a pleasantly cool 60 degrees or so a few hours later in Cuauhtemoc.

It was low 50s when we left Cuauhtemoc on Monday morning but temps were in the 70s in Urique on our arrival.

It was about 60 degrees or so when we left Batopilas on Wednesday morning at 10 am. Two hours later we were at the top of the canyon, at 7500 feet in elevation, and temps were low 40s and stayed there for most of the day.

Layering proved to be really important. We were constantly adding or shedding layers in order to match the wide fluctuations in temps we experienced.

My guess is that it likely won't matter when you visit the canyon - you will experience a wide range in temps and will have to plan and pack for that reality.
 
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Thanks for your report. The photos and detail is great.

How much Spanish should you know if you want to make the trip solo?

I'm not a great linguist, but I would like to see this natural beauty in person.
 
Urique

We rolled into Urique like conquering heroes.

Okay, that's not even remotely correct. We rode into Urique, feeling happy and blessed to be there. The sun was out, the weather was perfect, and the riding had been fun.

We searched out the Hotel Paraiso Escondido Urique (The Urique Hidden Paradise Hotel), recommended to us by Mondo (the local who took our picture at Gallego's overlook earlier in the day). The hotel has a fenced in parking area plus the military was in town (more on this later) and most or all of them were staying here so bike safety appeared to be a non-issue.
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We got the last two rooms (at least that's what we understood with our limited Spanish) which just didn't seem right. Mondo and his buddy had recommended this place to us and had told us they were going to stay here too. We beat them into town since we could travel so much quicker on our bikes than they could in their truck and now we are getting the last two rooms? About the time we realized that we might have screwed them over, they showed up, had a talk with the owner, and got a room. Apparently they are friends with the owner and he had a room reserved for them so it all worked out.

It's a two story place and I ended up on the 2nd floor. The room was typical Mexico, which means it was modest but clean with at least one interesting design feature. In this particular case it was an electrical socket mounted as high on the wall as possible. :shrug: I'd love to know the story.
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After unpacking and showering, we treated our two new friends to dinner at a local restaurant that they recommended. During dinner Mondo explained the unfortunate reason that the military was in town. A 35 year old American named Patrick Clark had gone missing on Oct 28th and authorities had been mobilized to find him. I spotted several missing posters about Patrick around town during our visit to Urique.
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At the time Mondo told us he did not believe it was cartel related because of the attention it would draw from law enforcement. And there was clearly a lot of law enforcement attention happening in the area while we were there.

However, on Thursday, Nov 15th it was confirmed by the government that Patrick had been murdered by local drug cartel members. His body was recovered a few days later and local authorities have identified the man responsible and are seeking to find and arrest him. The story, as I heard it, was that Patrick was in town by himself, hiking and exploring the area. His Spanish was very good and he asked a lot of questions about the area and people. This raised the suspicion of local drug cartel members that Patrick was a federal agent from the USA (DEA perhaps). Patrick was at a celebration at a bar the evening of the 28th and members of the local cartel were there also. Their aroused suspicion led to him being murdered and his body taken away and hidden.

I will reserve my comments to this - the adventure riding community has known for many years that Copper Canyon is cartel territory. This isn't new information or a new situation. My recommendation remains the same. Do a risk assessment. Don't travel alone and don't be in a place (late night in a bar, for example) by yourself where it could be easy to get in trouble very quickly. I doubt the locals thought Jeff, Thomas, and I were anything but what we appeared to be, three gringos riding motorcycles through Copper Canyon. We didn't go anywhere or do anything that would make anyone think differently. And no one bothered or threatened us.

Godspeed Patrick.

Emergency

My phone did not have service in Urique. There is cell service in Urique, but my phone wasn't working with it. However, I have a Garmin InReach satellite tracker that has limited email capabilities. I emailed Connie to let her know we were in Urique and safe. She emailed me back that she needed to talk to me. I replied that I didn't have cell service but that hopefully I would have cell service the next day when we arrived in Batopilas. To which she replied, "I really need to talk to you." With that message, I knew there was some sort of emergency at home.

All of this took place over a span of about two hours - like I said, limited email capabilities. It took a long time for messages to be sent and received over the InReach.

Luckily, Thomas' phone was working so I borrowed it and gave her a call. I was shocked to learn that Jose, my brother-in-law, had been killed in a work accident that day. Jose and his wife (Connie's sister) had attended our sons wedding on Saturday in Terlingua and had driven home to Angleton on Sunday. Monday, Jose went to work as always and a few hours later tragedy struck. Understandably, Connie was very upset and in tears as she relayed the details she had.

Jose, with his daughter and granddaughter at her sweet 16 party
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Godspeed Jose.



I apologize for the somber tone of this post. I thought both of these events were germane to our trip and felt they were important enough in our story that they should be included.
 
With the news about Jose, my plans changed from exploring more of Copper Canyon to sprinting home to Austin as quickly as I could.

I figured I could ride back to Cuauhtemoc, or even as far as Chihuahua, on Tuesday. Then I could make it back to Terlingua on Wednesday and be home in Austin on Thursday.

The challenge I faced was a forecasted cold front coming through during the night with the temperature at the top of the canyon predicted to be below freezing most of the day on Tuesday. I didn't have enough clothes with me to ride in sub-freezing temperature for more than about an hour at a time. It would be slow going at best.

Then Mondo brought up another issue - it was likely the road up to and beyond Creel would be closed due to ice. Hitting a patch of ice on the road is never good. Hitting one where the edge of the road is a multi-hundred foot drop-off is worse.

Upon discussion I decided that I was going to delay the trip back by 24 hours. It didn't make sense to put myself at elevated risk just to get home one day earlier. I did not believe a 24 hour delay would cause me to miss the funeral (it didn't) and I couldn't do anything when I got there except comfort my wife and family. So a delay seemed the reasonable choice.

The sub-freezing temps were forecasted for one day only, with a warming trend starting on Wednesday. I would be cold riding on Wednesday but I wouldn't be in danger of hypothermia or frostbite and there wouldn't be ice on the roads.

I called Connie and let her know my decision. She wasn't happy but accepted that I was making the right choice and would be home as quickly as safety allowed.

With that decision made, we had to decide what we were going to do on Wednesday. We could hang out in Urique for a day. Or we could ride over to Batopilas. Riding to Batopilas would position us for a potentially faster run toward the border on Wednesday and, more importantly, potentially get us to lower elevations and warmer temps by taking an alternate route to the east and away from the edge of the canyon. It was the route Mondo recommended and it didn't take much discussion for the three of us to reach agreement to follow his advice.
 
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On Tuesday morning I arose early and walked around a bit taking pics of Urique.

I don't know who these monkeys are but they certainly seem like a lot of fun. I'm going to find and party with them next time I'm here. :)
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Urique is on both sides of the Rio Urique, so they have constructed suspension bridges for foot traffic back and forth.
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See if you can guess how old this door is.
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A very colorfully decorated church
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Mexico style architecture - there are lots of buildings in Mexico that have "character". Also note the LED streetlight. It's an interesting juxtaposition often seen in rural Mexico. For example, it's not uncommon to ride through a pueblo of ramshackled buildings and half will have a modern satellite dish attached to the roof.
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The Road to Batopilas

I will state it right up front - the road from Urique to Batopilas was superb! I've ridden a lot of fun roads in Mexico and this one ranks right up there with some of the best. There were parts of it that were in such bad shape and seemingly no longer in use that I questioned whether the road actually went all the way through. But it did and I'm really glad I had the opportunity to ride it.
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The road essentially starts in a valley at river level and climbs up and over a mountain range, dropping down to river level in a valley on the other side. It doesn't matter which end you start - Bato or Urique - it does the same thing. Valley, mountain, valley.

I've read several ride reports of others who have ridden big adventure bikes over this road. And one report of a guy who did it solo on a Triumph Tiger without a skid plate and ended up punching a hole in his engine case with a rock. Perhaps the road was in better shape back when those fellows rode it. Even JT told me the road wasn't all that difficult. Our experience was quite a bit different. I couldn't imagine that riding this road on a 500+ lb adventure bike would be fun - it was too washed out, there were too many baby head boulders, and steep switchbacks littered with loose marble rocks. There have been rains recently so perhaps that contributed to the 10 miles of class 3. But the areas where the road deteriorated to two track with grass growing all over the road could only mean not many vehicles are using this road. Whatever the case, it was a blast on my 260 lb 500 EXC and the views were inspiring.
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After taking the above photo we noticed a) farming and b) smoke on the steep slopes on the opposite side of the valley. What are they growing? How in the world do they do it on such steep terrain? Why did they pick that spot? I don't know any of the answers so we can only speculate.
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Another view of the valley. Look closely and you can see the farm in this picture too.
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See that road down there? That's the road we've been riding since we left Urique an hour ago. Yes, it's as fun as it looks.
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The higher we rode the better the riding.
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Just when I was doubting that we were on the right road - after all, this wasn't the easy road others had described - we came upon this sign. Yep, this is the correct road.
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After crossing over the top of the mountain and beginning our descent to Bato, I came around a corner and encountered three little kids, two boys and a girl, standing in the middle of the road motioning at me. One boy was pointing up into the air with his index finger. Did he want me to pop a wheelie? The other boy was waving at me and the little girl was shy, with her hands down at her sides.

As I drew closer I realized they wanted me to stop. I pulled up, killed my engine and got off my bike.

"Buenos dias", the children said to me.

"Buenos dias", I replied.

"Dulce?", they asked.

I laughed. They were asking me for candy. For sure we were on the right road. Adventure riders use this road to get from Bato to Urique and these kids have learned that most adventure riders carry candy to give out to the kids they meet in places like this. I opened my luggage and pulled out a bag of Jolly Ranchers, purchased back in Texas for just this occasion. I gave each child a handful and then gave one of the boys an extra handful and told him to give it to his mother, who was standing on the other side of the fence next to the road, baby on her hip, watching over her three little ones. With her permission I took a family photo.
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Our first view of Batopilas, deep in the valley below.
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Does anyone know anything about that great looking twisty dirt road heading south out of Bato? It sure looks like a road I need to ride one day.
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Admiring the grandeur of it all
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It's official - we made it to Batopilas
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Sorry about Jose. I don't see a problem with you including it or the story about Ptraick. Life is an adventure. Sometimes the bad parts interfere with the good parts. That's just the way it is. Death of loved ones is something most of us will have to deal with at one time or another. The consequences of poor choices are also something most of us will have to deal with (more often than we'd choose). Hopefully, we outlive those consequences, learn, and keep on going. It's too bad Patrick did not get the chance.
 
Been following this report closely. Sorry about your loss, Richard.

As someone from Mexico who didn't start riding until I moved to the US, I've been reading all these awesome reports from my side of the border and how fun it is.
 
It was around 2 pm and our first task upon arrival in Batopilas was to secure hotel rooms. Carolina's place is on the main square in town and a popular place with adventure riders so that's where we went. A few minutes later we had procured rooms and were unpacking our stuff.
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Unfortunately, there was no electricity in town. Something had happened - a line had been knocked down somewhere - and electricity had been out for a while. Locals were expecting the problem to be repaired later today and, sure enough, they were right. Shortly before dark electricity was restored city wide.

After checking into the hotel we had enough daylight remaining to visit the Lost Mission in the village of Satevo, a few miles down river from Bato so that's what we decided to do.

Once we found the right road, it was fun riding. (Note - it's not always easy finding the right road out of town. There usually aren't road signs and many Mexican maps don't provide sufficient city street detail. More often that not, when I get lost it's in a town that I'm trying to find a particular road out of.)
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The road mostly follows the river for a ways, with abundant twists and turns. It's a mix of class 1 and 2 riding - easily ridden with any adventure bike.
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After a few miles of up and down and around, we rode around a corner and spotted the lost mission in the distance. The story as I have heard it is that this mission is over 400 years old and it's origin has been lost through time. Who built it and when is unknown. In any case, the local community cares for and uses it regularly.
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It was locked when we arrived but a local fellow who introduced himself as Jesus (which I though was appropriate :-P) quickly showed up with a key. He unlocked the door and invited us to have a look.
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Not being content to see things just from ground level, Jeff and Thomas decided to climb the ladders to the upper levels. I stayed on the ground to photographically document the occasion. After all, if you don't have pics, it never happened, right?
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Look closely and you will see all three guys in the photo - Jesus, Jeff, and Thomas. Also, I can't ever recall seeing a picture from any other ride report of riders on top of the mission. I've seen lots of pics of adventure riders visiting the mission but not on the roof. I think Jeff and Thomas may be the first! That's going to be hard to top. (Note - see what I did there? Insert a mental cymbal crash noise now. :P)
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While we were visiting the mission these boys showed up to have a closer look at the three gringos.
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Back in Bato, we rolled our bikes into the courtyard at Carolina's to keep them safe for the evening. Now it was time to goof off, eat, drink beer, and generally waste time. Not necessarily in that order. :lol2:
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Prior to electricity being restored, we had dinner in a tiny local restaurant where the lady cooked our meal on a wood burning stove (no need for electricity when you are cooking with wood). I had eaten at this same restaurant 12 years ago with Uncle and nothing had changed in that time that I could see. The food was still good.

Following dinner, we procured some Mexican beers and drank them on the balcony.

A few hours later, with the electricity back on, we wandered about town with no particular agenda, just taking in the views and snapping a picture or two.
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Then, mostly because we were bored, we decided to eat again. We figured a couple of street tacos would do the trick. Thomas procured more beer to wash down our taco snack.
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I don't drink much. In fact, I have to be really careful because I often have an allergic reaction to beer. (I'm serious and it's not funny. For example, I drank one Budweiser a couple of nights ago and was sick the entire next day. Ugh.) Luckily, I have discovered I'm less allergic to beer when in Mexico (again, not kidding) so I can drink a little more with a little less abandon. Which doesn't entirely explain why I try to go to Mexico on my motorcycle as often as possible...

Anyway, enough about the nectar of the Gods (beer). Let's move on, shall we.

With the tacos and beer gone, we wandered back to the hotel. I headed off to my room, mentally preparing myself for the two long days that were starting the next morning.
 
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Allergic to beer = getting old :-P

I kan't lrink dike I oozed do eever... :chug:
 
Allergic to beer = getting old :-P

True.

Unfortunately, my oldest son inherited the allergy (weird,huh?) and despite being in his 20s he has the same issue.

I feel really bad for him because I could drink beer in my 20s. And 30s. And even my early 40s.
 
First - a big thanks to Richard and Thomas for allowing this Mexico-riding newbie to tag along. As Richard said above:
What an introduction - going to Copper Canyon on your first adventure ride in Mexico. In my opinion it was a heck of a good start.

Exactly right, not just due to the destination, but also the quality of the guides! The only camera I brought with me was my cell phone - and it's camera died within hours of crossing the border. I finally realized I could still take photos with the front camera - so it was nothing but selfies for me. This is a particularly perverse sort of punishment for some unknown, evil act on my part. So, having Richard along as my personal photographer sure was ANOTHER bonus!

I know Richard isn't done with his report, but I'll chip in here with my perspective.

The Bike
I rode my xr650l - and it did just about perfect. Our highway speed was a leisurely 65, so I ended up getting about 55 mpg. It has a 4.5 gal main tank and I brought a 2.5 gal rotopax. That gave me plenty range, but the rotopax up on that tail rack is less than ideal. It's a lot of weight, high and back. And, the fuel weight sloshes around unless the tank is totally empty or totally full. 10 lbs of moving weight back on that rack was REALLY annoying. Note to self: figure out a better long-range fueling solution. I put all my crap in a big dry duffel bag on top of the rotopax - with another smaller drybag for tools - the idea was to put the heavy tools on the seat instead of the rack to minimize load on the subframe, and help keep the center of gravity as low and as far forward as possible. This worked - until I added a spare tube to that pack when on a side-trip without my main duffel. So: there's room for improvement there, too. Other than that, the XRL was a great ride - it's fine with cheap gas, fine on the highways, fine on all the dirt we did. The 'bang for the buck' on these bikes is pretty dern impressive.

Crossing the border, paperwork, logistics, etc
As the boy scouts say, Be Prepared. Thomas tutored me on what I needed to get the bike across (read MexTrek prep posts!), and I followed instructions. They asked me for proof of my US liability insurance - which Thomas said he'd never been asked for before. I had a paper copy on me, which I nearly never carry. All-in-all the crossings were uninteresting. I speak a little Spanish - but not enough; this would all have been a lot more time consuming if Thomas had not been there.

Routes and maps
I'm somewhat of an amateur GIS nerd, so I had tracks and off-line maps not only for the routes we were planning, but several other popular tracks in the Canyon. I use an Android app called Locus, and downloaded OpenStreetMap-based vector maps for all of Mexico before leaving Texas. I was also able to download elevation data for the whole Canyon area - very handy when trying to avoid sub-freezing temps at altitude. My offline maps were not as good as Thomas and Richard's Garmin 'e32' maps - but this differences proved insignificant - there's nothing I needed that I was not able to find. Phone-based navigation is risky: what if the phone dies or is lost? What if the battery runs out? Phones aren't as rugged - what if it breaks in a fall? All these are real concerns, and I had no backup solution - other than my riding buddies. It all worked (the phone is waterproof, gets well over 24 hours continual use on a charge, didn't get lost or broken) - but it is a fragile way to travel. I think next time, I'll bring along a backup device (my previous Android phone, WiFi only) for cheap redundancy. The most annoying part of phone-based navigation is gloves. Note to self: buy a cheap stylus!

Comms
We all had radio-based, in-helmet comms. It took a little while to iron out the kinks, and even then, there were frequent times one of us would drop out or become incomprehensible. But, overall the system worked and was HUGELY useful. For stuff like coordinating gas stops, picking a place for lunch, warning of on-coming traffic, etc. There's room for improvement, and I'll be debugging my end of this system before my next group ride (primarily antenna placement, frequency choices).



Day 1: Alpine to Cuauhtémoc: Peguis Canyon is a geologic oddity. If you have any interest in that stuff, go check it out. Even if you don't give a hoot about how or why this thing is there, it's still an amazing view. Chihuahua = traffic. It's the only part of the trip where traffic was even part of the story. The comms system also picked up a lot of local chatter - so next time I'll recommend we use less standard frequencies. Cuauhtémoc was a cool town - and a lot bigger than I thought. ~170k people. Thomas and I walked around for a while after dinner, grabbed another beverage, and saw the sights, such as they were.

Day 2: Cuauhtémoc to Urique: Started out cold. Boring pavement until we turned south onto 25. But from there on, the roads kept getting better and better. The overlook at Divisadero was amazing, as was the food! From Divisadero to Urique was also amazing. Here's a satellite view of the dirt road into town; how could that NOT be awesome??


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At dinner in Urique, our newly made local friends told a VERY interesting story. We were teasing the one that wasn't married about all the girls he must have in each little town - single guy with a large territory to work through. But, he said all the girls either leave town or get involved with cartel guys. The locals say the "girls smell like bullets" - that's a phrase I'd never heard before, and won't soon forget! He was at least partly joking.

Day 3: Urique to Batopilas: One of the best days of riding in my 7-ish years on two wheels. First half of the day was a 4300 foot climb in 11 miles, then up another couple thousand to top out just over 7000 feet. You stay up at altitude for about 15 miles, then descend down to Bato:

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Day 4: Bato to Chihuahua: The keyword for this day was: cold. 230 miles with an average elevation over 6000 feet, maxing out at 8273. First gas stop I got a very bad but very hot cup of coffee in me, and with the sun high the coldest part was behind us. It was about 60 miles of amazing, twisty, paved mountain roads before we hit highway 83 heading north. From there, the road drops out of the Sierras, getting straighter and lower each mile, signaling the end of the trip.

Day 5: Side junket thru Manual Benavitas: Richard headed from Chihuahua back to Texas to be with his family, so Thomas and I had a day to fill. We got a route to the south rim of the Santa Elena canyon, so that seems like a perfect detour. It would have been, too, if we hadn't run out of daylight. We knew we'd be short on time, so we set a 'Turn Around Time' of 4:30. Regardless of where we were, we'd stop and head back to our hotel in Ojinaga at 4:30. Great plan; poor execution :) . We actually made that turn-around about 5:15, and by 5:30 dusk had set in. We didn't reach the canyon overlook, and did a lot more miles on dirt, in the dark than we wanted, but the side-trip was still a huge success. 'FUN' was our only objective.

Day 6: Oj to Alpine: We packed up the bikes, remembering the rest of the tequila bottle we didn't kill the night before, and headed north. Crossed the border, then detoured up Casa Piedra Road and on into Marfa for a light lunch and a heavy beer. 30 miles later we unpack the bikes in Alpine and the trip comes to a close.



So, conclusions?
There is a thread with over 39,000 posts on ADV Rider called 'Is Mexico Safe' - and for us, it was. Perfectly so. We met great people, had great food, enjoyed great roads. We were prepared enough, equipped enough, experienced enough, and most importantly flexible enough (also, maybe lucky enough?). A shortcoming in any of these areas by any of us would have put the rest of the group in a pretty sticky situation. Urique is a long way from anywhere, and had Richard's family emergency demanded his immediate reaction, well, I'm just not sure how we'd have achieved that. An American tourist was murdered in a town we stayed in two week prior to our arrival. Mexico was not safe for him. Choosing to ride a motorcycle is risky. Riding off pavement is risky. Riding in remote areas and in Cartel-operated lands is risky. Riding in November through the mountains during a cold-front is risky. Did we "get away" with this adventure, despite the risks? Or are these various risks over-stated and fear-mongering? I dunno. But we made it and I can't wait to do it again!

I'm not big on group rides, so MexTrek and similar things aren't in the plans for me. So, I was really lucky to be included in this band of moto-brothers. Hasta pronto, amigos!
 
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:tab I see a difference between a group ride and a rally event. To me, a good group ride is a max of 8 riders and 4-6 is ideal depending on the nature of the ride/trip. The more remote the riding, the more I lean toward the 4-6 number just because it can make things MUCH easier if you have anything unusual to deal with like an injury, wrecked bike, mechanical failure, etc,... Ideally, no one ever has to be left alone or head out for help alone. More than 6 and it gets harder to keep the group moving. Lodging options begin to narrow if you are winging it. I also like the 4-6 size because you are better able to get to know each of the other riders during the course of the ride.

:tab I am glad you had a great time. I'd love to go back down there. I've never been able to visit those areas. My only trip was with Richard and four other guys back in 2007 before he started doing the MexTrek stuff and we were in a completely different area. It was definitely an adventure and there were some times I was WAYYY out of my comfort zone. But, it all worked out.
 
The Sprint

For me, the trip was essentially over. It was Wednesday morning and I was on a mission to get back to Texas. The three of us talked it over and though I told them my family situation didn't need to end their Copper Canyon trip they decided to keep the group together. Thomas and Jeff both agreed that they had seen what they had come to see and missing out on one more day of riding in the bottom of Copper Canyon would in no way ruin their trip. They were going back with me.

Following our usual routine, I arose early and grabbed a few photos around town.

An important local
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The town square. In case you ever come here and want to stay at Carolina's hotel, it is to the left of the Batopilas sign, on the other side of the street and out of the picture.
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The Old Woman

The day before, while we were eating supper sans electricity, this older woman stopped by the restaurant and said hello. She spoke better english than I spoke spanish (which isn't hard to do) and while her english wasn't great we could mostly carry on an easy conversation.

As I was walking around the town square on Wednesday morning she came out of her place next to the hotel and engaged me in conversation. A few minutes later she dragged me into her "store" and convinced me to buy her book about Batopilas that she had personally written. She lives alone, her husband having passed away several years ago. She never had children either. So, now she "adopts" the local children while scratching out a living selling a few handmade items and, of course, her book.
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For 150 pesos I became the proud owner of Pueblo Magico, a spanish book about Bato that I can't read. About this time, Thomas and Jeff showed up and she sold each of them a copy of the book too. I have no idea how much 450 pesos means to this woman but my theory is that it's a lot. I'm glad I had the chance to meet her and was wise enough to buy her book.
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Time to ride
Finally packed and ready to go, our last task before leaving town was to fill up with gas. It's almost obligatory that if you go to Mexico with me you will at some point buy gas from somebody selling it from 55 gallon drums. This trip was no different. How do you find the guy selling gas? Look for the sign - se vende gasolina - we sell gas.
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Tell the man how many liters you want. He brings it out in whatever type of jugs he has and with the help of a funnel transfers most of it to the inside of your gas tank.
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Once we were all topped off, it was time to head for the top of the canyon. For those of you that haven't been here recently, the photographically famous dirt road to Batopilas, is gone. It is all pavement now and, in some cases, the road bed has been changed.

When I was here in 2006 it took Uncle and I about 4 hours to ride out of the canyon on the dirt road. Now that it's all pavement you can complete the trip in about 1.5 hours, which is what we did.

However, don't be fooled. While the road is indeed paved, the mountain keeps collapsing on it, spreading rocks, pebbles, and dust all over the pavement. In many cases the road is only one lane due to debris covering the other lane. In the case of this photograph, a huge boulder collapsed on the entire road bed, necessitating a dirt bypass. Note the guy with the rock hammer on top attempting to turn this giant boulder into two very large boulders.
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A new bridge and some pretty pavement on the Batopilas road
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The new overlook - this is the new spot to take pictures from to show the extreme switchbacks
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