Day 2 – Milton tries to kill me
Sunday dawned cool, clear, and beautiful. The temps were in the mid-60s but the sun was up and the sky was blue. It looked to be a fine day for Milton to try and kill me.
Okay, “kill me” is an exaggeration. Maybe “break me and my bike” is a better description. In any case, he had us scheduled to ride a road that turned out to be rockier than anything I’ve previously ridden.
The “not on the map” route. Start at General Zaragoza and ride east across the mountains.
We headed south from Galeana, enjoying the crisp morning air and blue skies.
The clouds were just peaking over the distant mountains.
Life in rural Mexico
The paved road through the mountains
Frog rock, on the road to Aramberri
There aren’t any Pemex gas stations along this route so we stopped at a convenient store / “gas from a barrel” place just outside of Aramberri. You buy the gas by the liter and a cloth filter keeps the bigger pieces of stuff out of your gas tank.
We made a breakfast stop in Aramberri. It was our first meal of the day and there was the possibility that we might not make it across to the other side of the mountains today. This little gal was our waitress.
Milton took advantage of our lunch stop to ask some locals about our proposed route. Milton had ridden this road twice before but it had been about 10 years since the last time. You never know what might have changed in 10 years.
Time to ride. Once we located the correct road out of town, we started climbing. As we rode higher and higher the views got really spectacular. That’s Zaragoza in the distance.
That’s the currently unexplored road to El Refugio, south of Zaragoza. The map shows the road becoming a trail going all the way through to Marcela but everyone we asked said it wasn’t passable except on foot or by horse. Somebody’s going to have to go ride it to confirm or deny. Maybe next year.
Next: Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Skinny dogs. My bike breaks. Milton crashes. The only show in town.