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The Mountain Recon

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miltonotto said:
Thumper, I have no idea where you were. Maybe you did make it to Buena Vista, I wouldn't know because I haven't been there.... yet. I know if you'd headed for Camarones, you would have crossed that river again.

You and Chuck were true Rambos out there. Ya did gud.

Here is the sign you missed in Cuevas
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Any questions?
Of course you can get to Purisima via Camarones too, but that's another story.
Click to expand...

I never saw the sign:doh: Lucky for us;-)

Yeah, we were feeling pretty manly out there:lol2: But most of the times we seemed very insignificant.

Throughout this whole track....it could be done on a geared down KLR with 606's and a spirited rider.:borg:
 
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thumper said:
Milton here's my tracks. When we left Purisima we went back down to the bottom, crossed a river via an unimproved crossing, and started climbing the mountain that faced Sr. Ojeda's house. He would have seen us disappearing to his right if he had a clear view.

The sawmill and goat town is what I believe to be Bueno Vista.
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Tim, I believe you were in Buena Vista. I laid down what I think was my route from Aug ontop of your Google E image. I was coming around from the other side of the mtn and gave up on reaching Buena Vista, took a short-cut straight down hill at a house and clearing. A man with a big truck lived there with family and some goats. It had a name but I never did understand it. Since I never made it to Buena Vista I don't really know how close I was.
The "town with the red & green arrows" was of course, Cuevas.
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Another way to look at it
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This is where I left the road to Buena Vista and headed downhill to Purisima.
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A cazillion unmarked choices in logging roads up there.
 
Re: The Mountain Recon; Los Pintas

Friday morning Chuck and I went over our maps with Milton. We were heading north to a pass. Milton had attempted this solo on an earlier trip and was turned back by some very rough roads. It sounded like what we were looking for.:rider:

The road to Rayones had some local traffic...maybe a pickup or two. And other than Rayones itself, that would be just about the only vehicles we came across all day.

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Somehow we got off track [Carlos and his Bicimaps] and we made a left where we should have gone right. Which led us on another day of some great adventuring.

The wrong road that we stayed with.

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"Hey Carlos this looks like fun, but I think we're going the wrong way!":lol2:

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Yeah, we both were certain by now, but instead of going back we looked at the map and got even more confused by thinking "Los Pintas" was in the pass that we were trying to reach.

Oh well, that's where we're going..."Los Pintas".:sun:

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to be continued....
 
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Re: The Mountain Recon; Los Pintas continued

We were basically headed in a NW direction towards Cenecia de Toro in the valley and then up to Los Pintas on top.

Stopping to compare topo lines with the terrain.

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Carlos's WR did much better than my sputtering DRZ at higher elevations.:giveup:

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Los Pintas is at about 8600' behind the mountain. The valley is around 5500'.
This cowboy rode over with his dogs following. I think he's was curious as to what we were doing there.

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Gringo sign language seemed to just add to his curiosity.:lol2:

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We said "Los Pintas" and he said "se". When he told us how to get there...well you know how it goes.

We rode into the small town of Cenecia de Toro and asked [as best we could] a guy at the store where the road to Los Pintas was. He kinda told us and we had a pretty good idea, but as we were leaving he said more than once, " Los Pintas...no motos!"

I never heard anyone say a town could outlaw motos. Chuck and I both said, "screw it, we'll deal with that when we get there".

We rode on and found the road, then started the climb.:trust:

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The road was passable, but in pretty bad shape. It appeared to get little use.

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Things got a little tough near the summit, but aside from some sputtering from my DRZ, we were having a blast.

We were kinda surprised to run across this abandoned ranch on the way up.

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Other than some cattle and a few wild horses, no one had been there in quite awhile. We rode back and forth trying to pick up the road again. We opened a gate thinking we were back on track...dead end!:eek2:

HPIM1428.jpg


Finally, Chuck hollered "hey, this is Los Pintas!" It showed up on his Bicimaps.

HPIM1424.jpg


Yup, Los Pintas is an abandoned ranch at 8600'. So now that's figured out, where's the road?

We milled around and finally found it. After less than a mile, it looked like this.

HPIM1429.jpg


We really wanted to get through because it was a short decent down to Casillas. About 30 yards behind this pic is the first major obstacle, a fallen tree.

HPIM1431.jpg


It was 5:00pm and starting to cool off. We had to make some decisions. We checked out a few cow trails thinking we might get lucky and bypass the road...not happening!:doh:

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So, next choice...camp and tackle the road in the morning or ride out on a backtrack? We both had enough water but Chuck only had some power bars and I had nothing to eat. I joked about killing a cow and cooking some steak.

We hadn't eaten since breakfast so back down we went. It was almost dark when we saw the guy at the store again. I told him "Hey Los Pintas, no people!"...he said "se, no gente, no motos". Oh well, it seemed like a perfect place for motos.;-)

Off in the dark, we made our way back. It was around 10:30pm when we rolled up to the hotel. And I will say this..." it's been awhile since I was actually glad to get off my bike.":lol2:

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Good work. U guys r crazy. The pictures are worth a thousand words.
 
Yeah, Great report and pics too !!!!! You guys must've been three or four hours riding at night . Just be lucky a Chupacabra didnt get you or Chuck.


James ,
Sealy Tx. / Bucharest Romania
 
Chango said:
Yeah, Great report and pics too !!!!! You guys must've been three or four hours riding at night . Just be lucky a Chupacabra didnt get you or Chuck.


James ,
Sealy Tx. / Bucharest Romania
Click to expand...

Yeah, luckily all we ran into were dogs. I had the better light and leading. So it was just a matter of zipping by them and let Chuck deal with the onslaught!:lol2:

Great trip Richard!:clap: I got just enough of Mexico to be even more prepared for the next trip.

Somethings I need to do or remember;

Learn more Spanish.
Keep smiling.
Always ride with minimal camp gear and food.
It really is "the land of personal responsibility".
Never ask for "fajitas" in Mexico. It means belt or belts.
Always have enough pesos to pay off the cops when your caught speeding!:eek2: [ Happened to me out side of Monterrey while driving back]
 
Those mtns around Purisima are begging to be expored more thourghly.
 
miltonotto said:
Those mtns around Purisima are begging to be expored more thourghly.
Click to expand...

Yes, they are. That was my favorite area. Next time I'll tent overnight...no more backtracking just because it's getting dark.;-)
 
Great reports guys! I've got a small group heading that way in March. Looks like a great place to visit so close to home. I've got to get the Bicimaps though. Thanks for the great photos, and the extra pull making me want to go.
 
TexasShadow said:
Is a KLR250-Sherpa allowed to ride with the big boys on one of these trips?
Click to expand...

The Sherpa would do great on a ride like this. Although you might want a bigger tank if your following Carlos with his Bicimaps!!:rofl: Just kidding Chuck...hmmm...No I'm not!:rofl:
 
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thumper said:
The Sherpa would do great on a ride like this. Allow you might want a bigger tank if your following Carlos with his Bicimaps!!:rofl: Just kidding Chuck...hmmm...No I'm not!:rofl:
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I'm investigating increasing the fuel capacity on the Sherpa and as of last night, I think I found the solution :trust: I'll be testing it out on trails in southern Utah before next year's Mexico trip, but........count me in for the next Mountain Recon trip! (woohoo!)
 
ok, I'm drooling to do this ride ..... gotta get my "stuff" together to be ready for this! I live down at south padre so I can just about do this trip at anytime. Had you guys ever thought about using the ferry at Los Ebanos to cross into mexico (and back)? I've never been on it either ...... but want to! I've only got a WR250F so I'd think about trailering my bike down vs riding, and in this way I'd have a support vehicle, just in case another bike had troubles (as I read about here). Now if I can just get my property taxes out of the way so I can get on with important stuff ... outfitting my bike!

http://www.texasescapes.com/TOWNS/Los_Ebanos/Los_Ebanos_Texas.htm

http://www.dot.state.tx.us/services/maintenance/ferries/los_ebanos.htm

http://hometown.aol.com/blueapache5/page2.html
 
Hey SPI, can you officially cross there to go into Mexico? I guess what Im asking is are there the checkpoints to do the paperwor, or can you do that elsewhere?

Glad you pointed that out, and I am sending you a PM...
 
TexasShadow said:
Is a KLR250-Sherpa allowed to ride with the big boys on one of these trips?
Click to expand...

Absolutely.

I'd even go so far as to say you could get by with the stock gas tank, though a larger tank or some spare fuel is a fine idea. Milton has ridden his KLX all over the place down there on multiple trips and I think it gets about the same mileage out of a tank of gas as the Sherpa (we were stopping every 100 miles so he could tank up).
 
Richard_ said:
I'd even go so far as to say you could get by with the stock gas tank, though a larger tank or some spare fuel is a fine idea. .
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Thanks, Richard!
Actually, Friday night I looked over the fuel-carry system a local friend has on his KLR650 and I intend to rig up a similar system for the Sherpa. It would increase fuel capacity even more than the IMS tank for the KLR250's. I will need it for the Trans-America Trail, so the Mexico trip will be a good trial run overall for the Sherpa.
 
Enjoyed this great ride report. I'll be making my second trip down there in a few weeks. Last year we barely touched the surface so now we have a list of places that we can include on this trip.
 
Hey guys, I was wondering what was needed to be paid for BEFORE leaving to go down there and what could be paid for at the border.

I understand insurance needs to be paid before. But what else?
And, what can be paid at the border and what will we have to pay at the border. Is this website up to date as of now?Mexico Vehicle Permits

Thanks for the help
Scott
 
website looks ok but i've never had luck with them/it. It was a tease last I tried it a couple of years ago. You can "do" the car papers before the border if you are near a mexican consulate that offers that service, (Austin, Houston), but it ain't necessary. You must buy your tourist "card" at the border ($25?). Temp Import of car is $32?. You can buy insurance at the border too. You need to have a credit card too.
 
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