Day4: Wrong Way 'Round the Bend 2011
We had learned an important lesson yesterday.
Never pass on an opportunity to top off with water.
Or gas.
You just never know.
Saturday morning. Day 4. We are still in the Sierra del Carmen. Tantalizing close to the exit, but nonetheless still here in the El Jardin canyon. We get right to it, collecting our gear for the big day. Getting ready to hike up the chute to our bikes and attempt to inch them down, one at a time, with one guy on a tie-down attached to the rear of the bike, the other guiding the front wheel with the hand brake. Oh, Gaahhd. Duct tape the two tie-downs together. Be sure to bring your gloves.
Yesterday there’d been some discussion about the abandoned truck. Tracker John had commented on the truck tracks in the canyon bed.
There’re no truck tracks in the canyon, had been my first response. Those are horse tracks.
But on closer inspection I had to admit that the two “horse” trails were extremely uniform in their apartness. Examining the canyon bed gravel on the up-canyon side of where the horse trail left the canyon floor, I, indeed, noted compacted gravel consistent with a truck’s passing, not all that long ago. John was right. Now the question was, where was that truck going, up-canyon?
This morning, when I reached the chute, John had left sign that he was exploring further up the canyon. I walked up a ways, found another, more gentle horse or cow trail, but following it further up the hill the terrain got all funky and the horse (or cow) trail(s) petered out. When I got back to the bikes at the top of the chute, John was there. He had passed me while I was exploring up the hill.
My bike on the goat path, the canyon leads to open desert.
“I found the road!”
What???
"I found the road! And it’s on one of my GPS maps!!”
You found a road?!!? Like a “road” road? “The” road????
Well son-of-a-gun! If that just don’t beat all!
John has certainly proved to be handy on this little adventure. He has picked his way thru this Sierra del Carmen single-handedly. Heck I’m just along for the ride. Really. What have I done? My role on this trip has turned into something like “Cultural Advisor”. Or Translator maybe. John’s the one who found the water yesterday, got us this far with his GPS and tenacity. He’s the one who helps me pick up my top-heavy bike when I fall down. And now he’s discovered the way out of here?
Yup. John you’re pretty handy to have around alright.
Hey, John, you can use my toilet paper any 'ole time.
The missed track, where we lost the road, was right where I fell the 4th time yesterday. Where we took that extremely difficult right, that led us down the goat trail. We were so intent on exiting out the canyon, and that seemed to be the way to the canyon. However. If we’d looked left...
away from the canyon….An easier gentle left up the hill led us
initially away from the canyon, but
eventually down to the canyon floor. Why, the road even had vestiges of concrete! Oh, this was the right road alright.
What joy! Now we only had a mile or three of deep sand and fine gravel river bottom to plow thru.
Our campsite. Take a break, eat some jerky, drink water.
Hey, our bikes are on the canyon bed... with us!
While packing we met a couple of cowboys on horseback, coming up the canyon with a mule. We asked if they lived in the house we’d raided yesterday. No, they lived out in the desert. We talked about water and gasoline and Jaboncillos. They were kool and eventually wandered on.
Off we go, paddling down the canyon bed, struggling in the sand.
Kind of loping along taking giant steps, plowing thru, my feet just wouldn’t stay on the pegs. Who wants to fall down again?
Exhausting, but we were moving.
We still have some serious obstacles.
We have to dismount and scout our way thru the rocks. At one point we even have to walk our bikes one at a time.
John takes a fall off a boulder. Trying to walk his bike alone, the bike went up the boulder until it was way over his head and came crashing down upside down... again.
Struggle, pant and rest... Drink water.
Move a little more. Pant and rest. Drink more water.
Move a litle more. Repeat, repeat and repeat.
Walking my line before I ride it.
A little technical here.
But we make it.
The last unlocked gate. We are officially out of the canyon.
The cowboys told us there was a deposit of water on the other side of the gate.
Guess this is it but the tank didn’t have a spigot.
The water was just a trickle but enough to take a cooling bath.
The Sierra del Carmen from the water tank.
We did it!!! We crossed the Sierra del Carmen!
Elvira’s Crack on the left and our canyon on the right.
It was a lot further out to the main road than I expected. Still, we were moving.
Another pano from John’s camera.
Jaboncillos. Center of town, I think.