TRIP TO MEXICO AND COPPER CANYON
MARCH 18-APRIL 2, 2005
By Sterling Page
 

A friend and fellow C.B.A. member and I had been planning a trip to Copper Canyon over the past 12 months. Don Paradise had purchased an 05 KLR 650 for the trip and I will be using my trusty 02 model KLR 650 that took me all through Alaska and Canada in 2003.

We decided to qualify for the Iron Butt Associations’ Saddlesore 1000 and the Bunburner 500 at the beginning of the trip. In order to qualify, you must complete 1000 miles in 24 hours and then complete 500 miles in the next 12 hours.

In order to be able to start on a major highway we decided to ride to Florence , S.C. to have access to I 20 to head west. Our next stop would be Dallas, Texas to complete the 1000 miles, then on to Van Horn, Texas to complete the next 500 miles.

Day 1
Fri. 3/18 3:00 P.M.

Left home for Florence, S.C. arriving at 7:00 P.M. and settled into a motel. We put in for a wakeup call for 11:00 P.M. and hit the sack to get 4 hours sleep. We made arrangements for a motel staff person to sign and date the start sheet for the documentation for the run.

Day 2
Sat. 3/19 12:01 A.M.

Left Florence on I 20 west, 34 degrees, cold and raining.

Day 3
Sun. 3/20 7:00 P.M.

Arrived Dallas, Texas , warm 74 degrees.

We had completed 1,072 miles in 19 hours which would qualify for the Saddlesore 1000.

Enroute, we stopped for gas at the following locations; Aiken, S.C. ( 20 minute break ) , Greensboro , Ga.., Temple, Ga., Brighton, Al., Cuba, Al., Vicksburg, Ms., Arcadia, Al., ( 20 minute break ), and Dallas,Texas.

We got accommodations in Dallas and put in for a wakeup call for 10:00 P.M. ( now on Central time zone, so lost an hour. )

Made arrangements to have motel personnel available to sign our start sheet for the Bunburner 500 at checkout.

Day 4
Mon. 3/21 12:01 A.M.

Left Dallas on I 20 west, 37 degrees , cold and very windy.

11:50 A.M arrived Van Horn , Texas after completing 511 miles in 11 hours, 50 minutes.

We had stopped for brunch figuring that we had plenty of time and then were delayed in slow moving traffic due to road construction. The other problem was that there weren’t many choices for places to get signed off for the end of the ride.

So we now had completed the qualifications for the combined Saddlesore 1000 and the 1500 mile Bun Burner by riding 1500 miles in less than 36 hours.

Enroute we stopped at the following locations; Ranger, Tx., Clyde, Tx., Big Spring, Tx., Pecos, Tx. ( 45 minute break which we wish that we hadn’t taken ) and Van Horn, Texas.

We continued on to Las Cruces to visit Barnetts’ Harley Davidson Dealership, claimed to be the worlds’ largest. Along the way we came across a neat ghost town in Lake Valley, Tx. During the 1880’s it was a large silver mining community and still had residents living there into 1970. A very interesting place to visit.

When we arrived at Barnetts H.D., they were having an open house with music and free food.

While Don roamed the shop I sat outside and had a nice conversation with a young mexican man. I told him our plans to visit Mexico going through the Border at Deming, New Mexico.

He asked if we’d like to take a scenic route over a mountain to go to Deming. He explained that the desert was all in bloom with poppies and was really something to see. I agreed and after he tried to explain the route to me, decided to get his car and led us there. It was as pretty as he had described and the twisty mountain road was fun to negotiate. At the bottom he stopped, gave us further directions and went on his way. People can be so outgoing to help, nice guy.

We arrived in Deming late afternoon and found a nice hotel.

Day 5
Tues. 3/22 6:00 A.M.

Don woke up to find that his rear tire was flat and had a 3 inch nail stuck in it. We removed the tire and tube and I took the tube to a 24 hour truck repair shop to have a heat patch put on it,

The shop refused to do it so I purchased a repair kit and we repaired it and used my 12 volt air compressor to re-inflate the tire. We couldn’t get the bead to seat but after a few trips around the parking lot it seated itself and we were off to breakfast at 8:00 A.M.

We continued to Columbus, N.M., the last town on the U.S. side of the border and found a small mexican restaurant that was open. The only customers there were three members of the High Plains Drifters from Colorado. They were pretty rough looking but turned out to be very sociable and we enjoyed swapping travel plans.

We continued to the Mexican Border. It was a little confusing but I had studied up on the procedure that helped a lot. Both Don and I had all the correct documentation and copies of our documentation, credit cards etc.that had to be left with the Border crossing people. So, the only thing that we had to go have a copy made of was the visitor’s pass itself. This was done easily across the street and after placing a sticker on our windshield, we were off on another adventure.

We rode south into Mexico passing through numerous interesting little villages and finally stopped at Gomez Farias and stayed at a brand new motel called the Sierra Inn.

We hadn’t been able to locate a bank but so far U.S. currency was accepted at most places and we received pesos in change for places that didn’t.

Along the way Don tipped a gas station attendant with 20 pesos and received a blank _expression in return. I told him that he had tipped him the equivalent of two cents.

We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and I had some strange kind of soup. Don’s Spanish translator explained that I was eating cheese soup with sausage. Don had buffalo wings and fries.

No one speaks English now and both of us forgot everything that we had learned while taking Spanish lessons. It is going to be mostly hand signals and gestures from now on.

It is my 31 st wedding anniversary and no way to call home, but we thought that this might happen.

Day 5
Wed. 3/23 250 miles ( 100 over a steep mountain trail )

Today we head for Creel to the top of Copper Canyon.

At Lopez Mateos we took 16 west and somehow missed 127 south to Creel and ended up at Magdalena. Unless we backtracked the only way to get to 127 now is to take a dirt trail up and over a mountain to San Juanito. We decided to do the mountain.

The trail is narrow and rocky with sheer drop offs many miles to the bottom. Beautiful scenery but scary to look down and control where you are going.

This is where I got stupid. Heading up the mountain my adrenalin is pumping and I’m riding much too fast. Doing about 60 M.P.H. I got caught in the soft stuff along the drop off side of the trail and couldn’t pull out of it. After a couple of hundred feet of trying to get over onto the center of the trail and figuring I’m going off the edge, the bike and I did a flip fortunately away from the drop off. I think maybe a big rock threw us and I ended up under the left side of the bike. As I was trying to get my leg out from under the bike, Don pulled up. After deciding that I wasn’t hurt he refused to help me pick up the bike until he took my photo. The bike weighs around 650 Lbs. + with all the gear and is tough to pick up.

Once the bike was upright, I found that my kickstand was torn off, left mirror gone, bolts holding my saddlebag rack on broken, left directional lens broken and my auxiliary lighting hanging loose. My main concern was that the bike would run and it started right up. In retrospect I wish that I had taken the time to pick up the parts but once running I just wanted to keep going.

Now with no kickstand, the only way that I can mount or dismount is for Don to hold it upright or to find something to lean it on.

This was probably a good thing that it happened where and how it did. It was a wakeup call that I was in a foreign country on a machine that had to be able to return me home, some 3000 miles away. We continued to Creel arriving late afternoon.

We met some American bikers who directed us to a motel that still had some vacancies after being turned away at the first one we tried. It is spring break and the town is full of tourists.

The bikers also directed us to a gift shop where we could purchase a good map of the canyons. While there we found out that we could place a call home from the shop. The wives were relieved to finally hear from us.

Day 6
Thur. 3/24

We left Creel early and decided to take the route to the west side of the canyon to a town at the bottom called Urique.

Before we left town we found a welding shop. Rummaging around, I found a pipe that would serve as a kickstand. Using sign language I managed to have it cut to the right length, a round disk welded to the bottom and a bolt welded to the side to attach a spring to hold it up. I found a spring , cut it and bent it to adapt and now I had a servable kickstand again . The old fellow only charged me the equivalent of $5.00 and seemed happy to help me. I gave him $10.00 and we were on our way.

The asphalt road soon turned to dirt, then a very steep rocky road ( trail? ) up and over a mountain. I’m guessing about 100 miles of beautiful scenery and a drop off of many miles down if you aren’t careful. Along the way many miles from any sign of civilization we would see Tarahumara Indians sitting along the banking or walking on the trail to somewhere. They waved and smiled to us which we found to be the custom throughout the trip.

We stopped at an Indian village called Cerocahui and purchased some bracelets for our wives. There was a beautiful lookout over the canyon and a lot of tourists were visiting the site.

We continued down the mountain and I eventually hit a rock that sheered off my bolts holding my right foot peg. Fortunately I had highway bars so I still had a place to put my front right foot, just a little unbalanced now and tough to use the correct pressure on the rear brake. Without having a foot peg I evidently used too much pressure on the break which heated up and stopped functioning. I believe that the pad crystallized from the heat. Try doing a downhill with only a front brake on dirt, pretty tricky. I used a lot of engine braking and managed carefully to feather the front brake.

As we got closer to town a local came down the road on a dirt bike and waved. A little while later I found him stalled and stopped to assist. He got it running and continued toward town.

It took us 4 hours to get down the mountain, it was quite a workout.

Once we arrived in Urique we didn’t see any sign of a motel or place to stay. Riding around aimlessly I noticed the same bike and the biker sitting in front of a building. I made sign language indicating that I wanted a place to sleep. He motioned to me to follow him into a building that looked at first like someone’s home. Once inside There were a few mexicans sitting around drinking beer and the biker continued to lead me toward the rear of the building. It turned out to be a restaurant with a nice courtyard in the rear where we were to enjoy all our meals. The owner also owned a motel and motioned for Don and I to follow him up the street and down an alley. He gave us a key to a room, asked for no money and walked back to the restaurant with us. We went back and got our bikes and checked out the room. One towel, no toilet paper, soap etc.

As we had left the door open because the room was hot, there were three mexican children peering in to view the newcomers. I used sign language to indicate our needs and the three smiling faces ran off giggling and soon returned with our supplies.

We showered and returned to the restaurant. Using sign language we indicated we wanted food and cervesa ( beer ) one of the few important words we knew. The cook decided what we should eat and everyone seemed to enjoy taking care of us. During supper, our table quickly filled up with empty Dosequis bottles and the waitress had a lot of laughs totaling the number of bottles to determine how much we owed. We didn’t understand the amount so we just held out a handful of money and lat her take what she needed.This is how we handled most money payments throughout the trip. We regretted not knowing how to speak Spanish to the people and it would probably make the trip more fun, but it’s amazing how you can get by without it. Although they could have easily taken advantage of our predicament, I really think everyone treated us honestly.

We overheard a young boy talking to his parents in English. I walked over and introduced myself and the father said he could converse with us. I asked if there were any other passable routes out of the canyon other than back over the mountain. The answer was NO, we had to return the way we came.

There was some kind of festival going on as we could hear music and a lot of people were walking up the hill. Don and I followed them to a gathering of all ages with kids playing various games. There was also a beer stand and fortunately we had enough pesos because they wouldn’t accept U.S. currency. We hung around for a while then returned to sit on the stairwell at the motel. I walked back to the restaurant and got a few Dosequis to go and we relaxed on the stairwell. We could see headlights all up and down the mountain from cars and trucks working their way down the road in the dark-scary.

Day 7
Fri. 3/25 8:00 A.M.

Had breakfast at the same restaurant and left Urique back up over the mountain.

We arrived at Creel at noon and had lunch, then returned to the gift shop to call home again.

Going north, we encountered a lot of animals on the road; cows , sheep, and a very mean looking handsome brown bull. You could see regular cows climbing along the steep rocks along the side of the road just like goats do.

5:00 P.M. Arrived in San Pedro and had difficulty finding a place to stay. We finally found a two-room motel on a back street for $20.00 a night. The room was hot pink, no hot water or heat but lots of blankets.

We had shrimp soup for supper, very spicy. I really liked it, too spicy for Don. He ate the shrimp and vegetables but couldn’t handle the spicy broth.

Day 8

Sat. 3/26 6:00 A.M. We left San Pedro early because we have to the ferry leaving Guyamas at 8:00 P.M. to cross over to the Baja and we don’t have reservations.

Some dirt roads, mostly paved, very windy with sand blowing around the village streets sometimes making visibility difficult.

Once we started climbing into the mountains, the views became very scenic with long steep curving roads. There were a lot of pickup trucks full of people standing or sitting in the rear screaming down the mountain. We finally came to a toll road plaza and they refused U.S. money. Fortunately I had enough pesos for both Don and I to pass through.

We had cheeseburgers for lunch. Don ate the lettuce and tomato that I scraped off. He soon regretted it and got to use some of the medication that I brought with me just in case.

5:00 P.M. Arrived in Guyamas and located the ferry ticket office and purchased our tickets.

The boat was to leave at 8:00 P.M. for an 8 hour trip.

We found a real nice restaurant on the waterfront called Lo Barco. We parked our dirt-covered bikes right in front of the door. We then noticed how nicely the people leaving the restaurant were dressed. We were covered with dirt so we walked to the next building not realizing that it was part of the same restaurant but not as fancy. A waitress who had been observing the scenario came in and coaxed us back into the nicer side. She wasn’t concerned with our appearance, so we followed her. We had a nice dinner and relaxed for a bit.

We returned to the ferry landing and tried to get some information about the crossing. No one spoke English. Eventually found a ferry worker that explained that due to rough seas the boat trip would be delayed but we were to board the boat.

There was a military group armed with automatic weapons searching cars as we approached the ferry. We had passed through about 20 military roadblocks along the trip and other than having to open a few zippers, ( more of a formality than a search ) without any real hassle. This group dressed like a swat team was a little more intimidating. They also had a drug-sniffing dog. When the dog approached my bike it got all messed up.

It seemed every morning when I looked at my bike the front tire had been pissed on by some animal.

When the drug sniffer got to my front tire it started sniffing it and evidently forgot what it was supposed to be doing.The guard was visually upset and signaled to me that I could go on.

The ferry holds 5 cars, 3 bikes, not very large. They made the cars back into the ferry and then Don and I had to ride on and then turn the bikes around to face out. They secured the bikes with 4 tie downs each and while doing so almost collapsed my kickstand, and would have dropped my bike had Don not caught it in time.

We tried to sleep lying across three chairs, which was not very comfortable. There were about 40 passengers aboard a lot of the walk-ons.

The ferry never left Saturday night.

Day 9
Sun. 3/27 8:30 A.M.

The ferry finally leaves and the sea is very rough. The small ferry is bouncing like a top.

I am one of the few passengers that are not already seasick by 9:30 A.M. I had a good breakfast of eggs and refried beans with home fries while people were fighting the sickness.

For Don and most of the passengers, the ferry ride was 10 hours of hell. I lay down and slept in the sun for most of the trip. Poor Don spent the trip on the upper deck in the cold wind in a chair trying to do the best he could.

I met a very nice family from Aco Poco on vacation. The oldest daughter was in her 3rd. year of college to become an attorney. She was very attractive and spoke excellent English. We talked a lot as she enjoyed practicing her English. She was concerned about Don and gave him some Dramamine but it was already too late for him to recover. Her brother also spoke some English and told me that he was studying to be an E.M.T.

As we entered the harbor at Rosalita it was sunset. You could see the whales splashing around in their breeding ground. Pretty neat. Don and I had planned to camp out to watch the whales. Now because of the ferry delay we were unable to take the time to do it.

6:30 P.M. We finally docked the ferry. We tried to get directions to a motel, no one speaks English. The boy that I met came along at the right time and gets directions for us to one of the two motels in town. The family took a picture of Don and I and we parted company.

We booked into the motel and the walked to a nice restaurant for dinner.

Day 10
Mon. 3/28 7:30 A.M. 520 miles/ 12 hour ride

We left Rosalita and didn’t stop to eat until 2:00 P.M. when we entered El Rosaria. I had the experience of fish tacos, pretty good. At this point Don is still feeling the effects of the boat trip and would for the next few days.

We continued toward Ensenada.

The lower Baja isn’t very pretty, just long hills with stunted vegetation, desert, and numerous dead horses and cows lying along the road having been killed by a motor vehicle.

Eventually it becomes pretty with numerous cactus plants including giant saguaro. Then we came upon lots of palm trees and as you near Ensenada you can see the ocean off in the distance.

The road had great twisties but also crazy drivers that passed us on blind curves just to prove that they could.

We ran out of gas at 170 miles, another 20 miles on reserve and then another 20 out of our gas bottle. After a few cars ignored our attempt to flag them down, a fisherman from California stopped and gave us gas from his jerry can. He refuses any money and wished us well.

We had lunch at a restaurant that is a stop for drivers racing the Baja. We enjoyed the photographs and trivia. Don bought his son a neat shirt commemorating the race.

We stopped for the night at a little town just south of Ensanada.

Day 11
Tues. 3/29 240 miles

We entered Ensanada and decided against crossing the border at Tijuana. Instead, we took Hwy 8 to Mexicali where we had a lot of difficulty finding the crossing point.

After getting directions a few times , finally a Mexican guy had us follow him to get us to our destination-nice guy.

No problem crossing through the border and we continued on to Yuma , Arizona arriving at 2:00 P.M. We found a nice motel and took one of the few remaining rooms, a three-bed suite.

Don was finally able to do his laundry and we were able to call home for the first time since leaving Creel on Friday, 3/25. The wives were concerned because we were a day off schedule due to the ferry delay. They had expected to hear from us on Monday when we expected to arrive in Yuma.

I called an old riding buddy that relocated to Yuma from Massachusetts. Tasi came over to the motel and then we all dined together and chatted about our adventures and old times. Tasi gave us directions to the local Kawasaki shop so that we could get an oil change and I could get some repair work done.

Day 12
Wed. 3/30 250 miles

We ate breakfast then went to the Kawasaki shop at 8:00 A.M.

I had the bolts drilled out for my foot peg mount and had the peg reinstalled. Got replacement mirrors but no brake pads in stock. We each got our oil and filter changed..

We left the shop at 11:00 A.M. and headed up 95 to Kingman, Az. We had planned to visit the ghost town at Oatman along the way. Somehow we got separated in Parker but met up again in Oatman. We toured the shops and watched the burros that roam the town as if they own it.

5:00 P.M. Arrived Kingman and got a motel room.

Day 13
Thur. 3/31 585 miles 30 degrees A.M., 37 degrees P.M. snow/ sleet / hail

7:30 A.M. Left Kingman, Don behind me. I went to reserve 10 miles west of Flagstaff and I knew that the next exit would be the Grand Canyon Harley shop, restaurant and gas station.

I stopped at the edge of the road at a rest area and waited about 20 minutes for Don to come along. He never saw me and went on by. I went to the next exit, gassed up and tried to catch up with him, never did.

I got to Albuquerque, New Mexico at 3:00 P.M., weather looked bad so I continued on to Santa Rosa. It was sleeting now so I booked a room at a motel at 5:30 P.M.

I called home. Ellie had talked with Don’s wife Susan and Don was also At Santa Rosa. Tried to contact him but couldn’t. I knew that his cell phone battery wouldn’t charge and his calling card didn’t work.

Day 14
Friday 4/1 912 miles 17 hours
3:30 A.M 28 degrees, 19 degrees wind chill

The wind had been extremely strong on Thur. and I was told that the early morning was the least windy period.

I left early to beat the wind, however it stayed windy and cold throughout New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma with some rain showers.

Heavy rain passing through Arkansas and Tennessee. Rode through Memphis, very busy traffic on a Friday night so I continued on to Wolf Chase and found a motel room at 8:30 P.M.

Day 15
Sat. 4/2 776 miles 14 hours
8:00 A.M. 44 degrees, snow turning to rain

Considered going south to Atlanta as Don and I had originally planned but the weather station shows flooding around Georgia.

I continued on I 40 , very windy, heavy rain all through the Tennessee Mountains into North Carolina. Never saw the sun until nearing Columbia, South Carolina.

Arrived home at 10:00 P.M.

Don made the right choice and went south out of Memphis, Tn. Arriving home at 7;00 P.M.

To sum this up.

I was very impressed with the courtesy, friendliness, and helpfulness of the Mexican people.

The Copper Canyon is spectacular and Don and I have already talked about returning to tour the East side of the canyon and Batopilas down at the bottom.

Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to see the oceanfront part of the Baja and I understand that it is beautiful.

Although we managed to get along without being able to speak Spanish and still enjoyed ourselves, I will definitely take learning the language more seriously before returning.

Had I been able to converse with the natives, it would have added greatly to my learning experience and enjoyment.

Sterling Page