Copper Canyon Trip Report 2010
I just returned from my more-or-less annual motorcycle trip to the Copper
Canyon, Mexico. Here are the highlights of the trip:
Expired passport, 3 flat tires and bad gas (no, not that kind!) before we
left the US
Broken sub-frame on my bike, welded up in an open air workshop
Bikes that won t start
They warn you against the banditos, the drug cartels and drinking the
water, but they never warned us about the mud!
Mud packed around my rear tire so bad it couldn t turn
I crashed 4 times in the mud; the bike trapped my boot twice
We bivouacked one night outside in the rain
Trailer light problems
Icy highway in Iowa, dozens of cars in the ditch
Despite the adventures it was a great trip, great (bad) roads, great
scenery, great food; great riding buddies and I can t wait to go back!
Two days before our scheduled departure, Dick discovers that his passport
had just expired. He assumes that his trip is over before it even started,
and starts to un-pack. The rest of us scramble to change our trailer and
tow vehicle, since we had planned to take Dick s RV. The day before our
scheduled departure, Dick finds out about a one-day passport renewal
service in Minneapolis, and his trip is on again! We got a late start by
about half a day, but we re on the road and Dick is with us.
There are four of us taking turns driving the RV with a trailer for our
bikes. Dick, Kevin, Dave and I with a XR650R Honda, and 3 Kawasaki s, a
KLX 250, KLX 400 and my KLR 650. It is Dave s first trip to Mexico.
In Sweet Water, Texas, we find a flat tire on one of the duals on the
motorhome. The truck stop tells us that they don t work on RV s, go to the
truck tire place. Being Saturday, the truck tire place was closed. The
truck repair shop sent us back to the truck stop, they in turn told us to
go to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart says that they can fix the tire, but can t jack
up the RV and pull the wheel off. After buying a new lug wrench from
Wal-Mart, and about an hour of messing around with the chrome wheelcovers,
we finally pull the wheel. Another hour or so later we ve got it fixed and
back on the road. Wal-Mart charged us $2 for a new valve stem.
We arrive in Presidio, Texas just before dark Saturday night, and take a
room at the Three Palms hotel. We unload the bikes and get ready for a
morning departure into Mexico. For $3 per day the Three Palms will let us
park the RV and trailer in their lot while we re in Mexico. Kevin
discovers a flat front tire on his bike and we fix it in the parking lot.
He had pinched the tube installing his new front tire the week before.
Our original plan was to leave Presidio on Saturday morning, stay in
Chihuahua Saturday night, Creel on Sunday night and Batopilas on Monday.
Since we re running behind, we figure we can squeeze three days of riding
into two, and stay in Cuauht moc Sunday night and ride to Batopilas on
Monday.
Next morning as we re loading the bikes, Dick discovers his front tire is
flat, and we change that one out. So, we re getting a little bit of a late
start. It s all pavement riding today, so we make pretty good time. Kevin
with his GPS guided us through the city of Chihuahua without getting lost,
a first for me! I gassed up my bike in Presidio, and it was running
terrible. I stopped about every 10 miles to check the fuel filter, drain
the carb bowl, open the gas cap, check the air filter, etc. Nothing helped
until we stopped to fill up with gas again in Aldama. I still had a half
tank, but with the fresh gas, it ran great!
We finally got to the Victoria hotel in Cuaht moc just before dark at 6:30.
We had a couple of beers, a nice meal and went to bed.
We left Cuaht moc and just out of town headed south to Carichi. We had
brunch there and finally hit some dirt roads. These are fairly easy,
scenic roads. We did see a little bit of snow next to road at the higher
elevations. When we got to Creel, one of the guys tried to exchange money
at the bank, after waiting in line for almost an hour, they told him that
they don t exchange money! So, running a little behind again, we take off
for Batopilas. The first half of the way is extremely twisty paved roads
that are lots of fun to ride. After the turn-off from the main road, we
were disappointed to discover that the first 12 miles had been paved or the
road is improved and about to be paved, all the way to the first little
pueblo called Qu rare. But after that, the road is back to its old self,
narrow, winding, rocky, with ruts and holes. A great road to ride dirt
bikes on! Improved roads are a great thing for the local population, but we
go to Mexico because it has bad roads!
We pulled into Batopilas just before dark and got a room at the Hotel
Juanita. We got the penthouse room with 4 beds again. They still haven t
figured out how to vent the plumbing right, so the shower smells a little
of sewer gas. Otherwise, it s a really nice hotel, they let us push our
bikes right through the lobby into the courtyard. We had a home cooked
meal in someone s dining room while they cooked in the attached kitchen.
We had planned to meet up with a couple of amigos from Chihuahua in
Batopilas, but they hadn t arrived yet. About 8:00 PM, we heard a couple
of motorcycles pull into the hotel; Arturo and Omar had ridden down to
Batopilas in the dark!
The next morning, Tuesday, we had a nice breakfast in the Hotel Mary
restaurant. After breakfast the six of us started to load the bikes, but
Kevin discovered that his front tire went flat again! The tube he
installed in Presidio had a slow leak at a previous patch.
So, once again, a bit of a late start. We rode out of Batopilas toward
Satevo, and continued on out of town. This was a new route for me; I ve
always gone the other way toward Urique in the past. Our plan was to ride
to Morelos today. The roads got progressively worse and steeper. Many
switchbacks, climbs and descents. Very rough, very fun riding. We stopped
at a small tienda for lunch, but no one dared eat the tacos there, Charlie
had gotten deathly ill eating there last year.
It was very nice to have Arturo and Omar along. Arturo says he s been
riding the canyons since 1972, and he knows all the routes. He made a
great tour guide, and he s very friendly and loves to talk to everyone we
meet along the way. He is fluent in English, but puts up with me
practicing my Spanish on him. By this time, Dave s off-road riding
abilities have been getting better every day, and we ve been throwing
greater challenges at him every day. Dick continues to have trouble kick
starting the big XR, it only likes to start every 2nd or 3rd attempt. We
learn to wait for Dick to get his bike started before we start ours. The
only troubles Kevin has with his 250 is on the highway, especially uphill
and against a headwind, sometimes his top speed drops into the 50 s.
Arturo is riding a KLX 300 (that s 4 Kawasaki s out of 6 bikes), and Omar
his Suzuki DR 350. My KLR 650 is big and heavy, but hasn t had any
problems so far. Omar doesn t speak very much English, but understands
some. He also puts up with my Spanish practice.
We made it into Morelos without any trouble; one of Arturo s buddies runs
the clinic there and got us rooms in the local hotel. This is a pretty
basic hotel, made for Mexican truck drivers to stay in. No toilet seats or
shower curtains here, with bare concrete floors.
We ate in the hotel owner s dining room, with his wife doing the cooking.
I must say we had excellent meals at every stop on this trip.
I was able to call home in both Cuauht moc and Creel using a telephone card
in the pay phones on the street, and in Batopilas they have a storefront
where you can pay for your calls by the minute. Here in Morelos they had
pay phones on the street, but they couldn t take cards and I couldn t quite
figure out how to use them. Dumb gringo.
Wednesday morning we got up and starting packing the bikes, and I noticed
that my luggage rack was loose, upon further investigation found that the
subframe on my motorcycle was broken just behind the luggage rack
fasteners. Oh, this isn t good! Omar took off to find a soldadora or
welder. When he found one, Dave and I took my KLR over to the other side
of town to an open air auto/ truck mechanic workshop. They had an old arc
welder. We stripped the bike down to the bare subframe in back, fashioned
a couple of pieces of steel tubing to fit inside the frame tubes and the
Mexican soldador (person who welds) welded up one side, and Dave welded up
the other side. They both did a great job, when we put it all back
together, everything fit perfectly.
Back to the hotel to finish packing and we finally took off, again running
late. Our destination for today is planned to be Baborigame.
Once again, the roads are superbly bad, loose rock, steep, plenty of
switchbacks. As we re riding along, it starts to lightly rain. This turns
some of the clay dust on the roads to a coating of slippery mud. After not
seeing Dick or Dave for over a half hour or so we pull over to wait for
them to catch up. After a few more minutes of waiting, we decide to turn
around to find out what has happened. It is getting late in the afternoon,
and we re worried about getting to Baborigame before dark.
We find Dick and Dave back a couple of miles trying to get Dick s bike to
start. It just died in the road and won t restart. So far on this trip, I
have been the designated alternate to kick start Dick s bike when it won t
start for him. However, this time I had no luck either. (By the end of
the trip, my right shin is sore and bruised from the kick starter ramming
my shin right into the back of the footpeg.)
It is raining pretty good now, and we manage to find the overhang of a barn
to pull the bike under. Dick starts pulling it apart to check for spark.
That XR is not the easiest bike to work on. It must have taken over a half
hour just to pull the gas tank off. Lucky for us Dave is a professional
mechanic (and welder!) He was able to trace down a bad electrical
connection and fix it. Dick put it all back together and we were ready to
hit the road again, although we lost another couple of hours, and it was
getting late in the afternoon.
The rain has not stopped, and it is now coming down pretty steadily. The
mud has gotten treacherously slippery, and our speed drops down to about 10
mph. As it gets dark, we stop at a couple of farmhouses along the way to
ask if we can spend the night, we are turned away each time! So, we ride
on into the night, slipping and sliding along. It seems that I and Arturo
are having more trouble in the mud than the others; I put the fault in my
big, heavy motorcycle.
The first time I wiped out was pretty spectacular. I was in a rut and the
front end started to slide one way, I was able to catch it but I
over-corrected and got thrown high side over my bike, landing squarely on
the chin bar of my full face helmet on a rock and trapping my foot under
the bike. It s a good thing I wear a full face helmet, it would have been
a tragedy to mess up my handsome face! I also wear heavy boots, and my
feet and ankles were not hurt at all. Dave pulled the bike up off me, and
helped me get it upright again.
After falling down a couple more times in ruts, it occurred to me that
maybe my fork brace was packing up with mud and effectively putting the
front brakes on. I pulled it off, and after that the steering was much
easier. I also tried dropping my tire pressures a couple of times,
eventually down to 12 psi, which helped as well. However, my joy was
short-lived, as a couple of miles later my bike stopped making forward
progress at all, the rear wheel had totally packed with mud and the engine
couldn t even move the rear wheel.
It had finally stopped raining or at least it was only sprinkling now, the
mud was just starting to dry and it became very sticky (still very slippery
to ride on, though). I was convinced that if I tried to keep riding in
these conditions I d burn up my clutch. Both Kevin and Arturo have wiped
out in the mud as well. On the other hand, Dave is having a grand old time
in the mud, thoroughly enjoying himself. I guess that KLX 400 is the bike
to have in the mud! Neither Dick or Omar seemed to have much trouble
either.
We decided to try to find a place off the road to bivouac for the night.
We had been riding in the dark now for about 3 hours. I was pretty much
exhausted from both picking up my bike over and over and the white-knuckle
riding I d been doing. The guys scouted out a likely place just a mile up
the road. I was able to dig out most of the mud from around my rear wheel
with my hands and got the engine to be able to turn it again. By this time
I m pretty well covered in mud on the outside, but my gear has kept me dry
inside. I take off down a short hill and ford yet another small stream.
Except I didn t make it all the way across this one, I wiped out right in
the stream, with the bike trapping my foot again! Great, now I get wet on
the inside, too. Arturo and Kevin pulled the bike up off me this time.
So, we get into a grassy area next to the woods, looks like a pasture to
me. A few of the guys gather wood for a fire; we drain a little gas out
the KLR supertanker and with a fair amount of effort in the wet conditions
we get a small fire going. I get out of my wet riding clothes, put on dry
clothes from my saddlebags and climbed into my emergency bivvy sack. It s
waterproof and made of a reflectorized fabric, if I would have had my
regular riding clothes on I m sure I would have been fairly comfortable, as
it was I shivered intermittently all night long. It rained on and off all
night, I only got a little sleep. Some of the guys just slept in their
riding clothes on the ground, others had bivvy sacks or even a tarp hung
over a rope for an impromptu tent.
We got up at first light, broke camp and loaded up the bikes. I put my
riding clothes back on and fixed my electric vest power cord, ah, heat!
Using a stick, I scraped off about 30 pounds of mud from my bike and got
the rear wheel and chain guard fairly free.
We started riding again. The really slippery parts only went on for a few
more miles; it was easier in the light, too. As the day went on, the roads
dried up, and after we crossed a high pass, the road on other side of the
mountain was in better shape. We found a little caf open for breakfast.
They looked at this group of muddy bikers a little weirdly, but they served
us another good meal. We made it into Baborigame a little before noon, and
we checked into the hotel. They had a hose in their courtyard; we took
advantage of that to wash the mud off of and out of the bikes. After that,
there was plenty of laundry to do and luckily it was sunny to dry it.
This was a little fancier hotel than Morelos; it at least had shower
curtains, but no toilet seats or heat in the rooms. It did have four heavy
wool blankets on each bed, so we stayed warm that night.
It had been a couple of days since I had called my wife, so I went looking
for a phone. Apparently, there wasn t a phone line into town, I think they
used some kind of microwave connection, but it wasn t working at that time,
I think because of atmospheric interference. A couple of people in town
had satellite phones, but there was no signal for that either. I m not
sure why, but at 5:00 the satellite phone got a signal and I was able to
use that to call home, although there was a fair amount of static on the
line. Some of the guys really enjoyed the shrimp special at the local
restaurant; it seems to be the specialty of the house, even though we re
nowhere near the sea.
Friday morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and packed up our
fairly clean bikes. Our destination for today is Guachochi, riding through
the Sinforosa canyon. It was especially beautiful, with the road curving
and switch-backing it s way up and down the sides the canyon. Dick had a
lot of trouble with his bike dying on and off, and trying to re-start it at
the high altitudes that day.
I started noticing a banging sound when I hit rocks. I suspected that my
steering head bearings were loose, and tried checking them and tightening
them a couple of times with no change to the noise. I finally figured out
that I d lost one of the bolts holding my front brake caliper on, and it
was banging up and down, swiveling on the one remaining bolt. Dave had
some wire in his pack, we wired it into position, and kept riding.
Sometime during the day, I hit a rock or pothole hard enough to dent my
front rim; I guess that 12 psi was a little too low for the rocky
conditions!
As soon as we climbed out of the canyon, the roads flattened out on the
altiplano, or high plains. There were still a few miles of curvy dirt
roads, but eventually we hit the pavement and rode that into Guachochi.
This was the fanciest hotel we d stayed in so far, only a little below what
we d expect in the US. It was also the most expensive hotel so far, but at
less than $40 per night for two guys, it was still very reasonable.
I was able to buy a replacement bolt (and 3 washers to make it work) from
an auto parts store in Guachochi to fix my front brake.
We went to a fancy restaurant that night that Arturo knew about. We all
had the trout special, with shrimp and vegetables wrapped in aluminum foil.
It was fantastic! Delicious, me encanta!
We were again running behind, and so made the decision to ride from
Guachochi all the way to Chihuahua today. Arturo and Omar had left their
truck and trailer near Creel, so we parted ways at Guachochi. We really
enjoyed riding with them, and enjoyed their company, too.
We gassed up and aired up our tires, and hit the pavement for a while. We
found a dirt road part of the way between Guachochi and Nonoava. Again,
the first 12 miles or so turned out to be paved or improved gravel road,
but after that, it turned out to be a really fun road. It had a little of
everything, loose rocks, steep climbs and descents, switchbacks, holes,
bumps, and dust. A very entertaining section for the last dirt road we d
see on our trip. We hit the pavement and just before getting into Nonoava,
we had to make the first real river crossing of the trip. The bridge was
out, and the water was about a foot deep, fairly wide, and complete with
plenty of big, slippery underwater rocks. We d had plenty of stream
crossings and big puddles, but this rounded out the experience for Dave.
We made it into Chihuahua and checked into the Maria Dolores hotel. We had
hoped to meet up with a group of our friends led by Charlie in Chihuahua,
but they only made it as far as Presidio that day. We had also hoped to go
out to dinner with Arturo, but he had to babysit his grandchildren that
evening since his daughter got called in work at the hospital. We had a
nice meal and a few beers and went to bed.
Next morning we did have a chance to go out to breakfast with Arturo. It
was nice to see him again before we left. Of course, we got a late start,
and finally met Charlie s group just outside of Coyame. Boy, those guys
and their bikes sure looked clean! They remarked how dirty our bikes were
and we told them that we just washed them 3 or 4 days ago! By the time we
got through customs in Presidio, loaded the bikes up in the trailer and
fixed the trailer wiring, it was 7:00 PM before we left for home. We ran
into icy roads in Iowa, reducing our speed in the RV to about 15 mph for a
few hours. There were dozens of cars in the ditch, a few upside down. We
finally got back to Dick s place near St. Paul at 11:00 PM Monday night.
It was a great trip, I really enjoyed the roads, the Sinforosa canyon, the
food, and my riding buddies. I could have done without the mud, but that
was part of the adventure. I m looking forward to going back again.
Paul Streeter