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Day 5: During the evening hours the night before, we decided to ride to Urique via Bahuichivo and Cercahui since there's no way we'd get across the Urique River for a few days. When we reached Urique, we realized how right that decision was.
Since the road to Tubares was wiped out, we decided to get to Urique another way. We set out from Creel towards Divisadero. After negotiating some patches of spooky black ice, in keeping with the No Te Ahuites theme of this ride, we reached the famous Divisadero overlook. |
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This overlook
is probably one of the most visited ones in Copper Canyon, at Divisadero.
It looks into what is the Barranca del Cobre, or the "Copper
Canyon". Justin and I at the overlook. Who is Famous Franks you
ask? I have no idea. I worked for 12 years in Sunset Park in Brooklyn,
and I had never heard of it.
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We were bummed out that we would be missing out on some cool riding from Batopilas to Tubares, which includes some fast desert riding. Since that wasn't meant to be, we'd run to Urique via San Rafael, Bahuichivo, and Cerocahui. There are two roads from San Rafael to Bahuichivo, the "low" road and the "high" road. Since our loop was effectively annihilated by the 60 year flood, we decided to go into Urique on the high road, and return on the low road, to get our dirt miles fix. After riding through San Rafael and riding uphill for a few miles, this is where the road splits, the high road, the one less travelled, to the right, and the low road to the left. Logging at it's finest. |
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As I mentioned before, the High road is less travelled, as it is longer. It is fast, full of switchbacks, mud, rock. The works. I didn't pass a single car on it. Once again, I ended up riding alone. That's OK by me, since I primarily ride alone anyway. The 640 Adventure has become a very comfortable bike for me. It's not as fast or capable as my old '96 620 RXC, particularly with a full load of fuel, but is a great compromise bike. When the fuel tank is full, it really is a bit of a PITA on sand and sloppy mud, but all the same, it's a very good ride. The more I ride it, the more I love it. Although riding in a group, I have found solitude riding in Mexico. I would have loved it even if I was on a 50cc Honda Spree. |
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We stopped
briefly in Cerocahui at Justin's Moto Lodge. It has a great view, and
I'll bring it up later on, specifically the night we stayed there.
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Riding out of Cerocahui, Paul got a flat, the first one of the trip. It's worth noting that we had about 650 miles or more under our belt before the first flat happened. As luck would have it, there was a combination Pemex and llanteria right there. For the staggering sum of $50 pesos, Paul got a heavy duty patch. A bargain. |
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While we were waiting on Paul's tire, we started chatting with a Mexican State Policeman, who was fixing his truck with a pair of pipe wrenches. The truck was a nice late model F250 - siezed by the government from evil-doers. He had a Baretta sidearm, and **TWO** M16's. A one man army. |
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A few miles outside Cerocahui, the road forks. About a mile before the fork, beware: the former Mayor of the town likes to get drunk and throw rocks. The right road would be where we would have come from if the December Typhoon of 2004 hadn't arrived when it did. Remember, this is the dry season. The left fork is the road to Urique. Nick roosts out first on his Super-Mexicanada LC4E, and leads the way to the rim of Urique Canyon. |
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| We weaved our way through a dark pine forest. Suddenly, we emerged from the trees, and caught our first glimpse from the rim of Urique Canyon. |
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An interesting,
but now empty, dwelling built into the side of the cliff.
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Presumably the former domecile of the Chupacabra, a creature which evidently became unpopular in the local area due to its inability to stymie its unquenchable desire to mutilate commercial livestock. Unable to make a satisfactory living selling trinkets to passersby, The Chupacabra lost it's home to the Bank of Mexico, and now lives as an illegal alien, sharing a refrigerator box on the Bowery in Brooklyn with the Jersey Devil. Or something like that. We pushed onward towards the formal viewing area of Urique canyon to get a better look. We need to hurry, as the shadows are getting longer. |
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Unless you ride a GasGas Pro, a river raft, or are willing to walk, there's really only one way into and out of Urique. There is a trail leading south out of Urique that eventually winds the 25 miles or so to Batopilas, but it is impassible and a non issue for us. However, the Governor is building a new road to link the towns, and it is about 1/3 complete. It is scheduled to be done in 2005. A few miles from the Chupacabra's former home is the big overlook of Urique and the canyon. |
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This is about a 6,000 foot drop to the Urique river from the rim. Urique is the about the middle of the pic. Downriver is another small town, Guapalaina. We'll go there tomorrow. The rest of Urique evidently was on it's way there as I took this pic. More on that later. |
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| Looking north towards Divisadero. Rumor has it a new road into the canyon is being contructed there. |
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| Our Group poked around the overlook area for a while, probably longer than we should have. The sun waits for no one, and continues it's dfaily trek across the sky. Time to head down to Urique. |
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From the lookout, it's only about 15 miles to the canyon floor. The recent rains made the surface of the already rocky and narrow road even more fun. Rough enough I didn't stop for any pics, I was having too much fine riding. Along the ride down, I saw a burro on the side of the road eating a bag of potato chips, Sabritas. No kidding. It was utterly bizarre, but I guess you eat whatever presents itself. I was too stunned to stop to take a pic, plus I was in an excellent groove riding and didn't want to stop. During the decent, the temperature went from about 55F to about 80F. Urique is even lower in elevation than Batopilas. Papaya and banana palm abound. The view from our hotel room: |
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| Killer was so happy to be in Urique, he demonstrated his rendition of a Mexican Hat Dance, but with no hat. |
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| Within moments, we broke into the last of the Tecates. Raul and I trekked off into town to find some Carta Blanca Caguamas (liter sized beers) to appease our hearty thirsts this night, as the shadows of evening traced across our path. |
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| I got a quick glimpse of the town as we searched for cervezas. The colorful Town Hall of Urique. |
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| The river was still demonstrating it's fury. We would have never been able to cross this torrent, and we were smart not to try, as it would have cost us precious time we didn't have. Justin's savvy and knowledge of the area enable him to rework the ride into something fantastic, which be remembered by us all. |
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| Downtown Urique. Burros seem to be a sizeable portion of the local population. This burro appeared to be on his way to work in a no-nonsense manner. |
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As darkness fell, we went out for an amazing dinner or fish, fajitas, and the most sinister yet tasty hot salsa ever. It almost killed Clem. Twice. We wandered the street(s) of Urique for a while in a something of a stupor, shouting profanities and obscure non-sensical phrases in Spanish, but the streets were all but empty. Where was everybody? In search of, a burro.
During the evening hours, the beer flowed freely back at the hotel. Raul, Justin and I spent an while chatting with Sr. Alvarro, a very interesting local rodeo bull cattleman, about several obscure dirt roads through the area, that I hope to ride one day. Time to sleep it off again. |
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The room was spartan, but that's all we needed. The night was cool and dry, and the sound of the river, along with a ton of beer, lulled us all to sleep. |
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