Hotel Real De Las Minas at Dawn

Having fallen asleep at 8pm in Batopilas I woke early to the usual Mexican small town sounds of rooters crowing and dogs barking.  So I sat in the main square and watched the old woman sweeping the square and men opening the shutters on their businesses.  I had been told of the shortcut (6 instead of 10 hours) to Urique – a town at the bottom of the biggest canyon.  The shortcut cut over the mountains instead of retracing my steps to Creel and then south to Urique.

Fox as a warning?

Not wanting to be caught somewhere in the mountains at nightfall I had breakfast and left town by 8am. I drove about 45 minutes up to near the peak of one of the rock-capped mountains but was doubting the route and becoming increasingly worried about running across the drug runners doing something important that shouldn’t involve me.  I had passed several pickup trucks parked by trees marked in someway – a box left under it or a piece of bright clothing hanging from it.   As I got near the peak I saw a dead fox hung by it’s tail from a tree so that it’s head just brushed a large stone below.  I took this to be a warning of some kind and certainly it filled me with dread – as the GPS was showing no route over the mountain to my destination I decided to go back down to try the route the GPS was suggesting.  30 minutes downhill and some farmers seemed to confirm I was going the right way in the first place.

Wet gear after failed river crossing attempt

The road was much more difficult than yesterday’s from Creel to Batopilas and involved numerous wrong and dead-ended paths as the GPS track below shows.  It ranged from smooth slippery red clay dust to large rocks on very steep single-track slopes with no guardrails/rocks and eroded in parts.  I finally descended to a river crossing. The bike’s engine stalled when I approached the wrong side of the crossing and much to the entertainment of the local Raramuri children I stood knee deep in water, sweating and swearing trying to push my bike across.  I was satisfied to be on the other side only to discover shortly that the trail crossed the river two more times. By the third time I become more adept at just blasting as fast as I could sliding over the rocks.  My side cases weren’t however so waterproof and continued dripping for several hours.

Sun Going Down near Urique Canyon

At about 3:30pm I was getting worried as I had arrived at the locked gate over the road that lead through an active mine.   We (a tractor and a local truck) were waiting for escort trucks to drive us through the part of the path that went through the mine and presumably to Urique eventually.  After the guard demanded a second cigarette from me he told me I could sleep in the dormitory of the mine and that there was a shop up there – I hadn’t brought any water or food save a bag of tortillas.  I was escorted to the top of that mountain past huge mining trucks and caught sight of the thatched roof workers building and dormitories perched on top of the mountain. The news was then broken to me that there weren’t any beds left and I couldn’t camp there.

Gear Shift Fracture - Only 3rd and neutral available

So with 1.5 hours of daylight and at least 2.5 hours of driving to Urique I sped along faster with far less caution than before. I barely could look at the beautiful vistas for fear of sliding off the road or hitting a rock wall on the other side.   At a very steep part I was stopped while a Caterpillar pushed an avalanche of rocks and soft clay dust down the road in order to grade it.  I was told to go and drove rapidly at the part where the debris started.  I hit a large rock which bent the gearshift on the bike disabling first and second gear. So with three workmen pushing me yelling ‘put it in first!’ and ‘give it! give it!’ I managed to fishtail over the debris and kept going.  After driving in the dark for 45 minutes I could see 2000 meters below the twinkling lights of Urique.  I carefully would through endless switchback turns while relying entirely on the brakes and about 30 minutes later rolled into town at about 7:45 pm, dusty and exhausted.

Repaired Gearshift

This morning two dudes down by the river hammered and soldered my gearshift back into shape all the while making fun of me and the others standing around.  They refused any money and it seems to work perfectly so far…

Real De Las Minas Hotel Courtyard at Dawn	Batopilas Square At Dawn	Batopilas Square At Dawn	Closed Shop Main Square Batopilas
Batopilas Hotel Real De Las Minas	Batopilas from above	View en route	View en route
View en route	Fox Hung By Tail	Fox Hung By Tail	View en route
View en route	View en route	View en route	View en route
View en route	View en route	View en route	View en route
Passed over mountain in background	View en route	Short Video of View	View en route
View en route	Bike in front of first river crossing	contemplating first crossing	Stuck in second crossing
Stuck in second or third crossing	Soaking cases bike	Mine Entry	Sun going done en route
Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route
Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route
Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route
Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route
Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Sun going done en route	Broken Gearshift
Broken Gearshift	Broken Gearshift	Broken Gearshift	Repaired Shifter
Repaired Shifter

Batopilas to Urique GPX Track