Tinitus? Nah, they are deaf to it because they are dazzled by the shag, the suede, and the polyester.
On a serious note, anyone riding through Alamo earlier today would have seen the remains of a really bad traffic accident. Bus vs. Truck head on. 43 dead at last count and 19 severely injured. It was a real mess up there, judging by what is moving through the press right now. Happened before dawn, around 4:30am.
The road out of Bato to Creel was that way when we came out of the canyon on the way north to the border. The new road is under construction, and the old road was covered with rubble and rock for 2 plus hours. We sat around and waited. In order to re-open the current road, two cats pushed the rest of the rock off the old road and down the canyon. We got to ride out on the just re-opened road. Like you described, there is plenty of rough and steep road around the canyons, which gets to some really remote and beautiful places. I need a lighter bike next trip, KLX250 or XT250 are in my sights, finances willing.
Myself and Iowa did the road from Urique to Bato last week (15th) but don't know if we did the "new" one or the old one. Sure did not look new and it was pretty damn difficult. It went directly up after crossing the river from the south side of Urique. There was a sign at about 6500 feet that said Ureique or Batopolis and there were 3 roads. We came from Urique so we knew where that road went. the sign pointed to Bato so we knew where that went, but we could not figure out where the road that came up to the sign goes... I had a 12GSs and Iowa a GSA and he did it like a champ. I managed to crash a few times. The RR will explain. I did not have the right tires and/or skill. We had planned to take the new road but did not have a GPS route for it. Can any help clarify what and where the new and old road are? Here is my Spot tracks. the gap is when the batteries died. We started in Cerocahui, went up to Mesa de Arturo, down to Urique and then over the mountain to Batopilas.
t Same story for us but we only waited for about 45 minutes. What I really wanted to know is what their plan is for the next 200-400 of down elevation and the new paved road. Must going to be a steep curvy "S" or something or they are going take out a whole lot of mountain....
I just did the same route back on past Jan. I have done it 3 times, the 2nd time, all the road was pure dirt from Canoas up to Venados (near Estacion Ruiz). I really miss that dirt road. http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=761431 Arte
We were at the same sign about this time last year (RR: Aye Chihuahua 2011). To the right of the sign the road goes downhill to Urique. To the left the road forks. Left fork goes hard left against a road cut and is, by my understanding, the old road to Bato. The right fork goes straight then curves right and up a hill. This is the new road to Bato. We road it the week it was completed and it had one technical section of deep polvo with hidden baby head rocks where I went down. Actually I got off 3 times that day on the new road. But I'm not a very good dirt rider. Hope this clarifies things.
I'm packed, the bike's road tested & ready and I'm off in the morning. That's the good news. I don't have any bad news. I told herself I'd be back in 8 weeks if I don't get killed or busted. Damn! Hope to see a few of you when I'm in your neighborhood. Woo Hoo! LL75 (Ain't this better than reading about blood & gore?)
Cool RR Arte. I saw it a couple of months back. Yes, it is a little sad to see the roads in the Sierra being paved, but riding the VSTROM on brand new pavement takes me feel better about it. There is still plenty of dirt in the Sierra. By my count, there are at least a half a dozen off road routes across the Sierra from Southern Chihuahua through Durango to Nayarit and surely a few more that I dont know about. Paved rodes are shown in green, dirt is shown in white. This route you guys are talking about is the NE oriented line shown in green toward the bottom of the Map.
Last year on vacation my wife was busy taking pictures as we traveled toward Mahahual, MX. I had warned her not to take pics at the military checkpoints. She didn't heed my warning and clicked away with her Canon 7D. We had just went though a checkpoint when we met a Mexican state trooper which in turn stopped at the checkpoint we had left. It was just moments later when I had blue lights in the rear view. I told my wife to hide her Canon in the floorboard which she did. My little point and shoot was on the dash. Soon we had a trooper on my side with mirrored sunglasses and a trooper on her side with a FAL. I was all smiles when I rolled down the window on the little Jetta rental. Mirrored sunglasses asked if I could speak Spanish which I replied no. He then started rattling off some brisk Spanish and I kept smiling. I heard words like photoghraphica,,, esposa,,,,trabajo,,,,he asked where my wife worked in broken English,,,,at a bank I told him. He then asked for our passports, which I handed to him as mine and my esposas. "AHHH you do speak Spanish" mirrored sunglasses exclaimed. I said I knew esposa, taco, burrito, things like that....still smiling. He looked repeatedly at my little cheap point and shoot on the dash and I guess calculated it wasn't worth much and probably didn't take too good of pictures. He handed back our passports and motioned for us to leave. I think had he seen the 7D we might have lost it. The wife doesn't take pics at checkpoints anymore.
He was probably Mexican Barn find ...found this baby ...Feel like bringing her back to the road LAVEDRA
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Is this the same Alamos that is on the western side of the mountains and relatively close to el Fuerte and Guaymas? --- I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.304303,-98.982937
No, it is the Alamo up north in the state of Veracruz, it's south of Tuxpan and north of Poza Rica and to the west of each. Hey, SR, no skid pan for the wee-strom? That oil filter looks so innocent and virgin sitting out front like that. Not to jinx anything....LOL! Maybe you can convince the Durango crew to send that grader and an operator over here, you've got some decent brecha there.
