Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - No-Moto-Boundaries

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seantully

17 Sep 2013 05:04

No-Moto-Boundaries

*I have a previous ride report called Tanning A Ginger Tip-to-Tip which (rather extensively) details all of the prep work, background story, and building of my bike. That report also tells the story of my first motorcycle trip, a 1 month ride through BC, the Yukon, and Alaska to test everything out. Initially I was going to just pick-up the ride report where I left off and continue on posting in that thread, as I had planned them to be a single adventure. However, since beginning that thread over 1.5 years ago my views about riding, and the plan for the current adventure, have changed enough to warrant a new thread. Rather than changing the old to fit the new, I want to preserve the original and start a new thread here for the current adventure. Enjoy.

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Overview

A wise man once told me:

”there is no point in spending your life doing things you don’t want to do and that don’t give you joy. You can make all the money in the world but you need to learn how to have fun. You MUST learn how to play. Since I was diagnosed with cancer 2-years ago I haven’t had a single bad day. I simply don’t have time for bad days, so I make every day a good day. Life is short and if you can get started with that mentality young, you’ll do just fine.”

seantully

17 Sep 2013 05:05

1. Rolling

I’m really interested in heading South and seeing Latin America, so my bike is pointed in that direction now. My only restriction is my wallet which will eventually run dry. Other than that I’m in no rush and have not made nor excluded any future plans. I’m just going day by day and playing everything by ear. In my previous ride report (Tanning A Ginger Tip-to-Tip) I spent a lot of effort planning schedules and working out logistics, I learned that for me this saps the fun right out and now I instead I am just going to roll with it. In essence, everything is an option. Lets get started.

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I had my last day of work on Friday September 30th, got dubiously inebriated Friday night with friends at our place to celebrate, recovered on Saturday, and then loaded up the bike and headed out on Sunday for the west coast of Washington. It was labor day weekend so a couple friends came along to camp out on the coast Sunday night and continue the festivities.

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We got the coast in good time and spent the afternoon lounging on the beach, getting bashed around swimming out in the ocean, and kicking back some cold ones as the sun set. The night carried on and we had a good time. Glad you guys could come kick it, couldn’t have had a better send-off without you.

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I even got to ride on the beach which is always a favorite for me.

The next morning my friends headed back to Seattle and I headed south down the coast, destination Newport. If you followed my previous ride report (Tannin A Ginger Tip-to-Tip) you’ll remember Sophie. She was now living in more habitable climates doing her graduate work in Newport OR.

En route at a stoplight a big orange truck pulled up, Scraper Joe was his name. “Ay you goin down all the way tuh Tillamook?”. “Fallah me, you’ll love it on a bike”. I followed him to a couple off track roads before he pulled over, gave me the lead and said “get goin!”. Sure enough, it was a great road for a bike. So good I took no pictures, too busy riding. Here’s the route on the GPS though.

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Thanks Scraper Joe.

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Got to Sophies in the afternoon.

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I had developed a rattle that I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. While riding I had earplugs in and couldn’t locate the sound. Found it though, spark arrestor had rattled loose. I’ll give it a fix tomorrow with new bolts and some loctite.

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Soph showed me around her new digs, I’ve gone through Newport before but always just blowing by. As with most places, if you go slow enough there’s always more to see.

Scoped out the beach.

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Further down the beach the wind had swept the sand into foreign looking rolling hills. Felt like I was a martian chasing the mars rover.

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The next day we went for a hike. We found this stone lookout at the top.
(I lie, we drove straight to the top. Ain't nobody got time for that).

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I tried to teach Soph how to ‘dougie’.

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Soph thought I looked dumb and pushed me off the edge.

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Was a pretty swell look-out though. The crew that built it did so in the middle of the winter?! For those that don’t know, this is summertime here on the Oregon coast. Come winter, this place would not be a pleasant location to be building on.

We looked around some more and then headed into town for some grub.

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“Oh haaay”

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Diver was trying to escape being dinner.

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There was a haul-out for juvenile male sea lions here too. These are the guys that can’t get any action yet. Probably because they stink pretty bad. They couldn’t have cared less though, this guy was ballin.

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The next day it was time to head out, I’m sure I’ll be running into Soph again though, she always seems to move to cool places so we’ll see where she ends up next.

A few months ago I rode my bike down the coast in the winter time to get to some sun in Cali. I don’t like to go the same way twice so I was keen to head towards eastern Cali instead this time. Maybe hit up Yosemite and do some climbing on the way.

I ran into Doug (?) navigating his V-Ship Enterprise. He had a plethora of gadgets all mounted neatly up like a fighter pilot cockpit. Sweet rig Doug.

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After Doug left I spoke to the guy at the gas station about places to sleep the night while incognito. I’m trying to stealth camp as much as possible. It physically hurts my brain to hand over $20 for a tent space that offers me nothing more than what any roadside pullout does. I prefer a rural dirt road to sleep near or an empty pasture any day to a KOA or other pay campsite. The guy at the gas station told me about a nice free camp space just a bit down the road so I headed there.

Crossed a set of tracks just in time for a good shot as a train came blowing by. There wasn’t any gate here, I think the conductor got worried as I hurriedly stopped the bike right as I crossed the tracks and jumped off the bike. He blasting his horn quite a bit.

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Campsite acquired.

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This shit was $3.29 for 2 at the gas station. ‘Merica!

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A good book, early campsite find, and a leisure beer. Nice evening.

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The next day I packed up and got back on the road headed towards Yosemite, I wasn’t quite in California yet though so I probably had another days ride until I would get there. The weather was getting hotter though, and the landscape was showing the temps effects.

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By the end of the day I made it into California and just near the tip of Lake Tahoe. I came in via the Mountain Rose hwy which winds up the pass just NE of Lake Tahoe coming from the Nevada side. It’s a nice little highway but the sun was setting so I pulled off near the summit where it would be nice and cool. Cooked some dinner on the camp stove and then called it a night.

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Now that I’m in Cali, Yosemite should be obtainable for tomorrow. I could see a fair amount of what appeared to be smog in the air though. This made everything look foggy and I couldn’t figure out why. I totally forgot about the big fire that has been raging in the Yosemite valley. I remember from the news before I left that it was pretty bad, something like the worst fire in 10 years?? Hopefully the areas are still open… No interwebs though so we’ll just have to wait and see.

seantully

17 Sep 2013 22:08

2. Slapping Rock, Getting Hot

I headed out onto the road again in the AM. No rushing here though, I don’t know what time it is. I guess it doesn’t matter, I have no place to be. Time of day is something that doesn’t really matter anymore. When the sun comes through my tent I wake up. When I start to feel hungry, I look for food. When I’m tired, I sleep. What day is it now? Sunday, yes it’s Sunday. No, no it can’t be... it’s definitely Wednesday. I like this. Make a right turn here, head South towards Lake Tahoe.

My stomach started asking for a heavy serving of porridge. I’m simple when it comes to breakfasts on the road. Oatmeal mixed with some dried fruit. Preferably several large helpings. A glooping gut-bomb of fuel. Add brown sugar if available. I like to cook it on the back of my bike. Scenic view optional but preferred. Lake Tahoe will do this morning.

Here she is.

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I’ve never been to Lake Tahoe but I can see why it’s a destination. At a stop light I pulled up to a guy on a f650 gs. We both commented on how shitty of a place this is to ride. Really too bad we were out on bikes right now. He was a local firefighter. Said the firehouse was out of bananas, they bent his arm to ride around the lake to go get some more. Rough life.

I rode around the West (california) side of the lake and exited out south at the bottom. Continuing on 88/89 South. GPS says this place is called “Hell Hole”??

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Looks pretty good to me. Maybe they are trying to deter people, keep the place a secret.

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89 south then turns into a canyon heading east where it’ll bump into 395 south. This road. Is fantastic. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but picture 3rd and 4th gear sweeping turns. Long smooth lines, canyon carving. Climbing in elevation, working the motor well. the wrist generating motor noises crescendoing off the walls of the canyon. 30 minutes of sweetness.

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If you are in the Lake Tahoe area heading south find it. You’ll dig it.

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Bumping into 395 I’m now heading south. In a couple hours I should hit 120 west to take me into Yosemite. I've been seeing a fair amount of smoke the last couple days. A haze blanketing the region and blurring the views in the distance. As I get closer to the 120 I see big signs saying 120 west to Yosemite is closed due to the fires. Balls. Well I know there are other great spots further down the way…..mmmmm….Bishop, CA! Yep, Bishop it is. Plug it into the GPS, calculate route. Great, I’ll be there by the afternoon.

Most climbers know how to dirtbag it. It is a given that anywhere there is serious climbing, there will be climbers living in a free squatter camp of sorts off near the routes. I'm traveling on the cheap so this is what I’m looking for. I notice ambient temperature is heating up as I burn further down 395 towards Bishop. When I arrive it’s sweltering. The bike’s running temp is a full 20 degrees hotter than usual. Still within a normal range though. I pull into a coffee shop, “you guys got wifi?”, cool. 5 minutes later I have pegged two locations where there are likely to be climbers hanging out for free off near the climbing areas. Bonus, they are down dirt roads. Mmmmm I like the dirt.

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Still looking...

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Pretty area. Getting closer….

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Shit, went too far. Are those hoof prints in the dirt?? Damnit, definitely been following cattle tracks for a while now...

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Turned back and found it. That’s more like it.

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I found the this beacon of 'free living' and decided to set up shop next to it.

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I met another climber burrowed away in the back of his van sleeping off the afternoon heat. Meet Beatty.

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Beatty’s from New York. He’s been traveling across the country climbing and visiting friends for the last 5 weeks. This place was empty during the day. He said it’s way too hot to climb with the sun up. Instead people climb in the early morning or in the evening after the sun goes down. As a ginger I am not built for the sun, waiting to hit the rock with better temps was fine with me. I’ll rearrange some of my kit on my bike that I wanted to move in the meantime. As you all may know though, one little job turns into another, and another, and another.

Next thing I know I’ve got my bike stripped and am cutting out the top of my airbox to reroute a carb breather tube (like a snorkel for high water crossings) and assessing a leaky fork seal. Leaky fork seal will have to wait though for a full replacement later.

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As the sun went down behind the ridgeline to the West the temperature began to drop. Other climbers started showing up and things got into full swing. The rock radiated heat well after sunset like a warm furnace. Temperatures were perfect.The routes and rock in this area, called The Buttermilks, are great.

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The next couple days were spent riding and climbing. I recommend this area to anyone that wants to do some great off roading. The lines are smooth, fast, and flowy. Plenty of berms and great views. Think 2nd, 3rd, 4th wide open. It may look dusty, but that is all fairly large granules of granite slough, so you get to fun & feel of cutting the back end loose without all the dust that you usually get with the really loose stuff. ****ing great.

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During the heat of the day Beatty and I got out of the sun in the shade of some of the big trees.

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Beatty used to be a tree climber for work at one point. A very old and large tree was begging to be climbed. Beatty said it was probably ~2k years old. I’ll be lucky if I experience 100 years of life on this earth (hopefully most of those healthy). This tree had seen many people and cultures come and go from this barren desert valley. People have come, places have changed, but the tree remains, ever vigilant.

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Just touching this tree was an experience (2k years!) let alone being up in the top of it. Don’t worry, no trees were harmed.

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Once at the top, we had a great view of the valley and surrounding area.

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After a couple days Beatty recommended I go hit up Joshua Tree National Park on my way south. This sounded like a good idea to me. Hidden Valley Campground is my next destination.

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Before heading out I took the liberty to clean myself and the few clothes that I have. There's something so satisfying about riding into the desert valley and walking around buck naked in a creek with nobody around, clothes left drying in the midday sun on the bank. Scrubbing away days of grime and dirt with cool glacial water. Sitting in the stream, listening to the water and wind rustle through the desert valley. I don’t know why I enjoy living like this as much as I do. But I do.

This little guy hung out for a bit too.

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The next day it was time to hit the road. Bike pointed South towards Joshua Tree.

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I made it into the park just as the sun was setting. The ‘trees’ in Joshua Tree are actually not trees at all, but a type of shrub that grows rather tall and slender, like a tree.

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The landscape here is immense. Both in expanse as well as the prowess of it’s infinite rock formations. Big boulders full of ledges and outcroppings stretched throughout the valley in large crumbled masses. Worn away into odd shapes and flowing forms. Like giant sugar cubes worn away by water over the years. All I could think of was the lion king. Shit was pretty epic.

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After the sun went down I set up my mobile home and went wandering with my headlamp around camp. I like to get to the highest point of wherever I am to get a feel for the area. I found the base of the highest rock face I could find but wasn’t sure if I could climb to the top. I put my climbing shoes on as my headlamp began to flash low-battery. The climb looked doable solo but without a light, that would be pretty stupid. The next morning I climbed to the top and got to see the view.

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Not very good at self timers…

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The view was way better during the day.

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I enjoy free-solo things on occasion (climbing without ropes) as long as the route is well within my ability. I just have my shoes and chalk bag with me and can’t pack a bunch of gear on my bike since I don’t want to take up a ton of space.

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Found some chains on the way down so it’s definitely got routes going up it.

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I spent the next couple days hanging out with people that had come into town for “Bhakti Fest”. Supposedly it’s a huge yoga festival? I don’t really partake in the yogas but apparently there were thousands of people all doing yoga together in a mass undulating chanting group. Murray, a friend I met in camp said the ratio of females to males was 10/1. Yoga anyone?

Murray and I went tromping around in the desert exploring. Pretty wild place. Here’s a coyote.

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I told the mother-unit that I would come see her before I die in mexico next week so I’m flying out of San Diego to the east coast to see her for a few days. My flight is in 2 days so the next stop is another ADVriders couch in San Diego where I will also store my bike for 7 days. After that, pointed towards Baja. The land of dirt and beaches.

Catch you in a couple.

seantully

18 Sep 2013 17:32

3. To The Shire

To the shire Frodo! I had been meaning to go see the parental unit that lives on the opposite coast before I left but didn’t get to it in time. Flights are super cheap when flying out of San Diego so I said I would go then. While on the flight I played musical chairs with a family so they and their fresh-out-of-the-cooker twin babies could sit together. Nice stewardess 'thought that was just so sweet' and decided to get me liquored up in appreciation. Why thank you very much kind flying-bartender. The flight went quickly after that.

Welcome to the shire. Lots of people packing heat, lots of corn, and lots of rolling hills. No motorcycle helmet laws here either?? “Live Free or Die” till the end I guess.

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Mmmmm Atlantic ocean.

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Isnnn’t that sweeeeeeet.

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Caution, gear rant ahead → My zipper on my riding jacket decided to take a shit and stop working several weeks ago. All of the velcro also gave up and left their work posts. Now, #BMW, if you are going to build a purpose-built jacket for the top of the market price-tier, please, pretty please, with sugar on top, put some ****ing quality pieces into it. The design and layout of the jacket is tits, well thought out, and the designers have obviously gone through a thorough iterative process. Even put in some pretty creative purposeful features. But if you cut corners on the build quality of the materials, you’re gonna have a bad time. I know I beat the piss out of my gear, but your ads make me feel like I’m supposed to be able to. Now that things are breaking, I just feel like a sucker for some well done adventure marketing. Damn you Ewen McGregor!

I’m not angry at you BMW, I’m just disappointed. #KLIM, you’ll have my business next.

With that said, there is a solution to every problem! Some may say don’t try to fix it, send it to BMW they’ll fix it for you for free and it’ll be done professionally. As 'professionally' as it was built in the first place? I say thank you, but nay nay.

I don’t give a shit about how my gear looks or that I paid a pretty penny for it, if it doesn’t function it is useless to me. So I tore the jacket apart and set out to customize it to fit my (apparently) absurdly demanding needs. I went to a outdoor fabric/equipment store and purchased a REAL zipper. One that could probably zip shut the continental divide. Also picked up some quality velcro. Now, my Sussie-homemaker skills are decent in the kitchen, but I’m about as delicate with a needle and thread as a rhino trying to do palates .

Luckily though I have a mother and fixing things for her son makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside.

She did a marvelous job. Her concentration was impeccable.

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The zipper zips firm and tight and the new velcro stuck like cement. Perfect.

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I hadn’t washed the jacket in at least 6 months (I ride every day, aint nobody got time for that) so it was dirty, and ripe. I refused to wash it though. It’ll just be dirty again tomorrow! She found sand inside the pockets.

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She was not amused.

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Hopefully she doesn’t ask how many pairs of underwear I brought for the trip….

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Flight back to San Diego tomorrow, then time for some huevos sucios south of the border.

RobD	19 Sep 2013 14:57

Great photos and report - keep it up:clap::clap:

seantully

21 Sep 2013 18:29

5. Fix-It, Ride-It, Break-It, Repeat

Finallllyyyy back at my bike. Why hello pretty lady, que es tu nombre?? So good hearing her purr again, I definitely mean that in a creepy way. Love this bike.

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Every lady needs some TLC after being gone for a bit so we got to it. It was time for some new shoes so we got those taken care of. Keith, another ADVrider inmate is who I have been crashing with in San Diego (Thanks Keith!). Keith said that if you are going to be riding offroad in Baja, sliming the tires beforehand can go a long way towards avoiding flats, so we did that as well. Pesky cactuseses.

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This was a good chance to address my leaky fork seal and change my oil. In regard to the weepy fork seals, I have another gear rant. My Happy Trail fork brace will not be continuing on the ride with me. I’m sorry but I’m going to have to let you go. “But why, what have I done?”. Nothing, that’s the problem. I’m sorry fork brace, but you have a negative net effect on this team.

After having several instances of weepy fork seals over the last few thousand miles I have come to the conclusion that my abnormally high rate of leaky seals has been largely instigated by the design of the fork brace. When you bolt it to each of the forks, there are two C-shaped pieces that you bolt together around each fork. Unfortunately when you put these around the forks the C’s don’t meet flushley. This leaves a ¼ inch gap (⅛ if you split the difference front and back) where the pieces come together. The brace is designed to clamp on at the point where the fork boot usually clamps on to the bottom of the fork to keep grit/dust/mud etc out. They thus designed another lip on top of the brace for the boot to attach to. BUT, because the brace doesn’t completely ‘shut’ around the fork, you have a slim slit front and aft where dust can get in and this cannot be prevented due to where the fork boot now connects on top of the brace. This may not be an issue for everyone but it appears to have been the root of the systemic issue. To be fair to Happy Trails, I get that if the pieces touched they wouldn’t be able to tighten as tight, and maybe they have to account for factory variations in fork dimensions (mind you the KLR is not a precision engineered machine). In any case though, for me it's just not going to work and thus must go. Alright, I’m done complaining.

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Keith said he was going to go riding this weekend in the mountains outside of Baja. Get in the dirt? Count me in! After we finished up we headed out east on I8 towards an area called Fred’s Canyon. Keith has a sweet rig that he can throw all his camp gear and bike in so he took that up there. It’s a bit slower than a bike on the loose stuff so I went ahead to do some riding and then meet-up later at the camp.

Fun place, less flowey, bit more technical and up on the footpegs than Bishop CA. Better temp too since you are up around 4k - 5k feet in elevation.

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Unfortunately the ‘up on the pegs’ part was a little too much and my left boot came off the peg. I fumbled the bike, managed to keep it upright though, but there was no longer any place for me to put my left foot. Foot peg wasn’t there anymore.

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Woops.

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Found the bolt. It was stripped out.

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After further inspection of the way my centerstand works, I believe this to be the cause of the eventual bolt failure. This bike isn’t designed for a centerstand, it’s aftermarket, and quite heavy. If you use it often with a fully loaded bike it puts a lot of pressure on the footpeg mounts (where it attaches). That coupled with a lot of offroad battering, which causes the heavy centerstand to overcome it’s springs and bounce up and down as you whoop around, eventually wears the footpeg bolts out (which are quite incompetent in the way they attach the pegs to the frame in the first place). Don’t worry though, this is not a rant nore a fault of the centerstand. I just shouldn’t have purchased it in the first place given how I ride my bike. If you are mostly on street I would still recommend it highly, just use it sparingly and try to unload the bike before pulling it up on the centerstand. For me though, the centerstand will be coming off as well as the fork brace now.

I rode the bike back to a highpoint where I could look across the canyon and see Keiths rig rocking back and forth as it crawled over the rocky terrain towards the camp spot.

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I pointed the bike towards the rig and rode her back. Sweet basecamp Keith.

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Since my bike was out of comission for serious riding for the moment, Keith bent my arm to take his KTM 530 for a spin. Sure thing, I’ll warm it up for you Boss.

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Damn that bike is saweet! When I stop vagabonding I need a trail bike like that in the garage. Got back and Keith had camp set-up deluxe.

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He geared up for a sunset ride.

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I stayed back and took in the scenery. Pretty rough out here.

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After sunset we spun the chairs around and watched the moonrise from the opposite direction.

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Next morning I woke up, mind and eyes pointed towards Mexico. You can see it right there in the distance.

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I’ll be en Ensenada in the afternoon. I’ll fix the peg there. This will do until then, that’s why we have hwy pegs anyways right?

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Mapped out a dirt road towards the border and took it.

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Picked up a new knife, definitely sharp, cut my tongue on it licking it clean.

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I crossed at Tecate and took Hwy 3 to Ensenada, called the Ruta Del Vino. Welcome to Ensenada.

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I’m crashing with Damaso, another ADVrider who lives in Ensenada, gracias mi amigo.

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Viva Mexico!

seantully

23 Sep 2013 02:33

6. Ensa-"todas"

Today was a first for the Killer, she got to go to a mechanic. I’ve never handed her over to anyone before, but these guys definitely know what they were doing. The further away you live from a big city the more resourceful you must become when problems arise. This is the case everywhere I’ve gone and it shows in the locals abilities to problem solve any issue.

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You can always tell you are in baja because of all the offroad rigs running around. Obviously many end up in the shops as well.

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They scoped it out for a second and Damaso helped with the translation specifics. They then drilled and retapped both the peg and the mounting bracket and had her fixed up lickety-split. They even put in some much sturdier bolts. Gracias to the guys over at Tama Motorsports and muchos gracias Damaso for the great shop recommendation.

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There are lots of great reasons to travel via motorcycle, the freedom, the versatility, the fun factor, etc. Another is how easy it is to explore. It’s so simple to just cruise around, head on a swivel, and explore an area. I turned the GPS off, and took the rest of the day try to get a feel for Ensenada.

First stop, some much needed tacos. The lady running the street cart pegged me for a guy that didn’t know much spanish yet. Is it the ginger beard?? She was correct. She asked “Un taco pescado?”. “No, cinco, por favor.” She looked at me suspiciously, questioning my understanding of 'cinco'. I nodded and held up 5 fingers. Don’t worry this white boy can eat.

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I meandered through neighborhoods which changed from housing, to work communities, to social gathering locations like parks packed with families playing with their kids. The ebb and flow of the cities different zones slowly being downloaded as I ride through.

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Not sure if this sculpture is made of whale bones or not, but I think it’s formed into something that is most definitely not a whale.

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Offroad racing is HUGE here, for obvious reasons, think Baja 500 & 1000 among the more famous races. Around every corner you hear the loud brraaappppp of dirtbikes cycling through the gears and there is no shortage of heavily modded trophy trucks, buggies, and ATVs.

This is where the Baja 500 and 1000 start. It’s a big flag repping the well deserved pride of this special place and country. Girl from a cruise ship took my picture and said the flag was the size of a football field. She was drunk.

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After the Baja races start they wined through town as they head for the mountains and then the open desert. One of the spots where they can start to open up their motors is this water viaduct that cuts through the center of town. The whole corridor is packed with people wanting to see the vehicles. The noise must be absolutely thundering from the motors, pinned wide open, tearing down the viaduct towards the end of town. I rode my bike down into it for a photo. It's just a water way, but an eery feeling lingers, as if you were stepping into a Colosseum and you can 'feel' the excitement of what happens there. It makes sense though. This is an entrance way to a coliseum of sorts. One for vehicular gladiators, on their way to battle mother nature and the clock. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up imagining the event in full-tilt, the roar of the motors echoing off the banks.

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If you’re hartbeat is low while reading this RR, watch this video and take a visual injection of epicness straight to the dome.

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After criss-crossing the city several times I pushed further out from the city/village/town(?) to explore other areas.

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And then still further, out onto a peninsula that wraps out into the pacific south of Ensenada. You can see Ensenada in the distance.

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Fair amount of people out getting around on horses.

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The next day Damaso invited me along to the Cochilocos Sunday breakfast ride. Riding and eating, two of my favorite things.

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We took a winding mountain road outside of town that twisted and banked higher and higher until it leveled out and turned to a dirt road. At the end of the road was our breakfast destination.

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Group shot, I’m super good at photography.

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Roberto and Damaso both have KLRs, here is Roberto’s good looking Gen2.

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Great riding with and meeting all of you Cochilocos, thanks for showing me the best road in Ensenada.

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After the ride back into town everyone peeled off to head in our separate directions. I pulled in the clutch to come to a stop light when it went, POP. No more clutch, cable snapped. I felt it going when we started the ride that morning. The ominous scraping vibrations transmitting through your fingertips on the lever as the cable strands individually give up on, one by one. Roberto and his wife Coco where still behind me so they noticed and stopped as well.

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I have a spare already routed and ziptied next to the original though so we just had to hook up the ends. Thanks for your help with the cable Roberto, ciao amigo.

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Tomorrow I’m going to cross the peninsula and head towards the east coast of Baja and San Felipe. Should be able to find more dirt there. It’s never far away in Baja.

RTWbyBIKE.com

23 Sep 2013 21:21

Great report! Keep on riding!

Mac-1769

25 Sep 2013 15:35

enjoying

Enjoying your r/r. Keep it safe and if you get to Kyrgyzstan look me up.

:thumbup1::D:scooter:
Mac

seantully

26 Sep 2013 17:09

7. Finding Cortez

It’s time to leave Ensenada. It’s been real. It’s been fun. It’s been real fun. For any other riders going through Ensenada and wanting a cheap ($18/night) non-camping place to stay, the Ensenada Backpackers Hostel has safe gated parking on the side of it’s building. You could fit 2 maaaybe 3 bikes in there. If they aren’t busy they have a whole back patio that could fit more bikes too. Bonus, it’s a hostel too so somebody is always at the front desk 24/7.

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San Felipe on the Sea of Cortez is where I want to go. Depending on when I make it there I may keep heading South as I heard that there are lots of small nice places to camp on the beaches a bit further down past San Felipe.

First though, more tacos.

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I didn’t realize how mountainous Baja was. This is coming out of Ensenada on Mexico 3, looking east towards the Sea of Cortez.

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Awwww yeah, canyon carving….. good way to start the day.

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Catholicism is big here, lots of little ‘shrines?’ on the side of the highways. Sometimes they paint stuff on the rocks.

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This is saint ‘gator. Patron saint of killin’ shit.

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Am I in Ohio?

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Los Federales are cracking down on the drug running in Baja so there are checkpoints every few miles at strategic spots. One can be seen down at the bottom of this valley. After they went through my stuff and made sure I was only carrying stinky clothes and not kilos of cocaine the soldier questioning me asked to sit on my bike. Sure why not? The captain quickly stepped up swatting him away from the bike and jumped on himself. These guys seem fun. I reached over the captain turning the bike on and gestured him to take it for a spin. Through my broken spanish I confirmed that 1st gear was down, then 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th were up. He stalled it at first but it’s pretty heavy. The other soldiers laughed as he swore at them and took off again, this time blasting through the gears down the straight road into the valley. His soldiers laughed again, but this time it was at me, saying that he and the bike were now gone, en route to Tijuana. He did come back though, faith in humanity prevails. I asked if I could hold his machine gun, he did not return the favor.

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Pushing on towards the coast, is that the beach??

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Nope, some sort of mirage. Still desert.

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More checkpoints. I got waved right through this one though, maybe mi amigo radioed ahead saying the ginger is all clear.

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Hello San Felipe. Where can I find Mr. Cortez?

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Oh, he’ll be getting tacos by the beach you say? Perfect.

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Mr. Cortez never showed up, but I had some damn fine tacos anyways. I still have some sunlight so I’m going to go find a small beach place to camp.

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AND THEN A ****ING NUCLEAR EXPLOSION!!!

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Never mind, just the sun setting behind a bush.

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I found a nice place to camp, if you can call it that….I guess I was in a tent, but it was pretty bougie for camping. The place is about 50 kilometers south of San Felipe, called Puertecitos. The next morning I woke up on the beach and watched the sun come up, first pushing out the deep dark blues of the night sky...

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then shifting to a swatch of rich oranges and yellows.

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This camping shit is real tough. Had the beach to myself to get some exercise in too.

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Then made some break-y. Huevos sucio.

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And listened to some 'practice spanish' tapes. It's the say and repeat type stuff. “No hablo espaniol a hora!” Nothing planned for today. The ol’ bizzeard is getting scraggly, maybe I’ll take care of that.

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I packed clippers and also wired in a 12v to 100w converter on the bike. Pretty handy piece, picked it up at Home Depot in Joshua Tree CA. Plugged my clippers right into it and went to town. It’s supposed to be able to charge a laptop too but we’ll see, it even has a light that glows different colors so you can see if you are draining too much of your battery. Oh technology.

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I’m informed that there are ‘aguas termales’ (hot springs) nearby on the beach so I set out to find them.

This looks promising.

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Yep, found them.

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Holy shit-balls they are waaaaayyyy to hot! I put my hand quickly in one and it almost felt boiling. It was low-tide, pretty sure you have to wait until the tide comes in and cools them down a bit. The ocean water itself was in the mid to high 70’s easily, apparently that’s pretty average for the Sea of Cortez.

I met some other people vacationing in the area too. They confirmed I had to wait until higher tides. They offered me some cold beer instead. It tasted like nectar of the gods.

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Where to next? Looking on the map it seems like Coco’s Corner is a reasonable distance away. I hear from everyone else that rides Baja that his place out in the middle of the desert is a mus. Maybe I’ll check out what this guy “Coco” is up to.

seantully

27 Sep 2013 21:11

8. Kicking It With Coco

Coco’s Corner is a must location as you near the ‘border’ of Baja North and Baja South. It’s a historical marker, and museum of sorts, for both adventurers and racers alike. It’s off the east coast of Baja a ways in-land and can be found along the route for the Baja 500 & 1000.

I’ve seen the pictures, heard the stories, it’s time to meet the man himself. Hopefully he’s there, as there’s no guarantee that he ever will be.

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Heading south on Mex. 3 down the coast from Puertecitos the landscape gets more and more baren.

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Not much growing out here. No need to worry about rain...what’s rain?

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Mmmmm Sea of Cortez, still haven’t met the guy though. Cool sea, man.

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This roads really good, but where’s the dirt I heard about? My bones need a good rattling.

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There she rolls.

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Passed this guy on the way to the last stop before the road to Coco’s. Is it a camper, is it a van, is it a offroad rig? Sweet vamper rig.

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He caught up at the last gas station.

Cool rig man.
Thanks Man.

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Juan is from Nevada and cruising around Baja with his dog, Duke. He says all of it is for Duke’s comfort.

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Meet Duke. Duke, is chill.

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I’m Hungry. What can I eat? MORE TACOS!

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Awwhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhh

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Fart fueled up and on the road. Vamos a Coco’s.

The road out was decent, not super technical but a blend of hardpan choss and stretches of sand and silt. The scenery was stark, harsh, and cutting. Don’t want to break down.

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Sometimes you get two roads side-by-side to pick from. Like a ‘choose your own adventure’ ride. Ride the hardpan choss stuff for a while to get good a shooken up. Then switch to the soft sandy silty stuff for a butter-smooth ride, but much less traction though. Keeps things interesting.

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Road climbed and fell at times, dropping into small valleys where water would come crashing through taking out the road. It’s the desert, the floor doesn’t absorb anything anymore, so when it rains, it alllll turns into rivers. Speaking of water, didn’t I have two water jugs on the back of my bike? Damnit, one must have rattled loose on the road somewhere. Of course it had to be the only one with water in it. Coco’s got water probably right? Just don’t break down.

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There’s a lot of stuff reflecting sunlight up ahead. Is it a mirror? Are those beer cans strung along fences? Ahhh this must be Coco’s Corner. As I get closer a small blue ATV comes out to the road to see who’s coming and welcome whoever it is in. Hola! Su nombre es Coco, correcto? Shit, who am I kidding, Jobius guy without any legs on a quad in the middle of a desert, it’s got to be him.

Welcome to Coco’s Corner.

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This place is like a Mad Max oasis in the desert. Cars, trailers, race scraps and memorabilia everywhere.

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And lots of panties.

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We chit-chat for a bit and I ask if it’s cool for me to camp here for the night. He says of course, you buy something to drink and you can stay in one of my trailers. Take your pick!
Well shit, I’ll buy some beer then. Several please :-)

Oh, and I’ll take this one, por favor.

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This is a funky place. I like funky.

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It was just him and I there so I got to kick it with him all night. We had some beers, shot his gun off into the desert, and chatted in broken span’glish about the crazy people and things that have gone on here over the last 23 years he’s been living here.

He’s a character for sure, and at 73 (?) it’s pretty amazing that he subsists out here all by himself still. His history out here is a tale of great fun, excitement, and good people. Sadly though it’s also a story of great hardship, not in just the lifestyle (which he seems very happy living) but in the price you pay when people want to take advantage of you. Over the years he’s lost both his legs to health complications, forcing him away from racing, and into the city for periods of time leaving his home vulnerable to vandals and thieves. People stealing everything from his tools, equipment, and vehicles to his caches of much needed water and food. He even had his beer art sculptures dismantled for the money that could be had from recycling the cans. Thousands of cans and many hours lost. He has rebuilt it twice, and twice it has been dismantled while he has been away for health reasons. He said that he doesn’t have the energy to build it again.

We brought the chairs out to an open area to watch the sun dip behind the mountains. He said on ridgeline you can see the facial profiles of family members and friends that have already passed away. I asked him how long he thinks he’ll be able to stay out here. His tone shifts to positive gear and he chuckles. He looks at me and asks “How long do you think you’ll be alive? Nobody knows these answers. Neither do I. Every day I wake up and realize that I’m still alive, I am thankful to be here. I say, thank you for this day I have been given.”

After the sun went down it was time to go to sleep. I told him to think about anything that would be helpful to have another hand for around the place. In the morning we can get some of it done. I didn’t want to be insulting, he sure is ****ing capable, but an extra set of hands makes light work.

I slept like a rock in his trailer.
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Plenty of space for me and my stuff too.

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Plenty of interesting characters have slept the night in this trailer. Some of left their marks, providing interesting stuff to read.

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Pretty primo view for sunrise from my bed too.

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Even got to sleep next to my lady.

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In the morning we fixed one of his quads tires, got the front wheel off his big rig, and relocated some solar lights that needed to be adjusted.

Before I left I swapped out my old plate for my new one that I had been carrying since I left Seattle. I nailed the old one to his wall and signed the book, making my mark along with all of the other travelers and racers to have done so before me. He’s now on his 7th book.

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Thanks for letting me chill for a bit Coco, it was a pleasure.

Unfortunately when I was leaving my camera started to take a shit on me and appeared to be breaking. I have no photos for the rest of the day to Mulege. I first met up with Mex. 1 and took it South, then southwest to Guerero Nego, then back east crossing through San Ignacio and Santa Rosalia before getting to the coast and into Mulege. I will also say that if one is in Baja and getting tired of the dry desert, DEFINITELY stop in San Ignacio. It’s small, chill, and a literal oasis in the desert with big palm(?) trees lining the main street if you turn into town. Then, the road to the coast? Well that is just swell and very pretty. So far it is my favorite road in Baja in terms of aesthetic beauty.

The beauty must have fixed the camera (for now?) because it’s now working again. Welcome to Mulege Mr. Ginger. Sweet.

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seantully

30 Sep 2013 04:35

9. Mulege

Welcome to Mulege, a little oasis on the Sea of Cortez. Someone in town told me the population was around 3000 on average, and 4000 when the gringos come for the winter. I don't buy those numbers, 3000 seems like this little town would be bursting at the seems. I'm a tourist though so what do I know.

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What it doesn't have in numbers though it definitely has in feels. It's small, it takes 3 minutes to drive every street and end up back where you started. In such a small town where everyone knows everyone, not being a local I definitely feel out of place as I putts through town. I like it here.

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It is a popular place for snowbirds. The kind that travel south for better weather during the winter months. Not the bird kind though, the human kind, and I have come early before the rest of the flock.

There are small shops and old buildings.

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Public Squares to loiter in and pull your shirt over your belly.

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And plenty of good places to eat. I recommend both Danny's (for the TACOS!) and Gato Guerdo for the Pizza.

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Gato Gordo just opened, is locally/family owned, and make damn good original as well as mexican fusion pizzas. Soon they’ll be offering sandwiches and subs, I’m told, as well. The owner (Laura) and her daughters are rad and speak waaaayyy better english than I do spanish. Cool hang-out spot to shoot the shit, drink some beers, and people watching.

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I've got a feel for the town now, as I like to do, so I headed outside of it to see what there is to see. There is a beach out a road on the edge of town so I went there. A big hurricane came through and covered most of mulege in mud, destroying lots of property. This road was being rebuilt, couldn't tell the town had been so affected though from being there.

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The gringos build their homes on the other side of the inlet outside of town. Unfortunately this also seems to be the place that floods first when storms come in.

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Shieeettt, that's pretty good livin.

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Found an early-bird like myself flying a kite.

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And a guy from Portugal. ‘Bout that time to eat and drink a bit, so we did that.

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The guy from Portugal is named Juan, he's been traveling for 8 months mostly hitchiking. He was doing genetics research and decided some time off to think about what he wanted to do next was good. Sounds familiar.

Beach camping was free so Juan and I did that.

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Juan tried to teach me spanish.

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And I tried to learn how to use my camera in low-light a bit better.

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Here I come Victoria’s Secret, so majestic.

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Sunrise’s are pretty good here.

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The locals say the best beaches in the area are south of town, the best being about 10 miles out called Playa Coyote.

The road south is nice, twisty, and good elevation gain/loss. Definitely fun on the bike. Is that a beach in the distance?

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Jigga ****in whaaaaaattttt

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Mmmmmm greenery.

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10 miles out, this must be it. Pull down a dirt road and find a beach at the end with little palapas. Yeeeeeep, this'll do just fine for the night.

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Juan was traveling with two other people, Patricia (from Mexicali Mexico), and Damian (from France). They were going to go on a tour of some famous cave paintings outside of Mulege tomorrow so I'm gonna tag along for that. The location of the cave is protected, as with most things though, if you pay someone they can show you. They said it's an hour or so out into the desert down dirt roads. Perfect, I'll take my bike :-).

seantully

2 Oct 2013 04:53

10. Coyote Livin'

Meet Gary. He's my neighbor at Playa Coyote. He says nobody knows his real name around here, everyone just calls him Cuervo. I guess Cuervo is a snowbird, as he spends half the year in Madras Oregon and then the other half here on Playa Coyote, and has been doing so for the last 20 years. He's always working, even when he's down here, so I don't categorize him the same as a true 'snowbird'. He's a rad dude, but more on that later. We are both late to meet people in town, him for work, me for a cave painting tour.

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Shiiiitttttt this road is good. If I had to ride it every day into town for work that WOULD NOT be a problem. But I don't work right now, and it's too early for anyone else to be on the road. Perfect, crank the happy-hand!

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I met Patricia, Damian, and Juan (other travelers) in Mulege which is 10 miles north of where I'm staying at Playa Coyote. They got a deal to be taken to some cave paintings and I'm tagging along. They were in a 4x4 van lead by the guide and I followed behind on my bike. Why not ride with them they asked? Because it's going to be a shitty, bumpy, dusty dirt road out into the desert....that's exactly what I want to be on my bike for! After an hour or so down dirt roads into the desert northeast of town we arrived at the Trinidad Ranch. Really pretty place.

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The cave is somewhere on the ranch, they try to keep it's location secret to protect the paintings. Mind you these are not your average finger paintings, these are designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (think pyramids, Eiffel tower, and Jay Leno's chin).

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The area is rich with artifacts that show how the indigenous people lived here. Before we began, the guide spoke very sternly in spanish to the 4 of us. Patricia translated the gist, she said to think of the place as a whore house, you can look but don't touch, and definitely don't take anything home with you.

We passed some stones that were used for grinding wheat and corn. These stones were not locations of a homestead but rather were to be left in specific locations throughout the valley so that as the people traveled through the valley, they would remember where each of these locations were and would know they could prepare food there.

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The terrain is harsh, as with everywhere in Baja.

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Vultures circled overhead, waiting for our sweaty survival-skill-inept bodies to become their next carcass meal.

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We came to a river. We were to swim across the water and on the other side we would find the paintings up on the cliff face.

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We aren’t allowed to take pictures unless you pay extra. I'm on a budget so you’ll just have to google it. The paintings are prehistoric and absolutely fascinating. Obviously not in a Rembrandt or Picasso way, they are essentially just finger paintings on some rock, but in a way that leaves you in awe of a people that have long left this valley. The history that is right in front of your face is mind boggling. Our guide had a wealth of information and it was worth the money to learn about these people and how they lived. They were known as the 'second harvest' people. Why you ask? Among many other fascinating things, when food was scarce (as it often was in this location) they would eat their food, then throw it up and give it to the others in the tribe to eat. They would also all defecate in the same location, then later when food was scarce they elect a person to go through and sift out all the seeds from the dried feces for their "second harvest".

I have no photos of the place, here’s a picture of Damian instead. He is a cheeky frenchman.

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We walked back.

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I snapped some photos.

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And then it was time to go back to town which meant going back down the dirt road that we came in on. Earlier on the way in I had been dropping tracks on my GPS, I now knew the way back and was free to ride on ahead. Wait, so you mean I don't have to go 10mph and suck down the kicked up dirt from your van for an hour? Ah shiiiit yeah! Having left all my gear and panniers at camp I was ready to fly. I haven't really opened the bike up for some higher speed pounding since I reworked my entire suspension with the help of Cogent Dynamics, this road provides just the opportunity.

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Let’s just say, the 14 miles back into town were the most fun I have had on my bike in a very long time. The little boy-racer in me came alive again. Leaving the group behind, motor belching it's thumper roar. It was time to have some fun. Up through the gears and onto the trail. I got up on the pegs, body weight centered and mobile, picking up pace as I started to work the whole bike. I went zipping through washed out river beds, over banks and up burms. I can remember being a little kid on my rickety old mountain bike, bombing downhill on my long gravel driveway, throwing the handlebars side to side as I peddled as fast as possible. I used to imagine having a real motor as I emulated my favorite racers from TV. Sometimes making the sounds of the motor with my mouth.

Today, riding through this desert, I feel the exact same. I’m 25, but I feel 8 years old again. I have a real motor to make the sounds with now, and boy are they better. Picking up more speed my pupils dilate nice and wide, analyzing the track ahead. There's no time to see everything, just what is important. Large rocks, changes in surface texture, and the distinct patterns of soft deep sand. Obstacles quickly approach before flying by in a blur. Dreaming of my favorite racers I crank the throttle. The suspension jackhammering over the ground as I blast over whoops and power slide around corners. The tires fight to stay on the ground in a violent dance of traction and rebound, all orchestrated by the crank of my wrist and movement of my body. In my head I'm alone the deserts racing the Dakar, I crank the throttle more as I hunt for the perfect line, eager for every bit of speed. brraaaaaAAAAAAP.

Much like my old rickety mountain bike, my motorcycle is far from a race-bread machine. What she is though is a dream bike, a bike that can take me places I've never been. Today, she's brought me exactly where I want to be, right here, flying down this dirt road. I'm a little kid again. Shit eating grin ear to ear. I love you bike.

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After I got back to town I ate some tacos in the square. (Isn’t that the exact same guy from the day before, still reading??)

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And had some cold beer.

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This is now the third day I've been here in Mulege? Or is it the 4th?? I don't normally stay this long in a single town. I guess I did switch to the beach 10 miles south of town, yeah that counts as a move.

I went back to the beach and sat.

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Mangos are good here, and cheap. Nom nom nom.

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I pulled the killer into the bike shop and stripped her down to get some work done. Switching to LED's in the back and need to wire in the new relay and lights. Digital RPM readout is gone too, should address that. Love working on bikes, this is a good spot to do it. Some tunes and sunset complete it.

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I wake up the next day and knock on Cuervo’s motor-home door to see if he’s around. He has already been up for a while and is kayaking around the surrounding islands. He's left me a pot of warm coffee on the step. He's doing research on the local raven populations and taking general ecosystem metrics of the area. He's a naturalist both at heart and in his profession. He specializes in ravens and golden eagles. He's an endless book of information about the area and at 67 he has a very impressive resume, even having worked with Sir David Attenborough himself. He's booked out years in advance and still only has to work 4 months a year, mostly up in Oregon doing golden eagle research. The other 8 he's down here working on personal projects for himself, and in general, just having a good time. Sometimes he bicycles down when he's trying to stay in shape between bicycling seasons. He's made the trip from Madras to Playa Coyote and back 6 times via bicycle.

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He’s a regular crocodile Dundee type character, fun guy. His hat has a raven feather and a stingray stinger in it.

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I try to practice spanish for several hours every morning. Coyote Beach is perfect for it because there isn’t anyone else around to think I’m trying to speak to them. Eventually Cuervo comes in from his morning doings and pressures me to take his Kayak out around the islands for a study break.

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There’s lots to see out there.

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Several little island beaches that are always empty.

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These shells are biiiiiig, this is one side of a shell, I got big neanderthal paws and this thing looks huge still.

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Hang out for a bit, eat some lunch then leave.

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It’s a pretty shitty way to go through the days. I should just go home. (Wait….where’s home again?)

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Sometimes we get new neighbors, like this dutch couple. They converted a 30year old volvo military ambulance for their trip.

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Sometimes clams are snorkeled for and eaten raw on the beach.

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Or are cooked in the fire later.

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Twice a week a baker drives in from town with pizzas for sale.

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Whatever can be done to pass the time. Again and again taking the almost perfect road 10 miles back into town as the sun sets, sometimes with a purpose to get more food, or pick up beer. Sometimes for no purpose at all, just to enjoy the ride.

It’s wonderful here in Mulege and Coyote Beach. This is a place that has a feeling that is hard to put your finger on, but having been lucky enough to grow up in a similar place, I am all too familiar with how rare it is. Time to move on though. Many good places to see, can’t get too attached to any one spot just yet. Tomorrow, back on the road and further south, to roads yet unridden and places unseen.

Catch you later Mulege.

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seantully

3 Oct 2013 23:34

11. Where Are All The PEZ?

I left Mulege and Coyote beach yesterday to find someplace new. Someplace further south and hopefully by some water. It feels good to be on the road, it feels productive in a very geographical way. It’s a productivity that is quantifiable. Sitting and relaxing is nice but there’s always more to see. I didn’t know where I was going to go but the main options were first Loreto, and then Ciduad Constitucion, along with any place I saw fit to camp in between.

After I left Coyote it was only about an hour south on Mex 1 and then I hit Loreto. Loreto seems larger and more hip with the hippety-hop than Mulege.

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It’s a beach town that is supposedly trying to become the next La Paz (which is the largest city in Baja Sur).

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After being in the same area for a few days, moving an hour south was not satisfying my itch to ride and find something new. Ciudad Constitucion is another hour or so southeast and inland from Loreto. Inland? That means no water….no, no that will not do.

My camera needs to be professionally serviced as I am now aware that every photo I have taken has a small round smudge in the upper center. I tried to disassemble it myself yesterday but it didn’t go very well. I must accept I can’t fix it and take it to a professional. Alright, La Paz it is.

Doesn’t seem like there’s much between Loreto and La Paz on the map, this is infact correct. First you head straight for an hour or so towards Constitucion on Mex 1. The first 30 miles are great, twisty, turny, climby roads.

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But don’t be fooled, as you will soon reach a plateau.

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And after that plateau, it’s flat and straight, all the way to the middle of the Baja peninsula.

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After a long straight stretch. There will be a slight turn which points you south. This minute change in body position brings with it much excitement and joy, for at this point you may, like me, find yourself hopeful that the endlessly flat and straight road, has given up on it’s sinister game, and died. But no. It lives on to torment you further, only now in the southeasterly direction for a couple hours.

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Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttt these straight stretches are terrible. It’s funny how quickly riding a motorcycle can go from “this is the best thing in the world” to “sitting here going in a straight line for hours is the last thing I want to be doing right now”. My mind drifts, desperate for stimulation of some kind. Anything, please just anything. Giving in to the nothingness I stare off into space, slouched over the gas tank and handlebars, motor droning on at a steady high pitched hum….

Next thing I know I’m through some military checkpoints and in La Paz though! Was I really just not paying attention for that long?

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I found a nice hostel with locked parking for the moto and had some beers with the staff. They said they knew of a place I could probably take it tomorrow.

The next day I awoke rested and showered. Fresh water rather than salt water to clean myself with? I feel like a new man. Or maybe I just don’t smell like the old one. I can’t take the camera to the guy until after 5pm because he’s doing me solid and working on it after hours. Hopefully this will get it done faster as well.

Again I set out to criss cross the city and get a feel for it. There are roughly 250k people here I’m told. It feels bigger than any other place I’ve been too thus far in Baja, yet still has a smaller town vibe.

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The beaches are really nice in town, but I heard they are even better outside of town about 16 kilometers. I went to find those ones and to scoot around on the bike.

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Yes, they are in fact nice.

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But there’s also dirt to be ridden!
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And more beaches to find.

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Alright time to go back so I can drop this camera off in time. Hopefully he can fix the smudge (see it up there on top of all the pics?)

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seantully

6 Oct 2013 22:45

12. El Pescadero - West Coast'n

It’s the morning of 10/5 and I’ve been in La Paz now for 3 nights. This is a fun city. I’ve gotten a feel for it, met some people, and had a good time. This is a city that seems to have a bit of everything. You can have anything you want here, for the right price. Do you want a nice family vacation on the beach, or wild nights of debauchery? Maybe a historical getaway, or some time with the darker seedy underworld that quietly pulses throughout the city? If you look in the right places, it can all be had, and quite easily. This seems to be a Mexico thing.

The Hostel where I’ve been staying is called Baja Backpacker. For anyone wanting to stay in La Paz, this is a great place. Typically priced for hostels in the city ($250 pesos per night, current exchange is about 12.5/1usd) but is very well run and very professional. The owners (Rick and Eva) are very helpful and great hosts. The location is a couple blocks from the typical bar grinds and food places.

If you are traveling by moto there is also great gated parking.

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The motos also can’t be seen from the street and there’s plenty of space for several bikes.

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Time to head out though. I now have my camera fixed and am ready to roll. I haven’t seen the west coast since Ensenada, which was a couple weeks ago. I’m pretty close to the bottom of the Baja peninsula now and will be returning at some point to La Paz to catch a ferry to the mainland. At the bottom of the peninsula is Cabo San Lucas, I am told that it's a show of sorts and I can't leave without seeing it. Kind of like vegas, whether you want to see it or not, you have to go at least once. I like watching lots of shows, circus shows, freak shows. I even like to play a role in them every now and then. I’ll try anything once so might as well. Lots of other places to see on the way too Cabo as well.

First stop, Pescadero. A small surf community near the larger town of Todos Santos. It’s about an hour or so drive. The road is nice and big to accommodate the hordes of people going to and from Cabo.

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Just on the south side of the town of Pescadero is the Pescadero Surf Camp. This place is close to two of the best surf breaks in all of Baja, Los Cherritos and El Pedrito are both just down the road. The “camp” is basically a hostel designed around the idea that lot’s of surfers want to be here. It’s a rad place and only 10 bones a night if you are willing to camp.

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Looks like the dutchies (Michele and Erica) got word of the place as well.

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They have a pool for lounging.

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The pool sports a swim-up bar that you can also bring your own booze to.

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If you want to get all Gordon Ramsay on it there is also an open-air communal kitchen that has a full gas range.

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They have a camping available so I took that. It doesn’t really seem like camping though. I pull my bike right inside.

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The inside is big, with power and lights. $10 per night ain’t bad, ain’t bad at all.

I went out to drive around the area and see what the town is like. First I went to take a look at the beach.

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Then went out to drive around the little communities outside of town that all reside by the beach. There is a main area that has a network of dirt roads connecting all the houses.

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Beautiful place to have a home and pass the days.

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If you follow the roads as they wind around, between some of the houses closest to the beach will be little paths that lead down to the water. These beaches can be just as good as the main surf breaks, but are more remote.

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Stomach is grumbling for some food. Don’t know what I want?

Shiieeeeeet who am I kidding. I want me some TACOS.

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Got back to the spot and kicked it at the swim up bar for a while. You can get BIG beers here for 24 pesos, which is less than $2. I ended up chatting with Michele (the dutch guy driving around in the sweet old Volvo war ambulance) for quite a while. Asking him about how his journey came about, what lead up to it, what (if anything) he plans to do next. I like asking other people about their lives and the experiences they’ve had. Him and his girlfriend have been traveling for about 7 months. They started by shipping their vehicle to the US from the Netherlands. They both resigned from good jobs in the Netherlands to go and explore. They gave up and sacrificed a lot for this trip. Through the ups and downs and inherent uncertainty of what will happen in the future for both of their lives, they are confident it’s been the right thing to do. We talked on and on about the prospect of starting over after the accounts run dry, politics in each of our countries, and what we think things will be like in the future. Really interesting guy to chat with.

The next day I woke up and went straight down to the beach to surf for a bit. The wind is really low in the early morning and the water is less crowded. One of the locals let me use one of his boards for the morning which was sweet.

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Not sure how long I’ll stay. Don’t really need to know either. This guys got the right idea.

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seantully

10 Oct 2013 18:51

13. Huffing Dirt

Been hanging out at the Pescadero Surf Camp for a couple days now.

I’ve explored the local areas.

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Ate some damn fine tacos.

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Adopted a new dog.

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Michele got some work done on his whip.

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I ate some more kick-ass tacos (this was all for only 44 pesos, less than $4)

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And got a bit of lounging in.

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Pescadero Surf Camp, you are a nice place. I like your chill atmosphere. I like your style. What I mean to say is, I really like you. But I also need to tell you something, you're great, but you're too comfortable. I'm a rambling man baby, and I need the unknown. I need excitement. I’m sorry, but I need the road. Goodbye for now, Pescadero.

A girl I met in La Paz and her friend are celebrating her birthday in Cabo San Lucas tomorrow at the southern most tip of Baja. I’m going to meet up with them there. I need to get my dirt fix satisfied first though. I picked up the GPX track files for a section of the Baja 1000 race route that ends in Cabo. I can pick up the trail about 10 miles north of where I’m at now and then ride dirt all the way down to Cabo. Saweeeeet.

I packed up my shit and headed north until the GPS told me it was time to get off the pavement and hit the dirt.

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Right away I can tell taking this way to Cabo was the correct decision. This is going to be great.

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The track is pretty remote, and runs north to south sort of near the Mex 1 hwy but a few miles inland from it. I shut my motor off to take a picture. It is beautiful and quiet here.

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The first few miles are really pretty. The road is relaxing. Isn't this part of the Baja 1000? What’s so difficult about this section of the race? If I was unloaded I would flyyyyy down these roads, and I'm on a beater. They are nice and smooth, relatively solid. Seems perfect.

Oh, that's more like it. As soon as I got cocky, I got stuck in a rut.

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I’m still running my 16 tooth sprocket aren’t I? Maybe I should swap out for my smaller one if I’m going to be doing more of this... I guess now isn’t exactly the best time. I unloaded the bike a bit instead to get some weight off the rear. This did the trick and got her to the top.

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The route crisscrosses a few other tracks.

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Again I got cocky with the weight of the bike and spun out around a corner on a down-hill section. The bike hocky-pucked on the pannier and spun around 180 degrees before stopping. I’m familiar with ejecting off a small and light dirtbike, bit different getting free of this little piggy though. I was wondering when I would start getting into some decent off road and start coming off a bit. Maybe today will be the day.

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Bent the shifter underneath the case. Metal was nice and hot so I carefully bent her back into a shiftable position. Back to work little lady.

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It’s really pretty here.

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And real dry.

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And real hot.

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There are lots of little creak beds running through the area. They are usually full of deep sand, and no water.

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As I got further south the elevation started to climb and drop quite a bit. The terrain got a bit greener too.

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I started seeing signs of inhabitants. A little old lady came out and stared at me after I took this picture. I waved. She looked at me like I was a martian. I waved again. She stared more confused. Maybe waving isn’t a universal thing anymore.

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More greenery, more elevation change.

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The killer was getting tired and wanted another dirt-nap. This time she wanted it in deep sand.

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Well shit, that’s fresh water right? Forgot what that looked like.

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As I pushed further south the road opened up and hardened out. I could pick up the pace a bit. Hello horse.

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Nevermind. More sand.

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Like a junky diving into a pile of blow, my bike again couldn’t resist a lay-down in the soft stuff. This time she wanted me to lay with her and as she went into the sand she pinned my right leg underneath the right pannier. Glad I got these big SIDI boots. I pushed the bike up just enough with my left arm to reach around and awkwardly dig out the sand under my right leg with my other arm. Leg is perfectly fine. Good engineering SIDI. Get back to work bike, quit horsing around!

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Is that a mirage, or is that pavement?

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Yep pavement, hello Cabo.

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Found the girls and the hostel. Hey Cabo, you like to party right?

seantully

14 Oct 2013 16:53

14. Cabo Wabo

I would like to be able to say that I saw a lot of Cabo over the last two days. I would also like to be able to say that I took a lot of photos to share with you. Unfortunately, I’ve spent the last two days inebriated in one way or another and have thus taken zero photos, and everything that I did see, was seen through a hazy blurry filter. Luckily though, the girls that I met up with (Caszara and Ariane) are far more responsible than I, and they were able to juggle the adult task of both drinking and clicking a couple photos. Really though, we were only able to manage a few.

I pulled into the hostel parking area and was greeted from the balcony by Ariane and Casz. “How was the ride? Hurry up and get cleaned up, we are grabbing drinks!” Get cleaned up? I only have 2 shirts anyways?

Package deal for 2 margaritas, 2 shots of tequila, and 3 lobster tacos to get each of us started? Deal

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We then continued the party at a series of locations. I started to pull out my amazing neolithic dance moves. The local women naturally loved it. So we partied more.

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Went to bed eventually, then woke up and brushed off the last nights haze with more tequila and a dip in the pool.

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Followed by yet more tequila, push-up challenges for buckets of beer, and wet t-shirt contests. Sorry guys, like I said, it was the girls taking photos, so we only get the push-up contest.

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Rest was had eventually and my time in Cabo was complete.

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This is a place where pretty much anything goes. It’s weird, funky, and fast paced. No matter what you pursue while here, eventually the stay goes by in a blur, one way or another. For most, it's not a long term destination. It's a place to be dabbled in, not a place to settle in. For me, I’ve stepped over and into the dark side for a bit. I even drank the cabo fever cool-aid, and let me tell you, it tasted pretty damn good. But what I’m left with is having my party itch scratched and I’m now ready to step back out of this weird alter-reality that is Cabo, and back into the real Mexico. I think I’ll head back to a place where there will be more locals than tourists. Maybe back to a place where the ATMs dispenses Mexican pesos rather than US dollar bills. Thanks for the good time Cabo, I’ve enjoyed my little vacation away from...well, my vacation. Now, back to Mexico.

seantully

15 Oct 2013 21:26

15. Voy A Mazatlan

After two days of partying I’m tuckered out and ready to gas up and hit the road. It’s Thursday morning (10/10/13) and I’m pretty sure that there is a freighter ferry leaving from La Paz to Mazatlan (on the mainland) Saturday afternoon. First though I want to check out a place called Canyon De La Zorra, which can be found roughly halfway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. There is supposed to be granite here, and waterfalls. Which means I can hopefully do some climbing and also jump off some tall shit into water. Yes, this sounds good.

First stop, San Jose del Cabo, the next major town east from Cabo, and where you switch directions to head north towards La Paz. It’s more laidback than Cabo, and seems to have itself a nice little thing going. It attracts the less intense vacationers that want the beach and the rays, but not the mayhem that is Cabo.

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They even have a nice and relaxed eco building with plants growing on it. Aww isn’t that relaxing.

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After I head north from San Jose Del Cabo the road becomes nice and curvy. The plays I’m heading towards is called CanyonDe La Zorra, so I guess that makes sense.

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So much greener here in the South of Baja compared to the North.

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After about an hour or so I turned west onto a dirt road towards the canyon.

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Here I found a little town that had, no you didn’t guess it, a Zoo. Why there would be a zoo out here in the middle of nowhere is beyond me. Also the military. Maybe they came for the zoo.

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I stocked up on some food and headed further west out of town towards the canyon.

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Again I found sand.

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After a few miles I also found a sign that reassured me I was actually in the right place. Looks like I’m close.

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DAAAYUUUUMMMNNN, someone’s got a pretty driveway.

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I got to the end of the driveway and found two evil looking dogs.

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They were completely black and hairless, so all their coloring came from their funky sandpapery skin. They looked super fit, they demanded fear from you, but were oddly regal. They probably were birthed straight from the underworld and spend their days hunting souls to eat. I want one.

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After I was done being intrigued by the dogs, I realized they were standing in front of a closed fence. I’m pretty sure that there were people somewhere on the property. But my bike isn’t quiet, and their isn’t exactly much else out here to make noise. So if they wanted me to come in and enjoy the Canyon they would have come to the gate. I waited for a while and enjoyed the dogs eary company some more. Nope, nobody is coming, alright, well I guess I’ll just go all the way to La Paz today. There’s a free beach that I can stay at there too. That’ll save me some pesos and help make up for all the money I spent getting silly in Cabo.

I headed back out the driveway and according to the GPS at the end of the driveway I was able to go left rather than turn back right and go down the way I had come. I don’t like backtracking so this was good. This road was much sandier though. Again I dumped the bike and again I pinned my leg under the metal pannier.

This time it was my left leg, which has my bum knee from a previous injury attached to it. It’s a very weird experience when your mental state changes gears so rapidly, things go from “everything is the norm” to “well shit”, very quickly. One minute I’m grinding along in soft sand thinking about my body position, thinking about what side of the sand rut will have better traction, wondering about what breed of dog that was back there, who actually lives all the way out here, can I make it to La Paz before sunset? Then boom. I’m forcibly thrown back into the present moment. I catch a particularly soft patch wrong and me and the bike are now down in the sand, pinned together awkwardly. I start assessing the situation.

Am I badly hurt?
No, nothing hurts, it was a slow spill. But I am stuck.
Is anyone else around to help lift the bike?
Mmm (I look around hoping yes). Who am I kidding though, I haven’t seen anyone for 3 hours.
Am I pinned against anything hot, is anything burning me?
No.

Cool, so I’m not in any immediate danger.

Alright, next, I can tell from looking at my leg that this is not good. How long can I stay in this position before it gets too painful and my strength to move the bike goes away?
I focus my attention on my left knee now. I can feel the pressure of the bike, and the unnatural angle of my leg, torquing on the surgical bolts that keep everything in place. My muscles and ligaments are working hard to keep shit together. Mmmmmm, not long. Maybe 3 minutes?

Alright then, it’s now or never. I’m pinned awkwardly enough that I can’t use my arms or core for any leverage to heave the bike up. Instead I need to use my pinned leg to leverage the bike up and wriggle free. I think for one last time, do I have any other options that don’t involve putting more strain on my knee and possibly wrecking it? Nope, if I wait too much longer, my window of opportunity to physically get out on my own is going to shut. I grit my teeth together and start to point and flex my boot as much as possible to loosen up the sand. I torque up on my knee and my leg starts to budge. I can feel all the ligaments working to their limit to stay attached, but after a few more seconds I am able wriggle free of the bike. With my knee back in line and the pressure and torque removed, I crawl away from the bike and roll over onto the ground. My knee is sore but nothing popped or went out so I’m golden. Relieved that I’m out now and the situation is resolved, I chuckle to myself. It’s funny how again, your mental shift can go back from the “well shit” seriousness of a situation, to the “hah, well that could have sucked” attitude.

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With everything in the just peachy again, I stand up carefully and go over to pick up my bike. With the bike upright, again I chuckle to myself at the juxtaposition of how close a fun time and shitty time can reside. Glad I came out on the ‘fun time’ side on this one.

Irony aside though, having low-speed tumbles in the dirt is normal, getting my leg stuck under the bike (now twice) however, is not normal, and can be a serious issue if I’m all alone in a place like this. It’s something that really shouldn’t be happening. I thought for a while about what it was that I did when going down that caused it, and how I could possibly have done with my body position to prevent it. I have an idea of what to do differently for the next time, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities to practice. Hopefully I won’t be writing anymore about getting stuck under my bike.

After several hours I made it to La Paz and made it to the beach just after dusk.

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By the time I got in I was exhausted and my body was sore. It felt good to be on a nice comfy beach with a cool ocean breeze and soft sounds of waves lapping on beach. I layed down on the beach and put in my headphones to listen to a full Alt-J album and take in the killer night sky. The milky way galaxy is pretty clear tonight. The music flowed and my body relaxed. Hard to find a concert venue this good anywhere else. Not too shabby, mother nature. Not too shabby at all.

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The next day I lounged at the beach.

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At some damn good ceviche.

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And accidently put a whole in my sleeping mat.

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There are two ferries that go from La Paz to Mazatlan, one is predominantly a commuter ferry (more luxurious) and the other is a freight/cargo ferry. I decided to take the freight ferry as this seemed more interesting than a posh commuter ferry. It’s a 15 hour trip so maybe I can interact with the locals a bit more too.

The next day I went to the terminal and booked my spot on the ferry. There were some paperwork issues but I was actually able to work through it with my broken spanish. Holy shit am I learning spanish?? There was a guy that I met and spoke to for a while at the docks. He offered to just load my bike into the back of his semi trailer, pay the passenger fee, and then ride across with him on the ferry. In hindsight this would have been a good deal, but my spanish wasn’t good enough at the time to really understand what he was offering and work out the specifics. I aired on the side of caution and just paid the individual motorcycle toll instead. This is the exact reason why knowing more spanish can be so helpful. Next time, Jhonathan.

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Here’s the water steed we’ll be taking.

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Hey, look who else is catching the same boat. The Dutchies and their dog Dunya.

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We loaded up.

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The dutchies (Michel and Erica) black rig on the left looks so small compared to the other rigs.

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Dunya seemed pleased with her spot.

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I got my bike strapped in.

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Got some goats for neighbors.

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Looks like things are lax in terms of where you can and can’t go around here. There’s the other commuter boat.

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We took a look around the deck and then the boat set off.

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Dinner was basic ferry food, but it’s pretty hard to mess up tacos. Nom nom nom nom.

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The ferry is a night ferry which makes the 15hr commute really reasonable. This is the cargo ferry and there are few actual passengers, the majority of the cargo is just semi containers without their drivers. This means there are no real passenger accommodations, and those that are on board just sleep in their rigs. I found a nice spot on an empty gangplank above my bike to sleep.

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Pretty top-notch sleeping spot if you ask me. Even have an open air window straight out the side of the hull. It’s maybe 30ft off the water and the breeze is perfect.

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Being an island boy it’s nice being on the ocean again. The slow pitch and yaw of the boat as it rocks across the sea is comfortable and calming. Relaxation sets in. With the boat now well under way, headed away from Baja and towards the mainland, it feels like I’m moving to a different place, a new chapter. Although I know I could easily spend MUCH more time in Baja, I’m ready to go to the mainland. The Baja peninsula has served as a great set of training wheels for me. Baja is sort of like a watered down Mexico. It’s super safe, it’s very easy to travel, and there are still lots of people that speak a bit of english. As a person who doesn’t speak much spanish and has never been to Mexico, These are all good things for me. By traveling Baja first, I’ve been able to slowly dip my toes into the culture and get a feel for how things are done. Baja has given me a preview of Mexico, and I like what I’ve seen. I want the real thing now though. Catch you tomorrow Mazatlan.

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seantully

21 Oct 2013 15:48

16. Guadalajara - Getting Business Done

In the morning I awoke and found birds. Birds? Birds don’t live far from land, we must be getting close.

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My camera battery was low so I went to swap it with my spare and plug the dead one in to charge. Usually I have it somewhere in my pannier or tankbag. Nope, definitely not in either of those. Yep, definitely left both plugged in to the wall in the Cabo hostel. The cabo wabo haze strikes again.

Because I had no charger or spare battery, this meant the end of my picture taking. When the ferry arrived several hours later I said by to the Dutchies and we unloaded the ferry. I wanted to get to Guadalajara and the Erica and Michel (The Dutchies) where headed some place near Mazatlan for the beach. Guadalajara is about 5 hours east of Mazatlan via the toll roads (cost money but are faster). By dusk I was in town, booked into a hostel, and eating tacos on the street with my new friend Farah. Guadalajara is the second biggest city in Mexico and is very multifaceted in what it brings to the cultural table. For one, it’s a historic city. It is full of big public squares, grand old spanish era buildings converted to museums, and lots of effigies to individuals involved in progressing Mexico forward. It’s also a lively place with lots of young and newly employed people which contributes greatly to it’s overall feel as well as it’s economic potential. In fact, a few years ago it was ranked as having the second strongest economic potential in all of North America and has been called “the city of the future”. This has helped bring a large number of recent foreign investment deals (according to Wiki) making it a very attractive destination for people on the up-and-coming and on the grind. The city feels like it’s bustling, hustling, and alight with activity. But this isn’t New York and people are still really chill and approachable, we are afterall in Mexico remember.

What this meant for me was that I could scope some old architecture, shop for the electronics I need, and feel like I’m a young professional again while reading the paper in a public square and sipping on a chai-latte-macchiato-soy-nesquik-cafe (or whatever it is that the cool kids are drinking now). After a couple days of walking through the city I found the charger that I needed, or a compatible knock-off that would work. At this time the weather showed me what my friends were probably seeing back home and reminded me what rain looks like for the first time since I left Seattle.

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I didn’t get many pictures while my camera was out of commission, in fact, I got none (funny how that works). I also hate backtracking, so I refuse to go and take pictures of stuff that I’ve already gone to. Thus I only have a few photos to share.

Here’s my bike parked on the sidewalk outside the hostel.

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Here’s a picture with some of the common architecture, also horses for bonus.

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I spent a fair amount of time shooting the shit while grabbing food and drinks with other people at the hostel. This is a great way to practice my spanish and to get the lowdown on other places to check out in Mexico. I prefer to get my info through osmosis and some light internet research, I have yet to look at a lonely planet or other travel book. I like chatting with locals and other travelers about places they have been and what they liked. After I get a feel for what type of person they are I can then decide how I want to weigh the info they provided. It’s like reading 12 travel advice books rather than one, it may be slower but is more entertaining and engaging.

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With all the youth the city is pretty hip and artsy, here’s some cool street art from the trendy Chapultepec area.

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I had my camera battery for just a little bit before I left so this is all I have of Guadalajara. Farah, a girl I met my first night told me that I should definitely go check out a place called Guanajuato city. She’s the first person to mention the place but I trust her taste. I’ll head there next. On the road again.

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seantully

21 Oct 2013 19:35

17. Guanajuato - You Cheeky, Beautiful Place

After a couple hours of riding I made it to Guanajuato. I don’t really have any expectations as I literally know nothing about it. All I know is that a friend recommended it and that there’s NO availability in the entire town this weekend. Something about a 3 week long festival? I could only find one place that had one night available. Make do with what you have.

Hello Guanajuato.

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Alright Guanajuato, that’s a little bit of a grandiose entrance don’t you think?

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After entering the city I set out to find my hostel. I had my GPS but there is no normal city grid, so it took quite a while.

Lots of the streets are one way streets, and are small enough that you can’t just bomb down them and squeeze by if a car comes. This one is on the larger side for example.

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The city is made of hills and terraces so there is a pretty neat tunnel system. The tunnels are also really old. Busses, cars, walkers, etc all use it and there are lots of little entrances to them throughout the city for walkers. Pretty rad. The problem for someone who doesn’t know them though (like me) is that they are elaborate enough to have stop signs in them and lots of options for turns etc. My GPS goes dead when I go into the tunnels, so I end up guessing which ways to go. I guess I’ll make a left here. I guess I’ll head up this tunnel, and down this one.

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Most times I pop out in a totally different place than I thought I was going to. One wrong turn and the reroute adds 20 minutes to get you back to where you were ****ed up just so you can give it another whirl. Sometimes I make the same mistake, sometimes I make a different one. Getting lost is a great way to see a place though, and this one just happens to be beautiful. These streets are very old and very interesting.

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Eventually I found the hostel.

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And found a spot down the street for my bike.

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After I got settled I started to learn about the location I had found myself in for the day. Guanajuato is a colonial-era city. Back in the day it had mines that did very well and made the city have a very affluent upper class. These people wanted to be entertained and have things to throw their money at so the city developed a rich cultural art scene. Plays were performed in the plazas and artists flocked here to perform their crafts. Eventually a festival came about called Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), mix in a lot of federal support to bring in international artists and you have what it is today, a three week long extravaganza of international culture and arts. FIC is seen as the most important international festival (key word is international, there are many other great festivals that are not international in nature) in all of Latin America. In addition, there are only 3 other major events of this type in the world. Fun fact, among other big Latin American sponsors, good ol’ Microsoft in the US of A is also a sponsor.

Alright then, looks like I stumbled upon a good place to be. I just have a night so I left to go explore. Although it feels like a city because of all the activity and interesting things to do/see, I should really call it a town. It has all the culture of a big city, but is very condensed into a relatively small area and population. Walking is the perfect way to get around.

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Today is just a Thursday and only the second week of the 3 week event. Even so, performers are everywhere and it feels like a Friday night in any other big city.

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Everywhere you turn there are alleys that lead to other areas, and little hole-in-the-wall bars and restaurants. The entrances to these places can be very small and obscure, but once you step through the door they open up and can be huge inside, sometimes with several floors and many rooms. Here in these places you can find a whole other world of people and activity. I follow the noise and keep my head on a swivel for alleys to go down and check out.

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The night goes on and I meet up with some locals and new friends from the hostel. We grab more drinks at a locals apartment, getting a feel for what it would be like to live here. Later we grab more food and then head to a club type place. Buildings are packed close together and everything is built up rather than out. It’s hard not feeling like you are still in the colonial era, besides the bass heavy electronica music of course. Really cool to party in architecture like this. Whether in the colonial era or the modern day, we are still doing the same thing, getting drunk, meeting other people, and dancing the night away.

Bars don’t stop serving alcohol until around 3 or 4 in the morning here it seems. If the party is good and the drinks are flowing, they’ll keep selling them past that. I don’t exactly remember what time we headed back, but the sun wasn’t too far from rising. If this is on a Thursday, I wonder what Fridays and Saturdays are like? Although I just have the one night it was still a good one. Topped it off with some bomb food.

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In the morning I woke up early to walk around more and see the town in the daylight. The girl that ran the hostel said she could show me the good spots to see the city from so we took my bike and went for a ride. Man is it helpful having a local guide for these roads. “derecho aqui”, “izquierda aqui”, etc, etc.

From a high vantage point I can’t capture the place in one photo. Is it a town, or is it a city? I guess I’m not sure. Here it is in two photos from right to left though.

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She had to get back to work so I dropped her off and set out to see more of the area.

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Everything is colorful.

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Being a cultural arts hub, it’s a big city for art students, obviously, and there are several universities. Lots of young people.

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Little corridors lead to places, all unknown. It’s impossible to see them all.

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I met an older lady while walking around the steep streets. We chatted (still in broken spanish for me) and I walked with her as she went to the market. Really nice lady. She told me about the history of the town and what the different areas have. As we chatted she would constantly pause to greet other locals as they passed. An embrace with a kiss on the cheek was the most common. Everyone seems to know everyone here.

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Eventually it was time for me to check out of the hostel and find a different place to go see. Maybe I’ll head SE to Queretaro, I heard it is also a pretty old town.

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I brought the bike down the alley where my hostel is and parked it out front. My panniers are heavy and it’s easier to load the bike when it’s close. After finishing packing I came outside to leave and found a Honda 230 dirtbike parked near mine in the alley. A guy was standing next to my bike and we said hey and shot the shit for a few minutes. Said he had a KLR himself and just came to say hey. He asked how long I had been in town for, I said that everything is booked so unfortunately just the one night. He said that’s ridiculous and not enough time for Guanajuato. He said he grew up here and his parents have a place near town where he was staying for the weekend, I should just come stay there. Tomorrow he can show me around the area and show me the other side of Guanajuato that travelers don’t normally see. The offroad riding side :-)

Deal. Meet Jose, his amigo Dano, and his pops who just so happens to be an ex-competitive enduro racer.

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Tomorrow, time to hit the dirt.

seantully

22 Oct 2013 23:58

18. Riding Guanajuato

I spent the night at Jose’s parents beautiful home just outside of Guanajuato last night. Today I woke up to a delicious and traditional mexican breakfast prepared by Jose’s mom Laura. Our plan was to do some riding up in the hills around Guanajuato and get a feel for what the area has to offer in terms of dirt riding.

Taylor, Jose’s neighbor and childhood friend, showed up on his Honda 350 for the ride (he’s got about 15 bikes, mostly sweet classic road bikes. Also, if you are interested in some great quality riding boots, check out his families boot company Gasolina Boots, hand crafted here in Guanojuato). Jose’s dad hadn’t seen this one so he gave it a sit, he seemed pleased.

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We took off and headed out of town, climbing higher and higher into the hills that encircle Guanajuato.

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Once we climbed to the ridgeline we followed it into a small town and stopped for a bite.

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The menu had Tostadas but they were only 20 pesos (about $1.50) so I figured I should order two. Definitely too much food. I love eating in Mexico.

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Satisfaction

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Just a mile or two down the road again we turned off and hit the dirt.

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The riding was fun and the pace was good. The terrain varied quickly and widely. Some areas were full of green trees.

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Some areas where much more open and scenic.

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The bikes were happy and so was I.

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Shit yeah, here comes the rain!

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The shittier and more difficult the terrain the better, as far as I’m concerned.

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It dumped rain for maybe an hour, and even hailed for a brief minute. We soaked it in and kept bombing. Eventually we came to what is normally a pretty dry creekbed.

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All the rain had changed that though. Saweet, my first decent water crossing!

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We walked it with a stick to see what the ground was like underneath. No big rocks just heavy silt, perfect. The water was about up to our knees so we cracked the throttles open and let em rip.

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Bikes across. The locals waiting for the water to die down seemed impressed.

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Taylors bike had lost some power so we stopped for a bit and let stuff dry out.

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The sun came back out and you could see it baking the water right out of the hills again. Weather seems to change here pretty fast.

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Taylor pulled the plugs, drained his carb, and had her running again lickety split.

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We cracked the throttles again and burned back up in elevation towards the ridgelines.

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Beautiful riding up here.

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I see a telephone pole. We must be getting near town again.

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Jose said this is the last highest point, from here it’s all elevation drop back down into Guanajuato. Having a blast.

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Vanity shot.

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A few more miles and we were winding our way back into town.

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When we made it back to Jose’s house we were all both soaked and satisfied. I feel like this was the most fun day of dirt riding that I have had. I’m not sure exactly why though. If I look at it on paper it was a pretty straightforward afternoon ride through the hills. It doesn’t feel like a normal day though, I feel like I had an absolute blast. Maybe it was because we had a little bit of everything? Good twisty tarmac, good dirt, fun shitty weather at times, and problems to solve (getting lost, sucking water into a motor, etc). Maybe it’s the whole package of Guanajuato, the riding, and the people that is making it so good here. Or maybe, just maybe, Mexico is just starting to soak it’s way into my bones, and color everything slightly differently.

When we got back home Jose’s mom had cooked us up an amazing authentic mexican dinner. Thanks Laura! After dinner we shot the shit for a bit then rolled into Guanajuato to partake in the saturday night festivities. FIC was still going on so the place was packed. We found a little bar and knocked a few drinks back and laughed about the day. After a few rounds of mescal we decided it was best just to get a bottle (PS apparently I really like Mescal). Here the bottles are pretty cheap. It’s likely made and distributed locally as the bottle appears homemade and has no labeling of any kind. Once again, hard not to feel like you are in a colonial era pub. No way to know what it is until you drink it, but damn is it good stuff. Tastes like mildly spiced tequila.

The night went on and the drinks flowed. Eventually our bottle was done and it was time to head to a different place. Walking around the alleys and twisty streets there is a cacophony of smells from all the food stands that line the streets. With a head full of mescal, each stand is all but irresistible. We choose wisely and go with a Guanajuato staple. Apparently this lady can be found here every Friday - Sunday, without fail. All the food is cooked by her during the day and then brought down to the street in buckets. The types of meat and toppings are many and the combinations of the options are endless. We ate here twice before the night was done.

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Well Guanajuato, tomorrow I am heading out. Not sure where yet, but the time has come. Thank you for the good riding, good food, good people, and good times.

Guanajuato, congratulations, you are doing it right.

seantully

24 Oct 2013 01:49

19. Queretaro

Time to hit the road again, I figure I’ll head east right now (for the most part) towards Mexico city. This is about 5 hours away though and I’ve heard there is plenty to see in between. One of those places I heard I should check out is called Queretaro. So this is where I pointed my bike.

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Catch you later Guanajuato.

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The roadwork here can be fairly elaborate sometimes.

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Key word is sometimes. Other times it’s just good ol’ el natural.

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I think I made a wrong turn though somewhere. This doesn’t look like a major road.

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Yep, made a wrong turn. Here we go, this is more populated.

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I stopped off at a restaurant up in the hills for a road-sammy. $1.50 for fresh delicious bread and fresh ingredients, hard to beat.

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Heading up into the mountains the weather was chilly. Still no need for another layer yet though.

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The road was twisty and scenic.

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I stopped off in a small town called Atotonilco, about 20 miles before Queretaro.

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I’m told that it’s a cool old town and there is a church here with a cool painted ceiling. Psshhhh, I’m in no rush, sure why not.

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The outside had a patio that must have taken quite a while to make.

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Honestly, I don’t know much about this place, or the paintings, but as an opinionated person, I can tell you that they appear to be old.

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And elaborate.

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I’m told that the entire ceiling, and all of the paintings on the walls in here, were hand done by a single person.

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Place also had some pretty old word-work on the floor.

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Outside, there were several families milling about. They appeared to be here touristing the location as well.

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As I’m mounting my bike I feel something gently tug on my pant leg. I turn around and find two little boys and their grandmother. The boys were too shy but grandma told me they wanted to come see the bike and say hey. She said that they loved motorcycles. Little kids are the shit. I picked both of them up and plopped them on the bike.

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I chatted with grandma for a bit and then turned around again to see a bunch more people. This is exactly why I want to know more spanish, knowing even just a little allows you to interact so much more with people.

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Again more people showed up, so we got another photo with everyone. Not sure if they all knew each other or were just friendly? Fun group though.

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Leaving Atotonilco there’s some cool stonework.

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The town seemed pretty historically rooted in catholicism.

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A little while later after being back on the road I came into San Miguel. I had been taking my time and it looked like weather was going to start rolling in so I didn’t really do much besides blow through it. I’m told though that it’s another interesting place to spend some time in.

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Much bigger than Guanajuato.

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As I head further east and inland the weather seems to be on average cooler and rain a bit more. The greenery and lakes are good giveaways.

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Coming in to Queretaro it seems smaller than San Miguel and has a small feel too.

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I found a hostel where I could pull my bike inside and unloaded my stuff.

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Queretaro, like many of the cities in this region, is a very old place. Back in the day people didn’t have facebook or the internet. So instead people would gather in plazas and squares to chat, eat, socialize, and get up to speed on the recent going-ons around town. The plazas still exist today, but now there is free wifi in them, so people seem to gather to use that instead.

Here’s one of the plazas, pretty empty at night.

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There are still people that use the plazas for socializing though, especially the younger people. I took this photo on a Sunday night. These kids were practicing a form of Brazilian martial art called Capoeira. Capoeira was developed by slaves in Brazil back in the 16th century. Slaves were not allowed to practice self defence or develop fighting skills so instead they developed a martial art whose techniques are masked as dance moves. It’s very acrobatic and is practiced to traditional Brazilian berimbau music. As the two boys practice-fought with each other the others (on the left) sang and played traditional string instruments to set the speed/tone of the fight/dance. Very rhythmic and easy to get lost in watching.

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There seems to be lots of respect in latin culture for scholars and revolutionaries who helped move the country forward. This is a statue of a poet that was near the hostel.

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Over the next couple days I explored the city more and got a feel for what the place is all about. The historical district is where it’s at and as expected, there is lots of history here.

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Some of the buildings are private residences though. The homes usually have a central open air courtyard in the middle, like their own little oasis in the heavily built historic district. This old lady was greeted by her rottweiler as she came back from the market.

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The vast majority of the buildings are public or retail though. There are many small gardens and they usually are surrounding a central square or plaza.

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The sound of church bells tolling and pigeons flapping away as kids chase them is a common sound here.

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There is a strong shopping community here as well and the area is apparently a purveyor of fine leathers and shoes. Many housewives in heels roam the streets in this part of town, hands toting freshly purchased bags of clothes.

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Food can be had everywhere, and because of the clientele there are plenty of more expensive sit down restaurants whose outdoor dining spots encircle the prime locations around plazas.

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I’m on a budget though and prefer to eat what the locals eat anyways. I like street food and usually will order whatever I see that I haven’t seen before. This time, my taste buds tell me that this is some sort of fried chicken with potatoes and a chile relleno. Of course one never really knows though, but it tasted good. I sat and gorged myself on two more types of tacos after this and people watched in one of the plazas for a bit.

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A brazilian girl who's living in the hostel while teaching portuguese in town found out that I was into climbing. She was kind enough to show me the one and only climbing gym in town. It was tiny, but had a rad underground vibe. The people here are definitely into the scene and really do a lot with the little space that they have. I’ve now been here in Queretaro for 3 days and I’ll be leaving tomorrow to head towards Mexico city. Should only be a couple hour drive. I wonder what the largest metropolitan area in the entire western hemisphere will look like?

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Danko

24 Oct 2013 07:51

I like your ride repot very much bier :clap: :palm:

seantully

31 Oct 2013 15:16

20. Mexico, The City

I got into Mexico city yesterday after a pretty chilly day on the road. I finally put my other layers on and even put my winter gloves on.

The road into Mexico City (everyone calls it DF which stands for Districto Federal) was uneventful as I opted to take Mex 57 which is a major thoroughfare. See what you get when you are prioritizing getting somewhere quickly rather than enjoying it? I took Mex 57 in to cut some time as I wasn’t feeling so hot though, picked up a cold in Queretaro I think.

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Coming into DF and the buildings start to become tighter together and the amount of large billboard advertising picks up.

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Not sure if I hit traffic or if the city is just always packed, but it took a bit to a while to actually reach my hostel. I booked a place in advance and found one that had some sort of street parking available (the nicer hostels that are in a very popular area don’t really have any parking available). When booking though I should have taken notice of the quality of their website (probably not updated in over a decade). Like an exploding star that once probably burned so bright, this place was now but a flicker of it’s former self and was on the tail end of it’s existence. When I arrived the owner checked me in and showed me the digs. It was straight out of the 70’s, but not in a cool funky way. There were walls with hand written notes from many years ago, and bunk beds stacked 3 tall to the ceiling that appeared not to have held a single sole for many years. It’s as if there was a time that this was a thriving destination, yet I was the only guest here and it looked like that had been the case for a while. There was a family living somewhere on the top floor with a couple babies, I felt like I was staying in their home. The place seemed not to have been updated in several decades and the only thing it was missing as a shag rug. I stayed the night since I was already there but it was just as expensive (if not more) than most of the other places so today I left and found a new place.

This place is much better and also cheaper.

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People must hate when I show up with all my dirty kit.

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Because I’ve been a bit under the weather I’ve mainly been resting and eating an obscene amount of food (the latter probably doesn’t help the cold, I just like doing it). As Burninator mentioned, the pastor tacos are very good. *Shout out to Matty-boom-batty, these are my favorite tacos right now.

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My new friends Jose and Dano (who I met in Guanajuato) just so happen to live in DF. Looks like they have planned some riding this weekend for us. Not sure what the details are, but I’m told we’ll be gone two days and that I should pack light for dirt. I’m stoked.

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seantully

2 Nov 2013 18:11

21. Getting Dirty In Hidalgo (Part 1)

It’s Saturday morning around 6am and I’m heading out of the hostel I’m staying at to meet up with Jose and Dano for a weekend ride. They’ve planned out a route and I really know nothing about it, I’m always down to ride though, so don’t need much convincing. They say it’ll be a two day ride and told me to pack light for dirt. Sounds good to me.

I meet up with Jose at his place and we hit the road. We stop at a circus tent for some breakfast and to meet up with Dano. These tents are all over the freeway as you head out of DF (Mexico City, District Federal) and are accompanied by people waving flags to try and lure in customers. Each sells a slightly different variation of each others items.

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This places specialty is biria, similar to beef flank that’s been pot-roasted. It may look like a lot of meat but each of those plates only has two tacos on them. They just come with a metric shit-ton of meat. I added the extra to the soup for the added flavor-flave. And yes, it was very cheap.

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Dano showed up on his KLR as well. Check out this KLR bro-down.

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We hit the freeway and headed north towards the state of Hidalgo.

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After a while of heading north we turned off onto the more favorable secondary roads as we wound our way towards the mountains. Dano, the route planner for the weekend, said that we’ll be riding up in the Sierra Mountain range for the next two days. We are currently on the west side of them (the dryer side), and we’ll be crossing over onto the east side (the wetter side).

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The first turn onto dirt. Mmmmm, I like dirt.

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The road dipped and curved as we hunted around the Sierra ranges doorstep, looking for a place to enter her marvelous abode.

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The roads were scenic and small communities dotted the area. I like the small single lane roads with stacked rock fences. Riding them is very relaxing, I could meander down them for days and days.

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The cattle are less amused by the roads than we are.

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In a river valley we stopped for a break alongside a creek. Dano and Jose road this trip several months ago in the dry season. They said it was incredibly hot and dry. Nothing was green and the route was absolutely covered in dust. I think I much prefer the current state of things.

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Farming is the name of the life-game here and the communities that exist in the area flourish or flounder depending on it’s success..

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The communities are all nestled into the base of the Sierra’s. They farm right up to the edge. I see solid walls like this and all I think is “climbing can be had here”.

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In this small town we found our entrance to the Sierra’s that we had been searching for. We had been knocking at her doorstep for a while as we wound around through the foothills, now it was time to come inside. The road is just rural dirt route cut through the mountains but I feel like Bilbo Baggins from lord of the rings starting a journey into the mountains with his mates.

Here’s a shot looking down into town.

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We dropped down a couple gears and began grinding our way through the twisty roads.

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We got pretty high then started coming back down to drop into a valley.

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When Dano and Jose were here several months ago this bridge didn’t exist. They chose to ride through the river instead. Sounds like fun, might have been a bit more difficult this time of year though.

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This bridge, although less fun for us, makes it much easier for the two communities on either side of this valley to travel, trade, and communicate with one another. .

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We headed out of the second town and climbed again in elevation.

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The road was pretty wide with plenty of room for other traffic. Although we saw none while we were on it.

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Lots of good vantage spots to look down on where we had been earlier.

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Here is the river that we had crossed and the ridgeline behind it was what we had come up and over earlier.

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Three happy bikes.

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Here we got to the top of the second ridgeline. The weather was a bit chilly but no need for thermal gear.

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After the second ridgeline we started descending again towards a small community. This place is centered around tourism of some pretty wild caves they have in the area. There are several large hotels to accommodate the influx of people. Not sure what way they come into the town but I’m pretty sure it’s not the way that we came in.

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We went past the touristy section and out towards the back exit of town where we would pick up the road again. First we stopped for some mexican corn on the cob.

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Boiled corn on a wood fire, rolled in cheese and chilli powder. ~.50cents.

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The town is socked in by views like this. Really feels like the area is a very small pocket of human existence that mother nature is reluctantly allowing to exist right on her front step. The forest and hills seem to encroach on every part that humans stake a claim to.

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Here’s the exit out of town and back up into the mountains.

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With every gain in elevation the road got foggier and wetter. This road looked like it had recently been re-graded, maybe after a large rainfall had wrecked it. This meant that everything was nice and slick. Good fun.

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The road doesn’t actually look that bad, but it’s like riding on top of a birthday cake. You ride on it for a couple hundred yards and it collects in just the best places (tires, suspension, chain, swingarm, etc).

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Again we found ourselves in a small little village.

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Wonder if the Shire is around here?

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The bikes looked good here.

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We took a left and headed back into the woods.

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Jose’s bike had accumulated some water in his carb and was running a bit dodgy. We stopped to drain it. It’s handy having everything easy to access and simple on these bikes. Think a T-mod re-route for the carb is next on Jose’s mod list.

The sound and sight of big (for latin america) dirty bikes is not a normal occurrence around these parts. Anywhere you stop for more than a couple minutes people seem to come out to see what’s up. This guy was pretty funny, his kid was stone cold serious though.

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The area here is super lush, supposedly they have had a lot of rain recently.

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It was the late afternoon now and we were nearing our destination for the night. A small pueblo called Nicholas Flores up in the mountains.

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It wasn’t quite sunset, but with all the fog and cloud cover things were starting to get darker.

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We found pavement, must be getting close now.

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As we came around another switchback we could see on the other side of the ravine there had been a massive mudslide. A wall of mud a couple hundred yards long had just slid right off the hill side and taken out the road. We came around the ravine to the start of the slide. There were several busses stopped here but none had people in them. This must have happened a while ago. There were tire tracks through the slide though, so we knew we could at least get further than the busses did.

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There was some skid plate scraping and I tipped over at the start pretty close to the edge but we made it through. A guy on the other side seemed pretty surprised that we had made it through, even more surprised when I pulled my helmet off and he saw I was a gringo. We had some GoPros going so There’ll be a video of the entire weekend at some point, it’ll probably include a clip or two of this spot. There was one section that looking back on the video wasn’t exactly as safe as we thought it was, as two feet from where our tires rolled was a completely vertical drop. I believe it is denoted in the video with a “Holy shit?!” (7:50). Had we have tipped over there to the left we would have been dropped right off the edge, expecting to find ground to plant a foot but only finding open air. With a solid cliff face this wouldn’t have been that bad, but we were on a mudslide and the edge only existed because it had simply broken off and slid down the hill-side. It had been raining for as long as we had been on the road, who’s to say it was done with it’s crumbling? Glad it didn’t go while we were on it though. Here’s the uncut clip from my GoPro for this section.

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Jose and Dano got their two bikes across, again with some skid plate scraping but no real trouble.
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After this section it was another 10 minutes and we were into town with the bikes up on their kickstands. Proud of ourselves, and with a fun day of riding under our belts.

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As with any small town, an outsider is easy to spot, and soon there are people from around the town talking with us, asking us where we are staying, and inviting us to partys. Apparently tonight is a special night for the town as there is a joint wedding and sweet 16 party. Sweet, I’ll take the food, tequila, and dance package please. In any order will do just fine.

seantully

2 Nov 2013 20:38

22. Getting Dirty In Hidalgo (Part 2)

After a night of free drinks and dance we awoke and rubbed the sleep out of our eyes. I’m glad it was dark last night, as my choice of clothing was pretty terrible. Jose said to pack light for the weekend, I took it literally and brought no normal clothes to wear while not riding. So I improvised and wore my motorcycle liners to the wedding and sweet 16 party last night. I used a GPS cable as a belt to keep my silky smooth pants up. Jose and Dano decided it was easier to just tell people I was from Germany so that other people wouldn’t question my clothing style.

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We then went searching for some food. The climate and elevation here does cool stuff with the sky.

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We walked to the town square where we were told there would be good street food for breakfast.

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We found this lovely lady, and of course, she knew exactly what the **** was up with good tamales.

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She had several different kinds, I tried one of them all.

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She also had a magical green beverage. Can’t remember the name, it tastes like some sort of hot and thick juice drank, but apparently it is not juice at all but rather it is made with maize? Either way, it’s my new favorite hot beverage and I felt like a newborn champion after imbibing it.

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Topped it off with one of these fancy things. Again, some sort of tamale.

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Full and content we said thanks and walked around the town center. Didn’t take long as this is it.

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There is a nice little garden though.

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And here’s the big man himself, Nicholas Flores, the hombre the town is named after.

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This is some sort of church I believe.

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And here’s a statue of an important guy doing something important.

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After walking and chatting for a bit we came back to the bikes and our rooms.

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I apologize to the cleaning person, all my stuff was pretty darn muddy.

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We packed up the bikes, and topped up on gas bought from the the place we stayed at.

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We headed out of town and back onto the dirt.

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The roads looked like they would be good.

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And of course, they were.

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The good roads looked like they would continue for longer still.

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And again, they did.

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Dropping down into the valleys we found small creeks.

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And seemingly randomly placed churches.

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There were bridges as well.

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And kids going about their business down below in the river.

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We also found a river without a bridge.

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It needed to be crossed so we checked it for any big rocks that would dump us into the wet.

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Here’s a little video of us crossing (0:41 sec).

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After the bikes were across we stopped for a wee snack.

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“Hey look, it’s a cow-asaki” - Jose

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The roads got bigger now and more open.

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Still nice and scenic though.

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We would come in and out of towns, some bigger than others. But none larger than a handful of buildings and maybe a small town square like this one.

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We stopped here for a minute as Jose had spotted something unique.

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In the town square there was a wall that was full of phrases and cool saigns. The wall says “Typical phrases and words that identify us”. Little places like this are exactly why traveling by motorcycle is so special. When you aren’t reliant on public transportation or tourist buses, you are able to slow down, make an effort to experience stuff outside the box and maybe even get out into some remote places. When you can do that, you will often find a unique experience and a cool view into the unadulterated culture of an area. Pretty cool.

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A little while later and we found pavement again.

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We were hungry and this guy seemed inviting, so we stopped at his restaurant.

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They whipped us up some food pretty quick.

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And we also tried some of their home brew apple wine. It was more rocket fuel than wine.

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After eating we hopped back on the tarmac of what used to be the main highway through Mexico to Texas. Now that there are much better options this one happens to be pretty empty. It also happens to be absolutely ****ing radical. The number of perfectly cambered turns flowing into opposing and equally perfectly cambered turns is uncountable. In my opinion this is the best scenic curvy road that I have ever been on. The great part is that it’s not just a couple miles long, it’s at least a solid 1hr+ of exactly this.

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In addition to the turns, the road sliced right along the side of some pretty drastic scenery.

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After the turns subsided we began exiting the mountain range and coming back down towards the flatter plains.

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On our final exit off the mountain we crossed a bridge and stopped for a view.

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From here on we would be heading back towards the immense urban sprawl that is DF (mexico city) and away from the rural simplicity of where we had been throughout this lovely weekend. There are pros and cons to both, but I have very much enjoyed my little backroads trip through the state of Hidalgo. I’ve had a pretty damn good weekend in the dirt, thanks Jose and Dano for a great time. On the way back into DF I picked up a flat on the freeway. There wasn’t much of a shoulder and not much light to patch a tire with, but I didn’t really care. It’s hard to have a little ol’ flat sour such a fantastic weekend.

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seantully

7 Nov 2013 15:36

23. DualSport In Mexico (Video)

Jose put a video together from the footage that we shot throughout the ride into the state of Hidalgo. Thanks Jose for a fun visual memory of the weekend.

DualSport In Mexico VIDEO

*looks like I can't embed the video right here so you'll have to use the link.

seantully

9 Nov 2013 06:12

24. Chilling In Tlalpan, DF

Back in the endless city of DF, Jose has been kind enough to put me in touch with one of his friends, Dante. Dante just so happens to have a spare room in his apartment and said I could flip him a few bucks and crash as long as I want. This would be cheaper than a hostel and I would get my own room? Deal. Dante lives in an area of DF called Tlalpan.

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The apartment complex that he lives in is in all senses of the word, massive. There are 32 separate towers, each tower has two main columns of apartments. As you enter and progress through the area there are two separate security checkpoints and countless foot security patrolling the area, clicking in and out on their walkie-talkies. There are a lot of students and working class families that live in the towers. The place seems like a nicer place for people to live. Although it may be a little bougie for my tastes personally, the location is good, and I don’t have to worry about my bike being out on the streets at night, getting caught up in peoples tomfoolery. As a bonus, Dante is also a climber, and being in Tlalpan we are situated just about 20 minutes from some pretty damn good outdoor climbing. More on that later though.

Here’s the joint.

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Insurgentes is one of the main streets that splits DF in two, from the north to the south. Tlalpan is located south of the centro area and is nestled right in at the southern tail of Insurgentes. It’s a relaxed area with a lived in feel to it. Sort of like the burbs, but with a bit more laid back cool and less highbrow. The area is a place for people to live that don’t want the mayhem and hecticness of the center of DF. It’s a place that university students and working class families live in and commute elsewhere for school and work. This demographic leads to a lot of people fluxing in and out throughout the day, and a busy bus system.

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Here is the tail end of the vehicular river that is Insurgentes. Jump on this and soon it becomes several lanes wide in both directions and in 20 minutes you can be in the center of DF. IF you are on a motorcycle of course. Try to commute it in a car expecting 20 minutes and you’re gonna have a bad time. With so many people in DF there is alllllways traffic, having a bike allows you to split lanes, maneuver around the plethora of smog belching buses, and ride the occasional sidewalk to get through it all. Although I don’t do anything the locals aren’t doing, having a big bike and a foreign license plate is similar to painting a bullseye on your back in terms of police attention. A couple hundred pesos slipped into the passport usually gets you out of any infraction. Nobody wants to do paperwork, and everyone gets to get on with their day.

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The community of Tlalpan revolves around the “Centro Historico” area. This is the perk of living here, as it’s laid back and full of cafe’s, small restaurants, and little bars.

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In the center of the neighborhood, as with many places in Mexico, there is a main square and usually some sort of garden.

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No town hall is complete without some entrenched protesters either.

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There’s some cool street art to be found if you take the time to look.

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This time of year (end of Oct. early Nov.) is important in Mexico because of Dia De Muertos (Day Of The Dead). It’s similar to Halloween but it’s history is rooted in indigenous culture and Aztec festivals. It does encapsulate Halloween though and is typically celebrated from Oct. 31 - Nov. 2nd. Explosions from fireworks lit from rooftops and sidewalks can be heard starting in the early morning and trickle on throughout the three days.

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I’m not sure how much I’ve mentioned this, but I like to eat. In fact, I like to eat quite a bit. I would maybe even go so far as to say that I pick places to travel to partly based on the food that is available. Luckily, good food is easy to come by in Mexico. For example, my homeboy Ruben here slangs tacos at this stand all day long. 5 tacos of any kind for 25 pesos (less than $2) is the deal. Sometimes I come twice a day for snacks.

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There’s also a nice sized indoor market if you are wanting a bit more variety. Pretty much anything can be found in these central food-hubs, every now and then mangos that are the size of your face.

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On a good day I can identify 10% of the stuff sold, I’ll give most anything a try once though.

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Sometimes I do want something more familiar. Something a little closer to home. I’m a fan of fruits, luckily baking with apples is a culturally universal thing in the Americas. Familiar treats such as this can be found at certain locations (~$1.50).

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Eventually I do get bored though and blast into Mexico City centro to shoot the shit with Jose and Dano. Here we can go out and grab a bite somewhere else, for example maybe some rotten fruit that’s repurposed and baked into a delicious dessert.

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This little morsel with sugar?/milk?/cream? drizzled on it, is similar to your grandmas baked bananas. Yes it looks worse than g-ma’s, but I believe it tastes even better.

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After all the mud in Hidalgo, we needed to get the bikes cleaned and give mother earth her dirt back.

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After cleaning the bikes, Jose showed me a neighborhood spot for some authentic Yucatan cuisine. It’s a good sign when you see lots of people outside patiently waiting to fill their face with whatever happens to be on the menu.

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For us the menu included beer with a bunch of salt, spices, and salsa. Feeling hung over? Drink this and then go run a marathon.

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We had some sort of sandwiches as well. This one had octopus in it I believe.

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I sampled a number of things here to try and get a variety of flaves. Now let’s be clear. I have never had Yucatan cuisine, and this place is on the fancier end of the continuum and thus possibly not completely indicative of what people eat on the regular. But lean a bit closer and let me tell you something. IT’S ****ING DELICIOUS. Whatever they have going on over in that peninsula, I want more of it. If this is an indication of the food I’m going to find when I head that way, ohhhh buddy help me now. If my belly wasn’t so full after eating this, I would have jumped on the bike right then and blasted out to the Yucatan, smothering my body in all of the food I could find along the way.

Soon enough though, soon enough. Right now, it’s time to work off all that grub and get out to do some climbing.

seantully

12 Nov 2013 03:23

25. Slapping Rock In DF

Being the second largest city in the world, DF has a lot to offer. From the various latin and foreign cultures that congregate here, a wealth of activities are born and the excuse of “I’m bored”, just doesn’t fly. As with any big city, you can find something new to do on any given day, usually you don’t have to look very far either. One activity that I am always in pursuit of, is climbing. Turns out though, there’s some pretty darn good spots that happen to be right at the edge of the city.

Much like adventure motorcycling, climbing is one of those activities that for the most part is completely selfish, and for all practical purposes, it doesn’t contribute anything to anyone else but those that are the ones doing it in that very moment. Yvon Chouinard - a famous climber, entrepreneur, and personal hero of mine, once called climbers “conquerors of the useless”.

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It is an activity that is for you, and you alone. However, just like adventure motorcycling, climbing can be a good vector for teaching you important lessons about yourself, life, and the world around you. For me, the two addictions are about the same stuff. Challenging oneself both physically and mentally, putting yourself outside of your comfort zone and into new experiences, and through the process, hopefully attaining some sort of personal growth while having a bitchen good time.

My new roommate, Dante, said he’d show me some of the local spots, so we set out to see what DF had to offer. After weaving in and out of traffic we reached the very outskirts of DF where the smaller communities start to fade away into the mountains. Here we found what is technically a city park, and is contained within the governance of DF. It’s a place that seems transplanted straight out of the pacific northwest, and at 8k ft above sea level, the geography is surprisingly similar as well. We parked the car and started the hike in.

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The hike in is less than a kilometer, but we gain 1k ft in elevation in that distance. Currently we are at around 9k ft, I felt out of shape pretty quick.

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The trail to the location where we’ll be slapping some rock cuts off the main trail and heads straight up to the main walls.

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There are 4 different areas in this park, we are headed to one called Segunda, it’s not the biggest area, but still has ~70 separate routes. Plenty for us.

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We found the base of the wall that we were looking for, and I promptly got excited like a kid in a candy shop. This was the first bit of real climbing I’ve seen since I was in california.

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We spent the early afternoon warming up and shaking off the dust on some warm up routes.

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This is Dani, one of Dante’s friends, he also came to have some fun outside the city.

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The views at the top of the routes were good. You can see most of DF in the background. Everything that isn’t concrete and steel is part of the park.

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Dante said there was a really good route on another wall, so we went to go check it out.

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Here we found our prize. This chunk of thick, vertical, dense useless rock may not look like much to most people, but this looks pretty damn sweet to me.

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There were several routes on this wall, but the one that we wanted climb was the one that went right up the middle. I don’t remember the name of the route, or if it even had one. The rating was a 5.12a (if that means anything to anyone) and was a technical and fairly sustained face climb with small feet, crimps, and several two-finger pockets. The moves were fluid, and super fun. Here’s a quick vid I made of the route (~3 min).

Dani had been projecting this route and made his first ascent of it today. Congrats Dani.

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Dante also jumped on and got’er done. Shit yeah Dante.

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Eventually the end of the day came and we scraped together the last of the routes that we could. I was burnt, my fingers were toast, and the day was done. We ended up hiking down in the dark which wasn’t ideal, but the long day of good climbing made up for it.

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20 minutes of driving later and we were back in Mexico City, drinking beer and eating food. Haven’t been to a ton of places where I can spend a good full day climbing, not hike in very far, and be back in time for dinner no sweat. Cheers Mexico City.

seantully

12 Nov 2013 03:32

26. Exploring Toluca (Video)

Last week Jose and I hung out with our new friend Edgardo and did some maintenance on our bikes. We met him at a motorcycle shop a week or so earlier and after we got to talking for a bit he said if we had anything we needed to do, he had a shop we could work in. Meet Edgardo.

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We all got some work done on the bikes, and it was really helpful having such a well equipped shop to do the work in. Beets working in a parking lot anyday.

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Edgardo said we should go riding with him and his dad this weekend. They said there are some nice areas to explore if you like getting off road. Sounds great to me.

Saturday morning I met up with Edgardo and his dad, Riccardo. We were headed roughly North for a city called Toluco. It’s a growing metropolitan area and is also the capital city for the state of Mexico. This metropolitan part wasn’t the part we were interested in though.

Along the way we stopped for some tacos.

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After getting through Toluca we turned into a pullout where we could start the dirt. The weather and scenery here is very similar to the pacific northwest, except we are at around 8500ft and technically in the tropics.

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The riding was good and they showed me a bit of everything.

We had smooth wooded areas.

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Wet and muddy areas.

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Log crossings.

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Wrong turns.

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and plenty of spills. Well...just me. 14 if I’m being honest.

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After the above tumble Riccardo said I’ve earned a beer. Plenty more happened after this though….so more beer for me right?

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They showed me tight slick sections.

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River/pond/things?

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And fun undergrowth trails.

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Every now and then they let me rest.

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The terrain varied widely as we road through various areas. They both knew the region well and road here often. Everything was new to me and every turn brought something exciting. There were many different tracks and routes to turn onto, and sometimes no tracks at all. Then you could simply just go wherever you wanted to. Here we found a playground of rolling hills, mud, and water crossings.

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Sometimes it got pretty deep, but none of the bikes got flooded. This pic was near the edge of a crossing so deep but not too deep to stop.

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This crossing got a water level right up onto the tank, you can see the water grass stuck onto the pannier racks. Good fun.

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I say “water crossing” like it was something that we needed to cross. We didn’t need to cross anything, it was just fun to.

It was a beautiful place to play for the day, with endless amounts of land, forest, and trails to ride.

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Here’s a video I put together for the day. Thanks for running me through the ringer guys, I had a blast.

After we left Toluca we headed to a small tourist town for some afternoon grub before heading back to DF. The town explodes on weekends and is a very popular place for people to come to when they want to get out of the city. Today it was slammed with bikers for some reason. Mostly harleys and cruisers. We fit right in with all of our mud.

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We parked our bikes out of the main line-up to not embarrass all the chrome.

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We walked around for a bit, grabbed some food and shot the shit about the good riding we had sampled throughout the day. I had a blast today, and it was great fun riding with Edgardo and Riccardo. They showed me a dualsport wonderland and gave me a taste for what the area has to offer. They said it only gets better though, as there’s lots more to ride around here. By the end of the day I was beat but all I wanted was more. They said the riding today was a 3-4 out of 10 in terms of difficulty and of what’s available. I got dumped and spun-off the bike all day long like a baby on a bicycle (I counted 14 times I had to pick the bike up), and there’s harder and better riding to be had...shit yeah! I could definitely learn a lot from riding with these guys, I didn’t see them go down once all day.

I’ve caught myself several times now reclassifying the “best day of riding” that I’ve had so far. I’m going to hold my tun on this one, as I think I’m going have to just accept that there’s lots of good riding to be had down here.

seantully

20 Nov 2013 21:06

27. Loco Las Pozas de Edward James, Xilitla

Several people have told me about a place called Xilitla and how there is an amazing garden that exists there. Xilitla is about 6 hours north of DF in the state of San Luis Potosi. It’s rural up there and largely comprised of small farm communities, this means good roads, unmolested scenery and culture. I set out early in the morning to beat the commuter traffic that floods into the city every morning. There is an immense gravitational pull that Mexico city emits towards its surrounding areas. As if it were a black hole, everyone and everything is sucked into its center as I fight my way out. Once I get free of its grasp it began to rain, and from this moment until the moment that I arrived in Xilitla, 10hrs later, it pissed rain continuously.

About 1/3 of the way to Xilitla I came through a small pueblo called Atotonilco. Here I stopped for some food and to take a minute to try and warm up to a decent temperature to safely operate a motorcycle at.

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The food was bomb. Maize tortillas pumped out right in front of me with some freshly done up, well…. some sort of roasted cow. They called it something different though and people seemed to be all worked up about them having it today.

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This little pup was having an extra tough day due to the rain so I chucked him some cow.He seemed to like it and sat very attentively next to me for the rest of the meal. Gave him a hefty helping at the end for his patience.

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It was raining so much that I didn’t take very many photos, and the ones that I did take my camera was so wet from being in my tank bag that everything came out foggy. Along the way I took a shortcut through a curvier and more interesting road. There were some sticks across the turn for the shortcut. This is the standard latin american placarding for “don’t come this way”, but this signage doesn’t always apply to offroad oriented motorcycles though. This time they did apply, and so I waited for the dozers to clear the rock slide.

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I took no more photos until I arrived in Xilitla as I was simply too wet and too cold to care to do so. It rained so much that I managed to suck water into my carb somehow, not sure where, maybe the air filter…but a quick drain of float bowl and she started right up. Nice having a simple machine to work on. It took longer to get my hands warm enough to be able to access my tools than it did to solve the issue. Other than this I had no troubles, and by dinnertime I rolled into where I was going to spend the night for a couple days in Xilitla. When I arrived I shakingly introduced myself to the other guests and chatted for a bit, then explained that I would be MIA until the morning, and rid myself of everything wet to retreat into my sleeping bag to warm up until the sun rose.

In the morning I awoke feeling fresh as rain…”rain”…well that’s weird, but yes I awoke feeling like a champion. With the sun out and clear I got a good look at the place. It’s called Casa Caracol. Rudolpho and his wife run it and its super laid back. With a fun design and cool places to hang out in, it’s easy to kick back and relax here.

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There are private bungalows available but most people stay in the tipis which fit 4-5 people.

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The grounds are full of fun sculptures and places to hang out.

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I was sharing a tipi with two guys from Australia and we set out to find a cave that we were told had a pretty spectacular entrance.

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They were correct, it was spectacular.

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The opening of the cave is the main attraction in and of itself, but we hiked down into the bottom where there was a smaller mini-cave. The depth of view is hard to gauge here but if you look down and to the right you’ll see a large australian for scale.

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Inside the cave there wasn’t a ton going on besides a fair amount of bird shit and a bit of graffiti. A long exposure though lights it up enough to see what’s up.

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Looking up and out of the smaller cave.

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We left and found some oranges.

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Assessed their level of deliciousness.

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And packed a few for later.

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Back at Casa Caracol I met up with Fey, a girl from Queretaro Mexico who was visiting her sister here in Xilitla for the weekend. We set out to explore what for me was the main reason for coming to Xilitla, Las Pozas de Edward James.

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Edward James was an Englishman born in 1907 into a fair bit of money. He was a lot of things (poet, artist, etc) but he is most prominently known for his early support of the Surrealist movement in the arts. For example, sponsoring Salvador Dali in his early years so he could continue to paint and also supporting him through the collection of his art. Eventually, Edward James would be known for having the finest private collection of surrealist works of any collector. The time would come though when he grew tired of simply collecting and supporting, and he wanted to create a masterpiece of his own. He set out to find the perfect location to blend the beauty of the natural world with his taste and flare for surrealism, and he set out to do it on a grand scale. He considered places all over the world, but when scouting for a location in Mexico he was blown away by the natural beauty of the high mountain subtropical forest just outside of Xilitla. He chose this location in 1945 and began construction of his personal sculpture “garden of eden) in 1949. He named the garden Las Pozas, “The pools”. Although he was a wealthy man, the project was on such a grand scale and required such expertise and craftsmanship that he had to sell the majority of his private art collection to afford the construction. The wood molds used to form the concrete structures as scene as works of art all by themselves. Here, high in the mountains, he took 80 acres of natural rain forest, waterfalls, and rivers, and built enormous concrete surrealist structures amongst them. He also brought in many exotic plants (at one point the grounds boasted 29,000 orchids) as well as exotic birds and animals. It took decades to build and although many structures are left unfinished (or have been lost within the jungle), even now, after his passing and the properties opening to the public, it doesn’t fail to fascinate and intrigue those that venture into its landscape.

As you wander through, it’s eerie to think that this was not created for the public, nor was it made to be inhabited or lived in. None of the structures were built with any functional intention other than as an enormous surrealist work of art for Edward James’ and his private guests to be amazed by. It is a real life work of art that you can physically walk through and explore, and at less than $5 to get in, it is a pretty cheap trip to an entirely different world.

Many structures have stairways that lead to nowhere. Edward James named this place “The House on Three Floors Which Will in Fact Have Five or Four or Six”. (Fey is near the center several stories down for scale)

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And bridges that simply end before they’ve reached their destination.

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Other times there will be stairs that appear out of nowhere that lead to an amazing structure, yet they are found on the other side of a small river with no walkway.

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There are no signs that tell you where to go, and everything is dense jungle so you never know what’s around the corner until you walk into it. You simply have to wander, explore, and keep your eyes out for clues to venture further into an area. If you are willing to explore though, and get a little wet, you can stumble upon to some pretty amazing locations hidden within the gardens 80 acres.

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By the end of the day Fey and I had been walking for 5 hours or so and the night was taking over the garden. With no guardrails or ropes keeping you from exploring, high structures with no logical architecture, and the entire place being a dizzying maze of pathways and hidden trails Las Pozas is not a place you want to be lost in at night without a light. We found a trail out just as the last bit of light was dipping over the mountains. That night we stayed up late hanging out with Fey’s sister Eunice, and Eunice’s boyfriend Sobo. Great people to hang out with and I’m glad I got the chance to meet them. Shit, is my Spanish getting somewhat conversational?!

Here’s a video from the trip. Mr. Edward James, you were one ‘pinche loco’ mother ****er, but I sure had a blast exploring your fascinating mind today.

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seantully

30 Nov 2013 23:30

28. A Run Through The Ringer, Valle De Bravo

After a few days of relaxing up north in the state of San Luis Potosi, I returned to Mexico City to head out for the weekend. This weekend is a long weekend with Monday being a state holiday and Edgardo has invited me to tag along with his family for a weekend out of the city at his home in Valle de Bravo. He said he could show me some good enduro riding and that he had a XR250 for me to use so no need to bring my bike. We had stopped in Valle de Bravo for a bite to eat after our ride last weekend in Toluca and I really liked the place. Some enduro riding and a long weekend out of the city, sounds rad to me.

Valle de Bravo is situated a brief 2 hrs from Mexico City to the north east, and sits right on the shore of Lake Avondaro. Its proximity to Mexico City and Toluca, it’s beautiful terrain, and ample outdoor activities make it a popular weekend getaway location for many of Mexicos affluent families. There is plenty of boating, mountain biking, paragliding, and of course, endless amounts of offroad riding of everykind. You can tell how centered around outdoor activities the community is by the sheer number of outdoor recreation shops that can be found in town. These are high quality shops too, with all the kit, parts, and top of the line bikes you could want. KTM, Husqvarna, Yamaha, etc are all represented in full. Do you want to buy a brand new KTM 6-days, or a rally outfitted 690 without having to special order it? No problem, plenty for sale here. Or maybe you just want to rent a race ready bike and bring it back muddy and haggard for someone else to deal with, that can be arranged no sweat.

Edgardo and his wife Jessica have a beautiful home here with an amazing view of the area.

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We geared up for a day of riding and I met my noble steed that Edgardo was kind enough to lend me for the weekend. I’m glad he had a few bikes laying around, as I wouldn’t be able to do what we had in mind on the KiLleR.

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Edgardo would be on his KTM.

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Edgardo asked me what my level of riding was to get a gauge for where we should go. The riding options vary wildly here, with everything from beginner to professional quality routes. I said I knew enough to know that I’m no expert, but I always would rather be challenged than bored. He thought for a second then nodded and we headed out.

We started off with some easier stuff so I could get used to the bike and so Edgardo could gauge where I was at.

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After a while tooling around Edgardo asked if I wanted something more difficult. I said yeah let’s kick it up a notch. He said he knows of a place but once we start we can’t really turn back and are committed. I said great, let’s do it.

We rode to the base of what I could see was a very steep little mountain,Edgardo pointed to the top and said we are going there. “There will be lots of roots, rocks, and it is very slippery yet hard clay. It’s possible that you won’t be able to make it”. If there’s anything that lights a fire under me it’s a challenge coupled with low odds of success. Sounds great, let’er rip!

As soon as we dropped it into gear the riding was both technically and physically demanding.

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About 2 minutes in I was sucking water like a camel and enjoying the grind immensely.

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We ran into 3 other riders working up the same trail, all on pretty light enduro bikes. It’s good we ran into eachother, because you needed at least 3 people to get up some sections of this route.

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3 hours of huffing, teeth clenching, body crunching and eventual triumph later - we made it to the top. If you have a slight masochistic side to you this is a lot of fun. I had an absolute blast.

Here’s a video of the ride

http://vimeo.com/80474750

The next day my whole body was pretty sore, it’s a good feeling. One that shows that you pushed your limits and persevered to succeed. We spent the next day out on the lake towing the girls on a large banana.

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Kicking back some cold beverages on the floating tienda.

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And having Edgardo and his family trying to teach me how to wakeboard. I didn’t really learn how to wakeboard, but I got really good at ragdolling and spitting up water. Thanks for a fantastic couple of days Edgardo and to your warm and welcoming families hospitality. For such a physically demanding weekend, it was exactly what I needed.I now feel refreshed, recharged, and ready to hit the road again.

seantully

2 Apr 2014 20:12

Update

For anyone that was following this, sorry for the lack of posts. I hate to link to another site from Horizons, as I really enjoy the environment here on the HUBB, but I am only posting now in ADVrider due to the photo limit on the HUBB. My ride report is fairly photo heavy and thus I am limited when posting on here. If you would like to follow along, you can check out the progress on ADVrider.

OR if the mods are able to not limit the number of photos per post I would LOVE that!

Currently in Colombia on post #68.

Cheers,

Sean

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