The Title Says It All!

Fall of 2005, a good friend of mine from Austin, Texas named Mack was loosing a battle with cancer. He asked me to take him to Mexico the next January, one last trip. He passed away before we could make the trip on October 7th 2005.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614596-M.jpg

With so many great areas to ride locally, it took serious consideration to make the commitment. Remembering my promise to Mac and wanting to re visit Mexico, the trip was on. I contacted Justin Lopez, an old acquaintance, who organizes and leads tours into the Copper Canyon area. He had a group leaving mid January and they were going to tour areas of Mexico I have yet to see, count me in! I like tours because you meet great people with the same interests and most importantly, we had a truck that would meet us at our destination each day carrying our luggage with fresh clothes!

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614599-M.jpg

I arrived at the border then met the others that had signed up for the tour, I knew this was going to be an aggressive ride. About 8 years ago I had ridden most of this trip except the Uruachi section.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/16065928-M.jpg

(my trip with Dan Rosen and the rest of the Austin Texas crowd in 1999)

I had to ask the question, was every one up to this? The group looked real solid. Well, all the bikes except for one definitely looked up to the task.

We processed our paper work that evening, followed by a "get to know each other session" over dinner. The next morning we made a run from Douglas Arizona to Creel with the bikes on Justin's trailer. All the bikes but one had knobby tires. I was glad to be a trailer queen this day, we had two vans and plenty of time to visit and it was 15 degrees outside.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614615-M.jpg

Without a hitch we settled in Creel for the evening, the ride started the next morning. The day before, I considered Dennis to be the one weak link in the group, he was impatiently waiting for us to get our act together.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614619-M.jpg

I couldn't believe his setup, this windshield lasted almost 4 days. I would have bet money it was going to bust off the 1st day. He rode every thing this trip dished out, he never complained. Dennis is definitely one to take the "road less traveled." This bike was lowered at least 6 inches in the back with what I would call a touring type seat, complete with a small computer so he can do computations on the fly while navigating the many un improved roads on this trip, a very unconventional set up for rugged dual sport riding

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614814-M.jpg

We finally launched our ride to Batopilas, the shake down run, an easy 45 miles of pavement, then an easy 45 miles of dirt to the wonderful little town of Batopillas.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614774-M.jpg

(David Gale without a doubt the fastest rider in the group)

David was riding his specially prepared Honda 650 with a rare 770 kit. Bret the guy with the 525 KTM put it together for him.

Bret at the time was the suspension guru for many of the top KTM factory riders, it was a real treat to get to know him. He had also worked as Larry Roesler's wrench for the Paris to Dakar race in 2003. We have kept in contact of the last few years and are planning a return to Mexico trip next year.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614690-M.jpg

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614818-M.jpg

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614622-M.jpg

We arrived without incident.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614852-M.jpg

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614865-M.jpg

Every one was twisting the throttle a bit much, getting some angst out of the way before the real tour started the next day.

We took a walk around town that afternoon; I got to know my roomie Mark… Dave and Bret joined us.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614881-M.jpg

We saw the usual sights you might see in any Mexican village; we loved every minute of it.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614876-M.jpg

After a good meal, and after settling into Martins Inn, we walked around town visiting a couple of cantinas and downing a few beers before bed.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614880-M.jpg

(Finishing off the last of my good bottle of rum)

I made a promise to get plenty of sleep and to not drink a lot. I wanted to get more serious about the riding, that went out the window on the first day, it's a vacation!

I was riding the biggest bike of the bunch. The irony of this is that Dennis probably thought I shouldn't be there with such a big bike. The group instantly nick named my bike the Valdez, because of the huge gas tank.

I didn't get many comments after gassing up a few riders who ran out of gas a couple of days later.

I also had some soft luggage bags on the Valdez with tubes and things needed to fix flats, something that came in very handy for several of them.

Did I say we had flats? With all the talent on this ride and the amount of dirt stirred up by spinning rear wheels we had a record number of them, I lost count. There were 10 bikes and we had at least 1 flat per day, sometimes more. I did get my flat fixing time down to 20 minutes.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55615012-M.jpg

The next morning we started with the mission outside of Batopilas, for a group shot.

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55614920-M.jpg

http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55767187-M.jpg

end of part one