Start of Day Two Near Batopilas Mex

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These great churches are all over Mexico and I never pass up a chance to visit one.

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we headed up the mountain behind the group shot, the first rough part of the trip.

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This area is somewhat technical but very doable. The Valdez was loaded with a full tank of gas, over 6 gallons, and a bit of weight in the bags containing spare tubes and tools, I felt it. We plowed right through with no problem.

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Every one has their own favorite weapon to attack these roads and I was very happy with my choice, the weight and good suspension soaked up everything we threw at it, I was having a real plush ride. I was keeping a steady 15 mph 2nd gear "clip" going. http://marsman.smugmug.com/photos/55769597-M.jpg

Stopping during the climb out of the Canyon, one of the few times our support truck was on the same road.

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You can see the mission at the bottom of this picture. I was doing what I wanted and hoping that others were enjoying this too.

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Our first of many water crossings…

Off we went through a number of dry creek beds, I wanted to try a few of them, I would get my chance later in the trip. We arrived at a nice new dirt road, it looked like a dirt super highway.

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I took the lead and pushed the bike a little harder than I should.

There were many hair pin turns and lots of traffic. Near the end of this section I came around a corner and surprise, there was a new Ford truck barreling down on me, with the Nascar number 24 on the window, yikes. I gassed the bike and just barely missed this knuckle head then realized this is not a race, slowed back down and enjoyed the rest of the day, at a good steady clip, keeping it safe.

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We forged ahead to the lodge on Huetes, had a good fish dinner, then some great bench racing on the patio that night.

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We finally convinced Dennis to remove the street tires from his bike after his first fall of the trip!

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My Michelen Desert after two days. Ouch… I was barely going to finish the trip with this tire!

The accommodations were 3 to a room, so I spent the night with the two Canadians, Dan and Rob. They were great guys… who snore too. It was quite a trio that night. Rob woke me up finding his ear plugs.

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I even rated pictures while getting warmed up one afternoon, a few days later in Chinipas

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But here is the real master, Raul, our support truck driver.

The trip was just getting started; we had 7 more days of adventure.

End of part II