This motorcycle trip report is originally recorded on Adventure Rider as Trailer Queens by my friends and I. I have adapted my friends’ and my posts to make sensible blog entries.
My friend Gustavo had met up with a group of motorcycle riders in Mexico in late December. He left his motorcycle with a relative in New Mexico and he was going to fly back in March to pick it up. He chose March because at that time the MotoAventuras (the group he met) would have its second annual meeting, this time in Creel. Gustavo planned fly in to El Paso, pick up his VStrom, ride to Creel, spend the weekend there, and then ride back to Oregon in somewhat nicer weather than in January.
Gustavo had been asking Tony & I to join him on a Mexico ride for a while, and this time it looked like it could actually work for all of us.
We had a “planning” meeting at Gustavo’s sometime in February. “Planning” was mostly Gustavo suggesting some destinations that looked close enough together to make a loop in the limited vacation time available and Tony & I saying “sounds good.”
Tony was yet to pick up his new KTM 950 from San Diego, but we were hopeful that it would arrive in time to do the first service and leave on the trip as planned. If everything worked out we’d leave on March 3rd. It didn’t. The carrier that was supposed to pick up the 950 in San Diego screwed up and didn’t. Tony had to fly there a week later to ride the bike up. OK, maybe we can leave a week later?
So why the Trailer Queens title? None of us has ever trailered our street bikes when going on a trip. We just “ride to the ride”, even if (in Gustavo’s case) it implied riding from/to Portland in November, December or January. But, given the limited time we had, it made sense to truck the bikes down to the border as quickly as possible and then have more time to explore Mexico.
We decided to trailer the bikes down to New Mexico so that we could get in to Mexico and then get the bikes back regardless of weather, and potentially make up for any delays by driving later at night. So finally, on March 10th, we had the “trailer queen” motorcycles loaded and ready to go.
We drove down I-5 to Buttonwillow with only a slight mishap when I overestimated the range of the truck. We coasted and sputtered into a gas station thirty or forty miles earlier than usual - I hadn’t appreciated how much the trailer would cut into the mileage.
In the morning Gustavo discovered that Tony & I are not morning people, so he spent the first of many mornings to come waiting fairly patiently for Tony & I to get ready.
This was a long day of driving - we left around 8AM and did not arrive until after 11PM. After a decent night of sleep at the Las Cruces Super 8, it was time for Gustavo to wake us up early again. We unloaded the bikes at Gustavo’s relative’s place and sorted the “truck stuff” from the “bike stuff”.
Finally we were on the road.
First stop: El Paso for some gas. I was impressed by the fancy bridges and over-passes we drove on and under. Some serious spending of tax dollars here. I also felt like there were a lot of high-dollar cars driving around. I knew to expect this in California, but had not expected it in Texas.
From the gas station in Texas, it was back to New Mexico and the Santa Teresa border station where we got our vehicle permits and tourist permits. There was no waiting in line at this station, and because Gustavo had told us exactly what we would need, it was pretty easy.
Now we were in Mexico!
As we would find out, there is a lot of “high desert” in northern Mexico. We were on a lot of roads that have sections where you can see the road disappearing straight over the horizon 10 miles away, alternating with sections where the road has to go over a ridge or minor mountain range.
First snack and photo stop in Mexico:
We got the vehicle permits at the border station, but no-one there checked them. I hadn’t realized it, but there is a sort of “free trade zone” along the border. The Mexican government wisely realizes that people who live right on the border will probably buy vehicles and lots of other stuff in Texas and New Mexico. Rather than try to tax and/or track all of that, they just set up a sort of secondary border beyond which you actually do have to have the permit.
Right before this check station we stopped because Tony’s KTM had hit reserve earlier than expected. This might have been due to some top speed testing that Gustavo carried out on a long straight section of road. In any case, Tony had a siphon, and we transferred some gas from my miserly DL650 to the gas-sucking KTM :evil
We ate lunch in Ascension at El Dorado. Our first taste of authentic Mexican cuisine on the trip, and Tony would claim that they had the best salsa of any meal for the whole trip.
We arrived in Nuevo Casas Grandes in mid-afternoon and checked into the Hotel Pinon.
We still had several hours of daylight after we had taken our luggage off the bikes, so we headed over to the small town of Juan Mata Ortiz. This otherwise unremarkable little village has become famous for its pottery. The locals emulate the designs of the indians that inhabited the area long ago, and the pottery arts have become highly refined here.
(“DEMOSTRATION” is a big word, and difficult to spell correctly 😉 )
Apparently one of the local residents discovered a cave which contained several whole pots as a teenager 40 or 50 years ago. Before then, only pottery shards had been found. Inspired by his discovery, the young man began experimenting with clay and firing to try to emulate the pots he discovered. However, no-one in the village knew what the actual method of clay mixing details and firing had been, so it took him many years to finally make pots that held together. Eventually he discovered the formula, and he began making better and better pots. He taught his sons and some other people in the village, and finally the village has become famous for its pots.
After admiring the pots, Gustavo decided the old train station was a piece of art itself, and he was determined to get a picture of the bikes in front of the station. Because of the late afternoon light, we had to ride the bikes up onto the platform to get the picture.
I think we surprised a few people by riding up there, but the train station was a cool color :deal
As Gustavo mentioned, on the way back from Mata Ortiz, we tried to go up and see the cave where the boy discovered the pots long ago. The road has a clear sign from the highway, but no indication of how far it is. We blasted over the flat part of the valley, then started to climb up into the hills.
After a couple miles, we found this shrine beside the road.
I was surprised to find a candle burning in the shrine since we had seen no sign of traffic, and this is pretty remote.
The road continues to climb out of the valley, and offers some great views.
And some fun dirt road riding
Eventually we started running out of light, and we didn’t want to be riding back down this thing in the dark. A truck with some ranchers came by and told us it was still 5 miles or so to the cave, and we were already 14 miles into this road. We turned around.
We were riding in the shade, but the sun was still up on the other side of the valley.
We made it back to Nuevo Casas Grandes just before dark.