October 15 - 16, 2002: Chihuahau - Creel

Odometer: 11,766

While in Presidio, we decided to take advantage of one of the oldest US Government agency services and mailed home a whole bunch of stuff we just were'nt using or knew we wouldn't. Just hope it gets were it's going.

From there we tried to find an internet cafe in town, but to no avail. So we went for our first border crossing into Ojinaga, Mexico, part of the state of Chihauhau. Eye opener baby! Presidio Texas is a sleepy little burge playing host to mostly border patrol and the tiny industry that surrounds that. But Ojinaga is Mexico the way it is. Got a real good taste. And I ran the very first red light I came upon in Mexico. D'oh! Luckily only a couple local kids saw me. They got a good laugh.

After dorking around in Ojinaga for about an hour, changing cash and tring to find an internet cafe we decided to just push on to Chihauhau City. They way there is via Ruta 16 and there were a couple of stops by the authorities on the way, but for the most part the ride (~150 miles) is spectacular. The MOFOs would love this road as it passes over about half-a-dozen mountain ranges through the desert. Very twisty road except for the last 50 miles which are your basic straight as an arrow drole.

The state of Chihauhau surprised me. I was expecting jungle or something but it is just the opposite up north here. And it is gorgeous. The pics won't do the place justice as most of it really needs to be taken in the panoramic. Getting the big picture.

The routine stops were interesting. Hugh and I had split up at an overlook, he ahead of me. At the customs stop, the guy asked me if I was alone. After I told him no and was on my way, I thought that it was an odd question. I knew that another pasty white gringo just passed through on a loaded down dual-sport, so why ask? Then I started thinking, maybe that fool Caldwell ran off the road prior to the checkpoint. No such luck ;-) He was sipping a soda at the next little burg up the road.

The next checkpoint was held by the Chihauhaun Gaurd. They were purportedly looking for drug smugglers. We were just waved on through. In fact the next day on our way to Creel, the main-man was very helpful. Probably helped that I mostly understood his interogatory, "Donde Viene?". Los Estados Unidos, en vaccaciones. (where are you headed, {i guessed}). Barranco de Cobre. And then he proceeded to offer directions to the Copper Canyons. Cool. So far (crossing fingers), no hassles from the authorities.

Anyway, we arrived in Chihauhau City around 5:30pm and went in search of a hotel with phone. We found the Hotel San Juan which was...cozy. Cold water, but firm bed and only $10/room so we each got our own. We found an internet cafe and uploaded what we had so far then found food and slept. Not much to do in Chihauhau City. It pretty much closes down around 10:30pm. Ah well.

The next morning we huffed our heavy luggage down the two flights and across the veranda of the hotel and loaded up for a relatively shorter day. We were on our way to the Copper canyons with the final destination being Batopilas.

As we rode out of the city and into the desert again, again the roads started to twist and turn unexpectadly fun. As we rode on, the geography definitely begain to get more green and flat indicating farm land. Also, we were climbing.

Our intention was to get as far as Batopilas, but we decided to make a two day stay in the Copper Canyon lands and opted for Creel. As we approached the area, pines began to take over the mountain sides were scrub was all that we saw for most of the last three days. It reminded me a lot of the sparse areas around the Adirondacks(sp) in New York. The temperature was holding around 75, but it felt a lot cooler.

We arrived in Creel around 3pm and got a hotel room at the Karachi and decided to go in search of Cascada de Cusarare. On the way, we passed 6 KLRs coming the other direction. I immediately knew that they belonged to the group of riders that our associate in Presidio was talking about. I wanted to stop, but thought, I'd go look for them in town later. About 2 minutes later the leader had pulled over and turned back to chase us down. We met him (John) and another of his buddies (Bob) and they made us feel welcome to come join them that evening after our trip to the falls.

Creel is a nice little town built around the tourist industry, but with roots in the Victorian Artisan trades. There are numerous shops that hand make some pretty cool wooden artifacts, such as chests and beds and tables, etc.. We didn't buy any, but it was still cool.

We met up with the KLR group and had a bite to eat and then met them later at a local pub. As a couple of them were already way ahead of us in the drink count, some of the cues and humor in their dynamic got a little lost, but all in all they were a cool bunch of people. They had planned for about a year to take off a couple of weeks and Dual-Sport ride in this area. And let me tell you. This area is made for it.

After a couple of drinks most of them said good evening leaving me, Bob and Hugh for another hour or so. The town pretty much closes down around 10pm, and we had some tough riding ahead. So we said our so longs and went to bed.

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