Too far to go on a washed out pseudo-road. Given the chance to do it again, I'd take a mule.
One of the hundreds of mud pitted turns.
After getting down this canyon and back I'm ready for some X-Games stunt motorcycling!
They used to pack the silver on mules for the 15 day journey to the city of Chihuahua. I'm sure it was heavily guarded.
It turns out the men of this forgotten town, whose silver mine closed in 1930, cultivate marijuana up in the steep folds of this impregnable world. Helicopters can't land and there is only one way in and one way out. See story below.
Steeper than the wall of the room you're in right now
2000 meter descent
Lost World We rode down 40 miles of the worst, most treacherous road any of us had ever seen. It is steep, switch-backed, washed out, and made of loose rock. It has the occasional boulder, burro, cow, bull or pick up truck in the way. The unguarded right side going down was a sheer unprotected drop-off sometimes for thousands of feet. I’ll admit there were times I was frightened. My hands had a white knuckled death grip on the controls most of the way down. It took Mac and me 6 and ½ hours to make the descent. I dropped the Suzuki in a mud pit on a tight curve. The front wheel slipped in the bottom of the pit and it threw me hard to the left. I was down in an instant. The bike and I were unscathed but it made me even more nervous. When we finally reached the bottom we learned that three BMW’s went down, one of them three times. Nick, our best rider got so tired going down, standing on his pegs and muscling over rock debris that he lost his riding abilities and some of his nerve. In his youth he was a race car driver who's career ended when he drove his rally car over a cliff in a race in the Netherlands in which he broke his back. No wondr he was nervous. Also 1 BMW rider became too fatigued to continue and insisted the bike be put in the van so they could ride down the rest of the way.
Now we’re all at the bottom of this terribly deep canyon resting for 24 hours before we have to go back up the same insane 40 mile track. Everyone is nervous, we shouldn’t have come down here. We start back up in the morning and our worst fear has come to pass, it’s raining. The road will now be slippery too. If you’re reading this then I made it up.
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In fact I made it to the top in only four hours (so for the 40 mile ascent, that’s 10mph). We then had to complete another 180 miles of twisty paved mountain roads. We’re now in a big poor town called Parrel. I’m too tired to go to dinner or post pictures. Tomorrow is a 450 mile odyssey so I need some sleep. Hopefully I can post some details about Batopilas and photos soon.
Why are 1100 people living in the bottom of a canyon when the silver mine stopped producing in 1930?
Now we’re all at the bottom of this terribly deep canyon resting for 24 hours before we have to go back up the same insane 40 mile track. Everyone is nervous, we shouldn’t have come down here. We start back up in the morning and our worst fear has come to pass, it’s raining. The road will now be slippery too. If you’re reading this then I made it up.
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In fact I made it to the top in only four hours (so for the 40 mile ascent, that’s 10mph). We then had to complete another 180 miles of twisty paved mountain roads. We’re now in a big poor town called Parrel. I’m too tired to go to dinner or post pictures. Tomorrow is a 450 mile odyssey so I need some sleep. Hopefully I can post some details about Batopilas and photos soon.
Why are 1100 people living in the bottom of a canyon when the silver mine stopped producing in 1930?
That's the question I kept asking when I was down there. There didn't appear to be a plausible explanation. How did these folks support their families? After asking many people I finally found out why most of the adult men were gone and what they did to support themselves. It's harvest time in the marihuana fields. Yes, they grow pot in this beautiful, impregnable mountain
region. Choppers have no place to land, and there is only one miserable road in. Some say that the state of Chihuahua provides 90% of the pot in the USA. I don't know but the men here drive large new pick-ups and the town is thriving. At least it's not opium.
region. Choppers have no place to land, and there is only one miserable road in. Some say that the state of Chihuahua provides 90% of the pot in the USA. I don't know but the men here drive large new pick-ups and the town is thriving. At least it's not opium.
The indiginous indians here are the Tarahumara. The men wear white skirts with a long tail piece. That is the hem is not horizontal. The back is longer than the front. They also wear a pleated blouse-like shirt. I never saw any of them working. They were either just walking down the road or sitting on the edge of one of the cliffs and staring off into space. The non-indians say the Tarahumara have drinking and drug problems. They seemed to be coping within a world that others changed without their consent. They were here before silver was discovered in 1546 and before pot was more recently mined. I always root for the Indians!
1 comment:
Hey Jim,
It looks like a beautiful ride...wish I was there! The slide show is gorgeous so keep up the good work. Let me know if you need anything.
Dan
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