Day 2: Now What Do We Do?

Several days prior to leaving on this trip I asked Milton if he was going to ride down with us. He was not able to get away Wednesday morning to ride with us but suggested he would meet up with us in Monterrey and ride with us on Thursday. The challenge was I didn’t know what motel we would be staying at in Monterrey, so we arranged for me to email him our location once we arrived. Upon our arrival at the Best Western in Monterrey I sent him an email letting him know we were there and would be leaving at 9 a.m. the next morning.

As it turned out, Milton didn’t leave Austin until about 7 p.m. Wednesday night and arrived in Monterrey on Thursday morning. By the time he got my email and called the Best Western we had departed, missing his call by just minutes.

The first part of our Day 2 route had us entering into Canon Huasteca and riding south to the paved Hwy 20. The map shows the road going all the way through. However, a friend of Milton’s had told him that the road was partially washed out due to a hurricane that had come through Mexico a few months earlier. The friend suggested that one part of the road had been reduced to a short single-track section.

From the hotel parking lot we could see the entrance to Canon Huasteca in the distance. The rocks were a beautiful white color I had never seen before.

Approaching the entrance to Canon Huasteca


Right after we entered the canyon, we spotted this cave high up on a cliff wall


The canyon was beautiful and dramatic, with cliffs soaring into the sky on both sides of the road. We passed a park area that I’m sure is very popular. The road in was paved and we passed several cyclists out for their morning workout. The air was cool and the riding and scenery were fantastic.

A few miles later the pavement ended, replaced by a class 1 unpaved road. You could tell that the road was less traveled and that fewer people ventured in this far. Then we came up to a massively huge dam. Wow!, what a sight. How much water comes through this canyon during a rain that requires such an enormous dam? I don’t know and it was dry when we went through here.

The road through the dam


As we continued south, the road got worse and worse. In short order it became a class 2 road and then a few miles further it reduced down to a class 3 road. The road follows the dry stream bed south, actually using the stream bed as the road bed in many areas. The loose rocks made riding difficult in many areas, somewhat similar to riding in sand, except with sand pebbles the size of golf balls. Riding in the stream bed required caution because it was so easy to wash out the front tire and go down, which occurred a few times.

I was having a great time. The road was proving to be much more difficult than I expected but nothing that we couldn’t handle and the scenery was amazing. I’m pleased to report that the two Wee-Stroms took it all in stride. What an amazing bike the Wee is.

Taking a short break, hanging out with a cow


Matt on his KLR


The road got pretty treacherous in some areas. Fun, but nasty.


The loose rocks made riding difficult


The road won a few rounds. Not many, but a few


After several hours of riding we came upon Cosme, herding his goats. He lived in the canyon, many hours of travel from the nearest town. We stopped to visit and he told us there was no way to get through south, that the road was completely impassible. I was reluctant to believe him, knowing that if it was true we would have to backtrack for hours because there was no other way out of here. We discussed it and decided to continue up the road to see for ourselves. Perhaps Cosme was underestimating what the bikes were capable of doing.

A short distance later we encountered two guys on 4-wheelers riding north. They had been riding south ahead of us and were forced to turn back because the road was impassible. Reluctantly, we abandoned our attempt to make it south to Hwy 20, turned around and began the long journey back.

The end of the road. The road is impassible ahead and now we have miles of backtracking to do.


Shortly after turning around I spotted a helmet and backpack just sitting on the ground next to the road. It wasn’t there when we had come through earlier. Whose was it? Then I heard someone hollering at me from a distance. It was Milton. He had been chasing us all day, but had gotten off course, crashed, and broken his clutch perch.

We walked with him to bike and did a trail-side repair of the clutch perch with JBWeld and zip ties. It worked so well he was able to ride his bike for the rest of the trip with no clutch issues.

Running into Milton on the trail


JB Welding the clutch perch


Once the clutch was repaired and Milton had extracted his bike from the creek bed, we planned our next course of action. About 7 miles back there was a road that went west toward Saltillo. We could run that road west for many miles until we reach another road that went south to Galeana. At this point I knew we would be racing against time. Our new route added many miles to our journey and it was becoming increasingly unlikely that we would reach Galeana for the 6 p.m. riders meeting. The good news was that the road west was not near as rough as the one we had been riding, so we could possible make better time. Off we went. Despite the time crunch, the riding was fantastic and the views were magnificient.

Heading west to El Pajonal


Arriving in El Pajonal, which consisted of just a few houses


El Pajonal. 16 habitants.


I didn’t see Dave fall, but his blinker was busted when he got to El Pajonal.


We continued riding west, headed for San Antonio de la Osamenta and hopefully a store. We were hot and low on water. It sure would be nice to find a store there and tank up on liquids. Sure enough, the first thing we spotted when we arrived was a small store. Closed.

Milton asked about the store and was directed to the owner’s house. The owner was outside and after a brief conversation agreed to open the store for us. Ahhhhh.

Negotiating to get the store opened


Wow, those drinks sure tasted good. Milton and Matt enjoying a pause that refreshes.


The owner and his 2 daughters


Leaving San Antonio de la Osamenta, we climbed up and over the pass Puerto Del Conejo at around 7500 feet in elevation. Dropping back down into a valley on the other side, it wasn’t long before we reached El Carmen Las Vigas. The road continued to improve, allowing us to ride a little faster.

Headed west toward El Carmen and pavement


Once we finally reached pavement we had a decision to make. We could run pavement all the way to Galeana or we could run dirt. The advantage pavement had was that we knew we would be able to maintain a higher pace. The disadvantage was that the pavement was many, many miles further than the dirt route. The dirt route, while significantly shorter, was also somewhat unknown to us, nor did we know how quick of a pace we would be able to maintain on it. A brief discussion amongst the group and we selected the dirt route.

We stopped along the way and purchased gasoline Mexico style – from a plastic jug. A little store had a supply of gasoline in 5 liter jugs, so we each added 5 liters to our tanks. Sorry, I was pouring gas and didn’t get any pics.

For the next 4 hours we rode cross country, making our way to Galeana. Unfortunately, more than 2 hours of that was in the dark, crossing two mountain passes during the process.

We spent about an hour riding along this road, which in the dark made the riding very interesting indeed.


Finally, at 10:30 p.m., after 12 hours on the bikes and only 4.5 hours late for the riders meeting, we arrived in Galeana. All that was left to do this day was to check into our rooms, have a quick riders meeting so teams and routes for the next day could be decided upon, drink a couple of cold ones, and tell a few lies and exaggerations about the day. Despite not turning out like we planned and pretty much whuppin our butts, it had been a great day on the bikes. Day 3 promised to bring more of the same.

Day 3