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The sketchyest road ever built
There are sketchier roads out there, I´m sure but they weren´t planned and paved by engineers. whoever thought this one was a good idea must have been crazy. I know I was to have gone down it.... Coming in to Creel, Chihuaua at just over the far side of 700km since I left Bisbee Az. At 6 am this morning was a bit jarring. My hands are still shaking and trying to feather a clutch, twist a throttle. I found a place for cheap with dinner included, hot and ready (thanks lonely planet for coming through in a crunch). I gorged it down as the last glimmers of pink faded into deep blue over the hills to the west.
I’ve generally enjoyed the shock of leaving a cool alpine or coastline for a barren desert or viceversa as I meandered across the States. But as I strolled down the main drag here in Creel, it was almost all I could take. It didn’t help that there was a tricked out sixties Chevy pickup creeping along just behind me for 500 m blasting “girls just want to have fun” I expected some over-sentimental Texano or the like, but Cindi effing Lopper?!! Where the hell am I?
For the stretches - never more than 20 km at a time - between towns, the cool air and ponderosa pines might trick one into thinking they were at the north rim of
Just to add to the sketch...
A young bull, just chilling. and thank god for that. If he was doing anything but chilling... well, let´s just say I would have had a tough time out running him. I tucked my red hankerchief under my shirt, just to be safe... the grand canyon, rather than the possibly grander Copper Canyon just up the road. All day it was like deja vu - no “same same but different” - as I cruesed through the Sonoran and Chihuauan countryside. A soon as I hit a town and coasted over the massive speed bumps, I would briefly be brought back to reality - this is it, i’m finally in mexico.
It was a long shot getting here. I woke up on a staircase in Bisbee after having been chased out of Tombstone by the lawman. I'd had about 5 hours of sleep over three or four attempts and in as many spots. When I rolled into Tombstone, it was much like today. The sun was setting a fantastic display off the low clouds, hills and cliffs. You were litterally
in the sunset. I had intended on getting there a little earlier but again, it was a full day on the bike in the desert. Worse even because I had chores to take care of in Tucson which involved baking in midafternoon traffic.
NEXT DAY.
Despite the fact that I swore I wouldn´t get back on the bike for 24 hours,
Access
Despite the fact that I felt like an ass rolling up to these lookouts and what not past the Tarahumara homes and tour operators, this place blows the Grand Canyon out of the water in terms of access. Especially on a bike. thats exactly what I did, almost first thing. And i´m glad. She´s probably not. I took her down teh bumpiest, sketchiest road to get to a hotsprings which should have been billed as a piss-warm springs. But that´s about as hot as you want it. I went to try to soak out the knots tied behind my shoulder blades, but to no avail. they just got worse as i jostled down 800 meters of boulders glued together with concrete. And that was over 4 km with a lot of flats at the bottom and top. Someone bust out they´re pythagorean skills and do the math but the average incline must have been close to 45 degrees. A prize for the first to post the right answer? Show your work.
After making it back up I rode down to Devisadero to check out the views. Imagine a Grand Canyon South Rim without all the tourists and where the park rangers are Tarahumara, the indigenous people of the region. spectacular.
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KG
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Go Hesje Go
Rock the Chihuahua, and keep a spare tube around, eh?