The Test of Copper Canyon - Part II

The road from Batopilas up was supposed to be the easy direction - we already knew what to expect, we knew exactly which corner had a mound of sand in it to avoid, and we knew that cooler weather awaited at the top of the canyon. We got rolling in the morning, making it across a couple of bridges, passing the B&B at la Bufa, and clearing our previous ejection site.

Rounding an easy corner to the left, Mike decided it was a good idea to ride into the right side 2-track in order to stay away from the cliff down to the river. The large, chunky gravel in between the two tracks felt differently for some reason. Mike thought our practically straight path through the gravel was going to be easy going, but no. It was like a mirror image of the fall from the previous day. The front wheel was gone before we knew it, washed down and to the right. The left handlebar hit the ground, Mike´s left ankle was slightly pinned (yay, soft bags!) and Jill was mostly free from the bike. Until it slid into her and launched her forward. She caught all of her body weight on the right bar end just below her right collarbone. That one hurt. And left a sizable goose egg. Thankfully within a few days it cleared up though, so nothing seemed to be too broken.

Our left side engine guard bag was not as lucky. This time the whole velcro strap system pulled out of the back of the bag. We also knocked the left engine guard hard enough to push back into the fairing, but just enough to relocate it a bit, not enough to break any parts of the plastic. Oh yeah, and Jill managed to completely take out the right mirror with her superwoman impersonation (I still think the mirror won).



After all that fun, we made it back out of Copper Canyon. At least the 2 of us were mostly in one piece...



The paved road back out toward Guachochi was a relief. And in that 24 hour period the military checkpoint had moved on already, so it was a quick ride to town. Guachochi is a nice little town where we had a great meal and rested for a minute before heading into Hidalgo del Parral, the city where Francisco ´Pancho´ Villa was assasinated.



Thankfully, there was also a Honda shop at the edge of town where we were able to get a right side mirror for 75 pesos. It may not be OEM, but how can you argue with 6USD? The workers also recommended the hotel that we had passed back up the road, the Hotel Paraíso. 200 pesos, with a garage right below each room. Other amenities included a California king size bed, switches right next to the bed for A/C and music, and only adult films available on the tv. It was very clean, though, so we stayed. There was a great taco stand down the street and we got some rest. Little did we know that they would kick us out at 6 am. I guess 200 pesos is the 12 hour rate. Well, at least we got an early start on towards Durango...