For a short time we followed the remembrance of an old road but it quickly ended and we found ourselves on old cow trails that ran in and out of various creek beds while winding through the hills. The cloud base was low so visibility was poor which gave it a bit of an eerie feeling.
We stopped here to shed some layers as we were working harder with the rough terrain and were starting to overheat.
Here's video of one of the first obstacles we had to overcome as a group. There were many where we had to move the bikes through one at a time. This one we believe will soon be some sort of public road.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8KpOtsJHxE"]Mexico Camping Future Interstate Nov 2013 - YouTube[/ame]
Iz taking his turn at it.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OepKOtiGhV8"]Mexico Camping Iz through obsticle Nov 2013 - YouTube[/ame]
On yet another descent into a creek bottom Iz almost rode off of a cliff. It was maybe only 15ft high but still would not have been fun. He directed the rest of us around and then found his own way down.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIrHpLdD9_E"]Mexico Camping Iz dropping into river bottom Nov 2013 - YouTube[/ame]
Stopping for a quick lunch break.
Each time we arrived at a different obstacle we'd take turns hiking in to determine the best route for the bikes. Here Norbert is taking his turn.
Sometimes a hike up the hill was required to get a better look ahead. If look closely you can see Iz on top of this hill.
He took one of us at the same location.
We spent several hours working our way through these types of obstacles. With each one you couldn't help but wonder if we had finally arrived at an impassable obstacle. Turning around didn't seem like an appealing option either.
Sometimes the brush needed a little clearing. Good thing Iz had the Ka-Bar.
This section was a little tricky.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQz6i_TyG8Y"]Mexico Camping Crossing Creek Nov 2013 - YouTube[/ame]
We knew there was an old mine towards the end of our trail. At one point we noticed an old pick axe sitting on a big rock in the river bottom so we knew we were getting close. There was a small spring pooling out of the ground next to where the pick was lying. We weren't sure if this thing had been there for a hundred years or if it saw recent use. It sure looked like it had been there awhile but we chose not to mess with it. Soon after we ran across one of the mine shafts up on the mountain side.
A mile or so later we ran across traces of the old buildings used to support the mines.
About this time we started seeing a few farmers and goat herders. One guy was living in one of the old mining buildings that he had fixed up a bit. From here on out the trail had turned back into two track so we made pretty good time. We rode up on a rancher and stopped to talk with him a bit. He was a really nice guy and was glad to talk with us.
I got a kick out of one of the horses that was in a pin across from where we were parked. The rock wall was just about as tall as he was but he was so curious about what was going on that he kept jumping up to have a look at us.
Well from here on out was pretty easy riding. We rode a mile or two outside the mountain range and stopped to have a discussion. We had originally planned to go to a nearby canyon to see if there was a way through it. We had planned to camp a second night down there but at this point all of our gear was soaking wet and we decided to switch to plan B and save the canyon adventure for the next trip. Plan B was to ride in the Big Bend Ranch, there was another mountain to cross......
We rode back into Presidio and checked out of the country.
I'll let my buddies tell that story if they are so inclined.