Mextrek #10 Ride Report, Oct 2019, Galeana, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

[Dao]

then it was time to get down to serious business...

 

[Dao]

 

[Mextrekadv]

Awesome pics and write up Dao! I felt like I was there again.

 

[Vinny]

Thanks for taking the time Dao

 

[Mextrekadv]

I'm gonna share some video moments and type a little less this time, jaja...all raw unedited.

The concrete slog to Galeana on Thursday:

Lunch in Montemores at Fonda Mike's

Headed up to Rayones

My worst moto fear come to life

Long way in with Casey

Cienega d t

Rain, yucky rain...it caught us good

Finally in Galeana

Chasing crow

Day 2 exploration ride:. "Steve's Crevice"

At a locked gate:

Washed out road with Thomas

Down time in a dead end wash

Lazy day 3. Backside Cerro Potosi with Jim, Sean, Jae, BebeMark, Shai, Tim

And back down

Breakfast Saturday, steamy

Sunday half the group headed stateside. Another 21 started the after party. 325 miles of concrete, 6 flats, 3 laps of a local mx track, and we were in San Miguel at 9pm. Breakfast scene in Gingolandia

Snafu day ride to El Cerrito pyramid (closed mondays) the Bernal megalith

Then on to Guanajuato for Halloween and DOTD

And then things went Plaid for 3 days...

And Seans playlist hit the Plaza la Paz

We were entertained

And we entertained ourselves

And others

Faded in and out

Saw the town in full swing

Enjoyed the alleyway men and this performance by our new face painting buddy Val

Till the wee hours

Danced in a tunel of old graves

Toasted our friends

And had no regrets

Then we headed north. Most recovered and went to bed early on Santiago. We were all "Guanajuatiendo'd". Alan and I stayed a couple extra for dentists and pre runs of Mextrek #11.

In this slo mo clip you can really see the beauty!

I'm already getting excited for MT#11. The fun will start exactly here on April 24th.

¿Estás listo Mextrek Amigos?

 

[kayakkawakid]

Dude...la Trinidad has concrete twisties. 10 yrs ago, it was all offroad. Mexico's dirt is slowly disappearing.
You better sign up for April's mextrek before it's too late lol.

 

[euromedic]

Thanks for all the reporting. [emoji851] Its been two years since this day...[emoji1783]

Looking forward to MT XI [emoji120][emoji1272][emoji172]




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[Mextrekadv]

And now a big mess of pictures in Chrono order!! Day One: Lunch at Fonda Miguel's

 

[Mextrekadv]

Riding up to Rayones:

 

[Mextrekadv]

And then from Rayones to Cienega Del Toro, where the rain came in heavy and my good sense told me not to repeat Mextrek #9 and lose a phone to moisture on Day 1. So the phone went in a pocket and pictures ended abruptly.

Funny, Milton idled through town after the tienda, took a turn north or maybe south. JT was a bit nervous. So Steve, our continuous hero, headed north into a bleak heavy gray and thunderous rainstorm at 90 MPH on concrete. We all should know that Milton knows the way. This is his backyard. But we just had to make sure.

A few miles later we caught up to Milton, on the right path, smiling, shivering, and riding with one glove's whereabouts TBD. All made it to Galeana fine this year. Hopefully my Day 1 (go slow, a crash ruins your next 10 days of Mexico) versus Day 10 (a crash means you can't ride home, but your 10 days in Mexico were glorious) speech is starting to sink in.

Ah, there's the smile!!!

 

[Mextrekadv]

We had dinner and drinks at the General, A few more maybe at the pool hall, and a fun night telling funny stories back at the Magdelena. We had maybe 46 or 47 bikes on the plaza. A full house.

Scott Brown looks amazing for 57 years old, right???

The next morning we had our usual General Breakfast, then maybe another breakfast and coffee. A late departure meant an easy day. We were exploring a road Steve had noticed. Close to town, the route is through Potrero Prieto and it is rumored there are some hot springs in the area.

We made to the town of Potrero Prieta without drama, a short 20 minute ride.

Then we continued up a very steep crevace and out onto some of the most beautiful scenery around. And Galeana is literally on the other side of the mountain on the west, or left in this photo.

Postcard pretty

Down a washed out road.

 

[Mextrekadv]

We tackled the hard stuff, then got tackled by the easy stuff....

Alan was fine.

 

[Mextrekadv]

This trip, Mextrek #10, was 10 years after my first Mextrek, #2. I find this picture on the net and think to myself, as much as Alan feels like he got tackled, the Mexican people got doubly Peso tackled. 13 pesos to the dollar and a double room was $21.53 USD. Mextrek #10 the price was, I think, 620 pesos. At 19 to the dollar this is $32.61. If we take out USA inflation... A room in the US was $21.53 in 2009, and with inflation it would be about $25.83 in 2019. So, for us Gringos, we are about $6 worse off per night at the Magdelena in 2019, mainly because Mexico is catching up to the US in GDP per capita every year, so things are just more expensive there.

To the average Mexican the price of the room went from $21.53 to $47.69. More than double. Now that is inflation!!!!!

I'm not going to show Nora's picture in 2009. Like me, she has another 10 years of life, and we're both slightly inflated.

 

[Mextrekadv]

After the river we did an insane amount of searching to find an outlet from the road we were on to the Galeana Rayones highway. We could see it, only 500 yards away, but every creek bed turned up a dead end, every road led to a farm. We poked and prodded for at least 2 hours. Then resigned ourselves to head back the same way we came. Fun day, lots of new tree branch scrapes on the CBR500RXRX, and a new goal for 2020 to find a reverse route to connect this road. It is amazing and adding it to the Day 1 trek into town would be a great addition.

 

[Mextrekadv]

Another night at the General, spent with my personal hero Miton, seen here with "Kentucky" Ken. A few more drinks and leftover tacos (it pays to come late to dinner) and then the brain fades....

But there is a great story of the 3 lost amigos down near Buena Vista. I'll skip it other than to say AB and Valdemar had us plugged in to the rescue service, police chief, 4 wd ambulance, a 4x4 at Rancho Camarones, maybe some donkeys, and his good buddy stopping in to the General to be sure all was handled. These guys are great!! AB and Valdemar and Steve really went above and beyond for us this trip.

 

[Mextrekadv]

Day 3, Saturday saw a big search and rescue party head towards the 3 lost amigos. My little group decided to play around town and ride really close stuff. A good late breakfast....

Despite the slow pace, I had an agenda: 10 years of Mex Trekking and I never summited Cerro Potosi. We started with a close and steep hillclimb to test things out for a few new guys. Laura was training for an ultra hardcore running race. We met her at the summit of the radio tower behind Galeana.

Looking towards Potosi.

Sean and Shai picking a new best friend's....

nose.

Past the dump, to the lake for a quick lap

Then following Jim Bender and Sean we made out way up the backside. It is truly beautiful and if you are a capable rider on a smaller bike it is a difficult little climb with some super steep switchbacks. And at 12k feet it will suck Justine's poor little KLX250S of all its forward motivation. She had to uturn. Sad day. but she'll be back soon, with mods.

Our ride leader Jim B, who has his own moto tour company on the other side of the world.

Higher and higher

It went from pretty to truly draw droppingly beautiful. A not to be missed ride, tough, not too long, and wow!!!

My CBR concoction loved the backside climb. I was growing concerned about the downhill with my whopping 4.2 inches of front suspension travel...

Sean waiting patiently.

Almost there...this is where the little KLX and Bebe Mark's no starter, no clutch cable KLR gave up the fight. It was machine, not rider, 100%

And we summited. With excitement. And another TUBliss flat tire or 6. And Shai not sure how to react to it all...

 

[Mextrekadv]

The way down was a lot less eventfull. Just a million or 20 jouncing miserable gosh darned cobblestones in poor repair. My teeth rattled, a fairing bolt backed out, and I ran a tad wide on some gravel, jumped a dislodged cobblestone, landed on it's twin brother 8 feet further down the road, and busted my butt. Left leg pinned and 180 degrees twisted inside. I am still in pain as I write this 3 weeks later. Seems I maybe did a little patella damage that the Mescal masked for a week or two. And I broke off another stupid blinker. That's two blinkers I've donated to the Aztek god of Sacrificial Parts, "Farklesmash". And two annoying painful little run-ins with the Aztek God of Dirt, "TerraFirma" on this little CBR. Oops, riding a Day 6 pace on Day 3 will often bite you.

The boys got the flat tire sorted. And by sorted I mean it was ridden flat down 26 KM's of cobbles. Husky 701's are some tough little dirt bikes. A preview of what running a tubeless flat for an eternity does 17 miles into a 335 mile day....

Tim says, "Don't look at me!!!, I all ready done tolt him".

 

[Mextrekadv]

Right at dinner that night we got some somber news that a rider crashed hard into a dry river. He has since been evac'd to the USA, bike and gear and truck taken home, and is expected to make a full recovery. Hats off to Steve, Reagan, Jerrod, Jim, AB, Valdemar, and Alan for making all of this happen, almost seamlessly in the eyes of the rest of the group. It was a really significantly big challenge and we overcame. Good work. Day 1 pace for the duration of the ride is a great way to make it home safely, but even then there are variables beyond our control. We are just truly thankful that the downed rider is well and in good spirits.

 

[Mextrekadv]

Sadly, Mextrek #10 ends with 28 or 30 riders heading back to Mission, mainly on concrete. It was a wonderful trip. I met many new friends, and cherished the ridiculously good time I had with my "Mextrek Amigos" in Galeana. Every year the friendships grow, the fun multiplies, and we add new and interesting members to our little parade of "not normal". Every single person contributes in a new way just by being there. Every rider is welcomed back with open arms. I will do Mextrek many years to come, to multiple destination and formats, on many different iterations, riding lots of big and small bikes, with hundreds if not thousands of quality people. For anyone who hasn't taken their motorcycle to Mexico, I hope you will join us.

See you Mextrekkers in April on Mextrek #11, Destination Santiago:

Mextrek #10.5 Destination: Santiago Xilitla Cancelled

Border is officially closed till July 21st. So April Mextrek, which was July, is now officially a no go. According to an informal poll, August is too darn hot. September too close to Mextrek in October. everythong that follows is null and void!!!! The After Party V5.0 will be very loosely...

www.twtex.com

Adios,

Pedro Norte

 

[Mextrekadv]

Whew, Mextrek is over. Day 4 the sun is shining. And the After Party Version 3.0 is just taking off with a new destination only 335 miles away. Amigos, post up some pics and videos and stories, please!!!! I'll leave this here for a couple of weeks till I get some free time to update.

 

[JT]

And then from Rayones to Cienega Del Toro, where the rain came in heavy and my good sense told me not to repeat Mextrek #9 and lose a phone to moisture on Day 1. So the phone went in a pocket and pictures ended abruptly.

Funny, Milton idled through town after the tienda, took a turn north or maybe south. JT was a bit nervous. So Steve, our continuous hero, headed north into a bleak heavy gray and thunderous rainstorm at 90 MPH on concrete. We all should know that Milton knows the way. This is his backyard. But we just had to make sure.

A few miles later we caught up to Milton, on the right path, smiling, shivering, and riding with one glove's whereabouts TBD. All made it to Galeana fine this year. Hopefully my Day 1 (go slow, a crash ruins your next 10 days of Mexico) versus Day 10 (a crash means you can't ride home, but your 10 days in Mexico were glorious) speech is starting to sink in.

I guess you missed it. Milton did take a wrong turn. Steve, nor one else caught up to him. After I decided to go on to Rayones, I saw a headlight behind me and stopped. It was Milton. He had gone the wrong way out of town and finally figured out he was on the wrong road.

 

[Flesh Wound]

I am still adding my shots to this album. Wanted to post it here for official records

MexTrek 10: the Doody Files

602 new items · Album by casey Doody

photos.google.com

 

[Del]

Sounds and looks like you 'al had a wonderful time. I enjoyed seeing all the pics and reading all of the stories... My bike has not made it to Mexico yet so maybe its about time it heads on south of the order. Thanks to everyone for sharing this!!

 

[subcomm]

Guanajuato - an extremely picturesque centro. This was my first visit here. Being able to experience it with all your buddies is priceless.


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[K-Rider]