Wrong Way 'Round the Bend 2011

[miltonotto]

Day2: Wrong Way 'Round the Bend 2011

........Let's see. Where was I. Oh, yeah..............

Headed towards the Carmens from La Mula. I'll admit, I was excited

On the otherside of the locked gate.

We had the feeling of total isolation. We had passed two signs, one handwritten Cerrado El Paso and the other more formal Prohibito. The particular spot in the Sierras we're headed for is called El Jardin.

The "road" hasn't seen a vehicle in a very long time. John blossoms into full glory as he picks our way thru the many unused intersections, working the GPS.

Tantalizing roads stretched up nearby hills. But how do we get to them?

The roads were fairly good on top of the hills, but inevitably they descend into gnarly ravines and arroyos.

We came to a 4-way intersection, and had to explore all 4 choices before deciding which one was correct. Gnarly roads, then turn-arounds. Back to where we started and try another one. John muttering to himself, tried to explain how the GPS just didn't know automatically which way to go when at a choice of roads.

Cut the c***, John. Get to the point! Just tell me--What do you want me to do? (He's doing an awesome job, and doesn't have to explain GPS limitations. Just get on with it.)

We came to an arroyo and couldn't figure out what happened to the road. There was evidence of recent water. This must be the "low water" the kid talked about back in La Mula . The arroyo was thick with fine sand. Do we really have to go over those football sized rocks? I dismount to pick a line thru the rocks, just in case John says this is the way. John scouts around up ahead. This is the road! The road leaves the arroyo here! I'm skerred. These must be the rocks the kid warned us about. And the sand! But what am I babbling about. This is what adventure riding is, right? We all do this, right? Lookin' fer the right road... comes with the territory, so to speak. Unless you can ride well enough that you don't care if you're on the right road or not. Guess we just weren't there yet.

I lost count. How many arroyos did we cross? How many times did John lead us down an arroyo and exit at some little gap in the brush. I could never have found my way thru this maze without him. My little 1:250 000 topo was useless here.

"What does 'brecha' mean? The GPS is calling this a brecha"
A brecha is... hummmm kinda like a breach in the monte, a break in the brush.
"What does 'vereda' mean? The GPS calls this a vereda.
Vereda means path, like a foot trail.

Photo taken with my iPhone.

How many times did John lead us down an arroyo and exit at some little gap in the brush?
I could never have found my way thru this maze without him.

We exit one last arroyo.
Finally, "We're off the track," John declares.
This time, no matter how much backtracking and searching on foot, he can't find the route he'd plotted for us back home. Well, we're on a road, sort of. It probably leads to that house over there. Maybe someone is living there. Yeah. People!

"This is not the road."

There's a road! Up that hillside. You see that?

Pano from John's camera.

Another pano I stitched together from John's cache of photos.

 

[bigdon55]

Mornin ,Dr. ADVENTURE

 

[miltonotto]

I'm ona roll, but I gotta go to work!

 

[miltonotto]

Day2: Wrong Way 'Round the Bend 2011

The house is abandoned.
The gate is locked. A sign proclaims this place Ejido Boquillas.
Now what? It's getting late in the afternoon and I'm almost pooped.
Sleep in the abadoned hacienda?

We come to a locked gate. A sign proclaims this place Ejido Boquillas. The gate's been locked a long long time.

The house abandoned. I dismount, climb the fence, look for signs of a road. Big eroded gullies and arroyos are all I find.
(another iPhone shot)

John runs the perimeter on his Honda 600CR while I poke around on the otherside of the gate.
What the heck? Now there's John putting up some road on the far side of the house. That John! I run back to my bike. John returns, "I found a road." (Not the road, but a road.)
Well great. Let's go.

Somehow John's found a way out of the fenced-in compound we've found ourselves in. It's a good road that runs along the Ejido Boquillas fence, then there is a steep bear of a hill, that our little bikes crest with no problem. We run along, ......... but ....... soon the "road" just peters out. We are a little confused. It took no small effort to build the road up that last hill.

Cross-country
But it's open country up here, and we are next to a straight, well cared for fence. It's really good open country so we just head out cross-country, running the fence line. Let's just see where it goes.
Over hill and dale, dodging cactus and yucca plants, dagger plants, kinda nice. Is that a road on the far hillside to the south, on the otherside of the fence? We follow the fence until the terrain becomes less forgiving and starts to get gnarly going downhill.

Once again. Tracker John steps to the plate. "I think I saw a weak fence post back there." We backtrack, well, there was really no other choice.
Dang! John finds this place in the fence line, that's just big enough for a horse or motorcycle to pass thru, where you can undo the barbed wire and let yourself thru.

John closing the gate behind us. Notice the difference in vegetation on the inside of the fence, compared to the outside.

Sunset, Day 2. On the otherside of the fence line. Who's property is this?

We have acres and acres of desert "pasture" to goof around on. Just gotta watch out for gullies, quebradas, or cracks in the terrain. Go up this hill to get a look around. "Lets go over there." I follow John and "over there" is a bluff, where we look down at the abandoned house, Ejido Boquillas!
Ha. That looks familar. We've made a big circle, though now we are a couple hundred feet higher.

It gets dark and I almost loose John in the darkness, meandering around on the hills. John kinda finds a road but he doesn't like it.

We finally settle in on a camp spot. John's afraid we'll wake up to guns in our faces. Myself, I would welcome anyone finding us here. Small fire cooks backpacker meal. There's a kazillion stars that night. Watch the constellations wheel around the sky. Much colder here than last night.

 

[bobcat]

This is great!

 

[Trail Boss]

Hey, Milton's story is so good it even got bobcat to post. Welcome back, bobcat.

 

[cdc]

The story and the pictures are getting better . . .

 

[Mextrekadv]

Wow!

 

[miltonotto]

Day3: Wrong Way 'Round the Bend 2011

Our campsite, morning, Day3.

My odo sez we've come 20 miles since our last touch with humanity, the dude back at the house in La Mula.
And that 20 miles includes a lot of backtracking.

According to the gps, we did 106 miles the first day, 62 miles the second, and 16 the third, only 6 of which was forward progress.

My little nest. Tents are over-rated.

John strings up his hammock. Since his air mattress is kaput.

The day started off with John having a ball tracing cow trails on his GPS.
"This is our route!" He's happy.
This is a cow trail, John.
"This is the route I plotted on Google Maps! We're on the right road."
This is a cow trail, John.

Past some old stuff lying around. We seem to be headed in the right direction alright. Its a beautiful morning.

Well what do you know! We're here in El Jardin. The place I visited in 1994 in an Isuzu Trooper.
The water tank.... I remember this water tank.
And we camped right over there.
There will be some houses up on the left.

The water tank at El Jardin. I remembered this water tank. We bathed here 17 years ago.

I camped right up there on that hill to the left. Next to Elvira's Crack.

Stuff you might find useful later on. Goat herders shack, El Jardin.

Oops. Forgot to get a picture of the goat herders' shack. Here you can see the corral and stables area. The area is called El Jardin.

El Jardin.
A view looking down on the goat herders' spread, the dark brown earth in the center of the photo is the stables area.
Our road is to the right. Yes, we have a road now!

That canyon up there is called Elvira's Crack.

WooHoo. Won't be long now we'll be on Terlingua's porch.

Cresting the hill beyond the goat herders's shack. El Jardin.

We had a road ok. But it was a rough road. I hated it. But I endured with a lot of work. Softball sized rocks and all.
I pointed the canyon out to John.
We'll be leaving out through that canyon, back to the desert floor.
To the road that goes to Boquillas.

We saw some cowboys here, way off in the distance.

But.............. the road deteriorated into a goat trail.
This was getting technical.
We decided to leap frog. John would go do 20 yards or so, then I'd follow. Then he'd go down another 20.

The goat trail and the canyon beyond.

Finally he shouted back. This is it. We can't go down any further.

End of the line.
The goat trail ends in a boulder chute. Just short of the canyon floor.
Man, I hate it when that happens.

 

[Fiddyone]

this looks to havebeen a fantastic ride. Too cool

 

[Alex4218]

Ever since I was 12, I've wanted to explore the Sierra del Carmens. This is awesome!

 

[DFW_Warrior]

Usually I don't read ride reports at all, but this one has me sitting here waiting for the next installment. Very good so far and I can't wait for the rest.

 

[Deleted member 10404]

I, too, usually don't read ride reports, but this great! Very captivating, humorous, crazy, etc!!! I love it!

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

 

[miltonotto]

Day3: Wrong Way 'Round the Bend 2011

By Day3 water had become a priority.
We are slow to realize this.

You and I, the people reading this RR, we are all saturated with water. Without even realizing it. Everything seems normal. Take any one of us, take us from our daily lives and pop us into the desert…… and, well…., we’ll do ok. For the 1st day. (Hey, I don’t need much water.) Day 2? Still coastin’. ‘Least that’s the way it seemed to me.

By Day 3 dehydration has come to roost.

We had ridden right by a water tank without much thought. Past the goat herders’ shack of El Jardin, down a rocky road across arid hills, down a goat trail that delivered us to the head of a serious jumble of rock and boulder. We realized we were a long way from out of here. And no water.

John at the head of the boulder chute.

Impasse
Remember the Google Earth photo? Was this where it was taken?

Then there was this picture on the internet. Here's the Link.

We dismounted and without coordination or plan, we separately scouted the territory. I walked down the canyon, maybe a mile or two, to make sure the way was clear up ahead, provided we got past the boulder chute. It was kinda clear. Near the chute was a horse trail that led from our goat trail over a hill and down a ridge. As tempting as it was, actually the boulder chute looked like a better candidate for passage. By the time I got back to the bikes on the goat trail, I was pretty parched.

The boulder chute and canyon bed.

Looks like we’ll have to lower the bikes down the rocks. What do you think, John? You have tie-downs, don’t you?
“What about the horse trail?”

I don’ know. Looked pretty hairy. I’m sure there are those that could ride it down but I don’t think I’m one of them. Maybe we could walk ‘em down.
“Well, I’d rather have the sure footing of the boulders if we’re gonna walk ‘em down. Look, we could follow the GPS tracks back out the way we came in, back through La Mula. Should be easy.”

Negative. We’ve come this far. We ain’t going back. That’s my vote.
“Well..., one thing’s for certain. We - are - out - of - water. If we’re gonna manhandle these bikes down this cascade of boulders, we’re gonna need water. I say we go back to the goat herders’ shack.”

Ahhhh, man! Go back up that road?! Ahhh, man, do we have to?? I don’ wanna.

But the inescapable fact is… we are out of water. John only had a couple of pints left and I had none.

So we got the bikes turned around and headed back to the goat herders’ shack 3 miles back. Going up a steep incline I fall twice in the same spot. On the same wrong line. Each time was a major effort to get the bike rubber-side down. In frustration with the top-heaviness of my bike, I unloaded all my bags right there and left them at the side of the road.

My first pass around the goat herders’ house revealed nada. There was a hose with water in it but the faucet didn’t turn anything on. Must be another cut-off valve. We collapsed in the shade on a 3-foot wide stone “porch” in front of the building. I fell asleep.

“Hey. I found water.” John has discovered a 55-gallon plastic barrel with about 20 gallons of clear water, in back of the house.

Well let’s go!

Making our getaway.
After our raid on the goat herders’ shack.

All water bottles filled, drinking lots and lots of water in the process, we headed back. Back down the gnarly rocky road towards the canyon. It’s getting better…….. isn’t it?

I stop for my bags and drop the bike again. Same d*** spot.
As I’m finishing loading my bags on the bike I hear a curious noise. What tha.... It’s John snoring.

John has fallen asleep in the only shade around. The shade of his bike.
Now that's tired.

There’s a steep hill that requires you to perch yourself at the very crest and make a very sharp, nearly impossible right hand turn with immediate left. Here I fall again. (Fall #4). Further on down the goat trail John falls. I come around the corner to his bike upside down in the rocks below the trail. John sez he went over the handle bars and landed on his helmet.

“Ok. That’ it. We’re done. We are falling too much. I say we take the rest of the day off, camp in the canyon, and start again fresh in the morning.”

Sounds like a plan to me, John. My last fall has pinned my hand brake ON.

Carrying our gear down the boulder chute.

It’s a strange thing. I can’t get enough water. My mouth keeps getting pasty and my tongue sticky. A half pint of water is good for only about 15 minutes. We set up camp in the canyon bed. My lips are cracked and peeling. I have to watch how sticky my mouth feels.

1½ hour walk down the canyon to its exit into the desert, discussing prospective lines. Strangely, there is a truck down at the far end of the canyon. Beat up, horse gate in back, bad tires, rag in the gas tank, but it looks vaguely like a working truck. The pass out to the desert looks impassable to the truck, however. I guess it got trapped up here in the canyon after a flood.

John, you really think we can lower the bikes? You know, I can barely move my bike over 2 feet in my garage.
“Well, we won’t be carrying them UP. Gravity will do most of the work. Oh, I think it’s do-able...... I don’t know if we can do it, but it’s do-able.”

We walk back in the dark. At camp John declines cooked Louisiana red beans & rice. I settle for an avocado instead. Truth be known, I couldn’t bring myself to dump 2½ cups of water into the backpacker’s pouch. Even though, logically, I knew the moisture would be getting into my body.
Water! It's hard to stay hydrated.

Another night under the stars. Wheeling constellations and satellites. This is night #3. It’s warmer in the canyon.
Worried? Yes.
We are so close to the road it's insane.

Walking down the canyon bed.

John’s hammock in the canyon bed.

 

[Ixta]

A world-class adventure ride all within ~50 miles of Texas border. Nice one guys.

 

[alphadog]

"It’s John snoring."
Finally stopped laughing!
Men can fall asleep anywhere, anytime...
Eagerly awaiting the next installment

 

[ScottBrownAdventurer]

 

[alphadog]

This would have made a good slide show at the Junction banquet...

 

[Trail Boss]

This would have made a good slide show at the Junction banquet...

I was thinking the same thing...

 

[ScottBrownAdventurer]

Sure looks like the same chute to me.

Looks doable in the trucks.

 

[JT]

According to the gps, we did 106 miles the first day, 62 miles the second, and 16 the third, only 6 of which was forward progress.

 

[alphadog]

Is this the same John/Honda 650 who rode north from TricePilot's BBQ with me last year?

 

[JT]

Is this the same John/Honda 650 who rode north from TricePilot's BBQ with me last year?

That's me! Hi Lori!

 

[miltonotto]

This would have made a good slide show at the Junction banquet...

Actually, Rich asked me to wait on the rr until Junction. But the story wouldn't let me. The story just had to come out.

 

[cdc]

It's "Survivor John"...