April - 2010

The Disco in the Mine

The Disco in the Mine

Guachochi to Zacatecas, Mexico 3,654 km From Guachochi you take the Chihuahua Highway 23 south and east to Hidalgo del Parral, a city along the major highway that connects Chihuahua to Guadalajara in the south. For a time the forested canyonlands continue but soon the slopes become gradual and the thick pine forest disperses and the land becomes dry everywhere. Soon you are riding through rolling yellow plains, the canyons ever further in the distance but never completely

¡Qué Aventura! ¡Qué Aventura!

¡Qué Aventura! ¡Qué Aventura!

Creel to Guachochi, Mexico 2,688 km Creel is the last major town before you enter the Parque Nacional Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon National Park). Here I took a room and unloaded the luggage from the motorcycle. In the afternoon I took a long hour’s ride along the corkscrew highway that follows the train tracks along and over and through the great canyon ridges. These are the tracks that run from Mazatlan on the coast to Chihuahua in the middle of the empty, mountaino

HONDURAS Valle de Ángeles

HONDURAS Valle de Ángeles

A lovely, mountainous route that gets you the heck out of Tegucigalpa Dist: 63 km; Date: Apr 2010 When you’re ready to get out of Tegucigalpa, find highway N-25 at the northeastern part of the city near the Modesto Rodas neighborhood. Take this all the way to Talanga some meandering 60 km to the north. Good points to stop for the view or to take in the local scenery include: Santa Lucia, Valle de Ángeles, San Juancito, and San Juan de Flores. Somewhere north of San Juan de Fl

Motorcycle Trouble at the Edge of the Canyon

Motorcycle Trouble at the Edge of the Canyon

La Junta to Creel to Chihuahua to Creel, Mexico 2,481 km The 90 kilometers of highway between La Junta and Creel cut through yellow plains, soon becoming rolling hills and canyonlands. Entering the canyonlands around Parque Nacional Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon National Park), the highway first began to meander and then corkscrew among rocky slopes and sharp ridges. It was good riding, great riding: the hard turning, the leaning, the looking through the present turn a

I Am Cold and I Dispair

I Am Cold and I Dispair

Janos to La Junta, Mexico 1,726 km After taking a fall at the highway turnoff I continued on to the ruins of Casas Grandes. The ruins were spread across a rolling field and looked like a labyrinth only the you can see easily over the crumbling stone walls, which are the color of the desert. I decided not to stay in Cuauhtémoc as I had planned because it didn’t seem to me to have much charm besides a pleasant church. So I continued on. Only now it was early evening and the

Gravel Comes Before a Fall

Gravel Comes Before a Fall

Agua Prieta to Janos, Mexico 1,409 km After crossing the border at Agua Prieta I rode east then south on Federal Highway 2. Highway 2 is the western prong of a wishbone-shaped junction that connects with Ciudad Juarez in the east and then runs south to Chihuahua. It is a major trucking route and principal conduit for drug trafficking. The two prongs of the wishbone meet Federal Highway 10 at Janos and from there go south towards Nuevas Casas Grandes and then Chihuahua. Jan

The Departure

The Departure

Reseda, California, to Agua Prieta, Mexico 1,251 km On November 30th I left Los Angeles. My starting point was the Panavision parking lot because it is where my mother works, so it was where to say goodbye to her. Also, it is where much of the preparation work on the motorcycle was done and I could not leave without thanking Dan Charleston, the Panavision Facilities Manager. The next day I rode through the vast desert and the scrubland of eastern California and Arizona. I

On Value

On Value

What about the drug lords and the armed gangs? What about them? I reply. And the banditos – aren’t you afraid of the banditos? Of course, I reply. And on a motorcycle and alone! Dangerous, I reply. Then why do it? Because I can’t not. When you tell your friends and your family that you plan to travel through Mexico, alone no less, and on a motorcycle, something like the above conversation is what almost invariably ensues. If you don’t immediately understand why one

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