Days 60 Through 63: Creel To Guachochi

At long last, it was time to say goodbye to Creel.  Gonzalo and I weren't going very far, but had decided to take all our gear so we could head straight to camp out at Lake Arareko after we hit up a popular dirt road loop outlined by the kind folks at Amigo Trails that covers the main nearby attractions.  One thing that the local Raramuri community near Creel has done right is to leverage their rights to their land into sustainable tourism.  They charge a small fee for tourists to come onto their land, provide a detailed handwritten map, and all the money goes back into the community.  I didn't see nearly as much of the desperate poverty so often found in indigenous communities throughout Latin America.  

A curious bystander.

My best guess is that this old bicycle wheel is used to create the rows to plant crops.

Valley of the Mushrooms.  Though I think this one got a little help...

Valley of the Frogs.

The mission at San Ignacio village.

Gorgeous dirt roads for riding... by this I mean well compacted and relatively flat!

Valle de los Monjes a contraluz.

Valley of the Monks... for those into climbing, we saw at least one rock formation that had bolts installed for climbing (photo credit: Gonzalo).  I recall that Enrique Parra, a local cyclist and climber, told me that he was in the process of installing more bolts.  This area reminded me a lot of Arches National Park... only in gray instead of red.

After a leisurely day pedaling around the various tourist attractions, we decided to head down the road to what we thought would be a more tranquil access to Lake Arareko.  We saw marked on the map that there was camping at the other end of the lake, all we needed to do was to bike a bit further down the road.  When we arrived, it turned out that the "official" campsites were set back several kilometers from the lake due to the fact that the lake was at it's lowest seasonal levels.  I had my hopes set on some nice lake camping and we decided to bike down to the lake bed and see just how far the lake had receded.  At first, our prospects looked dismal... until we hiked our bikes up a footpath and around a bend.  Success!

I was fascinated by the random things growing on my hammock tree at Lake Arareko.

View from my campsite... we were visited several times by the dog in charge of the cattle below.  He seemed confused... are you my cow?  Do I need to bark at you to get you back to the pen?  Oh wait, no, you're not a cow.

Local Raramuri woman washes clothes in the lake across from our campsite.

Sunset over the lake.

I couldn't resist going back to take advantage of the morning light to capture this picture.  You can see just how high the lake levels get after the rains.

On our way out of town, we visited Cusarere in hopes of seeing the Loyola Museum, which is supposed to house a lovely art exhibit.  Unfortunately it was closed.  We did, however, come across the caretaker for the mission.  He entrusted Gonzalo with the key so we could take a look.

Open sesame!

This mission had some nice murals and a small exhibit about its restoration.

Gonzalo gives some candy to the local kids.

And then we were off for some amazing cycling on almost traffic-free winding canyon roads with a huge descent into the bottom of the infamous Copper Canyon.  This was some of the most beautiful and breathtaking riding I have ever done.

The views ain't too bad.

The roads twist and turn through and around canyon walls.

Stunning drop offs.

We went zooming down the canyon until we reached the Humira Bridge which marks the lowest part of the Copper Canyon and which crosses the Urique river.

Ivan at Amigo Trails had told me there was some good camping by the Humira Bridge, so we parked the bikes to investigate.  Although it was a bit early in the day to stop, Gonzalo was overheating from the direct sun and we knew that we had a huge climb back out of the Copper Canyon with uncertain camping prospects ahead.  Access to the river seemed impossible, especially with water levels so low.  The banks were too steep to scramble down, let alone to get bikes down.  We poked around some more and found a lovely camping spot behind the ruins of an old house, perfectly hidden from the road with an aguaje that fed into the river.  There were even a few apple trees!

We are clearly not the first ones to camp here... a well tended fire pit and perfectly clear and flat area were two highlights of this area.

The next day passed by in a blur of climbing, climbing, and more climbing.  It also turns out that I had gotten whatever bug that had hit Gonzalo just a few days before, so I was also suffering from a sore throat, persistent headache, lightheadedness, and even a bit of nausea.  After nearly eight hours of riding, I told Gonzalo I wanted to stop to set up camp.  We had some nice hammock time until the winds picked up and it started to rain.  Unfortunately, Gonzalo's tent pole broke so he set to fixing it while I sat in the cozy comfort of my tent.  To be fair, I did invite him in to hang out while it was raining, but he was determined to fix his tent, rain be damned.  In the end, he was able to use my tent pole repair kit.

The view from our campsite.

I was feeling a bit worse in the morning despite having slept fairly well, but we only had about 50 km to cover before Guachochi, where we planned to stop for a night or two to rest, shower, and prepare for the next leg of our journey.  Not only was I exhausted and slightly delirious when we arrived to Guachochi, but I was a bit chilled due to the cloud cover and strong winds, so our first order of business was to find a local comedor with a good comida corrida... one limeade, a big hearty bowl of chicken soup, and a couple corn tortillas stuffed with marinated pork and beans later, I was in heaven. 

Cloudy morning.

Random door in a random rock.  I can't decide if this is a house or a church or just a figment of my imagination.

A few travel notes for cyclists:

• The cycling loop that takes you through San Ignacio, Valley of the Mushrooms, Frogs, and Monks and then to Lake Arareko is worth doing without all your gear as a day trip.  I saw a ton of awesome little singletrack spurs that I would have loved to do if it weren't for all my gear.

• The camping access points to Lake Arareko are well marked by signs on the road.  The first camping area on the northeast end of the lake is run by the Raramuri community... there are designated campsites, bathrooms, firepits, and boats.  I think it costs about 20 pesos to camp there.  The second camping area on the southeast end of the lake is not actually on the lake.  You have to cycle maybe 1 km past the cabanas and designated camping area to get to the lake.  We opted not to pay to camp and just went straight to the lake.

• There are no stores or restaurants directly off the road between Creel and the turnoff for Batopilas.  Cusarere does have a well stocked store, but it is a 2 km detour down a dirt road to get there.  I imagine Rasihuare also has one, but I am told that is at least a 1 km detour as well.  The first store is at the turnoff for Batopilas, and the red house up the hill on the turnoff serves basic food (the chicken burritos are particularly good).  

• To get to the campsite at Humira Bridge, cross the bridge and go behind the abandoned house on the righthand side of the road.  There's a small path that goes down and out of sight from the road.  There's a fresh water source there (filter needed) that is great for soaking tired feet!

• After that, we saw very little until we reached Basigochi, where they have a small store across from the school.  It doesn't look like a store, so you may need to ask around.  The women who ran this store were very nice, they don't sell water, but when we asked for water, one of them went to her house to bring us a pitcher of water.  Be prepared for all the kids from the school to come stand around and gawk at you!

• Once you reach Laguna de Aboreachi just after Basigochi, the area becomes much more populated (which is worse for wild camping) with many more stores (which is better for hungry cyclists).  Laguna de Aboreachi even has a small supermarket with fresh produce and luxuries like yogurt.

• Guachochi is full of good budget hotels... we ended up at the Santa Eugenia, which has good showers, big rooms, and free wifi.  The only downfall is that they have no ground floor rooms, but for 200 pesos, it was a good deal for the two of us.  They also directed us, when asked, to the comedor at Plaza La Esperanza (the restaurant was aptly called La Esperanza as well).