Day 5 – El Divisadero to Batopilas

Batiopilas, today's destination, is at the very bottom of Copper canyon, along the river.

The breakfast at 8AM in the dining room made up for the flop of a dinner the night before. Two eggs, sunny-side, refritos with cheese and a small cut up bacon dish fried with a chile sauce added, landed well on the palate, B+.

Off at 9AM, we backtracked to the town of Creel, to pick up gas and supplies for the trip down canyon. Half way down, Don's small plastic extra fuel tank came off of his bike and settled on the yellow line in the middle of the road. Luckily Ken was able to stop and retrieve it. Supplies consisted of groceries for dinner and breakfast the morning after. Ken led the assault into the little market and we came out with beef(dinner), bacon, eggs, refried beans, corn, fresh chile, onion and tortillas.

Kenny's Dodge Ram at the Creel lunch stop



Lot's of fresh supplies for the next 2 meals at the Super Carniceria

As we ascended toward the drop-off point into the canyon, we noticed a rider coming the other direction at a slow pace. Shortly thereafter, Roger had turned around and was heading down toward the other rider. We assumed he was going to help and we stopped at the side of the road to await his return.

As we were chatting away, a Ford pickup came down, stopped and ask if all was OK. We assured them it was and they wished us well. Evidently a security detail. Roger returned and related that the other rider was his next door neighbor in Taos, who was touring the area. They'd been tracking each other via the Spot satellite tracker and had expected to see each other at the Canyon. Small world.

Continuing on to the drop-off, the asphalt ended and the dirt began. After continuing by a village, we encountered a “detour”. The road is slowly being transformed from dirt to asphalt, with the goal of paving all the way to Batopilas from both ends of the canyon. The detour was more like a semi compacted bed of baseball sized gravel and was certainly not a good first exposure for our trip. We made it thru the mile or so of this scary surface and topped out onto an undulating, narrow dirt track. The rest of the day was a real learning experience for the three of us on the heavier “adventure” bikes, with some silty, rocky and rutted descents and ascents. Note thes pics below are from the areas we could take a break. We were too busy to do photo ops during the rougher sections.



And so it starts with a nice "freeway"




Somewhere down there is the bottom..




And there's the road to the bottom..




Taking a photo break,



until Ken catches up..




Here comes Jim



Then Tom..



And Roger to pass



Finally, the yet unscathed Ram



Following the..



..river

At a small outpost store with goats, kids and dogss, we met Mary,



Mary from Iowa!



who was from Iowa. She'd been there five years and lived in a house a couple miles back. Talk about getting away from it all, whoa...

We finally arrived at the Hacienda del Rio Batopilas Hotel about sundown in the canyon and dragged our sore bodies and bags to our rooms.



Jim, coming down the veranda for more luggage



Not much room for the bikes



The hotel is built on an old stone mining foundation.




The Rio Batapilas




Some foundation..



Jim & I are roommates for the trip. Out came the beer, well deserved for the day's effort, and we relaxed until dinner.



Entryway to our recamara(bedroom)



With stone headboard wall!



This bathroom is some amazing piece of tilework

With an amazing tub to match

All relaxed except Ken, that is, who had bent a tie rod on the big Ram diesel chase truck on a rather large rock. He spent the time until dinner trying to take the bend out of the piece with a large hammer. He also found the right t was flat, so put on a spare. Not a good day for Ken. He was able to make the truck drivable, but still would need work for full functionality.

The hotel at Batopilas was built on the twenty or so, foot tall foundation of an old mining operation. It is about 5 or 6 years old and an amazing place. The owner resides in Creel and has become too old to care for the Batapilos location, so Roger picks up the room keys in Creel. The hotel maid lives in a house next to the hotel. She cooked for the group last year and served in her home. This year she prepared our dinner, and breakfast the next morning, in the hotel kitchen and we ate out on the stone patio area. Very nice. Our supplies were transformed into a tasty grilled seasoned beef, a creamed corn with chile, refried beans and, of course, warm tortillas.



Dinner by lantern light



Skirt steak, frijoles, leche corn with chile and tortillas

 

We all retired after dinner and bedded down about 8PM for an early rise to what would be a memorable day of riding out of the canyon.