Next morning when we leave San Juanito, I have a brilliant idea to take an alternate road on MX Route 22. It is marked on the map as a primary road, all in white and everything, so we figure that we will see some different scenery. It is about 70 miles to the junction with MX 16, where we desire to turn west and head towards Hermosillo.
About 5 miles outside San Juanito, Route 22 turns to pea gravel. And conditions diminish from there. As it turns out, MX Route 22 is basically a cart trail through the northern slopes of the Copper Canyon. It is a jeep trail in various levels of repair, and includes all sorts of conditions. Rocks, bolders, sand, pea gravel, oiled loam, you get the idea. Everything except pavement.
We decide to keep going and with each car that we meet, I confirm directions. Finally, we get confidence that the road comes out where we think it does. The pictures that follow are of tame portions of the road, as when the going was rough, there was nowhere to pull off for photo ops. I rode front. Jim ate dust. All day. It was pitiful. I esteemed him very highly that day.
On this entire road, there is not one sign of civilization of any sort. No houses. No power lines. No driveways. Nothing. Until we come upon the town of Huevachic, about half way into the 70 mile road. It is a small Indian village with not much more than a store. The entire inventory of the store's offerings for sale could be placed in our panniers, probably. We strike up a conversation with the lady behind the counter. She is obviously not comfortable with me or my broken Spanish.
She finally tells me that "not many gringos come to this town".
The lady's store is the building in the background with a red stripe.
After going back to our bikes, we meet Roberto. He lives in Huevachic. We talk for about an hour about all sorts of things, especially what it is like to live in Mexico in such a remote place. Here is our portrait. I gave him a few smokes.
We continue on down the gravel road, until finally, without warning, the trail spits us out onto black top at the base of Basasiachi Falls.
We do not hotel there because the rooms cost 800 pesos. We look for rooms for 150 pesos or less. So we ride 10 miles into the town on Basasiachi and get a good $13 buck hotel room.
That day, we rode 5 hours and covered about 90 miles.
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