Entering Mexico and Beyond

So we made it over 500 miles into mexico and there is nothing to report as far as danger. Thus I am going to back up and touch up on some things that I skimmed over as we prepared for crossing the border.


So backing up to Thursday the 7th of October. We left Phoenix planning to cross into Mexico the next morning. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to commit two more months and a large portion of my savings into this trip. I was feeling very indecisive and didn’t have a clear direction or goal for the next part of the trip. And for anyone who knows me very well you will know that I dislike not having a clear direction or a goal of sorts. But I figured I had one more day to figure something out.



Chad had ordered a new shifter lever for his cycle that was supposed to come into Tucson. Well they said it would probably be in on Friday instead of Thursday so we figured we would camp one more night in the states.


Some beetle that was on chads legwhile camping




Nate Dwayne and Chad all left there chairs behind. laban and I are still glad for ours

 We headed to some national forest that was north east of Tucson on Mt Lemmon. I was leading at this point and I lead the crew onto a very nicely graded gravel road that gradually turned slightly rocky. It was dark at this point and after my last major off roading in Death Valley I wanted to find a camp site before the road got bad. I came around a corner and my lights hit a small trail heading up onto a bluff. I figured I would give it a whorl and without stopping I headed up. Bad idea. It was dark and I didn’t know what I had just gotten myself into. The “trail” quickly got steep, washed out and rocky. The trail was to narrow too turn around on and too steep to stop on, so that left me but one option, keep going. I figured I would ride my way to the top and turn around and come back down, hoping that no one else had tried to follow me. Well right off the bat I picked the wrong side of the trail and there was no getting to the other side. Next thing I know my front tire slid off the side of a rock the size one of my side boxes and sent me crashing into a ditch with a rock imbedded into the bank that was bigger then in ice chest. Well my bike stopped dead in its tracks and I went over the handle bars landing on the rock as well. This really frustrated me as my drop total was already starting to get out of control and another drop after I had decided that I wasn’t going to do anything dumb for awhile. Chad came running up the hill and helped me stand my bike up. I saw oil on the ground and knew it wasn’t good. With a few choice words and a quick inspection my fears were confirmed, busted valve cover. Now for those who don’t know what a valve cover is, the valve covers basic job is to keep dirt and debris out of the motor and oil in it. So to break or crack one is not a very good thing. With some good team effort we got her turned around and back down the hill and did a closer inspection. It seemed that it wasn’t leaking too awful so I stuffed a napkin over the crack. It took every ounce of motivation to get back on and ride again, but we headed out to find a real camp spot. This time I followed in the rear. We found a semi level spot (with no trees) that we pulled our bikes into and laid out our sleeping bags for one last sleep on American dirt. During the early hours of the morning we had many many trucks go by. Apparently they were going to hunting something.



In the morning we continued up and over Mt Lemmon. Our road that we followed got steep and rocky but it didn’t get loose which was a very good thing. It was defiantly the worst road that we had done with the group as a whole. The only road worse was Coyote Canyon in Death Valley and that was just Nate and I. We didn’t stop for pictures or videos as we wanted to get up and over this without tipping.

we stopped becuase labans spare tire almost bounced off

pics while riding, and note that i only pulled out my camera when the road was nice because i didn't feel comertable riding with on hand over most of the stuff on the road:

We had some close calls. Laban was leading us up over the mountail and was doing a very good job of picking lines. (for those non riders a “line” is referred to is basically the route over, around, or through an obstacle that you pick and try and hold to it) well at one point the rocks got rather large and somewhat loose and the line Laban took looked rather, umm, bouncy. So I tried to take a different line to the right side of the road only to fail miserably at hitting my point of entry and ended up hitting some large rocks and almost tipping onto my already leaking valve cover, I continued to swerve and bee bop my way over the worst part of the road while telling myself “falling is really not an option so keep it on the tires kevin”. Chad also had a close one at this same spot. Somehow his foot got bashed by a rock and got ripped off his peg, but somehow he managed to keep it sunny side up while riding on one foot for a bit. With some more steep and difficult terrain I am proud to say that we got ourselves and our bikes safely to the top without a single tip over.


i did infact use this rock to "work on" my motorcyle



We hit paved roads at the top and continued about 40 miles into Tucson to get chads part and see about getting me a new valve cover. Well the bmw dealer didn’t stock the part I needed and I was going to have to ride 2 ½ hours back to Phoenix to get the part, then do the repairs and turn around and ride 2 ½ hours bad to Tucson and then on to Nogales. I didn’t have it in me, and didn’t know if the part would fix all my problems, so I was sinking into a pit of despair. While talking to a fellow traveler and GS rider a sales man came up and asked where we were headed, I quickly filled him in out what was about to take place, he said “don’t leave without seeing me” he made some calls and came back saying that they had a used valve cover for half price, sign me up! So I feel very certain that the salesman (Iron Horse BMW in Tucson, go there) saved the trip for me. We ate, I got my bike fixed and then rolled into a best western hotel only 5 miles from the border.

the leaky valve cover

Saturday morning we left bright and early at 8:45am due to some persistent fuel leaks on my cycle that had been plaguing me from the start of the trip. I awoke with a strange peace about continuing, and a very strong sense of being loved and missed by everyone back home.


this wasn't even an option at this point



The crossing was really not a big deal. Everything went smoothly; we didn’t get stopped by any checkpoints or police. We got a hotel about 200 miles into Mexico. The driving took a bit more attention then most places in the states but we didn’t have any close calls to speak of. The next morning we awoke and headed out by 8 ish. We headed to Ahome, to Gustaves (nates sister-in-law’s parents house). We arrived at around 5 with out any incidents.



Gustaves feed us and gave use a soft bed with AC for the night. This morning we helped them rip some vines down so they could add onto a security wall. Then they took us to the beach where we played Frisbee, swam in the ocean, got sunburn, and hunted for a snake that Nate found.

the snake

We came back, I took a shower and then laid on my bed and took a nap. While everyone let me sleep and didn’t wake me up for lunch or to tell me they were leaving. I jolted awake almost 4 hours later and found no one in the house or out side! Figuring I had missed food and wasn’t sure what to do I thought about going back to bed when just then I heard a key in the door, there they were! Back from I don’t know what. Anyways there was food saved for me and it all worked out just fine, except that its 11pm and I’m wide awake and we are going to try and be ready to leave by 7:30am tomorrow. So it worked out well for all of you at home because now you have a rather lengthy update to keep you going for a few days.






In completely unrelated news I have developed a very large knot in both my neck and upper back. One of the first things on my list of “to do list” for when I get back is to get a massage from Johanna!






Sunburned and stiff.