Mexico Trip 2: Copper Canyon and Baja California
This page documents David Pease, Richard Sobin, and Wayne Hineman's
motorycycle trip
through Mexico's Copper Canyon and planned trip through Baja California. This trip was a
philosophical, if not literal, continuation of David and Richard's
prior trip from San Jose, CA to the
Panama Canal, during which we bypassed both of these areas for the sake
of making better time heading south.
The trip started in mid-April, and took 3 weeks. We used the
same two BMW F650GS motorcycles that made the trip to Panama, plus a third matching bike (which saved on the number of spare parts that needed to be carried).
The original two bikes had
only been slightly changed since the last trip, with new auxiliary lighting,
new highway pegs for David's bike, and a replacement for Richard's windshield
(which perished early in the last trip). Wayne's bike was almost identical,
with the same bags and windshield as the other two.
Here is a photo of David on his bike. The new driving lights are visible next to the upper forks; the satellite tracking system can be seen mounted above the left handlebar.
This map shows our planned route. We trailered the bikes from the Bay Area
to Yuma, Arizona and rode from there, saving several days of riding at each
end of the trip and allowing us to get into Mexico more quickly. Thus, the trip
started and ended in Yuma. The planned portion of the trip from Yuma to La Paz
involved a ferry crossing, and so our route and timing were more detailed for
that section so that we could make our ferry reservation (which in the end did
not happen). Our trip up Baja was to have been
less well-planned and more spontaneous. (The area around E, F, G, and H is Copper Canyon.)
Also as last time, we carried a satellite tracking system that displayed
our real-time progress. This is the actual track from our trip:
The photos we've posted are broken into sections:
