Xichu- Conca- Xichu

I was in Mexico this last winter for a few months. Dante, Taylor, and I went on a bike trip. It was based on a motorcycle trip that Taylor had taken a few months before. His directions and details were unclear, half forgotten, and probably wrong... but close enough.






On the first day we left Guanajuato in Taylors sweet van and drove the 5 hour drive to the mountain village of Xichu. Being the resident mechanic that I was I sat in the back of the van fixing the flats and torn tires of our previous ride while bouncing and rolling on the floor with the bikes and tools as we cruised down the pot holed, curvy Mexican mountain highways.




We arrived in Xichu at about 6 pm? We stopped and ate some dinner at a place where Taylor knew the owner. They chatted a bit and it was agreed that we would keep the van at her house while we biked in to the mountains. A moment later we were handing off the keys to her 13 yo son and getting our gear ready. In an earlier powow we decided to leave Xichu and ride through the first night to avoid the arid desert heat. We guessed that the first 75 miles would be through this arid desert landscapes, and after that we would be into the mountain rainforests were it would be hot, yet would at least have a shade cover. The whole trip was about 200 miles.

This photo is what we woke up to the first morning. It was so beautiful I almost cried. When we left Xichu everything was dry as all hell and rough and dead, brown. So that was the image that was still in my mind all night. But to awake to this.



One of the main reasons we left in the onight was to avoid the heat, witch we did for the most part. that Taylor had kept speaking of a giant "hill" we(It was still hot) The other reason was would have to climb. We rode for about 8 hours that first night, about 6 of it was spent riding up Taylors "hill" hm. It was more like a mountain to me, and upon asking Dante about it the next day we agreed it was a mountain. We guestimated somewhere around 25 switchbacks. (The photo at the very top right is from the top of the "hill" on the way back to Xichu.) The photo to the right is of Taylor and I leaving the first official morning of riding. Thats Taylors Leader with Mavic wheels, Reba fork, and camelback, thermarest pad. Thats me with my (borrowed) GT Agressor, RST fork, cannondale seat bag, sleeping bag, and chuck t's. I have them off in the photo, but while riding I had 3 water bottles streapped to my frame with tubes.

The climax of our expedition was that we were pedalling to water. Thats how dry it was. To ride to swimmable, cool ground water. Here is the river just outside of Conca.


This is from our second day and one of my favorite photos of the trip.
It was taken right before desnding into another mountain village.



Our backpacks contained, Sardines, Granola, and crackers.


Water. Me. Dante. Taylor. There were some older men kind of wading up and down the river with their sons. They would reach under rocks and if they got bit it was a crawfish and if they could grab what ever it was it was a fish. They were fishin.

After reaching the water and chilling out for a while we bummed around by bus alittle bit and eventually headed back to were we came from. It was an amazing journey with two of my best friends. It changed my life and has inspired me for many things after. The world is big and we are small creatures capable of great things, but limited in the same ways we excel. We are stupid afterall. Peas.