Matzalan Mexico
Work took me to Matzalan Mexico for a couple of days and I managed to squeeze in a day of riding. From some internet research I found a couple of guide companies that offer quite a few options from a couple hour strolls to 5 day epics. Since I was unsure if I would actually have time to ride I decided to find something near town that I could get myself to.
As luck would have it Matzalan hosted one of the 1999 World Cup races at a ranch about 10 miles north of the city in an area called Mazagua. The ranch is called Peoria Blanca. Arrangements were made the evening before for a early morning ride to try to beat the sweltering heat and humidity of the regions rainy season.
I
was up and on the road toward Peoria Blanca by 5:45 in the morning and was
dropped off at the gates of the ranch while it was still dark. I waited
for about 10 minutes until there was enough light out to make out the
trails. I was breaking one of my own rules for solo riding at a new
place. I had no map. However I did know that the north and west side
of the area was bounded by nearby roads and there were valleys to the south and
east. Besides I was not very far out of town. I did have have my GPS
with me so I strapped it on the stem for a ready reference.
Starting out in the new light of morning was very
interesting. I could barely make out the trail as I rolled through vegetation
tunnels. Within 
20
minutes I was able to clearly make out all the trail features. It was
right about this time that I realized another mistake I had made. I had
forgotten bug repellent. The instant I stopped moving I was swarmed by
hundreds of rather large mosquitoes. Within 10 seconds of stopping I would
have at least a dozen of them on each limb siphoning off my blood. I
quickly found that swatting at individuals was pretty inefficient so I took on a
technique of sweeping them off with my hand. This however would only help out for about 10 seconds. I found the best way to get rid of them was
to start riding again and then sweep them off. As long as I was riding I
was alright.
After rolling along in the low land area the trail started working its
way up hill. This is were I realized that all those Tecate and
Pacifico Cervezas from the previous two days were not helping my riding
any. The climbs were short but technical with ruts and small loose slate-like
rocks. Once up at the top of the main hill of the ranch there were good
views of the ocean and resorts to the southwest. By this point the
humidity had everything damp. I was almost prepared for this with
some paper napkins in a small ziplock bag so I would have something dry to wipe of
my
camera lens. The humidity was so bad that I had to wipe off my
digital camera's lens every time I took it out to take a picture. I found this
out a little to late and you will see that many of my pictures have an unplanned
"artistic blur" effect to them.
This
is the view from near the top of the hill. There are trails weaved all
through the "jungle" below.
The
upper trails that circle and weave around the main hill were rather tight single
track had some pretty technical sections. Many times is was a combination
of rocks and roots with slippery dirt in between. With this
being the rainy season there were a couple of sections that I had a hard time
determining wither I was on a trail or riding in a stream.
I
had my helmet camera with me and I was shooting some video. However as I
was working my way down the back side (north side) of the hill it caught a branch
that managed to rip it off my helmet and sever the cord for it. I
stopped the bike right after and started the process of trying to find it.
It was black and most of the leaves, ground, and undergrowth were dark
colored. After about 5 minutes of searching I realized I had it on
video. After reviewing the video I found the guilty branch and there was
the camera about 5 feet away just off the trail. From that point on I had
to see up the camcorder along the edge of the trail and ride by to get any
footage.
Oh
well, once I was down at the bottom of the hill I found myself along the edge of
a perimeter fence made of hand cut tree branches and barbed wire . I followed the perimeter fence all the way around the
ranch which gave me a real good set of navigation boundaries to work with.
I hooked up with another trail that worked it way back up to the main
hill. Once back on top of the main hill I ran into some locals who were
out for a Sunday morning ride. I did not know squat for Spanish, and just
about the only English they knew was Roland Green. Anyway we figured out
enough common words to ride together so I did another run down the back side of the hill
with these
folks.
One
of the locals showed me a Mexican apple tree. They are pretty interesting
looking with a really hard skin. Of course considering that I did not see
any of them eat one it could be a deadly poisonous plant
;-> They were all on low to mid range hard tails and they seemed
pretty interested in my dually :-0.
I did do a good deed while I was there. One of the locals fell and gave himself and nice one inch gash in his leg. I always carry a small first aid kit so I cleaned it all up and closed up the wound and put a good bandage over it. Good Karma for me. After patching up the guy they were ready to call it quits so I went through the trail system one more time. After that I rode my bike along the roads and streets for about 12 miles back to were I was staying in Matzalan. All total I worked in about 28 miles on riding that day.
I am sure there are much better places to ride in the area, but if you have only amount of time this is not a bad deal.
Some more pictures from Peoria Blanca
Video
Check
out the video I shot during this ride on September 15th, 2002
24MB
Click here to see other videos.