April 24th, 2016
Andrew attempts to provide the team with a “ruta sin trafico” (route without traffic), which turned into a ride on the auto-pista as soon as possible!
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico
Destination: Wild Camp near Tlanalapa, Hidalgo, Mexico
64.04 km trip, 4:50 time, 50.7 km/h maximum speed, 13.2 km/h average speed
Route Description
We took side roads out of Pachuca so there was less traffic. At the 20K mark of travel leaving town there is camping available on the left side of the road with a covered area and picnic tables. This is just before you turn right on a dirt road. Once you’re on the dirt road there is a nice small shelter building at 26.2 k. This would be a great wild camping spot with no houses nearby. At just after the 30k mark you reach the quota. You climb a fence here to go on the road. You could also continue straight on the farm road. At the 38k mark on the highway there is a truck stop with bathrooms, advertised water and a future restaurant. It was really new so not everything was running yet but looked like it would be nice. You could safely camp here. We left the quota to get food and water and were on a libra that had no shoulder for a short time. Then it seemed to be okay. After getting water we stopped to wild camp just before the 36k marker under a power line pole. For others if you’d prefer a hotel there is a town called Ciudad Sh??? 9k later that has hotels, restaurants and stores.
Accommodations:
We camped on the right of the road we traveled on just before the 36k marker on the road under some power lines. 9 kilometres after where we camped, we came across a city that has hotels, restaurants and stores.
What happened…
Amanda writes: Andrew mapped out a wonderful route out of the city. Lots of back roads and farm roads; certainly roads less travelled. I asked him if this route was influenced by DOHA and he said yes. DOHA is Days of High Adventure (Gareth & Jean) who we had the pleasure of riding with over the past few weeks. They introduced us to picking the really small roads on Google that are likely not paved and where you’ll likely have far less traffic. This new route planning is one of the many great things we learned from DOHA. Take it slow, enjoy the journey and try that other road. So as we meandered through farm fields and dirt roads it was so nice and quiet. We had this bustling city around us and yet we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.
So did I mention I was enjoying it? Well apparently Andrew wasn’t enjoying it quite as much as me. When we hit the intersection for the pista he said he wanted to take it. And while I was enjoying the route, I also enjoy riding the pista. Everything in moderation right? Well we had spent the last 3 weeks on rural roads so I was all game for the pista. We hopped on the pista and were enjoying a lovely ride and a very enjoyable pace. That was until Andrew declared that we needed to get off the pista to get food and water. I was a bit miffed because we know that if you’re on the pista you need to be prepared and Andrew is the meal planner so the pista and no food/water for camping was frustrating. Oh well, off we went onto some smaller roads to find food and water. We found what we needed and then found a nice wild camping spot in an old corn field. I love camping! Have I ever mentioned that? I know that hotels are easier in Mexico but I really do love our little tent as it’s really our home.
Andrew writes: It is never easy leaving the warmth and comfort of a Warmshowers home. A clean bed, heck, a clean room, hot water, and a regular kitchen; the kinship that develops between host and guest also plays a part. Thus I was a little sad to be leaving Enrique, Lucy, Dash and Falcor (the dogs) this morning and heading into parts unknown.
Trying to pick up where we left off, I had mapped out a route using Google Maps that would take us away from busy roads and highways, and onto paths less travelled; by lunchtime however I was ready to get back on a highway. There was nothing “wrong” with the gravelly roads that criss-cross the farmlands surrounding Pachuca, but there wasn’t a lot to see. Truth be told, it also isn’t very comfortable riding my heavily loaded touring rig around, everything bouncing, jarring, shaking, breaking. We stopped for lunch at an overpass for the cuota and after some investigation determined that we could push our bikes up the embankment and get onto the highway.
The ride in the latter part of the day had all of the benefits of the pista (flat, wide shoulder), but we hadn’t time or opportunity to fill up our water, or to buy the right food(s) for dinner/breakfast. So at some point, we turned off the pista and started down a busy libremiento to where we would eventually find a restaurant and stores. I mistranslated at the restaurant and somehow our pre-dinner snack ended up being some really expensive barbacoa (sheep) quesadillas, like 35 pesos ($3CDN). It didn’t break the bank, but I think that we thought they would only be 20 pesos each. It’s this type of surprise that Amanda doesn’t like. So with her grumpy about it, I hurriedly shopped for food, but couldn’t find everything that I wanted. This meant that we stopped again at two other stores during the home stretch, and this made Amanda even more mad.
I made up for it by finding a super-sweet field for us to camp in, out of sight and sound of the highway, and we enjoyed our first camp in a week.