San Francisco to Ushuaia in an 87 4Runner.

defrag4

Road Warrior
ha nah it wasnt due to the modification, it was due to me backing up into a lightpole and completly fubaring the jerry can mount, which in turn caused the swingout to stick out at a funny angle on the hitchpin, add in the stress of bombing the backroads of BigBend and I ended up busting off the tabs for the hitch pin. Tank actually seems OK, been keeping on eye on it and it doesnt appear to be leaking, were posted up in the parking lot of a RedRoof Inn stealing internets and will be hitting up the 4WheelParts in the morning for a new mount and leads on someplace to fab up some more tabs.

Pics to come soon!
 

defrag4

Road Warrior
All fixed up! Thanks to Little 4x4 Shop in El Paso, handling some last minute business tonight and hitting the Juarez border in the morning, going to shoot down the highway a bit then start cutting over towards Creel, MX ("The Gateway to the Copper Canyon")
 

Djlarroc

New member
Nice to hear you're making it into Mexico. The Creel area is absolutely gorgeous!!

Can't wait to see the pics. Good luck!
 

muchosdiaz

New member
NO GUNS IN MEXICO!!!!

The bad guys get all the guns. If they catch you in Mexico with a gun you will spend the rest of your life in a hell hole of a Mexican Prison!!!!!
 

defrag4

Road Warrior
My friends, It was getting to the point that we thought we would never actually make it into Mexico. Our journey across the U.S. of A was only supposed to last a month then we were supposed to cross the border to be in Mexico by early December. Well…Christmas came and went and we found ourselves in Big Bend National Park , South Texas. We could actually SEE Mexico across the Rio Grande but we were not yet in it! Oh well, you know how plans go. No regrets! The gods may have wanted us to stay state-side with a seemingly never ending “TO-DO LIST” but our will is strong, we preserved and now we are sitting at a bar looking out over the Sea of Cortez in lovely Mazaltan, MX.

When we last left each other we had just arrived to our good friends and fellow PanAm travelers house “Ruined Adventures” in Ausin, TX. Brenton and I spent most of the week tearing into the truck in what seemed like a never ending battle of fixes while Lauren and Shannon ran all over town tracking down bits and bobs and widdling down our TO-DO list.

Swapping out the CV axle, luckily Brenton had a spare on hand. We almost dropped the truck on our heads a few times but managed to get it swapped out. Quite a pain in the ********!

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Ruined Adventures have the best setup for overland preparation, Brenton and Shannon live in a ************ warehouse/loft with every tool imaginable to tackle any problems that you can throw at them. Brenton had an extra Hi-Lift too (Think a huge car-jack on crack, used for all kinds of things on the trail) here he is rigging up a mount on our rear swingout to place the unwieldy jack. Thanks to Ruined Adventures for really helping us out on our final prep for the trip.

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They are hitting the road on January 29th and will be crusing Baja before shipping over to the mainland, You will definetly be seeing them in future blog posts. You can follow their adventures on their own blog at http://ruinedadventures.com

Thanks a lot guys! See you soon!

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Our plan from Austin was to head south to Big Bend National Park, scope it out for a few days and then cross into Mexico at a border called Ojinaga. We hit the road, fixed up and ready for action!

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Made it to Big Bend in the middle of the night, not exactly sure where to camp we just drove about 15 miles down some dirt road and pulled off to the side, setup camp and went to sleep… Awoke in the morning to some pissed off park rangers who slapped me with a $175 ticket for “driving off-road”… Our first ticket in almost 2 months, that’s a record for me! Not to be discouraged we went up the rangers office, figured out the deal and secured a permit for a few days of “legal backcountry camping”

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Hit the backroads of Big Bend. (I forgot to mention I managed to back into a lightpole somewhere in between Austin and Big Bend, completey fubaring one of our jerry can holders and throwing off the alignment of the bumper and hitchpin, I rigged it up with some bungee cords and kept on trucking, hoping it would hold.)

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The Park guide warned us of the “dangerous black gap 4x4 road” the park ranger highly advised we go around the long way around… I pointed to our truck outside and he said “oh.” and that was the end of that. The road wasn’t too treacherous, I didn’t actually need 4x4 at all but high clearance and a truck that can take a good beating was a necessity. I would imagine if it rained and this whole dirt road turned to mud it would be a different story altogether.

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After cruising the desert for a few hours we made it to our backcountry campsite. Tally #2 (great campsite, We recommend it if you head out this way.)

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Setup shop just as the sun went down, beautiful sunset from our home for the next few days.

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Lauren busted out the park map and found a nice 10-mile day-hike for us from our campsite up to the top of a canyon overlooking the Rio Grande river and the elusive country called Mexico. We woke up to constant howling 20-30mph winds but an otherwise clear day. We suited up and hit the trail.

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Lauren made a new tree-friend, she has lots of tree-friends

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Made it to the top, with the winds gusting at 20-30 it was a little sketchy getting too close to the edge but a photo-op was necessary!

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Long way down, you can see the Rio Grande here, and our first glimpse of Mexico since our baja trip. So close! Yet so far…

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Got back to camp, exhausted and windburned but we heard tell of a natural hotspring a little further up the road. We hauled *** through the desert hoping to make it to the hotspring before nightfall. We got there just as the sun went down, everyone was gone and we realxed our bones in the 105F water, we had all to ourselves. Gazing at the stars, listening to the spring run into the river alongside. Perfecto.

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Woke up the next morning to overcast skies and cold cold weather. Looks like all those winds were blowing in a storm. We headed out of the backcountry, Lauren’s dad had promised her a Christmas gift of a hotel room, we figured now was the time to take him up on it since it was Christmas eve and started snowing outside!

Lauren hanging out in front of the Big Bend lodge, our warm home for the night.

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Little different scene than when we last saw this photo!

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The snow covered park was gorgeous, a completely different experience than when we were first here a few days ago.

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Cactus + Snow? This does not compute!

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As the sun set over the mountains I realized it was a white Christmas! The first one either of us has had in a long long time. Merry Christmas!
 

defrag4

Road Warrior
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Rested up for the night, woke up on Christmas day and headed out. I had done some serious damage to our already damaged hitchmount bouncing along the backroads of Big Bend. I completely sheered off the actual mount and had secured the swingout with zipties. Needed to get this fixed before we attempted the rough roads of Mexico. Unfortunately for us, Big Bend is in the middle of nowhere, closet town was 100 miles away with no real services to speak of, plus it was Christmas day. Everything was closed.

Beautiful but desolate drive along Texas Highway 90

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Aliens!?

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Weird stuff out here…

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Like a designer Prada store in the middle of friggin nowhere???

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We decided to head to El Paso, TX, a 300-mile detour, but a necessary one. We arrived in the middle of the night and guerrilla camped in a parking lot somewhere waiting for the morning light. I had found a “4 Wheel Parts” and hoped they would have the parts and services that I needed.

4 Wheel Parts turned out to be useless (Surprise, surprise…) but I got the internet and found a real 4x4 shop up the street a ways. A “Little” 4x4 Shop just outside of El Paso, TX had everything we needed and got us fixed up with a beefier mount and new jerry can holder. Big thanks to Roger and the guys for getting us in and out quickly! If any of you West Texas guys need 4x4 work done or any parts for Jeeps this is your man. His place was a mecca of everything Jeep.

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We got fixed up and were ready to hit the border but it was already 3PM, figuring it would be wise to wait to cross until the next morning we spent another night in a random parking lot working on our Spanish and getting amped to finally be in Mexico!

Note: There are no pictures for a while, We were a bit stressed out with the crossing and taking pictures of the whole ordeal was far from our mind.

Next morning, We punched “border crossing” into the GPS and took a drive towards Ave of Americas which led us to a little border crossing. There was literally no one there but a little lady. I asked her in my craptastic spanish if there was an aduana (customs office) there and a banjercito (Mexican govt bank) where we needed to get our vehicle permit. We think she said No but unsure we just drove in anyway. No inspection, no dogs, no questions, no nothing. It was like going through a stop sign in the middle of an intersection.. and we were now in Mexico. That was easy enough.

Except we still needed to get our visa and vehicle permit, attempting to navigate our way around Ciudad Juarez proved to be a fruitless effort. We decided to cross BACK into the USA and go to a larger border crossing which hopefully would have the offices we needed.

Crossing back into the US we waited in line for about an hour, got to the guard, who berated us with a bunch of questions and accusations then threatened to search our truck, and then eventually let us back in. We flipped a U-Turn and drove right back to the border crossing to get BACK into Mexico. Again hassled a bunch more by US border patrol, more threats, more questions, and eventually let through.

We found the customs office easily this time and the Mexican customs official was very helpful and spoke english. We received our 180-day permit for our actual persons and he gave us directions to the Banjecrito which turned out was 30 miles down the road towards Chihuahua. We drove through Juarez, which looked a lot like a crappy version of any U.S suburban city. Applebees, Chilis, Burger King etc. just the signs were in spanish. Eventually making our way onto the highway and cruised 30 miles toward the Banjercito which was clearly marked in english and spanish. Pulled over, parked the car, and headed inside where we found more helpful people who spoke at least a little english to help us make some copies and get our Mexican vehicle permit. We paid a fee for the permit and placed a $200 deposit down which will be refunded when we leave Mexico.

BAM! We and the truck were perfectly legal now to be in Mexico for the next 180-days. Game on.

We hit the highway again, our destination was a place called “Copper Canyon” which is up in the mountain range called “Sierra Del Occidental” of North West Mexico

Better get used to life in the slowlane and converting MPH to KMH.

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Happy to be in Mexico! FINNALY!
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Headed to the mountains.

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We drove higher and higher up into the mountain range, Desert scrub was replaced by tall pines and the weather cooled off dramatically. We found a little side road that we followed for a bit and tucked up among the pines to camp. Our first night in Mexico, reminded us a lot of our many nights spent up in the California Sierra mountains.

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Delicious dinner of 99c Lipton Mexican rice and bagged tuna fish. Only the finest for Home on the Highway. It was awesome washed down with a few Tecates.

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Packed up and hit the road in the morning, we were going to a town called Creel, MX which is considered “The Gateway to Copper Canyon”

Passed many small logging towns along the way.

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Lunch time!

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We wound further and further up into the mountain range, it was a long but beautiful drive.

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Burro friends

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Eventually we made it to Creel!

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....Read more on the blog http://homeonthehighway.com
 

Djlarroc

New member
Great post! Glad you guys made it in safe, the Mexican borders are all crazy. I have been to just about all of them while visiting family.

Have fun in Chihuahua. Beatufitul place. Are you guys planning on going into Durango? It's a very mountainous state. There is a section of highway called "El Espinazo del Diablo"... the devil's backbone. Beautiful scenery, and a bit scary at times. You'll probably love it haha. It takes you southwest towards the coast, into the State of Sinaloa. Right at about Mazatlan. My parents are from there, so I know the area very well.

Good luck on the rest of your trip!
 

defrag4

Road Warrior
Hey Djlarroc, glad you liked it! The backroad we took across the Sierra Madres Occidental make the devils backbone look like a chicken bone! I had to have the truck in 4LO 75% of the time to keep from sliding down the insanely steep skree/dirt/rock combo straight off the side of a 7000ft cliff! Note: this went on for at least 60 miles as we wound from 9000+ft to the bottom of the mountain range. It was insane and fun as hell!
 

Djlarroc

New member
Hahaha.. I think I remember that road as well. I remember once, when I was about 8, we went from Durango to Sinaloa. The drive was pretty scary, and we camped a night or 2. Probably the same road, or nearby.
 

98roamer

Explorer
Hey wait, you are going to Mexico? :)

Glad you're over the border and well on your way. Those are some beautiful pictures, it's great to truly see the culture of Mexico off the tourist path. Be safe, keep up the fun and enjoy the time together. Thanks for posting.
 
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defrag4

Road Warrior
Posting up in Moreila, MX, headed to the Monarch butterfly reserve tomorrow after checking out the city and taking a break from the road. We traveled down the Pacific coast primarily, got ate alive in San Blas by No-Seeums/Sand Flies, I must have over 200 bites. The mosquito net didnt do a damn thing to stop them, I could see them land on it and just walk right through. Need to upgrade STAT! Beautiful time otherwise, lots of driving on deserted beaches, only had to dig myself out of the sand once. Next time ill air down BEFORE i get stuck haha
 

Ruined Adventures

Brenton Cooper
lots of driving on deserted beaches, only had to dig myself out of the sand once. Next time ill air down BEFORE i get stuck haha
if airing down doesn't do the trick and you're REALLY stuck, you can winch off your spare tire buried DEEP in the sand. Obviously a last resort, and obviously you want the tire buried pretty well because you don't want a spare tire flying at you!
 

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