Another day, another adventure.  Today we are heading east again.  Went through Concordia and Copala to climb the mountains to visit Devil's Backbone, which is approximately 100 miles east of Mazatlan, in the state of Durango, Mexico.  The altitude is over 8,000 feet.  It turned out to be cold and wet.  It was 85 degrees in Mazatlan.  We were not expecting cold weather, therefore we were not dressed appropriately.  We froze!

The trip started out with a slow leaking tire.  I had "Plugged" it the day before, but it continued to leak.   The problem is that I had plugged a tire which had a tube.  This gentleman fixed the hole in the tube for $3.00.
Luckily, on the BMW it requires that only 4 bolts be removed in order to disassemble the back wheel.  This takes less than two minutes.  Due to the fact that my normal highway tire repairman, Tom Greninger, was not along for the ride, I had to service the bike myself.
It was a dirty job.  I had installed green slime in the tire the previous day.  But, we were finally up and running and ready to attack the mountains of Mexico.

Up the mountain toward the state of Durango, Mexico.

We left the warm sunny beach and got cold freezing rain.  We stopped at every location where we could get a hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate.
		Here was another coffee and quesadilla stop.  A hot coffee cup works well to regain circulation in the fingers.
Not sure what the sign says, but we will look it up in a Spanish dictionary.
Devil's Backbone is a ridge where the roadway drops thousands of feet on both sides of the highway. The corn was another attempt to warm my hands.		I remember, when I was a kid, my mother not sleeping the night before crossing the backbone, in fear of what the next day would bring.   I do not know if she was fearful of the road or my dad's driving habits!
If you look closely, you can see a truck driving below a 400 foot cliff.

We were finally out of the rain.

	In the background you can see a small village, which was also a coffee stop. Yes, Sandy is still cold.
	A great bike for this type of riding. The rear wheel knobby does great on twisty asphalt roads.

Yes, we had another gas miscalculation day.  We bought gas on the way down from the mountains from the same guy which fixed the tire on the way up the mountain.  I am sure that he thinks certain "Gringos" are pretty stupid.

Press the "next" button to proceed to the next days adventures.