La Linda Trip: Aguachile Mine,4 Palms Mine & The Tunnel

[homerboy2u]

Well folks the trail was Named the Mina Aguachile-Mina Cuatro Palmas-La Linda-and the Santa Rosa Tunnel.

 And let me tell you it was all but easy, this was more like resistance trail than a trip to the supermarket. It was not easy at all.

  We met with the local Ciudad Acuña 4x4 Club.... Acuña Extremo. These guys were more than hospitable to us and were more than ready to welcome us in to the trail. We met in a local gas satation , packed up with what ever last minute goodies were missing and off we went to an  adventure trip , long overdue. We were all eager to hit the back country.

  I met everybody, whom i had not met the week before in a meeting where we had cleared alot of small details that this sort of trip pops up. There i met a very good friend , Eduardo Fuentes, Megalo77 how is known here and made some small talk before the back country was calling us.

 To be honest i was a nervous, a little bit scared because it was the first time for me i was going to travel this part of the country that was unknow to me. I looked around , and there were more friendly faces who were also nervous but going in a group made stronger to face what ever challenges, the backcountry would throw our way.

[homerboy2u]

Our point of entry was the road to Ejido Santa Eulalia, which i had not visited since i was in third grade, back in the seventies.

  I went for the first time with my uncle Enrique who was a veterinarian for the San Vicente Ranch , the owner at the time was George Paul Myers, i know that the ranch was one of the biggest in the northern part of Coahuila. I don't exactly how big it was, maybe Megalo77 can step here and fill in the gaps but story goes that it was so big, that the hired hands were branding cattle , horses and sheep all year long. Usually ranches in these neck of the woods do that once a year , but to do this year round you have to have a big spread...more than 500,000 hectares ...easily.

 I remember that this ranch among the many features it had: a Big Hacienda , two stories cowboy houses ( i have never seen ranch houses this big before or since),many air strips, heards of cattle and horses like you can't even imagine, it had a telephone. Now a days this sounds like it is not a rarerity bue at the time to see a phoneline going along the road where the technology was in a precambric age, it was a spectacular thing to see, even to have . It was the only phone in more than 700 square kilometers. It was amazing .

  All these features were lost when the Federal Government step in and broke many great ranches in what was called The Reparticion Agraria. In my opinion, that action alone buried the cattle industry to dust, by forming the ejidos where the ranch hands turned out become the new owners of the land and thus ruining all that was made by hard work and sweat , maybe forvever.

  Many years later the Federal Government , realizing the mistake it had made, ended the Ejido Program but almost all of the mayor ranch operations were completely destroyed, others had lost interest in picking up the pieces or basically lost interest in returning to what it was long ago. Some ranches manage to pick up and start again, but Hacienda de San Vicente was brought down for tha last count.

[homerboy2u]

Our trip , would start at:
* Ciudad Acuña then we passesd
* Ejido Santa Eulalia
* Hacienda San Vicente
* Ejido San Miguel
* Rancho Santo Toribio
* Ejido Las Norias (Carranza)
* Aguachile Mine
* 4 Palmas Mine
* La Linda
* Rancho La Tinaja
* Then, headback to Ejido Morelos
* Rancho El Melon
* The Santa Rosa Tunnel

 It was a trail of 750 kms. roundtrip. This was long and for three days it turned out to be an endurance trail, alot of mechanical pressure on our vehicles and ourselves, along the way.

 Here is a picture of the whole route:

[homerboy2u]

Well we did not travel too long , 96 Kms. , before tragedy struck. We were eager to push forward, were all a little bit nervous to get in to a back country, very few people get a chane to go and i was laughing at my copilot because he was getting nervous that we were the only pick up that was not engaging it's fourwheel  drive...we never needed it, since we had a lift kit of 15" from wheelbase.

 But it hit us from another angle: The two sets of the front wheel bearings completely broke off, taking out our front tire from the front axle and we buried the truck for about 7 ft. in length before coming to a dead stop.



 I was comp,etely surprised by it. I had installed everything brand new and i thought nothing could beat us that would be thrown our way, guess i was wrong.


 There was no way we would be moving forward, not on that condition and then we had to ponder the situation. See my options.

[Casa Grande]

looking forward to the rest of the story!!  I love it!  That would have been a trip of a lifetime for me.....

[homerboy2u]

Well my truck was pretty much done for, maybe even my trip as well. There was no way i was going anywhere, my only option was to stay there until someone happened to pass by the road and take me back to Ciudad Acuña to get parts, a mechanic...basic help.


 But it was Friday afternoon, the parts i needed were not readily on hand , even on a parts store, any of my mechanics were not available until I could call them on the cellphone and i would not get a signal until i reach back Acuña. So my options were beggining to fizz away.

 Salvador Gonzalez is a Quadracer, he is a member of Acuña Extremo, and he is very handy with his camera. He uploaded a video of how i was feeling at the time. Eventhough i never said a word, my face was starting to give me away with the frustation of not being able to go on, to see all that planning go away in a snap, to be so close and not even getting to the middle of the road of the trip. Man, it was hard.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tqb0pdHkapM&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Tqb0pdHkapM&rel=0</a>

[homerboy2u]

looking forward to the rest of the story!!  I love it!  That would have been a trip of a lifetime for me.....

 Yeap CG, it sure turned out to be a trip of a lifetime, it was totally unexpected to live this, but Oh man!!, we had lots more to be thrown our way. What a trip, we came back more confident, more close than any trip could have done it like this one did.

 Well it was dark, the backcountry where i was broken down is more like a prairie, it is good cattle country, nice place to get ground water for the cattle to drink and the land seems to be very good for ranching. But at night , it was cold. Cold, like a night in June...yeah Right ! What night in June?, it was so strangely cold that i set up my tent, i was not hungry, i was feeling depressed, my friends were getting a feeling that the trip was blown over by what happenend to me. They never said a word, but i saw it in their faces, they were very supportive towards me, but they felt frustated that it could mean a trip thrown out the window. I just could not bear  that, i could not carry that feeling with me, it was too much .

 I had to make a decision. So i started pitching my tent, and that gave me time to take 3 steps back , look at the situation, ponder my perspectives and make a sound decision.


 Well they made dinner, but i was no where near hungry given all the things i had in my mind. I had to really do some deep thinking and decide: They were in no way going to let me be stranded in the backcountry, they were going to sit tight along with me until i decided what to do. Pretty close friends i would say would do that to a friend. I was among a good crowd.


 Well  i went to bed at around 4:30 am , hearing the other ones what to do, seeing where i was, reaching for help in the near by ranches, to see if we could haul it to a near ranch door and leave it inside, but the truck was very heavy and tall , there was no way i was going to move that piece of metal. Something had to be determine on site.

 Well by 7:am i was up, went over the truck again and saw that there was  the main road at the back, that broke in to three smaller ones and those were used to outwalk some thight places that when it rain, were nearly impossible to go thru because of the mudpiles. I guessed it was well hidden from the main road, because just then another diesel truck pass me by heading towards Acuña, i waced at it but never saw me. I was well hidden from the road.

 It could work !!, i thought . Maybe it could hide among the treelines and shrubs. It is painted black , so it very well blends with the green background and looks like a shadow.

 Right there, i made my decision: Ditch the truck, head on with the trip , return as soon as i get back to my house and hope no one sees it in the meantime, break a glass and get everything out of the cabin.

I made my decision, gathered everyone around, let them know of my decision and suggested we move forward. There was nothing else i could do, except to try to enjoy the rest of the trip and hope when i get back the truck was going to be there and complete. I crossed my fingers and moved on.

 So we pass to the other trucks what we could push inside of the truck boxes, and the rest i put it inside of the cabin. Left there and took off. We had a group of friends to meet at Ejido Carranza.


  Google waypoint, where i left my truck:   29.39183N, 101.82707W

[Big Bender]

Homero,

Don't leave us hanging, I'm out of town from July 4 to the 15th, heading to Colorado, you got to finish this before I leave.

Big Bender

[BigBendHiker]

Hi Homero!
Thanks for the report!  Great story and the pics of the damaged wheel are something to see.  You mentioned that there are mines you visited.  What sort of mining did they do in that area?

BBH

[homerboy2u]

Homero,

Don't leave us hanging, I'm out of town from July 4 to the 15th, heading to Colorado, you got to finish this before I leave.

Big Bender

 BBH, and the rest of the crowd. I know that your eager for me to finish this one, the clips pics and stories are all for you, but here at home i also have 3 little girls to tackle , plus my sister dumped my nephew along the way. And tomorrow i have a gradutaion to attend , so bear with me while i give it my best shot. I will do what i can to finish this before you leave, BBH.

  Plus i told my wife that i was writting up a contract online , so she would not whizz around to see what i was doing....LOL: just don't tell or i'm done for. hahahaha !!!. Woooooooo !!!, long live marriage,huh ? :lol:

[Al]

Not a problem, Homero.  An incredible loop.  Almost too much ground to enjoy given the time allotted.  

I wish to understand how your wheel suddenly fell off!

Al

[homerboy2u]

If you follow up the coordinates on Google Earth, you will see that back country has alot of prairie mixed with desert flora...Completely new to me , that Ocotillo & Yucca could mix on the same ground with Mezquite, Prairie Grass & shrubs.

 Well, we pushed forward to reach Santo Toribio Ranch where the owner happened to be around , He is from Acuña, we stumble with him on the Camino Real, the term Camino Real is used to the free road all the ranchers have to gain entry to their properties, it is usually federal land and it that is the place where you see the ranchers. Unfortunately you also see the Mojado crossers and the drug runners. But these people, only travel at night. I did not come across with any of them.


 Well we talked to Dr. Alberto De Luna and told him what had happened, where the truck was and what were my chances to leave it there. He said that he crossed that road a couple of times last night and early in the morning , and he saw nothing , he knew where the truck was from the description of the road where we left it, but never saw it.



 That was relaxing for me to hear that, being that this man gets to and from the place every week , he should know better if he would have stumble with the truck at any given moment and if anybody would have seen it, it would be him.


 Right afterwards, another man came to meet us at the spot, he is a cattle runner and runs the corridor daily between all of the ranches of the vecinity and Acuña: we are talking 1,000,000 hectares of land that runs daily. We told him where the truck was , he had just passed thru it and did not see it . So it reafirmed me that it was a good spot to hide the truck until i got back to it. On we went.

[Casa Grande]

take your time  

[homerboy2u]

Not a problem, Homero.  An incredible loop.  Almost too much ground to enjoy given the time allotted.  

I wish to understand how your wheel suddenly fell off!

Al

 Yes Al...the wheel came off, from one of the bearings smahing the other one to metal dust, thus the wheel came spinning right off.

 The weird thing, is that i had just changed everything new. Go figure.

 Al, I have a surprise for you. I remembered you while i was out there, just follow the story please.... :D

[homerboy2u]

It was time to push forward, we had to cross El Cañon del Colorado if were to meet our friends from Sabinas 4x4, and we did not know exactly how much time we had ahead of us to reach the place...Pedal to the metal, folks.


 This the entry way to Cañon del Colorado, it is a small set of ridges and mountainous terrain where while were there it rained on us. It was a reminder that the Serrania del Burro had its own weather, and it could be pouring rain, thunderstorms and lightining and you just exited the Cañon and the temperatures would be scorching right up in the 110º F , what change of climates, plus any rains that we would have gotten there , wuold stay there. I had never seen a climate like that. It is one thing to read here, from the contributors and a totally different thing to live it there. You had ti be there folks, to feel that weird sort of sensation i felt.


 Even the Flora changed on us for the time we crossed the Cañon del Colorado.