The Highway of the Devil (photo journal)

[Krein]

El Camino Del Diablo - January 23, 2006

The "highway of the devil" - so named from the original 1540 expedition commissioned by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado due to the hardships encountered. The route lived up to its name during the 1849 gold rush. Some traveled during summer to avoid Apache marauders, and they paid the price in 120 degree heat. Historians estimate from 400 to 2,000 people have lost their lives on the Camino, meaning that it is the most deadly immigrant trail in North America.

The route once linked Caborca, Mexico with Yuma, AZ. The modern version (after pavement) of the Camino starts in Ajo, AZ and ends in Yuma, AZ. As far as we could tell, no one had never thru-ridden the Camino on mountain bikes. The reason? Sand.

Reports were all over the map about how sandy the route is. Some claimed it was 90 percent sand. Others told us there was no reason to even take a bike out there -- you'd just end up walking the whole time. A fish and wildlife officer told me that sometimes the road is so bad he often feels like getting out and setting his truck on fire. (?!)

So it was with some apprehension but piqued curiosity that Lee and I approached the ride. We were ready to walk. A lot. We were also ready for some nice scenery. The route is commonly run by 4x4 enthusiasts and we had found some intriguing pictures on the web.

In arranging a ride back from Yuma to Ajo, we found that Lee's friend Randy wanted to see the Camino himself. After some arm-twisting, I agreed to do the ride supported. This took a huge part of the adventure and risk out of it, but given the reports we had, the lack of water and the fact that we needed a return ride anyway, it made some sense. So we camped in luxury, with a stove, real sleeping pads and seemingly infinite food.





They (border patrol?) have gone to the trouble of installed metal grates to aid traction in some spots.







Starting to get sandy...







Time to let more air out of our tires. I was often running ~15 PSI. Lee was able to go lower since he was running stan’s. I had wider tires, rims and a 29er. We seemed to be about comparable in terms of "float."









The border patrol constituted 95% of the encounters on the Camino. This is one of their 'temporary' command structures. Welcome to Iraq, USA.





O'neil's grave. Donate a penny for safe passage on the Camino. He supposedly died of drowning -- probably the only one to die of too much water out here.





Entering Las Playas. The road was covered in 8-10 inches of very fine dust, unlike anything I've ever seen. The funny thing is that it didn't really slow us down. It was really fun to blast through it.





Cinder-cone on the northern extent of the Pinacate Lava flow.





Lee enjoys a brief descent in the lava flow area.





The route goes down this wash for miles and miles. It was slow, but surprisingly rideable with low tires.





Heading into yet another mountain range. The valleys were always sandy, but the near the mountains the route firmed up.









The Border Patrol continually drags the road with tires to look for foot traffic. We're not sure if this helps or hurts the rideability of the road. I think immigrants and drug mules are smart enough to erase their tracks, though.





Camp at Tule Well.














Diablo FR (with 20 PSI!!). There is A LOT of potential out there. Unfortunately it is wilderness on both sides of the road. There's a 50 foot corridor of non-wilderness.















This was the valley with the most sand, the Lechuguilla desert




Cool barrel-like cactus








Here comes the sand we were looking for. How low can ya go? (tire pressure)




One of the Tinajas Altas (high tanks -- natural rock pools)


You have to do a little rock climbing to get to the tanks. Supposedly some travelers died at the base of the mountain lacking the strength to climb to the higher tanks. Note the Elephant Tree near the right side of the tank. Pretty cool to see one growing here in the states.



Grinding hole galore at Tinijas Altas




Tinijas Altas FR, anyone?




Danger! Lasers! There were hundreds of these signs on the west side of the road.




More sand on the west side of the Gila Mountains




Fortuna Mine - once a bustling city, nestled in some nice chocolate mountains.




Back on pavement in Yuma. Too easy? Not really, I was still tired.







Stats:

135 miles
Only 5000 feet of climbing (very flat)
2 days (31 hours start to finish)
80% sand, but mostly rideable

[veelz]

It is good to see that you are going big again after the divide race.

scott

[AZ Mikey]

Another great adventure write up. Good job, very inspiring.

[YuriB]

nice pics and write-up. the sand makes bloodsucker wash look like a piece of cake.

[dstepper]

Thanks, very nice ride report and pictures.

While I was reading it I keep thinking Pugsley.

[azdog]

Very nice. The wash with the high dirt walls looks like flash flood city. Definitely an area that not too many people have seen in Arizona. Thanks!

[TuksonRig]

Scott,

I'm surprised you didn't have a LOT more to say about the sand. From way up high it looks like the whole trip was sand.

Also, it looks pretty lonely out there. How many people do you remember seeing during the trip?

[Krein]

Originally Posted by YuriB

nice pics and write-up. the sand makes bloodsucker wash look like a piece of cake.

Ah, but we were cheating with our camping gear miles behind us in the support vehicle. Having a light bike made a huge difference in our ability to float -- esp. with low tires.

Carrying the water we needed + gear would have made going much slower.

[Krein]

Originally Posted by TuksonRig

Scott,

I'm surprised you didn't have a LOT more to say about the sand. From way up high it looks like the whole trip was sand.

Also, it looks pretty lonely out there. How many people do you remember seeing during the trip?

Well, the ride was mostly on sand, but we were often cruising along at ~9 mph, which was far better than we expected. There was only one really "bad" stretch in the Lechuguilla desert and it was only about 5 miles of very slow, stop and go type of riding. Other than that there were isolated pockets of deep sand, but compared to what we had been told it seemed almost too easy, overall.

Pugsley would be fun out there, but in a way I think it would be overkill.

Small amounts of sand, like small amounts of snow, make riding actually quite nice. You're not setting any speed records, but there are no rocks, no big climbs, just smooth sailing. By the end of the ride rocks were annoying because I wasn't used to dealing with them.

As for loneliness -- we only saw one vehicle with 3 people that were out there by choice (i.e. not border patrol or related). It's a very desolate place, which is a big part of the appeal. And another bonus is that there are no fences! How rare for Arizona (and indeed the west). No cattle out there...

[Lee Blackwell]

Nice writeup Scott. Thanks for getting the story of the trip written down and as usual you did a great job of distilling it to a readable story. It is fun for me to look back at the rides we've done.

About the sand,( the last reader made a comment), we were expecting it to be much worse than it turned out to be. Having Randy running support made such a huge difference, just the fact that we had light unloaded bikes and most of all not worrying how much worse or better the sand might get because we had an instant bailout if it got too tough. Thanks Randy, for making yourself and vehicle available.
We just couldn't get a fix on the real conditions out there as we debated this ride. Now we know that most of it is rideable at least right now and it could be done unsupported. It would be tough though with a loaded bike and we would approach it with great respect if we did attempt it again as an unsupported ride.
Lee Blackwell

[YuriB]

Originally Posted by Krein

Ah, but we were cheating with our camping gear miles behind us in the support vehicle. Having a light bike made a huge difference in our ability to float -- esp. with low tires.

Carrying the water we needed + gear would have made going much slower.

not cheating just a different kind of ride and a respectable one at that. i'm looking forward to more of your adventures.
[size=1]i'm cheating this weekend and car camping and riding the azt north of freeman rd.[/size]