Mexico and South America, Trip Reports » A trip across Sinaloa’s northern bays

by efuentes

The state of Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico has several beautiful bays, some of them have inspired many dreams in the past.

A while back I envisioned  a route to cross them while mapping a loop that will take me from my home and back.

As summer creep on me, it became impossible to do the trip, so I just put the plan on hold, and as autumn slowly came, the route was finally on.

The plan was simple enough, ride the dirt roads from my home to a Campo Pesquero (Fishing camp), hitch a ride in a Lancha to the other side of the bay, cross a few hills, look for a place to camp, repeat on the next bay and ride home.

So off we went, trying not to hit too much pavement and on route to Paredones on the Ohuira Bay.

After riding for a while on a very nice Saturday morning we started to see some blue on the GPS.

Exchanging some beer money for gas, we were on the water in a matter of minutes.

Happily riding across Ohuira Bay.

We even saw some friendly dolphins along the way

Seeing Lazaro Cardenas across the bay made us realize that those hills were not going to be as easy as once thought.

Lazaro Cardenas doesn’t have a channel, so they make do with high tides and some resemblance of and unfinished pier.

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After some huffing, shouting and just hopping along the rocks, we thought it was over, only to find this.

Every town in Mexico has a house that will either give you or sell you some food, and we weren’t about to cross those hills on an empty tank.
Ahhh, the joys of Shrimp season, Camarones Rancheros, rice and tortillas.

Slowly riding out of town wearing a couple of pounds of shrimps and tortillas.

A newly constructed small ditch got us lost, as we began contemplating a mosquito infested camp in the middle of nowhere.

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Getting out of that mess was not hard and soon we were doing Photo opps on the salty flats.

Putting miles to the ground.

You can laugh at us flatlanders, but those short hills were mean late in the day.

We set up camp in a nearby beach in a cloud of mosquitos that later on succumbed to the evening wind. Falling fast to sleep I woke up to this view.

After some fumbling trying to get a ride, we talked a fine gentleman into taking us to Cerro Cabezon, our next town in the trip.

Upon arrival, we setup to ride, with a stiff wind at our face and a morning of riding along farming lands.

The fine steed, at the end of the ride, Best damn bike I have.

Overall a very nice trip, some great company and great practice for some future Bikepacking trips.

Saludos from Mexico.