For Ron's grand finale, we decided to take the famous Copper Canyon train from Creel to Bahuichivo (with our bikes) then ride to Urique, which is at the bottom of the canyon.

The train ride was uneventful and interesting, except that the bikes and the BOB trailer were handled quite roughly (the BOB was broken, it turned out). We spent the night in a little place in Bahuichivo so we could set out in the morning for the ride to the bottom of the canyon of the Rio Urique. We *thought* that it was a mostly downhill ride of 32 miles or so. A fairly easy day to finish off with. Wow, were we confused!

It turned out to be the signature ride of the whole Great Divide trip. All dirt road, some parts fairly rough. The first 10 miles were as we expected. But after the little town of Cerocahui we started what must have been the biggest climb of the trip. We were just barely making the bike move up the hill at 2 mph or so, and climbed for 2-3 miles. It was enormous.

Of course, we thought then that we'd start descending. But no, until mile 23 or so, it was hard uphills and little downhills. We climbed far more than we had probably on any day of the trip. We started wondering if we were on the right road, and hadn't seen anyone for ages. But we did finally get to the descent at about mile 23.

And of course the descent (6000 ft-2000 meters) made us wish for the climbs! It was incredibly steep - probably 10% or more. More, I think. And it was loose, rocky stuff. We worked our way down, with stops at least every half mile to let the brakes and rims cool a little. They were burning up. And there was no way to let off on them, because you'd be out of control in a moment.

We made the bottom after a full day's ride, found a hotel, and fixed some dinner. All seemed well - we had contact with the bus that runs in the morning that we'd use to get us up the hill.

In the morning, there was a bus, but it couldn't take bikes after all. We were to wait for a pickup truck. The bus left at 8am. At 9:45 a pickup finally came along. But we spent a long time sitting on the curb wondering! The pickup took us all the way to Creel, and we hopped on a bus for Chihuahua to get Ron back to Denver.