Because Mexico has no national trekking trails, two long-distance hikers in Jalisco decided to create their own … and succeeded in following them, not without a few surprises.
Tanzania has its 90-kilometer-long Mount Kilimanjaro trek and the US has its Pacific Crest Trail, stretching 4270 kilometers from north to south. These and other long trails around the world are laid out so trekkers can walk in safety, avoid getting lost, and find food and water along the way. If they succeed in doing the whole route, they may come away at the end with high satisfaction, a certificate, and, without a doubt, sore feet
Even though Mexico was crisscrossed with thousands of kilometers of caminos in pre-Hispanic times, today it has no well-established, long-distance-trail network—but that has not stopped the intrepid from setting up their own challenges.
“I want you to meet two extraordinary trekkers,” I was told by Matteo Volpi, owner of Guadalajara's Volpi Outdoor Gear, who goes by the trekking name of Olive Oil, when he's striding along the Pacific Crest Trail.
How to get by on very little water
Volpi says he admires Gabriel Román and Lucy Santana, because they have laid out some fascinating routes of their own and succeeded in walking them, despite obstacles that might have defeated less determined hikers.
"For example,” he told me, “because Mexico doesn’t have an infrastructure for doing multi-day hikes, there may be no sources of water in the dry season, over huge distances. Well, Gabriel and Lucy decided to solve the problem by training themselves to get by on very little water, until their bodies got used to it. One of the ways they trained for this was to hike down to the bottom of Huentitán Canyon, at the north end of Guadalajara, take one drink, and then hike back up without drinking again until they were at the top. Now this barranca is 500 meters deep and most people reach the top dripping with sweat. But this is their technique; this is how they are able to hike such long trails.”
Over the last three years, Gabriel and Lucy have carried out three extraordinary treks---one per year—which have grabbed the attention of long-distance hikers in western Mexico. The Plesiosaurus Route is one of them.
This 71-kilometer (44 mile) walk starts in Jocotepéc at the west end of Lake Chapala and follows the two-kilometer-high ridge above the lake eastward to the extraordinarily beautiful Mesa de Ocote. Here the route does a U-turn, heading back west, up and over nearly three-kilometer-high El Cerro Viejo, terminating in the village of El Molino. The first time they looked at their proposed route on paper, the shape reminded the imaginative couple of the long neck of an antediluvian reptile and it became La Ruta del Plesiosaurio.
They started out on July 15, 2021, at 4:00 am, catching a bus to Jocotepéc from Guadalajara. Hiking east along the ridge paralleling the shoreline offered views of little villages in the distance and, of course, frequent spectacular views of Lake Chapala.
This is an up-and-down trail of peak after peak, which—after 25 kilometers—brought them to the Mesa del Ocote, a stunningly beautiful forest of tall oaks that somehow looks like it belongs in Canada, not Mexico.
“Here, in the very home of the vultures circling above us, we hugged each other and congratulated each other and set up our camp at 2390 meters above sea level,” Gabriel told me.
The Enchanted Forest
Heavy rain hit them in the middle of the night, “but,” comments Lucy, “our tent withstood the winds and the downpour, and the next morning we left this gorgeous peak and hiked down into a place known as The Enchanted Forest. Heavy white fog had settled in the valley giving it a sinister look that contrasted dramatically with the cheerful, warm, singing of what seemed like hundreds of birds and the whisper of the wind blowing through the trees. They weren’t kidding when they called this place enchanted—what a breathtaking show!”
The unexpected
After a few kilometers, the trekkers arrived at La Angostura Interpretive Trail, yet another little paradise, but here they came upon the unexpected.
Rain began to fall, making the terrain slippery. Suddenly, Lucy lost her footing and fell into a stream, hitting her butt on a rock—hard.
“She came out of the creek soaked,” said Gabriel, “barely able to walk. Neither of us said anything. A sepulchral silence overtook us for a few minutes. The first thing I thought was that I had to get her out of there and abort the expedition. I gave her painkillers and she began walking, but with intense pain and increasing swelling.”
They made it to the town of La Cañada, had a good meal, and here Lucy decided to keep trekking, despite the pain.
“That made me reflect,” says Gabriel. “I think in many ways a woman is much more resistant than a man. We men are pure show!”
Cat’s claw and worse
From La Cañada they started up the long ridge to the peak of Cerro Viejo, enjoying sunshine and a good view of Lake Cajititlán.
This section of the route would have been impossible to negotiate if the couple—together with numerous friends—had not previously cleared a ten-kilometer stretch of the slope of an unholy combination of uña de gato (cat’s claw) and huizaches (acacia-like thorns), attacking the maleza (undergrowth) year after year with flying machetes to keep what little there was of a trail open.
Hot breath in the dead of night
We arrived at 2300 meters above sea level at 8:30 pm,” says Gabriel, “and we looked for a place to set up the second camp.”
"Fortunately, this night it did not rain hard," he adds, positively. “However, we were visited by a herd of cows who seemed convinced we were hiding something delicious to eat. Have you ever felt the hot breath of a huge cow, through the thin wall of a tent, just a few centimeters from your face? It’s something you could never forget.”
The next morning they had "pan de chocolate (chocolate sweet bread), cooked mountain style, with flour, egg and vegetable oil." They still had more than 600 meters of elevation gain and more than 25 kilometers to cover on Cerro Viejo.
“Delicious wild blackberries kept us going, relates Lucy. “At 10:30 am we reached the summit of Cerro Viejo at 2960 meters above sea level. Now we knew we had left the most difficult part behind and only had a long descent of 18 kilometers ahead of us.”
Wall of thorns, trail of mud
Murphy’s Law then snapped into action. A storm hit them at 2000 meters elevation, transforming the trail into flowing water and mud.
“The last kilometers of this hike were the strangest that I have had to walk,” says Lucy. “Tightly lining both sides of the flooded trail there was a wall of thorns mixed with cat’s claw, so there was nothing to grab onto as we placed our feet on either side of what was now more of a river than a path. But at last, we reached El Molino.”
Yes, indeed, trekking in Mexico is different from trekking in other countries and is unfailingly full of surprises. Congratulations to those brave souls who do it. “Walking, walking, and walking through the wilderness,” Gabriel and Lucy told me: “this is what makes us happy!”
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