 In January 2020, I set out on a solo mission to ride the second half of the Baja Divide, and very quickly met a bearded Canadian named John and a very cute dog named Mira. We rode together for a week, having the time of our lives and throwing endless sticks. After that year, smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, we rode a majority of the Great Divide together. We were like Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Mira, the true star of the show. Our adventures have taken us to Arizona on the Western Wildlands route, the Trans-Mexico route through Cartel Country where we did not get robbed, and now I'm on my way to meet them in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they've been based for the past several months. We're going to tackle the Grand Dirt Tour, a 250 mile route through high mountains, agave fields, ancient villages, and I'm on a mission to eat as many frijoles as possible while avoiding the January cold in Colorado. Okay, I'm here in Oaxaca. I've just been dropped off with my bike. Seems to be there. And I think John's in there. He got us an Airbnb. John! I'm here! Hi Mira! Hi Mira! Oh, there you are! Hello my dear! Hi! Oh, it's so good to see you. It's so good to see you. Oh John, it's just so good to see you. Are you going to jump on me? Do you remember me? Do you remember Uncle Gooser? Oh, it's so good to see you, buddy. We're going to have so much fun! We're going to have so much fun! Good to see you, John! Yeah, buddy. Welcome to Oaxaca. John, it's truly so amazing to see you, my friend. Yeah, it feels like it's been a long time, and yet it's just like it was yesterday. I know, totally. It's so cool. And I'm liking your style, buddy. Let's see this little facial hair. Got the clean cut. I'm digging it. I'm transferring from top to bottom here. It's all good, yeah. I love it. And you still have your machine right here, huh? Yeah, covered in dust. Look at that bad boy. So, just to remind you all, the last time I saw John was near Aguas Calientes in northern Mexico. And he kept riding south, and I went to the airport. Yeah, so I basically kept riding south, mostly following the trans-Mexico route. And then so I made my way to Oaxaca, and the plan always was to wait out the rainy season before I went into Chiapas and other areas. And it's just, it's lingered. I've been in Oaxaca most of the time, buddy. I mean, the rainy season came, and it's just left. What sucked you in specifically to Oaxaca? There's a lot of things. I mean, it's the light of the place, the sounds, the smells, the friendliness of the people, the food is unlike anything people know as Mexican food unless they've been to this region. Moscow, that's a whole other world to go into, which you know something about. I do. And how's Mira been doing? I mean, besides just standing there waiting for me to throw her toy. Here you go. Yeah, Mira's Mira, man. Mira, are you ready for adventure time? Right on, brother. Let's go get some food. Yes. So Christmas is still in full effect here in Oaxaca. And to be specific, the three kings day, los tres reyes. That is Friday, two days from now. I think this is why the town is so alive with live music and Christmas markets and all sorts of fun stuff happening. All right, John, what are we eating for dinner? Oh, buddy. We got a Oaxacan special here. We got Tlayudas. I got mine with Era Chera. Nice big jalapeno. So this is the Oaxacan specialty? It is, yes. Basically corn flour tortilla. We got some manteca. We got some frijoles, the beans. It's a romantic night here in Oaxaca. I'm so excited for this. Look at that. And mine is the vegetarian version. And I got extra nopales, which are cactus. Okay, John, what is this? Cipollinis. What is that? Grasshoppers. Grasshoppers. This is a Oaxacan specialty, right? It is. Spicy. It is spicy. No. That's some good protein in there. Perfect for bike biking. Nice and light. Yeah, you can pack these and bring these on our trip. I only slept about four hours last night. I woke up at three in the morning, traveled all day. But now that I'm here, I feel perfect. And it's because of Mexico. I love Mexico so much. Just walking around here, hanging out with John, C, and Mira. I love it. There's a reason why I keep coming back to this country. Time to put this baby together. So putting this together is pretty easy. All you have to do is put the handlebars back on here, put the two wheels on, and put my pedals on. And it's pretty much there. Oh, and another very important aspect of putting together the bike, throwing a stick to sweet Mira. She's definitely helpful. Now it's time to put on my rear rack. This is a new-ish rack, and it's really cool. You can just attach it just like that. It goes on the back of any bicycle. And then I use these two orange bags to carry all my clothes and camping gear. And then my tent goes on the top right here. It's the little stick you want, this little guy. And if you're new to my channel, and you're wondering what this crazy bike is with a weird-looking chain, this is called the Priority 600X. It's a bicycle that I designed with my friends at Priority Bicycles. And the whole name of the game is low maintenance. And we've got the pinion gearbox here that keeps all the gears enclosed and safe from muck and dirt and all that kind of stuff. And then the gate's carbon-built drive. Never needs to be lubed. Last three times longer than a chain. And I love it. I've ridden this bike all over the place now. And it's my baby, just like Mira. You're my baby, too. Here, give me that. Give me that. And you know what? My hair's a little long. And one of my favorite things to do in Mexico is get a haircut. Oh, yeah. I feel so much better. I love a nice, fresh haircut. And as I was talking to the man who was cutting my hair, he said that he's been doing this for 42 years and his father, before him, in the exact same spot. I just love getting haircuts all over the world. It's a nice insight into local culture. Anyway, I feel so good about being here. I love Mexico. I love warm weather. I love my bike. I love John and Mira. And it's going to be a great way to start out the new year, 2023, exploring a new region. And I've never ridden my bike down here exactly. When I rode my bike home from Honduras, I rode along the coast of Oaxaca. But I've never been in the mountains. They're supposed to be spectacular. You want me to throw this little wimpy stick for you? You want this? You want that? All right. So that's our route, huh? Yeah. I mean, it's beautiful, right? Lots of elevation climbs. Lots of great small pueblos. Interesting. And diverse cultures. Yeah, different climate zones. So, yeah, we're going to have a great time. And so the Waycast does this. And all the bikepacking.com routes in the ride with GPS, they have little notes of where we can camp or where we can get food. Interesting things to see, right? Water is pretty important. So those are marked there. And then some alternates, too. Like sometimes there's like maybe some dirt single track or steep stuff. Or maybe there's an interesting alternate to go and check out. So, yeah, the folks there and cast in particular do a pretty good job of highlighting those kind of things. Just, you know, not that we have to follow exactly this route. Like the itinerary is us to choose. Like pick your own adventure is kind of good. But it's nice to have that information. You can pace your day. Does Mira bark in Spanish yet? She's been down here long enough. Wow. Wow. That's Spanish barking. Wow. Wow. Yeah. I'm jumping in here really quickly to let you know that my book, The Long Way Home, about my very first bike adventure from Honduras to Boulder is now for sale at dooserbook.com. I have a belly full of beans. I'm in bed early. We're waking up early. And tomorrow we're going on an adventure. And it feels kind of like Christmas Eve. I always feel like this the night before. An adventure. A lot of excitement. A little bit of nerves. Who knows what it's going to be like. And just a lot of fun. And maybe a little bit of pain going up some big mountains. But this is it. I'm living the dream. And I feel so grateful every time I'm about to do this. And here I am. So, here we go. Buena noche. Somebody just attacks me at bed. Hi, buddy. How you doing? Good morning. I'm so excited to go hang out with you this week. Are you ready? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're so excited. I can't even put my socks on. You're not letting me do anything. Okay. Okay, we're going to go. I promise. I promise. There's nothing better than waking up to this dog and her excitement. She is ready to roll. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Gotta look good for day one. Mira, where's John? Where's Dad? Where's Dad? I think he's over here. Good morning, John. Good morning, Ryan. How you doing, bud? How are you? Good. Oh, I'm doing great. Yeah. Well, we've got two excited people. We've got me and Mira. Are you excited? Oh, yeah. It's going to be so good. Time for the harness. Yeah. Got your name on it. Hello, coming through. Goodbye, awesome Airbnb. First ride of 2023. There we go. She's in. We're ready. First, we're going to go to a little cafe in town and meet some new friends and then be on our way. Yes. Yes. It's coffee time for John. Can I have a high five? Yeah. Look at this. We haven't gone far enough yet. You're a little bored. You want to keep moving, don't you? But we have a friend to meet. So John is enjoying his coffee and our new friend showed up. His name is Logan Watts. He's the owner of bikepacking.com. I know you all love bikepacking.com. Logan, what's up, my friend? Cheers. What are you doing in Mexico? I'm relaxing. We're going to have a big birthday. So I came down here to do some riding and thinking and relaxing and obviously working, but you know, you got to do what you got to do. Right on. So you started bikepacking.com when? It basically was founded in about 2012 as a travel blog. Then 2014, 2015, it became bikepacking.com. Yeah. And it's gotten pretty large. Why do you think there's such a surge and interest in traveling by bicycle? I mean, you really can't beat it in terms of ways of travel. So I think it caught on for a couple of different reasons. Gravel obviously exploded in popularity and I think there's a similarity between the two. And it was just, I think, the right time, right place. I also attribute a lot of it to GPS files. I mean, that kind of solidified right around, you know, 2012, 2013, 2014. And people were able to download rides, take off, go explore. You know, it's a great way to do it and I think people realize they can easily. What are you most proud of with bikepacking.com? I'm sure you've helped so many thousands of people get outside. Obviously the routes. That's kind of what made it all happen. In 2013, 2014, I actually contacted Cass Gilbert, who's route you're getting ready to ride and asked him, you know, what he thought about sharing these routes and putting them on a map so people could download, follow. And he was pretty stoked about it. Nobody else was doing it at the time, so we launched kind of the routes project, the routes map. And yeah, the rest is history. I mean, we started making routes and that was kind of, we were the first people doing it and it was a lot of fun and I think that's kind of what made it successful. What does the future of bikepacking.com look like? Where would you like to go from here? I mean, it's tough. I think, you know, we want to keep making routes and obviously that's kind of the fun part. It's been a challenge like keeping up with all the other stuff that's happening. You know, bike releases and all the gear stuff which people want to see. But you know, in my opinion, the fun part is actually making routes and sharing those. Yeah, so on your end, how long have you been traveling by bike? The first big bike trip I took, we actually came through Oaxaca. That was in about 2012. Cool. Right on, my friend. Well, I really appreciate everything you do for the bikepacking community. I speak for all of my viewers out there that we love bikepacking.com. Sweet. Thank you so much. Thanks for pumping it. Absolutely and you're going to head out in the same route as us in about a week, right? Correct. Yeah, next week. Well, good luck with everything and you're turning 40? 30, actually. 30, okay, that's right. Yeah. Mira loves making friends, don't you? Don't you, girl? Yeah. All right, we'll see you down the road. Yeah. Join the route. Yeah, you as well. All right. Bye, Logan. All right. That was so awesome meeting him finally. I really do appreciate everything that he and his team at bikepacking have done for our community of riders. He's awesome. I love going to the website and just dreaming about routes. It feels real good to be riding bikes with you. I feel like I'm getting some of your coffee energy. I'm pumped. Even though I didn't drink any caffeine. No flatties. No crashes. No crashes. No whammies. Definitely no whammies either. No. Here we go. Mama knows. I'm liking this little path right in the middle of two busy streets, probably an old rail trail or something. The Amarillo. So it's mule with some chicken in it. Fresh card. So we've gone about five miles and we thought, you know what, it's time for food and check out what I got. And frijolada, beans and egg and some avocado. This really is incredible. The food in Oaxaca is just better. I don't know what they do, but everything just tastes a little better. Tastier, spicier, yummy. So we just had a good breakfast and John says there's an amazing tree in this town, right? Yeah, yeah. Come on, let's go see. Let's go see the tree? Yeah. All right, show us the amazing tree. Maybe it's like the avatar tree of life. You know what? It might very well, it might very well be. Are you excited to see the tree? Now we've built this up. So all you back at home are like, ooh, what's this going to be? That's the wrong thing to do. We're just going to let everyone know. This is a beautiful central park here. Beautiful. I love this. So well manicured. Oh, here's the tree. Oh, man. That is a big tree. Oh, my God. Okay, that tree is pretty cool. That's real big. I don't think I've ever seen a tree that wide. I mean, that trunk is gigantic. It looks like 15 different trees all smushed together. All right, John, this was a worthy stop. Yeah, it was a pretty cool tree. There's no doubt. I hope you all enjoy it as well. That is impressive. I love seeing nature like that. You don't see something like this every day. It's definitely unique. I've been on this planet how long? I've never seen anything like that. Pretty awesome. Super cool, right? Do you have those in Canada? We got big trees, but nothing like that. And I've driven through trees in Africa and there's trees around the world you can drive through, right? California, I'm sure. But this is bigger. Yeah. Way bigger. Way bigger. Yeah. I mean, this tree is so sacred. I mean, the town is built around it almost a church right next door. That is magical. Love it. We've hit dirt and you know I get excited when I'm on dirt. Freedom. Here we go. Come on, Mira and John. It's adventure time. So in the route description, it says that we go through quite a few towns on the entire route, which is nice because we get to explore these awesome little towns and we don't need to carry a ton of food and water because we can get resupply in lots of different places. Buenos días, amigo. Buenos días. Peta al ciclista. Buenos días. Buenos días. Buenos días, amigo. ¿Qué tal? I wouldn't even start it with Mira. You don't want to mess with Mira. I promise you. She doesn't even react. She's like, what are you guys getting all worked up about? Just chill. Life is better when you chill. Peaceful moment. As you'll notice, all the surrounding hills and fields are very brown. It is the dry season, so not much rain on the forecast, which is good for us, obviously. John did this ride during the rainy season, right? Months ago? Yeah. I guess in what would be the US fall, Canada fall, and it was way different. It rained, I think at some point, every single day on the trip. But even then, the roads dry out pretty good. Some of the low-lying areas in the center of the valleys are pretty muddy. And the views can be magical. They're kind of little windows of clouds and stuff. And fully emerald green. Yeah. Everything's super lush. It's a different experience, definitely. I'm looking forward to this one, too. You stop whenever you feel like she needs water depending on the heat and how much she's been walking. Yeah. Just trying to keep her hydrated. It's a good chance for me to check in on things, too. I'm doing it because she has fun. I don't want to hurt her along the way. It's my job to take care of her. And it's fun to take care of her. It's great. And we've kind of lucked out with the weather today. It's cloud cover, so it's way cooler than we thought it was going to be. Because down in the valleys, it's obviously much warmer than when we're going up high into the mountains. We are now rolling through San Martín de Tilcajete, which is the Alebrije town. And you're probably wondering what an Alebrije is. Well, they are whimsical, make-believe animals with bright colors. And they're really kind of like a talisman to protect you, protect your home. They're known to ward off evil spirits. If you see in the movie Coco, the Disney movie, you'll see Alebrijes in that movie. And they're beautiful. They're stunning. And so this town is like the epicenter of the fabrication of these little animals. And the goal is to go in and check out some people making these things. Muchos detalles, no? Sí. Porque eran cosas fantásticas, cosas místicas, no que combinaban un animalito de diferentes, no que le ponían patas de gallen con cara de elefante. Y cuánto tiempo tiene usted de estar trabajando con... Desde que inició mi papá y llevamos 44 años, pero desde que inició mi abuelo son 56, 57 años más que nada. Y cuánto tiempo toma para hacer una? Bueno, por hacer una de estas piezas yo meto en lo que son tres días, no? Entonces nos vamos ya no en la deformidad, como en este caso, por hacer lo que es un pescadito en esta parte, no? Para tener la colita acá. Bueno, la parte favorita y en la que yo me enfoco mucho pues es en el tallado. Y así cada uno de nosotros como es un taller familiar pues nos vamos especializando más que nada. Con cada codice tiene lo que es significado. El de mariposa, lo que es la felicidad, el de pescado, lo que es el respeto, el del sol, lo que es la esperanza, el de cascabel, es el máximo puedes. Bueno, gracias amigos. Gracias por todo. Suerte con el negocio. Sí, sí. Gracias. You see these spiky plants behind me that look like aloe plants? This is where mezcal is from. Those are mezcal plants and the locals call it magay, right? John, you got it man. Magay. And that type is espadín. Espadín. That's the most common type used for mezcal. Good stuff. Yeah, good stuff. I haven't had mezcal in a long time although I did come here once many years ago to film a pilot for a TV show with Travel Channel. It was going to be called How the World Works and we came here and stayed at a local mezcal ranch and showed the process of making mezcal. I'm sweating like crazy. My arms are sore. I have a lot of respect for these guys. They do it every day. I thought it was going to be my big break but it didn't go anywhere. Now I'm a YouTuber and I almost crashed. Watch what you're talking about. You can say hola to pretty much anybody and they will answer you with lots of enthusiasm. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Buen provecho John. Look at that yumminess. Oh, yummy. And a bag of pineapple. I got one too. Mira didn't want the watermelon. That's okay. Oh, there you go. Oh, no. You're not as cute. Hello. Hello, buddies. Buenos Aires. All right. It's about 5.30 and we have found a nice flat place to camp. To camp on right next to this agave field which is pretty cool. We're going to have a nice chill night hopefully looking at stars. This is it. This is it. What process do you go through when looking for a place to camp? Oh, yeah. That's a good question. So what I'm looking for is some safety and security. Probably a good spot for Mira and something away from prying eyes usually. My main goal is that Mira is safe and I'm safe and if I can throw the stick or the ball for her and have fun then we're good. And a nice view. Look at that. Look at that sky. It's booty time. All right, Mira. Now you can walk around and not get prickers. You look so funny when you have these. Go after Dad. Go run after Dad. Yeah. See? You're not going to get... Mira. Look at her. Yeah, girl. You might look funny, but you're safe. Oh, there you go. You're getting the hang of them. That didn't take long. Dog DNA and started chasing all of the goats as this herder went through the field. Mira. No. So that gentleman that was herding all of the goats we saw him from far away coming towards us and I was like, he's not going to be happy that we're on this land and he just walked right by and kind of gave us a little wave. He didn't care at all. Viva Mexico. There's the moon rising. That's a full moon. Friday, January 6th. I think it's the wolf moon. Mira, it's bedtime. Which tent are you going to choose? Mira, who are you sleeping with tonight? There she goes. That's it. There's your little spot. There's no thorns in there. You're safe. Buenas noches, Mira. Buenas noches, John. En la mañana. Nos vemos en la mañana. You're so sweet. See you tomorrow. Estoy feliz. I'm happy. What a great first day. Got to meet Logan from bikepacking this morning. Got to see the beautiful Oaxaca Valley. That cool tree. Gigantic tree. Stopped in the workshop at the Alebrique Place. And here's something that's very important. John and I aren't on a strict schedule. Like a lot of times we are where we have to hit a lot of miles and really hammer. But this trip, we made a pact to just go with the flow. We're open to magic. We're open to whatever, you know. And some days might be short. Some days might be a little longer. But we're just taking it easy, which is very nice. So, Buenas noches from a field in Mexico. Here comes the cover. It was a yes.