Thanksgiving in Baja

[piratemonkey 0]

John-Mark, Britt, Clayton and I took our n00bie asses down to Baja from 11/21 to 11/25 and had a muy bueno time. Full write-up to come.

Here are my photos for the time being: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16862090@N06/...57603305900184/

I know JM and Britt took a bunch too, which I'm sure they'll share.

[RogerTOWM 0]

Zina,

Those photos are so cool. It looks like you had a great adventure! They make me want to get out from in front of this keyboard and go down there NOW. Darn, when is my bike coming out of the shop?

Well,I hope I get to go there this winter as well. Until then I’ll just look at your ride report and be jealous.

Thank you for sharing this trip with me,

Roger

[Brett 0]

They make me want to get out from in front of this keyboard and go down there NOW

Yep, we all need to answer the question: Am I an "Adventure Rider" -or- "Adventure Writer"?

I love the guys on ADVrider with 8 thousand posts

I wonder which one they are?

[piratemonkey 0]

I kept a journal and made my notes each day so I wouldn't forget any of the little details. Let me tell you one funny thing now to assure you we're not just picture whores:

The road north is fairly obvious until we hit a fork. We go left and as we're bumping along the worsening trail we pass a beat-up green passenger sedan that's crawling. I'm thinking that if he's there then we must be going in the right direction, but we soon arrive at a gated house at the end of that road. John-Mark and Britt make a u-turn and go past the now-stopped car. Mr. Michigan makes his turn and as he goes by the driver is just getting out of his car and waves. I figured he was the owner and maybe wanted to tell us something so I stop. He starts rapping away in Spanish just a little too fast for me so I shout "What?" and give him the hand signal to slow the words down. He's still talking too fast but I do catch "El Hongo," which initially sound like "Blah blah logo." In my best Spamish (Spanish spammed with English construction), I tell him something that probably translates into "We are also conducting our ways towards El Hongo. Back there made a Y of the road -- we are now try to go to the right side of it. There are none other roads; it is the only option." I take off, preferring to be lost than to try to conjugate any more verbs.

It slays me that the native was just as lost as we were. It made me feel better about our navigational abilities.

[Crawdaddy 96]

Here are my photos for the time being:

Nice pics.....brings back memories.....mostly good ones

[unclecameron 0]

wow, nice, great pics, like to hear more about your route...keeps me away from work for a slightly longer time

[husky4me 0]

I'm glad all of you had fun! Thanks for sharing... Some of those places like laguna hanson and mike's bring me good memories from my trip with 2wheels, Joaquin and my son Gene! I'm starting to get excited about Baja once again...

[drknow 0]

Here are our pics. We'll do the full report as time allows, but it was a great opening Baja adventure, and a good way to shake down the bikes and our gear. I'm ashamed to say we really didn't take nearly as many pictures as we should have.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drknow/sets/72157603298871962/

dk

[dirt dame 561]

Too much fun. But if you took any more pictures you wouldn't have had any time to ride . And yer li'l button pushin' finger'd be sprained as well.

[OUTERLIMITS 0]

Glad you all had a good time and got home safe. Thanks for sharing the pics. Question about the Tecate border, I had always heard that bikes can go right to the front , was that not the case? I spent 3 1/2 miserable hours in that line in my truck about this time last year on a Sunday night. That used to be the best border crossing of all of them and now it's the worst.

[Spaugh 1]

awesome pics, thanks for sharing!

[2Wheels 0]

Glad you all had a good time and got home safe. Thanks for sharing the pics. Question about the Tecate border, I had always heard that bikes can go right to the front , was that not the case? I spent 3 1/2 miserable hours in that line in my truck about this time last year on a Sunday night. That used to be the best border crossing of all of them and now it's the worst.

I split lanes there last summer and went right to the front. Heard about someone else in this group doing too with no problems.

I see bikes splitting lanes all the time in San Ysidro. I guess it must be OK.

[SCHWINN 0]

Glad you all had a good time and got home safe. Thanks for sharing the pics. Question about the Tecate border, I had always heard that bikes can go right to the front , was that not the case? I spent 3 1/2 miserable hours in that line in my truck about this time last year on a Sunday night. That used to be the best border crossing of all of them and now it's the worst.

I cross at Tecate once a month or so and always split lanes wether in tecate or TJ. A buddy of mine owns a bar in Tecate called Bar Diana and a restaurant called Trace Amigos Taqueria,,,,spelling?

[piratemonkey 0]

Ok, we're lagging with the write-up. There's this grotesque thing called work that's interfering with life. Work is overrated, but it pays for new knobbies.

Speaking of which, guess what we saw in Clayton's tire while we were waiting at the border crossing:

The god of n00bies was seriously watching our backside. We haven't extracted it yet so we don't know how long it is.

[ADV Bum 205]

Next time pull it. It is not a tubeless tire. If it had hit the tube you would of known. You did get lucky if you left it in.

[piratemonkey 0]

Next time pull it. It is not a tubeless tire. If it had hit the tube you would of known. You did get lucky if you left it in.

In retrospect, it was dumb not to pull it out. I definitely had tubeless-tire on the brain when I looked at it. At least we were close enough to home that I could've gone to get the truck, or highjacked Britt's truck and made her ride her 250 home.

[piratemonkey 0]

Sheesh, I haven't even finished writing up Day 1 yet. Here's what I started. Figured I'd post it to get Tony D off our backs. I'm a bit of a ruminator; I write about every brain fart I have so short stories end up being long.

---

Day 1: San Diego to Mike's Sky Rancho

We get up at 5:00 am, have some coffee, sort out a last few things, pet the old dog goodbye in case we don't ever see him again, and head over to Britt and John Mark's. Because Britt's bike isn't street legal, she's trucking her 250 to the border while the DRZ400 brigade self-propels. We head down 805 and then cut over Otay Lakes Road to the 94. We're not even out of the US yet and we face our first challenge: the cold. East county in the early morning? Brrr...must be in the 40s. Never mind the fact that it's late November and we should've known better. For much of the trip my teeth are literally chattering and I get to listen to the clonk-clonk-clonk in my head. At some point Mr. Michigan pulls over to put on another layer so I whip out my electric vest. Yes, I know you're incredulous: I packed my electric vest. Most of you reading this are men and I'd like to let you in on a secret: most everything you say to women about packing and comfort gets thrown out the window. I doubt that's a surprise to you. I get cold easily and there was no way I was going anywhere in November without my electric vest. Pack light? Easy for you to say with an extra 80 pounds, much of it insulating body hair.

We get to the border, unload the 250, exchange some dollars for pesos, and then cross into Mexico with no issues. As we try to head out of town, we manage to select a street that dead ends and we have to turn around. It's impressive that we're maybe a mile from our native soil and we've already made a navigational error -- holy shades of portentousness, Batman!

We get on Highway 2 and make our way over to La Rumorosa, where we stop for gas. Our first Pemex gas encounter goes well -- no one tries to cheat the gringos or sneak diesel into the tanks. After the gas stop we hop next door to a restaurant for our first group meal in Mexico. The hot coffee -- thin as it is -- is unbelievably refreshing and prepares us for the dirt stretch on this gray day. Outside the restaurant John-Mark notices my radiator shrouds are loose. The bottom bolts on each side have already backed out. There's a good reason for this: After I put the radiator guards on, the lower bolt holes on the shroud no longer lined up so I had to run a smaller diameter bolt through, using a nut to keep it on. I didn't Loctite the nut. The error of not packing Loctite (I really meant to pack it) would be an oversight rubbed in our faces again and again on the trip. I dig into the zip tie supply and secure the shrouds.

Although we have GPS waypoints, we still have a hard time identifying exactly which of the many dirt roads to turn down. John-Mark leads the way and after a few turns we find what looks like the right road. We see in the distance an officious-looking truck with the light bar in action. The truck is moving slowly so if the officer/ranger/person-with-a-firearm is actually chasing someone he's making a very casual job of it. We reach the truck and slowly pass by, waving to express our love and respect of all things official, and to please not pull us poor dirtbikers over.

The ride for the next couple of hours on the dirt roads is enjoyable. The scenery is nice and except for a saddlebag malfunction on Britt's bike we have no problems. We stop a few times to take pictures and enjoy the gestalt of it all.

...to be continued...

[drknow 0]

My day one notes:

Day 1 dawned and after loading britt's 250 into the truck for the short drive to TEcate, we all pulled in behind and headed out. We parked the truck in Tecate and rode across the border so simply you had to wonder you were actually in Mexico. We took the non-toll hwy (libre) east and headed towards the dirt road that would begin our off-road adventure. I had people before the trip tell me that GPS units are only telling you exactly where you're lost. I vehemently disagree. I only had about 8 waypoints programmed in, but between the compass feature and a AAA map, we were in pretty good shape the whole way. I understand the hot ticket is the Baja Almanac, which is currently out of print.

Anyway, once the arrow told us we were at the road, we headed south towards Laguna Hanson. One of the things you'll quickly notice when touring off-road through Baja Norte is that is doesn't really look like what you were expecting. Sure, much of it looks very mojave like, with cactus and dust and exposed rocks, but much of the interior is at a pretty high elevation, and there are trees and greenery that are a bit shocking, at least for me.

I pointedly told myself to remember we weren't racing, but rather relaxing and should stop at any point to take photos etcetera. Well, don't take an SLR then, dummy. It was a pain to pull out and put away, and my little digital point-&-shoot would have taken pictures 95% as good, and would have snapped 3 times as many. Oh well. Considering how long this could get, I'll just cover the high points, but there was cool stuff throughout the trip.

The Parque Nacional Constitución de 1857 is beautiful, and the Baja route often runs through there. Laguna Hansen is breathtaking and the whole thing will be cooler than you expect.

Hwy 3 runs through the middle of Baja Norte, and it's quite difficult to cross the peninsula transversely without using it.

The road to Mike's sky ranch from Hwy 3 is pretty rough in spots, you'd definitely need a 4WD truck or dirt bike to get in unless you were crazy. Lot's of fun though. We got there late enough that the sun was setting, which made it quite a bit more challenging, especially since everyone said "Don't ride Baja at night!"

Mike's was awesome and considering I'd been reading about the place since I was alittle kid, I was surprised it didn't feel anti-climactic. We had the place to ourselves as it was the day before thanksgiving, but it must be something full of rowdy off-roaders.

It's funny how these kinds of trips always change you. My wife is a road-racer and street bike fanatic, but has only done a couple short dirtbike trips in her entire life. This was a major shift for her, and she did so well. The difference in her riding between the first and last day was pretty spectacular. That first night, there was a water crossing, and she pointedly refused to really even try. Afraid of dropping the bike, etc. I showed her the proper technique, and even after the others went across safely, I eventually had to wade back and ride her bike across (on the final day, she ripped across a water crossing with no hesitation, going back for photos as well). Anyway, we had some fun drying the boots that night! Mike's serves you a steak dinner and mexican breakfast for your $66 US per person a night. After hand washing our riding clothes, and drying our boots, we ate and benchraced until about 8pm. Then we all hit the hay.

more later...

dk

[drknow 0]

Day 2 started with a beautiful morning and a great Mike's Sky Ranch breakfast. We then headed back down the road and I took the opportunity to open up the DRZ a bit. I stopped after 6 miles to take some photos and wait for the group to close back up, when I noticed my duffle bag had ripped at the lower back seam and after inspection, realized that one of the auxiliary fuel bottles, a 22mm socket, a 32 mm socket, a 1/2 to 3/8 adapter socket, and the 3/8 ratchet were missing. Initially, I also thought my pda phone was also gone, but later found it in my bag. We backtracked very slowly all the way back to the water crossing at Mike's, and found all but one socket! I was excited, although at the time I was still missing my phone. Then on the way back out going slow again, Zina's amazing eagle eyes found the last missing socket. It was pretty unbelievable to find all the missing crap, but we burned through about 2 hours in the process. We finally rode out to the road, then jumped on the slab for the trip to Puertocitos.

Once on the freeway for a couple of hours, we realized that daylight was fast burning away. One thing about being that far south and this late in the year, is that the sun sets reallllllly early. Daylight was pretty much all gone before 5 o'clock.

One of the attractive things about Dual-sporting/adventure touring is that it provides a motorcycling experience, but with a pronounced shift in focus. Speed, the line, acceleration, these things are not nearly as important. Exploration, living in the moment, soaking in the differences, these were my goals. I kept saying, "We're adventure tourers, we..." and would fill in the blank with something inane. Everyone hated me I'm sure.

When we reached San Felipe and fueled up, it was a little after 3pm. I said, "We're adventure tourers, we can change our plans at a moments notice!" I then proposed we stay there and head out in the morning. Luckily, rather than get bombarded by a thrown helmet or something, they all agreed.

We found a hotel called George's (not particularly great, not awful, but clean--thin walls though). We grabbed showers, bought booze, got some great grub, and wished each other Happy Thanksgiving. It was the FIRST time in my life I didn't eat any turkey on thanksgiving. The margaritas and fish tacos were great!

Feeling security minded, we brought the bikes in to the hotel room with us and headed off to dream land. It was a great thanksgiving.

dk

[OUTERLIMITS 0]

I had people before the trip tell me that GPS units are only telling you exactly where you're lost. I vehemently disagree. I only had about 8 waypoints programmed in, but between the compass feature and a AAA map, we were in pretty good shape the whole way. I understand the hot ticket is the Baja Almanac, which is currently out of print.

I concur 100% with you. If you have taken the time to make good markings, a GPS can absolutely save your a$$. Even on a route that you have been down dozens of time and could do blindfolded, sometimes it's nice to be able to fire up the GPS and see how far to the next Pemex or wherever. I had sent Zina an email scan of the Baja Almanac, but not sure if she printed it out or if it was even clear on her end. The beautiful thing about that map though is that it has lattitude and longitude markings along the side so even if you just have a waypoint where you are on the GPS, you can cross reference it to the map to get a rough estimate of where you are. Still, the basic AAA map is always great to have and can be used in most situations.

[drknow 0]

Day 3, San Felipe to Gonzaga Bay.

We headed south after a great breakfast. One of the pleasures of travelling in baja is the food, assuming you like mexican food. I do, so life was good.

The road from San Felipe to Gonzaga is paved until you get to Puertocitos. I had fun pulling wheelies on the pavement dips that are prevalent along the way. Judging from the divots in the asphalt at the bottom of the dips, I can only assume that other cagers in Mexico don't share my enjoyment.

Once you reach Puertocitos, things change. First of all, the paved road ends in the town at gates that say private property. This confused me, as the road to Gonzaga Bay is a State Highway. Evidently a crazy lady started the town, and would shut the road down at night, and put the signs up. As many things Baja, no one bothered to remedy this.

Once we realized we were, in fact, still on the correct road, I scouted out ahead looking for a toilet, as the combo of lots of tequila and mexican cuisine was causing a bit of abdominal distress. Of course, there's a whole lotta nothing, so I rode fast and "tight" looking for somewhere to drop trow.

About 15 minutes down the road, dodging softball sized, sharp-edged rocks that looked custom made to tear tire sidewalls, I saw what looked like an abandoned house and after tearing past, what appeared to be an outhouse behind it. I turned around, skidded in, and found two quads--one pulling a trailer. I asked the couple standing behind them if I could use "their" bathroom. They looked amused and said to help myself.

I know I may be biased, as my need was great, but I stumbled on the best outhouse in the world! There was no ceiling, and no front, but some kind soul had put a rock on the loose lid, too keep it from blowing away, and there was no odor of any kind. It faced the sea, and I was able to sit and watch the ocean and smell the desert breeze.

I walked back and introduced myself to the couple, who ended up being French-Canadians from Quebec who had started their 10 month trek in BC and had come down through the US on their way to Cabo. They offered me a beer, and regaled me with stories from their travels while I waited for my gang to show up.

The world's best outhouse, interesting world travelers, and free beer. Adventure touring can be very good.

dk

[dirt dame 561]

There is nothing like a good dump, as long as it isn't the kind where you dump your motorcycle

[piratemonkey 0]

I had sent Zina an email scan of the Baja Almanac, but not sure if she printed it out or if it was even clear on her end. The beautiful thing about that map though is that it has lattitude and longitude markings along the side so even if you just have a waypoint where you are on the GPS, you can cross reference it to the map to get a rough estimate of where you are.

I did forward it on (thanks!). I printed out some of the pages and brought them with me but because of the way I had cropped them it didn't help much. One guy we met on the trip had the whole book and it was indeed a thing of beauty.

---

Now to finish Day 1 (from the woman's perspective). Some of the details may be obvious, but I wrote this so my non-dirt friends would understand...

When we arrive at pavement we do 40-ish miles southeast to Valle de Trinidad where we gas up again. Ever-sensitive about cheating Pemex attendants -- having been cheated before -- I look at the change the guy had given me and roll it around in my hand for a while, trying to do the math. It wasn't enough change for the 200 pesos I gave him so I ask him where the rest of it was. He walks over to the cash box and holds up the two bills I had handed him, which amounts to 120. He did give me the right change and, embarrassed, I shout "Lo siento!" through my helmet while giving him a good ol' gringa "My bad!" slap on the arm. A dash of octane boost for Mr. Michigan and Britt, and then we're back to the dirt on the day's final run up to Mike's Sky Ranch.

By now it's 4:00 and the sun is dropping behind the mountains. My GPS indicates 13 miles, which is a quick trip on pavement but could've been over an hour in the dirt, depending on conditions. We move along quickly, stopping only for necessary adjustments. The sun is down by the time we reach a wide pool of water that sits at the entrance to the ranch. Mr. Michigan and I stop and turn off our motors to ponder its depth. There is no way I'm going first, and I have visions of watching Mr. Michigan sink up to his helmet by crossing in exactly the wrong spot. Then John-Mark pulls up, stops long enough for his headlight beam to bounce off the water, and motors through. Seeing that the foot of water didn't do him in, we follow his path.

We find that we're the only people at Mike's Sky Ranch. A week before it was probably packed since the Baja 1000 had been in the area. It seems a little weird to have the storied place all to ourselves, but at the same time it doesn't seem that weird since it's in the middle of nowhere. We're served dinner at 6:30 and after that we do our last few tasks before all power is shut down (the generators only run for a few hours each night). What a great day: A long and fun ride, a hot shower*, a tasty steak dinner, and a bed that doesn't make me itch.

*I will admit to having had packed my hairdryer (a small one!). Short wet hair dries quickly. Long wet hair does not. If you've never had the opportunity to wear long wet hair, imagine having a wet sock on your foot and waiting for it to air dry. On a cold day, it sucks a lot.

[piratemonkey 0]

Day 2: Mike's Sky Ranch to Gonzaga Bay San Felipe

Breakfast is ready for us at 7:30 and after eating we do a few repairs. Britt's side case gets a "safety wire" sewing job. I repair the broken power cord on my electric vest because for the millionth time I had walked away from my bike while still attached. The bike chains get sprayed. While going through my tools I pull out the hand pump, pop off the cap, and notice that the f#cker is for a presta valve (it's not shrader adjustable). I've got a choice: not say anything to anyone and hope no one gets a flat, or own up to my error now. Rather than pull out some bad acting down the road when there's a flat -- "Oh silly me, it's the wrong kind of pump!!" -- I let everyone know the situation so they can put a little more mustard into the rock dodging if they so desired.

Part way through our trip out, we come upon John-Mark who informs us that a hole has ripped in his gear bag and that he's lost a fuel bottle, tools, and his cell phone. As he's adjusting his bag, Mr. Michigan and I slowly retrace the path to see what we can find. We're eventually back at the ranch, having found everything except one socket and the phone. When John-Mark and Britt reach us we do another slow scan back out. Oddly enough, just as I was giving up hope of finding anything else and thinking to myself, "If they can't see it with their big round eyes, how am I going to see it with my little slanty ones?" the small socket materialized. I had to laugh.

The rest of the ride out was pleasant and without incident, although when we got to the road Mr. Michigan noticed his left turn signal was gone. The bolt that held the seat, tail rack, and turn signal in place had backed out. The bolt on the other side is loose, but not gone. Cursed again for forgetting the Loctite. (It's not as good as Loctite, but in a pinch nail polish can help prevent bolts from backing out. Unfortunately, I hadn't planned to paint my dirty, stumpy nails while travelling so I didn't pack any.)

It's back to Highway 3 as we make our way down to San Felipe. There's a military checkpoint at El Chinero so we pull up and wait for a signal. John-Mark is at the front so the soldier insists he takes off his helmet and it sounds to me like he's demanding his "cartera" -- wallet. Perhaps there's some colloquial translation for it that I don't know so I take off my helmet and say "Hola!" The guy turns to me and asks if I speak Spanish. I shrug my shoulders and say "a little" and he asks where we're from. I tell him San Diego and he points at our bikes and says, "On these?" Sensing his mild incredulity, I answer yes and go into a pitiful story of how its been a long, painful ride and how we've lost a bunch of parts from our bikes. Somehow he infers that I've crashed and instead of correcting him I let the fictional tale of woe wrap up our "inspection." Britt wants to take a photo of the checkpoint. I ask the soldier if it's ok but he says no, although another one seems like he's about to say yes. Rather than piss anyone off by pressing for one little harmless piccy, I thank them and we head off for San Felipe.

By the time we're gassing up in San Felipe it's 3:00. John-Mark suggests that instead of pressing on towards Gonzaga Bay we find a place in town to spend the night. The sun is at a pretty good slant so we're all for calling it a day. We end up renting a room at George's Motel near the beach, which costs $80 USD for the four of us. $20/person is budget-friendly, and we have the added bonus of being able to push all the bikes into the room.

We do some pre-dinner boozing in the room and then head over to dinner. Stingray burrito is on the menu and never having had that (and wanting revenge on an old stingray attack) I thought I'd give it a try. It tasted exactly like cuttlefish, which is like a gamier and stringier version of squid.

We're back at the motel room after dinner and it's lights out before 9:00. The travellers wrap up this Thanksgiving day buzzed and beat.

[Crawdaddy 96]

Day 2: Mike's Sky Ranch to Gonzaga Bay San Felipe

You're cracking me up ....looking forward to the rest of the tale (as in your story....not grab a** )