Pretty picture tease....few miles south of La Rumarosa Baja
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Left to Right, Mike, Dan, and, Don (25 miles south of San Felipe at Campo El Virgel). Mike's the only ungeezer among us, so if you're looking for pictures of wheelies, move along now. :rofl
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All that happened on schedule last Friday and Saturday the 3rd and 4th. As I waited the arrival of the boys that Saturday, I went out for gas, and a pic at the beach to kill some time.
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The gang showed up at 9am, and the adventrure began. Mike's on the white tank kickstart DR, Dan's on the Kickstart XR650, Don's on the Blue tank DR, and I'm riding the bike with a red gas can and tank paniers.
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My history in Baja goes back 60 years when my dad took the family camping in Baja at Punta Banda (La Bufadora) below Ensenada when I was 14. At 74 now, I been to Baja more than a 100 times I estimate. Still lots that I haven't seen, though
I must like the place. You can nearly alway find free camping, and have a campfire anywhere you are. Can't do that in the states anymore at most places. Relatively no intrusion from 'The Man' once you get past the border towns. Freedom, that's it, When my time comes, I won't be sorry, for I don't like where the world is going.
...........but enough of that, let's not hijack to world problem.
We were gassing in Tecate before 11am. Money was exchanged, and them as wanted insurance got it.
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Next stop would be Rancho Santa Veronica. STA Veronica is 25 miles from Tecate and is an off road haven of motel/camping and bar/restaurant. It is the best that Baja has so I needed to show it to the Don/Dan team.
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We were in time, still, for the breakfast Buffet....all you can eat, don't you know.
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I'd forgotten that this was Easter weekend when I choose the ride dates so Sta V was very busy as was every thing else thru Sunday, but then it was back to normal Baja.
Back on the bikes....
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We went back to the pavement (hwy 2) and a few miles further east to La Rumarosa to catch the dirt road south that goes thru the piney tree forest past Laguna Hansen (dry now).
Don discovered the hard way what happens when his mesh riding pants catches on a foot peg as he comes to a stop. I had to be quick to catch the picture. :freaky
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Did I say, the weather was nice? 80 degree, just a little wind to keep the dust at bay. Don looks for that pesky snag....once located a bit of Gorilla tape across the gap and Don was all smiles from then on....well mostly.
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The ride from La Rumarosa to Hwy 3 is Baja's best dirt road from a scenery standpoint. It was beautimus again this time. I'd never seen that yellow flower ground cover before. I don't think I got the best shots, but here are a few more.
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...one of these should make a nice screensaver....if you are Baja nuts. :lol3
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...and here's a pretty one.....for the ladys. Heh he
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We moved on south toward the pine forest of the park at Lagna Hansen. Our plan was to spend the night at MSR (Mike Sky Ranch). That would be a stretch for us. We first got into the bouldery scrub brush country.
....If you get much farther east than the rocks in the distance you'lll be in the Laguna Salada desert at sea level.
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Look at that sky...prolly at about 4000 ft here 20 miles south of Hwy 3.
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....approaching the little stream crossing with the concreted southbound side...
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I hadn't been thru here for 4 or 5 years, maybe more. An ace in the hole was to stop at the hotel/restaurate (Ponderosa just a few miles north of the park in the pine trees. We'd get something cold to drink, and who knows, maybe spend the night, if the place was full of mtn nymphs, dancing girls, or summat interesting. NERT!!
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I don't know when or why, but someone's great idea is going back to the earth from whence it came. We wouldn't be spending the night there.
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We traveled on to Laguna Hansen. The place was a mad house because of easter weekend with local folks.
The lake was dry of course....
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Dan and Don look at the lake for the first times.....even being from Co and SC, I bet it won't be their last time.
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We don't spend much time there as we are burning daylight. Mike moves out first...White tank DR
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Six miles away is Ramona's gas and, now, snack cafe.
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Frist time I was there was around '64. My first wife and Dad made a Jeep trip from San Vincinte up the Caluntura trail to Via Trinidad. It's a regular route today, but it wasn't then.
Anyway Ramona was selling gas at her place in Aserado (used to be a sawmill) then, and we were happy to find her there. I asked a gal in the cafe if Ramona was alive today as I didn't seen her there. She gave me the no finger wiggle. RIP, Ramona, she made that part of the world a happier place.
Mike and I waited for Dan and Don....finger tapping began....I better go look for them. I found them with a big group of big bike riders just south of the L Hansen. They got drawn in by the activity of one BMW rider who was putting a tube in a bent front rim/tire. That's the trouble with tubeless in the dirt.
We got a coke back at Ramna, and moved on toward the next 15 miles and the first real sand the that Don and Dan woud encounter. Dan said that all those big bikes were headed from MSR for the night. We figured that they all prolly had reservations....maybe there were none for us. :eek1
That 15 miles went smoothly. Don and Dan passed the sand test and were eager for more. :freaky
Thinking back about that old jeep ride with my wife and dad.......the night before we got to Ramona's for gas my wife got a spider bite in the middle of her forehead that night as she slept. and the next day her forehead swelled up like an orange. She looked mongoloidal. Poor thing, I probably shouldn't have laughed at her. :evil ....on to Via Trinidad.......
About 15 years ago, my wife and I did a week long bus trip from Phoenix down all thru northwest Mexico proper. As far south as Copper Canyon. We'd ride most of a day in a nice Mexican tour bus, and get a history lesson from our older Mexican tour guide.
It was quite eye opening as the 500 years of time in the southwestern America's borders blurred as he spoke. I came away from that trip a lot more tolerant of our southern neighbors.
As we rode toward Valle de Trinidad, little did I know that we'd have another gratifying experience in town. First we gassed up like we were going on to MSR.....but then, sleeping in the cold outside up there, if there were no rooms, had us deciding to stay in VT for the night, if we could find a room.
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I didn't even know if VT had a motel, but the gas jockey gal told us about this place.
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Edwardo made us welcome (note matching shirt), but he warned us that he wasn't renting rooms to anyone because they were having their annual family reunion tonight (Sat), and there would be music long into the night.
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The Music was supplied by loud car systems. It turned out that 60 percent of the attendees were from the LA area and spoke good english.
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It sounded like a party to us. We got 2 rooms and Don went out for beers to compliment Dan's flask of Scotch, and we settled right in.
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The taco shop next door (also owned by Edwardo) supply an ample supply of Tacos Adobados. Did I mention that Edwardo had his shit together. :freaky
I'm guessing Edwards last name was Moreno.
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The gal in shorts and a girlfriend were also part of the reunion. Later they came over to do shooters with us. They were from Riverside. It was a fun evening with our New Mexican friends.
The Music didn't stop till 5am. Honestly, for my money, it could have stopped a bit sooner, but Edwardo had been honest with us. We had Huevos Rancheros down the street and enjoyed the kids playing with the goats across the street.
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San Matias Pass
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At around 8am we hit the trail for San Felipe. We'd try to get to LA Bay for the night. Somewhere along Hwy 3 we stopped for personal relief.
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Those Mtns are at just over 10000 ft, and the Diable Dry Lake below is at sea level. That's one of the largest elevation changes in the world. The Mexicans have an observatory up there that I've never been able to locate from down below.....prolly could with binoculars.
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Did I mention it was Easter Sunday? There was a solid line of cars going north out of San Felipe. The checkpoint at the 3 and 5 junction was a mad house, which got us just waved on thru going south.
I knew San Felipe would be busy, and it was, so we just gassed up and headed south.....and that was the end of the busy part of Baja. It felt much better.
Gas station at the traffic circle.....
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....And the other one across the street.... All 5 or 6 stations in SF were like that. We were happy to be out of town finally.
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We stopped at Celos 25 miles south of town for something to drink and a butt break. I'd offered to make the guys a 'Dual Sport Touring Seat', but they all declined.
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....then it was on to Alfancina's at Gonzaga....and the first fish tacos of the trip......
...........................................Alfancias, Coco's corner, and LA Bay................
After drinks we headed south into some of the best scenery that the Baja's Eastern coast has to offer. We were fat dumb and happy. The bikes were running good and the kick start bikes were starting relatively easy. We had no idea about the crashes ahead or the bike problems that would have to be solved. We'd forgotten about storm damage from last year's hurricane.
Right now it was all about the coastal cliffs south of Puertocitos. The water was particularly blue this day. I think Gonzaga Bay is just beyond that last Mtn to the south.
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There's a piece of the old road that is no longer a necessary evil part of Baja seen from the new paved road that goes 15 miles south past Gonzaga. We visualized fish tacos as we rode toward Alfancina's. Baja's a changing.
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....and on the inland side of the road.... not much life there as the mtns appeared to hold no secrets.
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We reached Gonzaga and were happy to find the gas station had gas. It's a long haul from San Felipe to the gas pickup truck at the LA Bay turnoff if Gonzaga is out of gas.
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We zipped into Alfancinas for Tacos.
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As most of you know Alfancina's sand spit is just beautiful. They serve food and have a hotel (only 10 to 15 rooms), and usually have Airplane fuel for fly ins. I've never seen a commercial setup like this here before. I suppose it's a consequence of the new road.
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On the bay side you have a beautiful beach. Later in the year you can swim with the whale sharks as little as 50 yards off shore
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At low tide you can walk across the sand to that island...
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Papa Fernandes' camp is across that bay and just left of center.
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There are about 70 houses on that sand spit to the south of Alfancina's cafe/hotel. It looked like Malcolm Smith was at his place when we rode by judging from the activities.
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We didn't spend a lot of time there as we wanted to get off those Dualsport seats as soon as possible. Next stop Coco's Corner It was an easy ride, the 25 miles, as almost half of it was paved now. Last year we did this 40 miles of gravel/rock road on our street bikes (before it was paved)....much better this time, :freaky
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Everyone enjoys Coco's porcelain forest.
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Don and Dan have a soda and are disappointed that Coco was gone, so back on the road after a quick look arond at Coco's memorabilia.
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Finally we were on Hwy 1 headed toward Punta Prieta and the LA Bay turnoff.
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The roads were 98 percent in good condition, However there were some wicked big pieces of Pavement missing from the storm on the way out to LAB.
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Dan...
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Mike...
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Don...
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Ah,....the water as we approach the bay...very striking.
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We head for the Costa Del Sol hotel to get rooms but were disappointed to find that the Chris Haines boys had the place reserved. There would have been rooms, but the storm knocked out one of the motel building.
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Later after the Haines arrived. I didn't know you could stack bikes that tightly.
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No matter, Babe (Emetario Meranda) was renting rooms from his house just a few blocks up the hill. He called his place Princes Hotel and had several hand painted big red signs that showed the way. Babe was a hoot in his late 70s.
Here we are at Princes Hotel, Babe on the left. Babe was a Mexican American contractor in San Jose, Ca. He came here 24 years ago and married a gal and never left. Has a 12 year old daughter.
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Babe had a funny story. His dad was illegal as was Babe in the states, but his Mexican birth records were burned up in Mexico, so he can't prove Mex citizen ship. In the state he was assumed to be an American citizen. He says that the Mexicans assume that he's Mexican so they let him own property. It all worked out in the end.
You see that grin on my face.....it must mean that I'm going on a beer run. :freaky
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We went out to dinner at a place Babe recommended...more fish tacos. We all had the same. That last statement is significant.
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Then back to Costa Del Sol for a nightcap. We decided to go to the Saint Borja Mision tomorrow.
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....then it was off to bed....
......................................Mission San Borja..............................
From Mike and my upstair room's balcony...
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Don and Dan's room was beneath ours. About midnight we could hear thru the floor that their bodies had begun liquefying their insides, and we could hear, thru the floor, them expelling said fluid, and it wasn't over when the sun came up.
Speaking of sun coming up, it was a beaut.
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Don and Dan weren't going to miss the trip to the mission though. I'd made coffee in the room and Mike and I ate some cookies for breakfast while we unpacked the bikes for a lighter load.
The mission is 15 miles back out the paved road and 21 miles to the south on a dirt road. The Jesuits that started all these Missions tried to have a mission at a day's mule ride distance from each other. This particular mission also had gold mining going on near by.
We figured it would be a short days ride. We needed a short one, and we booked Babe's place for another night.
We were out of there by 9am. The Ds weren't feeling too good, but you couldn't tell from their actions.
Finally riding....
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There is some lusious cactus scenes on the way in to the mission.
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The road is good enough for a big street bike. I've had my 1100cc V4 Sabre in there before....not saying summat couldn't go wrong with a big bike in there, but it's doable.
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Ok, you've prolly seen enough cactus....just one more.
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Here's the welcoming committee.
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Finally the mision (Spanish spelling)...The construction (out of adobe) of buildings was begun in 1759. This stone church was completed during the Dominican period, in 1801.
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There was a football field's area walled in with adobe to the right and behind the place. Most of those wall have melted with the rains of the eons. ...standing on those walls, I get this photo.
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A few photos from inside. Not a lot of gold leaf alter work in this one.
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interestion how they carried dignitaries around....
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....and here's Francisco Borja himself. Quite the dude.
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The little canyon nearby had some hot springs that I'd never seen before. This time we walked the 1/8th mile up to them and had a dip.
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A second pool that Dan tried out....and Don showed off his suit...
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and a swimming pool
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The caretakers live nearby...
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One of the winches used at the goldmine is still there among the buildings.
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We headed back to LA Bay about 1pm.
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Don...
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We were back at Babe's hotel by 2:30pm. It had been a god day, and we'd take it easy the rest of it. Don and Dan could be found still recouping, if they were required.
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Tomorrow we'd go to San Fransiquitos sky resort and then on to Guererro Negro.
.............................Bike Prep for the Trip.......................
So let me tell you some about the prep and history of these bikes.
I was responsible for the 2 E-start 350s. One I have ridden on trips for 15 years. It's got 30000 miles or so on it.
The other one hasn't been anywhere for 5 years....although it has been gotten running for a trip that never happened, prolly 25000 on it.
Mike hadn't ridden either of the other 2 bikes for more than a test ride. Mike did a ring job and refurbish on The kickstart DR. The XR only needed that aftermarket Edelbrock pumper carb cleaned and jetted properly. The former owner hadn't been able to start it so he got rid of it to Mike.
When Mike goes thru things he's quite thorough. Tires, brake pads rebuilt brake cylinders and such. After I found a bent front axle on his Kick DR, I straightened it and declared it fixed. Mike wasn't satisfied. he bought a NOS axle for it.
Me on the other hand not so thorough. I'm kinda in the habit of fixing things as they need fixing...not before they need fixing.
On my old Dr, I've been running tubeless tire on rims sealed with Shoe Goo. I've more than 5000 miles on those rims running tubeless. I'm a firm believer in them. So I went tubeless on the other E-start DR....and during the proccess of dismounting the tires, sealing the rims and remounting the tires. I never noticed that the front and rear pads needed changing. Now 2 of the bikes were going tubeless.
I still carry a 21" tube with me for a bent rim or summat, but honestly at the speeds that I ride a catastrophic tire or rim problem is unlikely. Still I have the 21" tube to use in either end.
Among other things that I did to that DR was to clean the carb of some horrible green crude in the carb. Ok, I declaired that bike ready....but Mike noticed that that bike had a leaking petcock and the brake pads were bad and bought some pads and another petcock for Don and Dan to install once they'ed flown into town. Ok now that bike is really ready.
Now about Mike's prep on his DR...the one he put rings in. About a month before the ride he buttoned that DR up and rode it 20 miles to work one day. when he got to work he had oil all over his pant leg. Seems as though the 6mm bolt that holds the cam chain slipper had come out. Luckily no harm done. The other DR was there at his work and Mike borrowed that bolt to ride the bike back home.
A week or so later after another bolt had been obtained I got to put that bolt back in....but it wouldn't go in as the slipper had moved enough so I couldn't get the bolt thru the hole in the slipper. So I had to take the valve cover off to get the slipper up where the bolt would go in. Ok, got that done.
Now you're more up to date on the bikes we were riding and some of what will follow will make more sense as things unfold.
Uh,...did I mention that Mike's DR would kind of cough every once in a while and die when it was idling cold...and there was a strange engine tick. He swore that he'd feel a puff of air on his leg when that happened. Me?...I thought he was crazy and imagining things....but I didn't say that. :evil
.................................an Evening in Bahia De Los Angeles....................
While the Ds recouped.....they had decided to not eat anything for 24 hours. Mike and I decided to go downtown, and gas up as well as getting an evening meal of some sort.
Turned out that Mike was having trouble kick starting his DR, and seemed to be having more today than he had been. At the Gas station I talked him into a pull start with the rope that I'd brought. It was one of those free blue rope that Harbor Freight was giving away with a coupon a couple years ago.
I'd never done the ft peg to ft peg tow before, and I thought developing the technique would be a good idea if either of the kick start bikes got more cantankerous. Our first try resulted in a broken rope as we managed to run over it. That's when we met this father and son team.
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The boy was imagining running the Baja1000. He loved the chance to sit on the bike. The Dad in a friendly way mention something about fuego to Mike. His idea to burn it wasn't far from what Mike was thinking. Mike hates it when his machinery doesn't work properly. Me, I just wanted to know how to pull start these bikes if we had to.
Mike said, "Let's leave it, and go get a couple tacos at the nearby stand. The bike might start better once it had set a while". I was down with that.
It was the time of evening when the Mexicans clean up and go for walks around the park and socialize. Well, LA Bay doesn't have a park, but they had a sidewalk in front of our taco stand. A cute group of kids.
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Evening closed in on us as we had our tacos.
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I see my gardener had taken advantage of me being gone, and he took my boat out.
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Closer look at my boat...
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We did get the bike pull started a couple times after tacos, and went down to the Hotel Costa Del Sol to check out new rides and riders. There was some '80 iron in the parking lot....didn't see the riders though.
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Mike checked out fires at home on the WiFi at the CDS Hotel as we sat in the bar/restaurant. The CDS is the class joint of the place.
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We'd been out without supervision long enough so we headed back to Babe's for early retirement. The morning would come soon enough, and the 2 Ds said that they looked forward to a new day of riding.
...............................Punta San Francisquito, El Arco, and Guerrero Negro..................
We all awoke to another beautiful day. There was just a whisper of cloud cover that didn't really stop the sun but id did knock off about 5 degrees to the daily temps....just enough to be perfect.
The Ds appeared to be ok. Don was well enough to have breakfast with Mike and I as we stopped at Costa Del Sol on the way out of town
Mike had jump started his bike on the hill leaving Babe's hotel. The XR was starting quite consistently in 5 kicks or less. Gotta say that at the end of five kicks it was time to rest, if it hadn't started. With breakfast consumed, all but Dan. He didn't quite trust himself yet. We headed south toward Punto San Francisquito.
I've been there before a few times. Last time I was there it was with my Dad as we made a final Baja hoorah trip in my School bus, he was in his late 70s and that was about 1985. We towed a Baja Bug with us and made the trip from LA Bay to San Francisquito in the bug. I bought a gold ring with a small black pearl made at SF by an LA Ca gold smith who was working out of an out building in San Francisquito using local materials.
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The first 50 miles south of LA Bay is some very nice country. There are lots of nice cactus scenes and enough elevation change in order see them. I hope these next half dozen pictures don't bore you too much.
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Good road all the way to Punto SF. You could go much faster here, but we managed about 25mph with stops and all.
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The road narrows a bit....
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Bored with scenery yet? Too bad, I'm not done showing Baja off. :evil
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A guy has to pee sometime....
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I was tailing the pack since I was stopping for pictures, and along here somewhere, I came upon Don as he was picking his bike up. He'd found himself on a wrong slope of a rut. No damage, but he did say that he'd hit his helmet pretty hard.
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That's our destination down there. I wondered how much of the place that the storm had left behind.
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The kitchen/cafe on the left was brought back to working order....the thached part of the right hand building was gone.
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Even so we were greeted by an enthusiastic several folks that served us a meal.
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Lookin up the beach at the rentals showed that much rebuiding was yet to be done.
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For some reason I felt it necessary to moon my fellow travelers. Boys will be boys. :evil
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It was nearly 95 miles to PSF. We still had a ways to go. I decide to head for Guererro Negro for the night as the road El Arco to San Ignacio would be too sandy for our crew (from what I remembered a few years back). It was about 50 miles to El Arco and another 40 miles to GN, and much of it was on worse mountainous roads. That would strain our fuel capacitiy.
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Somewhere about 10 miles from El Arco, I took a soil sample. I must have been gawking around and didn't see the rut that threw me down. I didn't see it coming and have no recollection of what happened.
It was peculiar as I had no 'queer street' sensation that I would have had if I'd been knocked out or dazed. Don came back to see where I was which means some time had passed before I was up and rolling. I do remember that my right shoulder hurt like hell as I tried to get the bike up....not sure if Don helped me or not.
See? I must have been knocked a little dizzy. Anyway the bike started right up and riding wasn't painful. We went on.
Some 5 miles up the road there was a split, and I stopped to think which way would take us to GN. Prolly either way would, but Mike was out front and we looked for his track so as not to lose him. Dan was third in line to stop, and he figures he applied too much front brake, and down he went from 10 mph.
We got the bike off of him, and he had hit pretty hard on his right shoulder and chest as well....but he was still able to kick start his XR and ride, so off we went.
We kind of bypassed El Arco, where Mike was getting some fuel unbeknownst to us. He did see us pass, and eventually caught us from behind. That was a relief having our group back together. From El Arco we were on a grade A gravel road some 20 miles out to Hwy 1. On the next 20 mile of Hwy 1 back to GN, Don ran completely out of gas.
The XR has 7 gals of gas so it loaned Don a half gallon, and we rode on into GN where we gassed up and signed into the motel across the street. Hummmm...no street picture of the motel. Nice place, maybe Don has a picture.
Dan and I licked our wounds. I had a shoulder separation a few years back, and that leaves a bump on top of the shoulder where the tendons don't hold the top bone down. Dan had that bump.
I was getting sorer and sorer as the night wore on. I had deep soreness behind my right chest muscle and a rib attachement at my backbone was screaming at me during particular movements. Oh, and I couldn't and still cant, 10 days later raise my right arm with the shoulder muscle. Sleeping was a bitch for both of us.
The good news was that riding was relatively comfortable....because we had 4 more days riding ahead of us.
The other thing was that Don's DR had begun to have trouble make top speed after his tumble the day before....something else to make it an adventure. :clap
............................Guerrero Negro to San Ignacio to Mulege.............................
We awoke to another beautimus day. Some of us and our bikes were a little more raggedy now. Still we were enthuisastic about the hew Day. Even Mike hadn't been andyfarther south than LA Bay before.
The boys would be breaking new ground today, The Viscaino Desert, The Tres Virgines Volcano, as well as San Ignacio , Mulege and Conception Bay. These places were prolly the best of Baja.
Sharing the motel parking lot were 8 brand spanking new big ADV bikes. There were 8 of them ridden by guys from Mexico city. One of the bikes had less than 500 miles on it. They had shipped their bikes to Tijuana, and started their ride from there.
Look at these beauties.
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Nice frienly guys....Look at me with my right arm up their like there was nothing wrong with it. :1drink Don had gone to the pharmacia last night and got us some pain pills. They must have been working.
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I was leading at my usual 60mpg pace. At Viscaino I stopped for a checkup with the boys. Yep, Don was struggling to keep up. In a straw grasping move I bought some carb cleaner in a bottle, and we put Don out front to make the pace.
The carb cleaner didn't help. We were running low 50s when we pulled into Rice and Beans for breakfast. Hummm..... seemed like the fuel wasn't running into the carb as fast as the carb was using it. We still had some hope for the carb cleaner. It was time to eat.
Thanks to our waitress we filled our bellies. Isn't she cute?
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They have a long bar full of daring-do.....
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Rice & Beans is all well and good but the real draw to San Ignacio is the Spring and oasis setting that fostered the old San Ig.
We road into the town square....
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The lineup sitting in front of the real attraction, the church.
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I've prolly got 25 of these pictures over the years. It's a spectacular example, maybe the best of Baja's missions.
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The boys went inside for a looksee while I struck up a converstion with a Canadian and his family. They were there with a tow rig and trailer hauling their off road bikes. The wife was running aroung capturing the experience for the years to come, while the boys talked about the trails that they had ridden.
That white trailer is theirs. They were doing it right.
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That's the Canadian and family hovering around our bikes ...
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We left heading east toward the first of the volcanos of the Tres Virgines. Along here somewhere is where we landed our fuel starved airplane back in '71
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That's all the Virgines
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We pasted this pack train of mules out there somewhere. See the mule driver there on the left. Man, that is old school. I'd give a testical to know his story, and where he was heading.
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I had to go back for pictures...
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Then we went down the hill into Santa Rosalia. Our light bike really enjoy twisties.
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That first thing on the left is a bunch of mirrors of a solar power plant.
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Finally we see the Sea of Cortez...
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More nice twisties...my arm didn't hurt at all thru there. :evil
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Made it...that pier is new to me at a new mining operation a few miles north of Santa Rosalia. If you like mining, you'll like Santa Rosalia since that is all the town has ever been.
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First business was to gas up as we had nearly 200 miles on our last load of fuel.... We didn't spend anytime in Santa Rosalia...just rode slowly past the mining district of old. That's quite interesting.
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...then it was on to Mulege...out past the Prison south of S R.
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..................................The Magic that is Mulege.............................
There wasn't much going on in the less than 50 miles to Mulege. The down hill into town gave a bit of interesting riding. Mulege is unique to Baja, as most of you know. Here's an aerial Pic. [url]http://goo.gl/maps/r6P5H[/url]
I was shooting for affect so I took the guys right straight thru the old town, down along the river to the Cafe/bar at the lighthouse (where the river meets the bay).
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Don fell for the old Mexican trap....alway check out the legs of the plastic chair that you are sitting in....first. Note missing plastic...
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Luckily no harm was done....there was chuckling. though :rofl
I got lost on the way out to the cafe. The hurricane had wiped out the road and the cafe. They are rebuilding the road and I got us fowled up in detours, but we made it. That little cafe has always been a favorite place of mine.
There are no more boat moorings around the lee side of the lighthouse island (righthand side).
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Don had a Ceviche bowl, I had a shrimp coctail, and Mike had a quesadilla plate. It was all good.
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As we enjoyed the beer and food a short term plan was hatched. This was our last day of going south into new places, as the next three day would be needed to get back to the airport in LA Ca.
...........so Don has a KTM1290 on order back in Co. He'd be taking delivery in a couple months, and it just so happens that Kurt of [url]http://blackdogcw.com/[/url] (The Black Dog Cycle works, KTM specialist) is at his place about 10 miles south of town at La Posada beach community. Don said that he wanted to go look Kurt up, and that there was a hotel there. Well, that was perfect. We had a few hours left and that would give the guys a chance to see some of Conception Bay.
We got back on the bikes and headed south. Seeing Mulege could wait.
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It's 7 or 8 miles before the road drops down along the shore of Conception Bay. That's Playa Santispac down there. It was nothing like it was 10 years ago when I was there last.
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There were even some 2 story thatched houses on the front line. Nothing there resembling that now.
Oh well, life goes on and so do we....La Posada was only another mile or so just around the corner. It didn't take us long to locate Kurt. He was a fine fellow deep in the construction of a home there on the beach. He had a crew of riders down from Az that were helping with the project.
They were in fine shape as the cervesas had been flowing. One hollered down from the roof top, "Hey do you guys need and help? Well, too bad, cause were not going to help you." All in good fun. :freaky
It was time to leave, and there was a slight grade turning into LA Posada so Mike wanted to get his bike up there for a jump start. Don and I went up to help him with a little shove....
I won't attempt to explain but when the engine started it pulled me a bit. I'm already running down hill and my speed got faster than my legs would go. Shit, I was going to burger right there infront of everyone.
I've long since quit putting my hands out in front of me to break a fall. My arms aren't stong enough. I choose to tuck and roll. The trouble was it was onto that bad shoulder. Oh, yeah, that hurt!
....but it didn't seem to do any/much more damage to my shoulder other than making me want to cry. Where's mom when you need her? :cry
So we rode a few more mile south along the bay sighseeing.....and then headed back to Mulege.
Another camp along the bay.... There are many
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The hotel at La Posada was closed, seems as though they can't find anyone reliable to run the place, but Kurt recommended Hotel Hacienda, so that's where we went.
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They let us park inside next to the pool. There was a protected lot for cars, but we felt better with the bikes in sight.
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Our Mexican host was interested in the bikes. He gave them a good once over.....and he pointed out to the boys that a rear axle on one of the DRs was sticking out about 2". Holy smokes, that would explain the little hitch I was feeling in the corners lately. The castle nut and chain adjuster was gone. My rear wheel would have been next. I always say that, 'Luck beats Good'.
That gave us something to think about that evening. Hummmm.....
It wasn't all that late but I was beat. We went down the block to La Casita for dinner and a couple drinks.
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Hummmm....yeah, something else to think about. Now we add axle nut to the list of bike maladies.
Unbeknownst to us there was an angle in waiting.
............................Mulege to Guerrero Negro.................................
In the morning we were sitting around the motel patio licking our wounds, er...shoulders, and discussing the situation. We had bikes that weren't starting (easily), the 2 E-start DRs were leaking oil like old Harleys, of course I had to find a solution to my lost axle nut and chain adjuster. Plus, we had to make it to LA in three days.
An old gringo ex-pat shows up while we are cogitating. I think he was bringing back a handtruck that he'd borrowed from the hotel. Turns out he's a biker, and lives in Mulege during the winters.
He's a real biker. You could tell because he'd rather talk bikes than vimem....and he's a DR350 rider....has one at his house across the Mulege river at his place. Mike Collyar is 71 years old and still races vintage bikes when he's in Oregon or Wa. He's alway been a budget racer, the kind who always did his own work, so when he heard about my lost axle nut, he started thinking on the subject while talking about Mulege. Here's Mike on his DR....
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His house is in the flood plain that was wiped out last fall. He says the way to weather one of those storms is to take the doors and windows off, put your belongings in storage, and let the river run thru the house till the storm is over. You then shovel out the mud, put your stuff back in the house, and go on with your life.
About the axle nut, he thought that maybe a tie rod nut from a truck would fit the axle's threads, and that there was a bike shop up the way that worked on quads and such. He figured the bike shop was a long shot.
Mike was very likeable. It was time for breakfast for us though. We'd look for the axle nut solution after eating. On the way out for food, we noticed this donkey driven pump in the patio.
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On the way to eat I took a couple pics of the square.
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We sit down and order something to eat.
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We hadn't even been served yet, and 'Angel' Mike showed up. He hunted us up and tossed some parts on the table. I couldn't have solved the vanishing nut problem at home as easily, here in Mulege, it was a pure miracle I wanted to hug him. Of course he wouldn't take anything for it. He said, "Just pay it forward." He'd found it at that bike shop.
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We finished eating and were packed up and on the road by 9am, and feeling a lot better about things. Among other things, I was thinking about Don's DR that wouldn't keep up.
We'd found that it ran faster on a full tank of gas so it had to be a restriction at the float needle. We decided to gas up at every gas station. That kept us up in the high 50s.
We decided to pull the carb at Guerrero Negro when we got there for the night. The nearly 200 miles took us till after 2pm to get rebooked into the same motel in GN.
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And another thing, Mike was getting better at starting his DR. Things were looking up all around.....except the 2 shoulder injuries were making it hard to sleep at night....Dan and I were real glad to have the pain pills.
Once the decision had been made to pull the carb, it was no big task. Sure enough, there was some black crap bottle necking fuel at the float valve. Once we found a suitable oring for the needle's seat, the carb was ready to go back on.
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Also the air cleaner was coming apart. It was a foam cleaner that surrounded a blastic basket. The foam was rotten and some of it missing. I'd brought some 3/4" foam to sleep on under my hips, if we'd had to sleep out. That would surely make another filter for the bike.
Don signals that the glued up pieces of foam will be perfect once the silicone sealer dries. He's placed it under some tiles to hold it together for an hour of drying time.
We decided that would be a good time to go have dinner. Better yet lets order in pizza......we already had a plastic bag of beer under ice. The pizza and beer hit the spot.
.....and the filter was perfect. We'd been able to save the green foam base from the old filter. It didn't take long to finish the bike off.
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It looked like an early start would be had in the morning, and we'd try to make it to Coyote Cals for the night near San Vincinte (300+ miles).
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We got up in the morning, and I had my coffee in the room. The Ds got coffee next door. We wolfed down a piece of left over pizza from last night. The kickstands were up at 8am, well, er...after I gave Mike a quick pull start.
Having the pull start technique down pat is a good thing to have in your 'Know How' bag. We were definitely better at it after a half dozen instances of doing it. Knowing what gear, and how much traction the surface would provide.....and where/how to tie the rope. Yeah practice is good.
So we were off toward the Baja Norte/Sur check point border. Cool, it wasn't operational. That's good as we didn't have visitor visas.
We hadn't gassed up as I knew there was a Pemex station up the road a ways. I'd forgotten just how far it was, and by the time 30 miles had passed I began to second guess myself. Where is that gas station....and what if they are no longer open? ....but somewhere around 40 miles the gas station appeared. Whew.
Gas was had and a few miles later we decided to stop for a real breakfast in Rosarito. There is a cafe/truckstop there that I've eaten at before. It's good food, that's why the trucker stop there....a universal truth it seems.
It was cold that morning, we were happy to get coffee for a warm up.
...and Wifi.....slow but it was there. There's 10 times the wifi in Baja that there has been in the past. Speaking of the wifi, I'd brought an emergency Lithium jump starter battery kit. I'd been keeping Mike's ipad charged up with it. The kit has a 5V adapter cable that fits Ipads and a few others. It's a handy device.
Here's the guy that started the place many years ago. He no doubt was the dude those many years ago with that '58 or '59 Ford.
Well, he still is the dude. That Ford is still there. That was very cool.
And here's our lovely kitchen crew.
We traveled north passed all these places. It was a beautiful day....did I mention it was cold taking 65* wind at 60mph in the chest all day.
We were going to get a gallon of gas put in the DRs at the pickup trucks in Catavina as it was a 200 mile stint from last gas to El Rosario.
'Hill of Rocks' 15 miles north of Lake Chapala.
There's a preserve for 15 miles just north of Catavina. It's where you first start seeing the Baja Boogum trees.
There's a Boogum Tree near center of picture.
We wound down the hill toward El Rosario...
Mike's leading the way and can't resist helping this pair who were on the side of the road holding up a gas can. The little girl schooled us in how to get a syphon started by blowing in the moto gas tank. Gotta remember that.
We scrounged them a gallon and a half, maybe 2 gallons. They did't speak English, and kept saying that they were sorry. Then also said they were hungry and again with sorry. We all dug the small pesos out of our pockets....prolly 10 dollars or so. We needed to get rid of it before we crossed the border tomorrow anyway.
She dumped the gas in the car and it started right up. Hummmmm......we got to thinking that an old car out of gas shouldn't have started that easily. We eventually realized that we prolly had just been hustled.
2 gals stuck out on the road out of gas...who's not going to cave to helping them. Oh well, maybe that was the 'paying it forward' for the axle parts. It's all good.
We were finally at Mama Espinoza's for lunch and gas.
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Senora Espinza has been there since the early 1900. She's a great women who was instrumental in growing Baja thru the years, and she's been a great fan of the Baja races.
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Once we'd passed Lake Chapala we were committed to going coastal to the border. Dan had seen the coastal route from the south to Ensenada, but all this was new to Dan...and Don hadn't seen the coastal road from Ensenada to Tijuana.
Mike and I groaned at the thought of going thru the toll road and then thru the TJ border....but we owed it to Don and Dan to show them the coast road and the way thru the border.
We heard that there was labor unrest at San Quintin, but other than one place with a labor crowd of a 1000 people, we didn't run into any trouble. In fact we were making good time till I made a pass somewhere around Camilu. I was just pulling back into my lane when the throttle went slack.
The hand throttle was no longer connected to anything.....I pulled off in a field and the boys followed. There is almost no fix for a broken throttle cable besides replacing it....almost.
So we looked at it for a few minutes. We unscrewed the hand throttle to see if it really was broken.....sure enough, it was.
Hummmm,.....well...the cable system was a 2 cable push/pull type. Well we didn't need a return cable. The carb return sping would take care of that. Maybe we could switch that cable with the pull cable that was broken.
10 minutes of work later, and we had a cable hook up that would give us mid 50s in speed. cool.
We rode it on into Coyote Cals Hostel like that...no problem. First though, we stopped at Glorias in Erendira for dinner. I never miss eating at Glorias.
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Mike's missing from the picture since he got out front and missed the Erendira turnoff. Following from in front is always risky. They'd made a big change in the road there that Mike didn't recognize. Mike said that he must have gone 20 miles too far.
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We caught up with Mike at the Hostel, and Mike got the better of the deal as Rick (the owner) had cooked up a big meal of some kinda seafood curie with rice and beans, for a good guy price, to serve a large group of 15 or so dualsporters. I'd never seen it so busy at Cal's.
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Rick has the best run hostel that I've ever seen....and he's always making improvements. Here's a few pics of the place, for folks that haven't been there.
our room....
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Great new mural....
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Breakfast at Cal's....free with a nights lodging...
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Up and down the beach out front of the Hostel
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The sun went down and the bar opened up. We sat around the fire and told lies with the other riders till the beds in our room swallowed us up.....and Don dreamed about how to get me a bit more throttle for tomorrows run back home.
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...........................And Home Again............................
We come to the final day of our brief time in Baja. It hasn't been epic. There were only a little over 200 miles of dirt riding in all. Still, our trip has been remarkable as all rides are, especially in Baja.
We got up at Cal's and had the pancake breakfast and coffee. the place was a buzz as everyone preparded to leave. Don and I were able to make the change to the throttle cable that gave me full power for the day's ride. We got on the road around 8am. It was cold again, burrrr.
It was about 130 miles to the border, and then a 150 miles for the boys back to Mike's place in Tujunga. It wasn't going to be a pleasant ride.
Ensenada takes about 45 minutes to clear all by itself. I guess maybe I was tired and wasn't relishing any of today's ride....but for Don and Dan it was some new scenery. The twisties thru Santo Tomas were good. The ride on the toll road, looking at the Pacific, from on high was spectacular as usual.
We had gassed the night before at San Vincinte so gas wan't a problem, except Mike had an extra 40 miles on his ride, because he missed last nights turn off, so we gassed in Ensenada.
It was important not to go on reserve while riding in a group where you can get lost, like in downtown TJ.
I led our group thru the toll booths, and paid for the 4 of us. It took a little while for the guys to get the idea that one of them at a time should go thru the turnstile gate. Still it was all good. :clap
I led us down the road by the border fence trying to stay alert for the signs that say 'SAN DIEGO'. It is always confusing. There was a time I found ourselves 2 lane over from an exit that said San Diego, and there was a concrete barrier between us and that exit.
Luckily there was a split in the barrier that let us cross the 2 lanes at nearly 90* to get in the correct lane. God only knows where we'd have gone without that quick change.
Then it was the lane splitting to the front of the line that was the next challenge. There are a 100 vendors with their carts in the way. Going up the far right side is my system, but I had to squeeze thru a gap that wasn't big enough. The lady in the car finally made enough room for me by moving over, but not without a sneer.
Finally I barged in front of the car that was next in line at the border check.....and then Don barged in front of me. Hey!!! what the heck? Oh, I guess that was all right. :freaky
Don got thru first, me next, and Dan third. we gathered at the side of the road and waited for Mike. Dan and Don got their GPSs set for Tujunga. We stopped one more time for gas so that they'd have enough for the last stint of 150 mile. Mike had missed us when he exited the border but we saw him go, and knew he was ahead of us. I said a warm goodby to the guys at the gas station, and took a big sigh of relief to have gotten everyone across the border.
It's not that they wouldn't have gotten across by themselves, but I felt responsible. We rode north and there was some traffic tie ups. I lost the guys from lanesplitting as they aren't used to it coming from the other states, but I knew nothing could go wrong on there way to LA as the GPSs had them by the hands.
I got and gave a big hug to Dee when I got home, and settled in to give her some highlights of the trip. About an hour later, I got a call from Mike that he was broke down about 50 miles from his home.
Do you remember that Bolt that had come out of his bike and got oil all over his leg about a month ago.. Remember it held the cam chain slipper in place, well he hadn't got that bolt in the hole of the slipper when he'd repaced it, and he'd nearly made this whole 1800 mile trip with that slipper not being held in place.
Mike had recently sign on with Tripple AAA and roadside motorcycle assistance, so they hauled him on a flatbed truck the last 50 miles to Tujunga. 'Luck beats good' is the final words of this trip report.
An aside is that Dan's doctor checkup confirmed a 3rd degree shoulder separation. It would heal itself (probably, but not 100%) in a year, but Dan has chosen surgery sometime before May.
My own injury has gotten to where I can turn over in bed pretty good, but after 2 weeks I can't raise my arm with the shoulder muscles. I've got a doctors appointment today.
Ride on, and thanks for following my BS story. I leave you all hoping that you have started planning your own Baja adventure. :freaky
BTW, if anyone knows Mike Collyar from the 'Angle in Mulege' I'd sure like to get his email address.
