Rick and Don started talking me into a trip to Baja about five months ago.
I wanted to go in January as my business is slow then and cabin fever is high.
They wanted to goin March. Could I last that long?
My winter project was to do the monster bike dual sport conversion on the old R65. Turns out I didn't get the bike done and road tested until March anyway.
On the evening of Thursday Mar. 18 we loaded up the bikes onto the trailer and it's a good thing we didn't leave on Thursday as we had a terrific windstorm that would have been almost impossible to pull the trailer in that headwind. As it was we had fairly strong headwinds that sucked the gas in the van badly.
We left North Id. And headed for Hwy 97 in central Oregon. I've never been through the center of Oregon and have always wanted to see it. It is pretty country with wheat fields almost like the Palouse area in Wa.
The drivers there weren't as nice as the scenery as several people passed us in bad situations including a semi that passed us with a blind curve and as unluck would have it a one ton Chevy was coming the other way and almost ran him off the road.
I was amazed at the amount of people living in the towns of the Oregon high desert.
There was new construction everywhere it seemed. As we skirted along the Cascades we could see the high snow covered peaks like: Mt. Hood, and Mt. Jefferson.
We ended up at a state park but it was still closed for the winter, so we backed up to the gate and camped out in the van.
We were at 4200 ft. and there was still quite a bit of snow here.
The sky was clear and it got cold. As you may know the air mattress does not insulate your bottom from the cold very well.
So luckily, I have shredded foam in the bottom of my bag and I didn't feel the cold as much as Don did. After one day of traveling I had already lost track of what day it was and set the alarm clock to go of on Fri. instead of Sat.
So, we got a bit later start on Sat. We had breakfast in Weed at the Hungry Moose restaurant. They offered sweet potato pancakes and I found they were very tasty.
We had beautiful views of Mt Shasta in the Weed Area. Looking at that snow-covered volcano made me hungry for an ice cream cone.
Our destination today is Mercy hot springs south of San Jose about 50 miles. We made good time as we made use of a tailwind and arrived there about 4:30 and coincidentally two minutes after Rick and Annabelle arrived (the last members of our party.)
The hot springs are a work in progress village. It's been around for a long time and had been deteriorating over the years. New owners are rebuilding it and making it a model of renewable energy, like wind, geothermal, bio fuel, solar power, etc. It's a great oasis in the desert with lots of birds and trees.
Sunday we headed over to Tres Pinos for a great lunch at the Flapjack house and then we rode upthe valley on a gravel road over the coastal mountains to Idria and then back to the hot springs.
It was a 4wd road and we were running against the flow of dirt bikes and atv's with a few scary moments. Idria is a ghost town of the mining days for quicksilver. The sinister name nowadays is mercury. We met the owner of the town, the town drunk and basically the only guy in town. As you can imagine he was a character as he came hobbling out to us in his bare feet on the gravel to meet us. Don asked him how he was and he said: I'm drunker'n a skunk!" He was definitely drunk and he had to tell us the miraculous story of how his hog ran off, got lost and stuck in one of the buildings for a month and a half with no food or water. Then he found the pig and she delivered seven pigs!
That is truly amazing!
Tonight Rick set his laptop up on the picnic table with some stereo speakers and we watched Runaway Jury. He invited the park owners over and we all had a good time under the stars watching the show while sipping our margaritas and eating several varieties of Ben and Jerry's.
It's Monday morning, and I had the annual flat mattress and resulting sore butt. The birds are chirping madly, and it's usual morning breeze that spins the windmill until about 8:00AM, then the wind stops and about nine the breeze comes up again from the opposite direction. This is its usual pattern they say.
We got a late start Monday and headed toward lake Isabella. We took one dirt road back out to I-5 and there was a stream crossing that looked like no big deal as it was paved and only a few inches deep.
We had gone through ones just like it many times the day before, but when I went through this one I started sliding all over and almost dumped it.
The stream was coated in slimy algae. I immediately stopped to signal the others behind me but it was too late for Don as he did the same serious sliding. The others got slowed down and only had slight slippage. Next was the graders and water truck. The water turned it to very slippery stuff. Had to go very slow in first gear.
I-5 is a drag and 100 miles of it was enough for me. We took 46 and 155 up through the Sierras toLake Isabella. Got a nice campground by the Kern River. It was a beautiful spot but we had to share it with thousands of skeeters, and bug juice didn't work very well.
A campfire and some Stone Levitation Ale made that distraction minimal. The bathroom is interesting. The sign says: Throw toilet paper in toilet. Do other states make signs like that or is it just California?
We got a fairly early start from Lake Isabella and went over the Sierras some more only this time the pass was 8,000 ft. There was some snow along side the road and it was pretty chilly.
As we donned more clothing Rick tells us were just going to get warm again as we go down to Baroga Springs.
Six hours later I was still cold till we made the final descent into Barego and then it was nice. With my extensive checklist I forgot to put down, clear visor. So it got dark and I was having a hard time on the winding roads to Borago. Annabelle loaned me her helmet with clear visor and I could see again!
The next morning we vowed not to arrive in the dark again. We did our housecleaning chores on this morning and got in a hike up to the Borago springs. It gets warm quick on a desert morning in March, so I went fairly early. It was a neat hike with lots of little lizards, even one with half his tail bit off.
I got a nice picture of one doing his push-ups. The cactus is starting to bloom along with many other flowers. The springs just come out of the rocks in the mountain and have made an oasis with palm trees and other lush vegetation. Some of the bushes were in bloom and the bees were in there by the hundreds, but they didn't bother me.
We pointed our Beemers south to Tecate to cross the border. I was a bit worried as to what it would be like and was shocked when they just waved us through and didn't check anything!
We had a devil of a time getting onto our road to Ensenada as the bridge on that road was being worked on and we finally found another bridge and worked our way over to our road. The countryside is pretty with fairly large hills and lots of green bushes. But the villages are a bit of a culture shock as many people live in shacks with lots of junk vehicles around.
Then there are very nice houses with bars on the windows so people won't break into them. The smell of burning trash and plastic is common.
If you like to complain about pollution controls on cars, you can go toMexico and smell what it's like without it!
We made it to San Miguel and are camping on the beach for $5 each. The waves are crashing and it's pretty cool and breezy. The others went to get some food and I hope they succeed, as I'm hungry.
They brought back some Japanese food that was really good. About 6:00 AM the neighboring guy in another tent started playing Mexican polka music full blast. I guess that was his pump up music for surfing as he ran to the beach with his board with a few war whoops.
Our plan was to go to Ensanada and get our dollars exchanged for pesos and hit the immigration office to see about a tourist card that we are supposed to have. It was nuts driving around in town there trying to find these places. It took us several hours to get that accomplished and then got out of town.
They must not bury their livestock as it smells like rotten carcasses around Ensenada. We finally found a grocery store and got some bottled water and snacks.
On the way out of town a guypulled us over to talk. His name was Jorge. He and his wife are bike riders and wanted to invite us to camp on his property on the spit at Punta Estero Rick wanted to see the "blow hole" at La Bufadora. It's a place where the waves squeeze into a crevice in the cliffs and there must be an air chamber under there also as the water comes shooting up about 75 ft. I thought it was cool and we even got a bit wet.
But to get to it you had to run the gauntlet of people selling all kinds of stuff and they are really trying hard for the sale! The parking lot guy was real nice and guarded our bikes.
We gave him a tip, We decided to go to Jorge's place and check it out. Its a gated community, and all the buildings looked pretty fancy and I'm thinking this is going to be expensive.
A guard flagged us down, but no English so he brought Kathy out who we could talk with. Turns out she knows nothing about this camping idea of Jorje and calls him on the cell phone and he basically tells her to make us welcome and she sure did.
We camped out in a couple of carports with an ocean view and great beach right there. We had access to bathroom and shower and a greatrestaurant two doors down. And the camping was free!
Today was their first sunny day in a week and we just lucked out. We decided later that the mealat his restaurant was the best of the trip. We had blackened Grouper.
The beach was lined with gold. There were these gold flakes, or probably fools gold all over in the water and sand.
Therewere lots of good whole seashells on the beach.
The next morning we were now into a get up early routine and had a great breakfast at a restaurant at the corner of Hwy 3 and the road to La Bufadora.
We took a dirt road from San Thomas to Erendira. 30 miles took about 3 hours. We had some great views of the ocean. Some people were car camping and surfing along these coast sections.
The maps we had were pretty detailed, but some of the roads on the map weren't on this earth and some that were weren't--got it? The GPS came in real handy to keep us from getting lost.
Don had a great view of the ditch when he got into some real deep sand and his Dakar F650 decided to sniff the roadside. It took three of us to get him out. Riding in sand was my biggest challenge and frustration.
By the end of this trip I was getting better at it. Other frustrations were the things I have lost along the way, like:
my polarizing lens, one custom earplug and case, the hold down for my visor, and now my hydration pack hose fell down to the side and the mouth piece hit the exhaust pipe and melted and fell off and all the water came out.
Good thing I had a gallon jug strapped to the back.
We met a group of dirt bike riders with all their stuff strapped to their backs at Erindira. We got off the dirt there and then a short run on 1 again to the Valle Trinidad road (dirt) and ends up on 3 and jog on pavement to Mikes sky ranch entrance.
Like the road to Erindira it had a combination of sandy areas, rocky, and hilly areas.
It was quite a workout going those 25 miles up to the ranch.
We were a bit spooked at the thought of running into banditos as we talked to that dirt bike group at Erindira. The one guy had been held up last year and the banditos took everything they had. He said the bad guys are in jail now though, but to watch out for people pretending to be broke down and then whip out an M16 when you drive up.
So when we spotted this truck on the side of the road ahead of us, we were concerned. Then I noticed it was a belly dump and he had just dumped, so no problem. The road got very steep and rocky and rutty, etc. and it wasn't scary because there was no cliff to worry about.
Rick was packing Annabel,and their little dog Tribble, and a full load of gear on the 1150 GS and they made it up there "at the limit of it's capabilities" as Rick puts it.
Mikes ranch is quite a famous destination for dirt riders and atv'rs. He serves great meals, has a pool and a bar, and quite a few rooms, without heat.
Don and I decided to camp out, as it was a bit steep in price for us. Most people park their bikes inside right by the pool. It was a noisy bunch of people up there.
Rick and Annabel's dog, Tribble, was always the show stopper with his head sticking out of the tank bag, and especially appealing with his goggles on.
Rick calls him a "chick magnet". He is our ticket to friendly relations with the locals as they will talk to us and pet him and then we would ask them directions or some other info.
It was Rancho Huevos for breakfast---yummy! But I didn't want to spoil my breakfast, so I convinced our group to let most of the dirt bikers leave first because I didn't want any one breathing down my neck as I ride pretty slow under those conditions.
We stopped for a photo op and I spied a 3 ft snake crossing the road. Of course I had to check it out and touched his tail real quick to see what he would do.
It looked like some sort of constrictor. He wasn't too scared and slowly lithered off. When I finally made it to the pavement, a group of the other riders from Idaho were standingthere.
I pulled up off to the side and put my foot down into a small hole and fell over.
We all had some good laughs but it was embarrassing.
We blasted off to San Fillipe and we had to go through a Federales checkpoint. They are usually teenagers in army uniforms with rifles in there hand. They are a bit intimidating, but they always just waved us through.
I think it helps to put your visor up so they can see your face.
In my case I'm sure it speeded my passing the checkpoint. In San Fillipe we had fish and shrimp tacos at Taco Tony's while looking out over the sea of Cortez from the open balcony. Delicious.
We spent the next two long hours looking for a campground on the beach. We finally settled on Playa San Diego.
The beach was great, but the shower and bathroom were pretty funky.
The Mexican guy running the place had to stoke the wood fired hot water heater for our showers. The toilet you have to use a 5 gallon bucket, go outside and fill it from the sistern and poor it all into the open toilet tank and then it would flush.
But there wasn't any one else in the campground there so it was very nice that way. The road into the camp was very sandy and Don dropped his bike twice.
Don and I went out to the store to get the margarita kit. We had to practice our limited Spanish at the stores. It was kind of fun trying to communicate.
With some more slipping on the sand back to camp our dream of sitting on the beach sipping Margarita's finally came together.
The Sea of Cortez is really strange. It looks like the ocean with hardly any waves, or wind. It's quite a contrast from the ocean side where the surf is roaring constantly.
You expect to see the sun set over it, but the sun is behind you. It will be really weird to see the sun rise on it.
Now they are Shooting fireworks off down the way. It echoes out into the ocean for about 10 seconds, it sounds bizarre.
Sunday morning we stop in to San Felipe for mochas and breakfast at Baja Java.
Great food.
We worked our way down to Puertocitas to the hot springs at the sea. The road was paved but deteriorated to large potholes and gravel sections. The black top is about 3/4 in. thick.
At Peurtocitas the hot spring comes right out of the rocks and into the sea. The closer the pools of water to the sea the cooler the water. Then of course to top it off a nice dip in the ocean.
We sat and watched the Pelicans glide by. Rick describes the pelican as the big GS of the bird world:
"It's got the beak, it's ugly on the ground, but when it's in the air it's like silk."
We chatted with another American family while slowly turning into large white prunes with gray hair. It was all very relaxing.
The showers and restaurant weren't very good there so we asked the owner about finding a place that served those big shrimp. He said: "Oh you mean these?," as he grabbed a Grande shrimp out of an icebox behind him.
That sucker must have been eight inches long!
He said the restaurant down the road five miles at Playa Christina would have them. We took his advice and found a wonderful restaurant and campground there on the beach. The food was great but the shrimps were not the grown up models we were dreaming of.
It was nice and balmy on the beach that night sipping our margaritas and shooting the breeze.
It's Monday and we watched the sun come up while a Blue Heron looked for his breakfast. We have to say good buy to Pablo at the restaurant at Christina and start back north.
But not without getting him to make us coffee and fresh squeezed lemonade because it is going to be a hot one today.
It's an hour and a half back to San Philipe to have our Mochas and breakfast at Baja Java again. From that balcony it's a great place to watch people, like the guy that walked through two days in a row while we were there, carrying his putter.
Then there is the old man corner vender.
He is wearing a stocking cap in 80-degree weather and rides an old Honda chopper. I like San Philippe and will be back again.
We have to get up near the border today as our insurance runs out tomorrow at noon. Our goal is Santa Veronica. We got on the dirt road at Ojos Negros and went about 60 miles through the mountains and valleys.
The first five miles was pretty deep sand and that was hard to ride. It eventually got better but was still a challenge. We stopped at a clear stream and cooled off for a bit with cold towel service and wet T-shirts. A little further on the way we caught a rattlesnake crossing the road and got his picture. He was about 3 1/2 ft. long and I didn't touch his tail.
He never rattled at us so he wasn't too worried either.
Santa Veronica was a welcome sight as it was gathering dusk and I had only a tinted visor. Basically this place is a big resort that used to be or maybe still is a bullfighting school. Nowadays it caters to dirt bikers also.
So we had a great dinner in their beautiful restaurant and camped out behind the training arena. It seemed like a nice quiet area so I didn't use my earplugs.
Wrong choice. First it was the coyotes, then dogs, owls and a huge crack and crash as a big rotten tree branch fell.
A short run into Tecate from Santa Veronica the next morning and discovered a line of vehicles four blocks long waiting to cross the border. We were sitting in line with helmets and full gear and it was getting hot, to say nothing of our engines.
A Mexican motorcycle cop motioned us around that whole line! He knew what it was like. The moterhome people didn't like us cutting ahead, but hey, we had orders!
Another big surprise was the US border crossing. All they asked us was what our citizenship was. After all that hassle and money to get all kinds of paperwork ready for the crossing and they practically wave us through.
Uneventful hot driving in the California desert, led us past the Salton sea and up to Joshua tree park and we camped at Jumbo rocks. It's very scenic there with large sandstone boulders in weird shapes.
At camp that night we celebrated my birthday. Fifty-two big ones.
Before I left home some friends of mine wrote up a song for me about my going to Baja using the melody of "King of the road".
At camp they made me sing it for them. They laughed. Not sure if it was my singing or the song that did it.
Our last day of riding was mostly straight line back to Mercy Hot springs and the trailer, much to the bemoanment of some of our group. But some of us have deadlines to meet! Back at Mercy we did the hot tub and watched the slide show of our trip on the computer and an instant print out of our favorite picture! Our last night camping out was at La Pine, Or.
We were driving the van and it was late and we pulled into the funeral home parking lot and sacked out in the back. As Don puts it:
"It was dead quiet."
It was kind of like being at the Cortez beach without the beach, tents, and funny green drinks.
The affect isn't quite the same so next year......