Going for a Week in Baja soon

[Pete 0]

4 of us are going down for a week in Baja. Mike from LA, Don from Co, Dan from SC, and me from Oceanside. Dan and Don are brothers (60ish), I'm older and Mike is younger.

We're taking 3 cobbled together DR350s and one XR650, and will be leaving the Tecate Border around noon on Sat April 4th. We'd like to spend the first night at Mike's Sky Ranch. Could happen.

We'll be packing light but with sleeping bags sos we could spend the night out if we have to. And I imagine we'll put 2 to one pavement miles to dirt miles. We'll prolly go thru San Francisquitos and as far south as Loreto.

We;ll prolly take in the indian rock painting near San Ignacio, Mission San Borjas, San Javiar, the Pacific coast southwest of San Ignacio, and maybe some whale watching. Last night probably will be Coyote Cal's Hostel

We sure aren't barn burners as far as making miles, but we'd like to get south and work our way back doing most of the sight seeing going north. Don and Dand need to make flights out of LA the following Sunday.

Prolly could take an extra rider or 2. Riders need to be self-sufficient, In case you can't stand us. LOL

Prolly can't do reports from the road, but there will be pics and a story when we get back

If the group gets to big we will split it in 2 or 3. You know fast, slow, and my group feeble. Should be a good time.

An ideal ride for Baja Noobies.

History.... https://picasaweb.google.com/105133432232392762779/BioPhotos?authuser=0&feat=directlink

[Dan Diego 40]

OK, but I wanna warn you...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pzb3dIazGc&feature=youtu.be

[Goofy Footer 539]

Pete, that sounds like a great trip. if you leave Tecate at noon you will need to push it to make Mike's for dinner / before nightfall. I'd recommend bombing Compadre then slabbing to Valle de Trinidad to save time. Heads up, the pavement might continue south from San Felipe to only a couple of miles north of Coco's. It is a nice ride if you enjoy street and the pavement is new south of Puertocitos.

OK, but I wanna warn you...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pzb3dIazGc&feature=youtu.be

Is this your way of telling us that you're moving south Senor Diego? Might as well post it correctly in the thread ha

[Bp619 104]

That's the dumbest but best video I've seen in a while reminds me of my family talking to me about going to a ranch almost every weekend in 05 and 06 when things were bad.

[Pete 0]

Pete, that sounds like a great trip. if you leave Tecate at noon you will need to push it to make Mike's for dinner / before nightfall. I'd recommend bombing Compadre then slabbing to Valle de Trinidad to save time.

Those are my thoughts exactly, GF. I can see us maybe even taking the LA Rumaroso route as that's prettier going thru Laguna Hansen. We could end up in Via Trinidad for dinner and the night.

Does anyone know if that hotel just north of Laguna Hansen is still open? Might end up there if they are stocked up on beer.

[Dan Diego 40]

I agree that the video is dumb but I love it.

I was kinda hoping that you put it together, but it's cool nonetheless..

And, yes, I am lame and never learned how to imbed videos.

[Pete 0]

I agree that the video is dumb but I love it.

I was kinda hoping that you put it together, but it's cool nonetheless..

I just went right by without even looking at it, Dan. I figured you were honestly trying to warn me about Mx. Now that I've looked at it, it is kinda cute.

I think I'll post it to some of my other lists. There is a real Mexaphobe on one of them.

[sdspearo 0]

Crap, if I had a bike (minor point) and little more notice I'd be all over this. Looking forward to the trip report.

[Pete 0]

Crap, if I had a bike (minor point) and little more notice I'd be all over this. Looking forward to the trip report.

sdspearo, you have the hard part, desire. The rest is easy. Bikes can be had on nearly every corner.

[Goofy Footer 539]

I rode through Laguna Hanson a couple of weeks back and there was minimal water - I didn't even stop to take a picture. It hasn't rained since to refill the lake. I am not sure if the hotel north of Sawmill / Laguna Hanson is still open.

Since you're on a multiple day trip and will be returning to Tecate, you'll pass through the Tecate/Compadre/Laguna Hanson area twice. On that first day, I'd prefer to get as far south as possible as quickly as possible to get a good start to my trip (especially if you want to make it to San Francisquito, San Ignacio and possibly Scorpion Bay). If you leave Tecate at noon and don't stop too often, you can be in Ojos relatively quickly and could slab to Valle Trinidad then take Hwy 3 south towards the main / "front" entrance to Mike's. Ideally you'll be able to get to Mike's before sun-fall and this route would be more pavement heavy but it will save you time and you'll be much farther south than Laguna Hanson to start Day 2. For instance: a couple of weeks back, I left Tecate just after noon and made it to Coyote Cal's at nightfall and that was taking dirt with minimal stops.

FYI: Be attentive to the recent / current farmworker protests in San Quintin - I would avoid those at all costs --> http://dualsport-sd.com/forums/index.php?/topic/19829-current-state-of-baja/

Below is my reply Post #7 from that thread, consider calling the local hotels for more current info:

Posted Today, 07:11 AM

elliotdw, on 27 Mar 2015 - 11:22 PM, said:

Cannot comment on how things were a week or two ago but this is an article that talks about the present.

http://rt.com/usa/24...r-negotiations/

Thank you haywood for the tip on the facebook page; it appears to have almost hour by hour information on the current state.

I would 100% stay clear of the farmworker protests at all costs. Do you currently plan on riding through San Quintin? One option is that you could always head south on the eastern side of the peninsula and completely bypass San Quintin yet have a great Baja ride to Gonzaga Bay, Coco's Corner and Bay of LA.

I would imagine the protests are occurring along Hwy 1 where the demonstrations would be most visible / get the most media attention. You can ride along the beach through San Quintin (literally on the sand / water's edge) and I would think that you should be able to bypass much of the protest. You may come across fishermen but I doubt fieldworkers would be protesting on the beach (imho, ymmv, ride at your own risk). It might be worth calling Pirate's Cove in Camalu, Quatro Casas Hostel in Colonet and/or the Old Mill in San Quintin for live feedback and possible safety recommendations.

This being said, I plan on visiting Coyote Cal's in Erendira (north of the above/reported protests) soon and am not anticipating any issues on my trip! Baja is a great place for moto adventure!

[Pete 0]

I rode through Laguna Hanson a couple of weeks back and there was minimal water - I didn't even stop to take a picture. It hasn't rained since to refill the lake. I am not sure if the hotel north of Sawmill / Laguna Hanson is still open.

Since you're on a multiple day trip and will be returning to Tecate, you'll pass through the Tecate/Compadre/Laguna Hanson area twice. On that first day, I'd prefer to get as far south as possible as quickly as possible to get a good start to my trip (especially if you want to make it to San Francisquito, San Ignacio and possibly Scorpion Bay). .............

I would 100% stay clear of the farmworker protests at all costs. Do you currently plan on riding through San Quintin? One option is that you could always head south on the eastern side of the peninsula and completely bypass San Quintin yet have a great Baja ride to Gonzaga Bay, Coco's Corner and Bay of LA.

Thanks again , GF. I didn't know anything about the protests.....we'll stay clear of that, and at least go south thru SF, but we'll check the news before we kick off. As you say we could get by on the beach if we have to, no doubt.

If we do get up to MSR we'll likely go back out and east to SF. Every time I've gone west out of Mike's the road was a bitch, and I'm not challenging myself these days.

[Goofy Footer 539]

I find that I'm cross posting replies from the "Current State of Baja" thread but it's worth sharing the info so here we go:

Google "TalkBaja" they have a facebook page and blog with info. Apparently the Facebook page is quite up to date but I do not have an account so I cannot access it.

http://talkbaja.blogspot.com/

I did pull this from ADVrider, posted 7:51 pm tonight:http://advrider.com/...6&postcount=391

"I was in San Quentin the day it all started. TalkBaja on FB has good up to date info. I found this posted today:
SAN QUINTIN: The highway is open between Colonet and Camalu this morning with gasoline/diesel available throughout the San Quintin Valley region. No reports of any problems, major crowds or demonstrations today. No talks are scheduled today between the growers and farm workers as the 15% offer from the growers will be put out for a vote to the farm workers in the region to gauge if the majority wish to accept this offer or continue the strike, pushing for a better offer.

Meanwhile, BerryMex has now negotiated directly with the new Alianza, who has lead the recent negotiations with the growers, apparently reaching an agreement that reportedly exceeds the 15% offered by the growers representative at the talks yesterday. The exact amount of that increase has not yet been announced. It is estimated that 75% of BerryMex's work force has now returned to work in the fields today..."

[Pete 0]

Departure day has arrived. The three riders from LA have departed...be here in Oceanside by 9am. We are ahead of schedule.

...a bit of a startup post from yesterday (Fri).

Four of us will tackle Baja for a long week starting Saturday morning, April 4th. The perp are me, Mike D, and the Goldston twins, Don and Dan from Co and SC .

The 2 Ds flew into LA at noon today, and Mike retrieved them in his lifted F150. Nice ride.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/unMoBoi18zjrvSF6Bk5zXNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Four of us will tackle Baja for a long week starting Saturday morning, April 4th. The perps are me, Mike D, and the Goldstons. The plan was/is that they would take Friday afternoon and pack their clothes and prepare the bikes with GPS and such at Mike's place north of LA a bit. They will get an early start tomorrow and ride down to pick me up on the way to Mexico where we will cross at Tecate.

I got a Cell phone picture from them up on top of Mt Wilson off the Angeles Crest Hwy on a test ride at about 3pm this afternoon. I guess a test ride is part of ride prep....and there's no nicer ride than the ACH which is about 10 miles from Mike's house.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/cvixs0Vlezt1UmLNoc2TxdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Later around 6:30pm. I'm told that the work on packing the bike is coming along swimmingly.

........the bikes ......

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3NygNRN9HTxpfBIEGZL4FNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

Someone has knocked one of the bikes over and then somehow both Mike and Don ended up under the bikes or summat like that. Luckily Dan was there to get them both up.

The bikes and riders both survived, and except for new limps the ride with resume Saturday morning on schedule.

Oh,,,and about a Spot Tracker, Don is carrying one and it shows that they have left Los Angeles. Here's the link if anyone wants to follow along. I'm not carrying a 'puter so there won't be much of a report till we get back.

> Seems as though Don has a 'Spot' tracker, and will try to keep it active when we are traveling.

Should be interesting, to see if we can work it. LOL

Don says,

>The link for the SPOT tracker is:

https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=1mq0zR6mzvxhZMFrbvLa5NiscbTm6qOyC

The password is SabMag note the two capital letters.

This usually (say 90% of the time) will show you our path about every 10 minutes, and will also display the location of any help requests or OK messages

Don does have to remember to turn on the tracker function, and it will not work through dense rain, but it is better than nothing.

Don will usually try to send an ok message every night. Unless he forgets. Again, better than nothing, but not foolproof.

[Pete 0]

We all 4 got back from Baja, bikes and all. Everything happened that makes these rides an adventure. I'm putting the story on the ADVrider.com site. I met Haywood for the first time at Coyote Cals last Friday. That was cool.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1057859

[REV5 0]

Welcome back. Glad you guys had a good safe mex trip.

[Pete 0]

Welcome back. Glad you guys had a good safe mex trip.

Who said anything about safe? Alive yes, but safe is a stretch.

[REV5 0]

Yer right, I guess safe would be a little boring and not much of an adventure.

[Pete 0]

Yer right, I guess safe would be a little boring and not much of an adventure.

Well we were trying to be safe but day four got a couple of us....as this post explains.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=26605872&postcount=41

[Goofy Footer 539]

Good report Pete, I'm looking forward to the future installments. I'm itching for an extended baja trip with lots of dirt and beach!

Do you have any old stories / pictures of Scorpion Bay / San Juanico?

[Pete 0]

Good report Pete, I'm looking forward to the future installments. I'm itching for an extended baja trip with lots of dirt and beach!

Do you have any old stories / pictures of Scorpion Bay / San Juanico?

Not much, GF. This one might do as it's near there...from my 'walks in the past' blog.

A night in Cadeje, Baja

Back in '70 or '71 I was prerunning the Baja 1000 race with my co driver in his Dune buggy. We had completed 600 miles of dirt road by the time we got to Cadeje. We kind of stumbled onto it as evening approached. We thought something to drink was in order, at least. So we took the short off shoot road into town. Baja racing was new to Baja in those days and Cadeje had seen even less of it since they were so far south. The folks opened up the town for us. Well, that meant the major domo's house. I think they were already haveing a party, so they envited us in. They fed us and we were celebrities of a sort. We didn't speak much Spanish, but managed to have a good time with everyone. They invited us to spend the night on their patio, of course, we accepted. The evening wore on and many beers were consumed....... Back some 15 or more years earlier there was a movie called 'Viva Zapata', where Marlon Brando was a Campesino who triumphed over the Federales. He got an academy award, BTW. Later on that evening we were asked what we had named our race car. I wanted to be friendly so I picked a name that had a Mexican vib, and said that we named it Viva Zapata. Nert!!!! The room went silent and cold all at once. Seems as though, to our new friends, Zapata was a bandit villain. My car's name went over like a fart in church. We did spend the night, but we lost all the respect from the earlier part of the night.

Here a present day website about Cadeje. Opposite of Mulege on the Pacific coast. http://www.bajaexpo.com/cadeje.htm

Another time, around '85, a friend and I stopped there at a very meager Cafe to get something to eat. It was San Juanico this time. We been making a 10 day run around Baja in my Baja bug. We were in our mid 40s. The lady only had eggs and tortillas and beans. Sure that was fine...we'd have eaten anything.

While we were sitting there a socker game with about five guys was beginning outside in a field. These kids needed more players so they came over and invited us to join them. We didn't play, but I always treasured being asked.

I had visions of going thru there this trip, but that wasn't possible.