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jawhitmoyer

Thanksgiving Ride with Scott and Jeff

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It's taken me way too long to put together this trip report, but I wanted to do something with video since I still don't understand how to embed photos into my posts. Anyway, I think watching live action is more interesting than looking at guys grinning by their bikes...which I do a lot!

Schweddy Balls (Scott going forward) and my brother, Jeff, put together a plan to follow the Baja 1000 course right after the race. As in, the race started Friday and we were on the course Saturday while there was still racing going on. Scott and I prepped the bikes over the two weeks before, installing new Tubliss on Scott's bike, oil changes, fresh rubber as needed, etc. I didn't want to have mechanical issues, so we really worked hard. I was careful to count my tire irons after each tire install, too.

Day 1 -- Tecate to Colonet. 185 miles.

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We trailered to Tecate early Saturday and rode across the border. Of course I caught the red light and had to go to secondary. My brother, not knowing any better, followed me in. Once you go in, you're subject to inspection even if you caught the green light. Normally not a problem, but my brother discovered the night before that he'd left his passport in San Francisco, and realized his registration was in said passport. The border guys really gave us a hard time, but I was able to convince him that being brothers, I could vouch that it was his bike and that it wasn't stolen. So without a single peso passing hands, we left and headed east to the Compadre Trail.

Since getting to the course was our main priority, we blasted down the Compadre Trail towards Ojos. It was pretty uneventful, except for my brother wiping out in a sandy corner and missing a barbed wire fence by inches. In Ojos we had birria and beer, got gas, and then hit the course. To get to the start of the race, we had to head west on the highway to the big crocodile rock...if you have seen it you know exactly where I mean. We turned south and the route was CRAP from the first turn. Silty, sandy, rocky and torn up like a $5 Tijuana hooker. And not 10 miles into it, I turned right and Scott and Jeff turned left at what we all agreed was an ambiguous corner. So after a quick chat about posting corners, we set off for what turned out to be hours of tough riding. Our goal was to get to Colonet the first night, so when we crested a hill overlooking Uruapan, I made an executive decision to leave the course and head for the highway.

In Uruapan, we found cold beer, so we spent some time catching our breath before hitting the highway. We had about an hour ride, but about two hours of sunlight, so we took our time. There's a nice looking hotel about three miles south of Colonet I have always wanted to try, so we headed there. We were lucky enough to get the last two rooms, but one of them wasn't made up yet. To kill time, we rode back into town for shrimp tacos and gas.

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Once back at the hotel, we decided to clean our filters as we had ridden quite a bit of silt and they were caked solid. I had brought filter oil, but it took some time to find a coffee can to wash them, etc., so we only did it once the whole trip. (I haven't cleaned mine yet, and I can only imagine what I will find.) We went to bed early, but there was a group of high school kids on a missions trip, so they kept us from getting a great night's sleep.

Day 2 -- Colonet to Catavina. 172 miles.

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We got an early start and hit the highway south for about 10 miles where we would pick up the course going west, to the beach. We stopped for burritos at a little shack on the highway. I love that stuff, and Jeff will eat anything I tell him to, but I think we were pushing Scott's boundaries a little bit. The riding along the coast was epic. We found some fun sand hills, rode through some agricultural areas and then hit the beach, where we rode for 20+ miles on the sand. It was absolutely perfect, up to the moment I crashed in the ocean, destroying my GoPro, Bluetooth headset, filling my boots with water, and completely soaking every inch of my body. It happened so fast at least I didn't notice how cold the water was.

Scott and Jeff were ahead of me and missed the whole thing. When I finally caught up to them and told them what happened, they thought it was hilarious. Even I thought it was pretty funny.

We left the beach and rode into San Quintin so I could find a car wash to try to get the salt water washed off and change my socks. We then hit the highway to El Rosario since the entire area south of San Quintin is now a federal nature preserve. Even the Baja racers had to take the road, so we didn't feel bad. At El Rosario we made the obligatory stop at Mama Espinoza's for lobster burritos and beer.

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We then picked up the course in a river wash that was the worst riding of the trip. For maybe 10 miles it was nothing but sand so deep it was impossible to get on top of it. Throw in rocks, whoops, cactus, more sand, whoops and rocks, and it just plain sucked. But, we could see a road off in the distance, so it gave us hope. When we finally got to the road, we were all pretty wasted, but no matter as that was the start of some of the best riding of the trip. Typical Baja rocky roads you can ride at 40 mph if you're sane, 60 mph if you're good, and 80 mph if you're stupid. I rode 75 and was in HEAVEN! The course ran parallel to the highway, so at one point we saw it in the distance and decided to make tracks for Catavina (my favorite spot in all of Baja) for the night. We had a great ride watching the sun go down.

We got a room with three beds, had a couple of drinks and a light dinner. Again, in bed pretty early.

Day 3 -- Catavina to San Felipe. 162 miles.

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We decided to sleep in a little, with a plan to be on the bikes by 9am. Since Catavina is in the middle of no where, we ate at the hotel, bought gas out of 55 gallon drums, and got water at the abarrotes. Our course map showed us we needed to head about 20 miles south on the highway, but after the sucky conditions we had encountered every time we hit the course, we all agreed we would just find a trail over the mountains, east, to Coco's Corner or Gonzaga Bay. We headed south on the highway, but we saw a road that looked passable, way off in the distance. We made the turn, but we hit a gate where a nice guy (American living there) gave us some advice and directions. He told us not even Malcom Smith could cross the mountains where we were headed. I asked what Malcom would do, and he gave us directions to an absolutely AWESOME route. Scott and Jeff would not agree it was awesome, but it was!!! I live for rocks, and this had it in spades. Plus, half the time there was no visible road, so you just had to ride on faith. But when we could see the blue water we knew all was good in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsnSRNhuSxA

We hit the coast north of Coco's but we didn't know it. We needed something cold to drink, so we headed north only to find the saddest sight of the trip...pavement all the way to Gonzaga Bay. In fact, they are paving all the way to Bay of LA, which will only force us farther south to find good riding. Any way, we stopped for beer and a break in Gonzaga.

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There's even a Pemex there, but we didn't get gas as I knew there was a Pemex in Puertocito. All the way up the highway we saw course markers, so again, even the racers were forced to take the road as so much land is being closed off every day. When we got to Puertocitos, guess what we found??? The Pemex was out of business! The number one lesson in Baja is to get gas every time you see it, even if you don't need it. Every time I ignore my own instincts I get screwed. Jeff and I have 4.1 gallon tanks and were fine, but Scott has a 3.1 gallon tank and I knew it was going to be tough getting to San Felipe. We pressed on, keeping our speed to around 55 mph to save gas, but Scott eventually ran out about 10 miles south of San Felipe. Fortunately, it only takes two bolts to take off the gas tank, so we gave him half a gallon from Jeff's bike just as it was getting dark. We rolled into town, got gas first thing, got a couple of rooms, and went for dinner. It was Sunday night and the town was dead.

Day 4 -- San Felipe to Rancho Santa Veronica. 208 miles.

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We decided to take the Baja 500 course north from San Felipe because the 1,000 course headed towards Valle T and it's a lot of sand and whoops. I wanted to ride the old Rumorosa trail up the mountains, so that was the best way as I figured the route would still be marked. We had some great riding, but Scott and Jeff were getting a little pissy with me, asking me questions like how much farther, where are we, etc. I frankly didn't know, except that I knew we would cross Highway 2 at some point and we could take it up the hill to RSV. At one point, Scott was getting low on fuel, but a goat rancher told us about another rancher who would have gas we could buy. Sure enough, in the middle of the desert was a group of buildings and some guys with gas cans. We bought a couple of gallons, and continued on our way. I will admit it was a long day, but you do what you have to do. We finally hit the highway, and now I was on fumes. But there was no chance in hell I was going to ask them for help, so I drafted semi's up the hill and literally made it into El Hongo with less than a cup of gas in my tank.

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At the top is was cold, but we only had 30 mins of riding to get to the hotel. We made good time, and got in just as it was getting dark. We had dinner, but went to bed early as it was cold and there wasn't much going on.

Day 5 -- RSV to Tecate. 35 miles.

We had planned to spend our last day doing a loop around the area. Scott had never ridden there, so I thought he'd enjoy breakfast at Ramona's, seeing Laguna Hansen, etc. But in the morning, he could barely walk as he'd banged up his knee in a crash a couple of days earlier. He was willing to push it, but I decided that after covering over 700 miles without any major incidents, it was best to end the trip on a high note. Besides, with Jeff not having his passport or registration, I didn't know what to expect at the border. And frankly, we were all a little sick of each other by that point.

We rode west to Las Palmillas and then took the highway to Tecate. Jeff had a copy of his passport on his phone we has printed out, and it worked! We got through the border to find my dad waiting with the trailer. We got everything loaded and were home by 2pm.

All in, we rode 727 miles over four days. We rode every kind of terrain down there, saw a lot of beautiful places, ate some great food, and found some places worthy of future exploration. I have led a few trips now with the plan to start a guide business. I definitely learned some lessons, and I do thank Scott and Jeff for their patience. I can't wait to do it again!

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That was a GREAT ride report...thanks for sharing! :smile_anim:

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wow, great report. I checked out the surf crash video but could not tell what caused the crash? It looked like the water got deep?

DD

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