21J's, Big Adventure
Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 5:16PM My first Baja adventure
Eric aka #33 invited me to tag along with him and his friend Don and ride from San Felipe to Mulege and back which is somewhere around 1100 miles total.
Both of these towns are on the Sea of Cortez in Baja Mexico. We had eight days to accomplish this, as I had to be back for my wife’s retirement party. She’s now home every day, it’s been a time of adjustment for me, since I’ve had my own little kingdom going for quite a few years now, if you know what I mean.
I met Eric and Don on a Tuesday at noon in San Felipe at Charlie’s house where we off loaded our trusty steeds, Eric’s was a Baja veteran a ninety something Honda 650L that’s totally set up for that kind of riding. Don’s was a 09 Yamaha WR 450 that has had multiple Baja trips as well. Mine was a recently purchased 07 Suzuki DRZ 400E that is totally tricked out and CA street legal. Both the bike and rider were new to Baja. We left for Gonzaga Bay as soon as we could. We had about 110 miles to travel before dark. Only the last 15 or 20 were on dirt, pretty boring other than watching the change in scenery which made it worthwhile.
There’s an old Baja saying that say’s you never pass up an opportunity to get gas. When we arrived in Gonzaga Bay the PeeMex station was out of gas (Rumor had it that several trucks were stuck there a few days waiting for gas) so we went across the road to a little market and were able to talk them into selling us gas by the liter in plastic jugs. The place we stayed was right on the beach the front door was about 15 feet from the sand.
The next day our destination was Bay of LA some 120 miles away. The ride was all dirt with the exception of the last 40 miles of pavement. We stopped at the fabled place called Coco’s Corner. Anyone who has been to the area or followed the Baja races has heard of Coco’s. Coco wasn’t there. After leaving Coco’s we went through a canyon called Calamajue all the dirt we had been riding on since we left Gonzaga Bay was part of previous Baja 1000 courses.
Calamajue Canyon was very interesting, lots of water crossings, bushes and some deep sand. It was in this canyon and on the dirt road that I first took a couple of soil samples. Nothing major a bent clutch lever and a broken brake lever and a tweaked wrist. The dirt road crash was kind of funny though, Eric came riding up and saw my bike laying on its side, but couldn’t see me because I was laying on my back in a three foot ditch about fifteen feet from my bike.
We arrived at Bay of LA in the late afternoon. We parked our bikes in a nice court yard at the motel and sat down for a little relaxin! Chips, salsa and cold beer sure hit the spot. I haven’t mentioned it yet but the food has been very good so far. Bay of LA is sort of an over grown fishing village. There were quite a few RV’s in this area. The next morning breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with bacon mixed in and hot cakes? That combination became our every day breakfast and seemed to stay with Don and I all day since we only ate twice a day.
Friday our destination was San Ignacio close to 180 miles. On the way we stopped to visit Poncho who lives alone and has done so for over twenty six years in a little Bay called San Rafael at one time a rather large fishing camp. Eric met Poncho and his dog last year on this same trip and wanted to check on them again this year. Poncho remembered Eric and invited us to have coffee with him. The dog was gone but he had two cats one named Macho. Eric told him we’d stop by on our way back; Poncho asked if Eric would bring him some cigarettes. (We did, although Poncho did complain about the brand, seems he’s not a Marlboro
Man) He has no car and has at times not left his little spot for years at a time. After we left Poncho we headed for El Arco a mostly deserted former military and mining area, where we were able to purchase gas by the plastic jug. Just outside of El Arco we crossed over into Southern Baja and into Mountain Time marked by a stone marker. We eventually ended up on highway 1 and to another gas stop at Vizcaino from there to San Ignacio where we stayed the night at a place called Rice and Beans. Before dinner Eric and I rode down to the town square had a coke and walked around looking into the little shops. Across from the square is a church, construction started in 1716 and was completed in 1786. A choir was singing and mass was just about to start as Eric and I made our way through. At one time this was basically a fort where the indigenous people lived. San Ignacio is a city of palm trees the whole area surrounding the town is full of palm trees.
The next morning as we headed out of town toward the Pacific Ocean we stopped to watch some ladies making tortillas, they had a very efficient little production line going. Mulege was our final destination for the day. I forgot to mention but yesterday on the highway to San Ignacio my bike quit running a hint of things to come.
In this instance it turned out to be a fuel issue, for some reason it wouldn’t pick up fuel in the on position it had to be on reserve. When I started the bike in the morning the battery barley cranked it over. The first forty miles out of San Ignacio was pavement which made no sense at all but there it was. We stopped in a little fishing camp along the coast and again bought gas by the jug. Some of the roads we rode on at the coast were usable subject to the tides. In some areas the road could be a hundred yards wide. We finally turned inland toward the mountains looking for the pass that would take us back over to the Sea of Cortez and Mulege.
By the time we found the pass it was getting late in the day and we had two concerns daylight and gas. Don didn’t know of any place to find gas in the canyon. The reason we were late was my bike’s problems had started in earnest along the beach. At one point it quit running and wouldn’t even kick start. Something drained it to the point the bike wouldn’t run period, I disconnected the battery and was able to kick start it. Several more times the bike quit and bump starting it wouldn’t work. We drained the float bowl and discovered some sand in it. I think at high speeds the main would suck up sand and simply starve the bike out. I must admit on one occasion when Eric was helping me bump start the bike I forgot to turn the key on. Needless to say #33 wasn’t too happy with me and said so. You know having bike problems out in the middle nowhere in the USA is one thing, but having problems in the middle of nowhere in Mexico is another thing.
While in the canyon we stopped at a house just off the road, it was neat, clean and had some cabins for rent out back. We had a couple of cokes that came out of a refrigerator that had to have been made in the thirties. The coke was so cold it iced up, how sweet was that. The guy had three dogs, a Poodle, German Sheppard and a Pit Bull named Chester that had obviously been used for fighting as he didn’t have any ears left; he was as sweet as he could be though. While sitting there the guy whose place we were at asked if we wanted to make a phone call or use the internet. I mean here we are out in the middle of nowhere in this canyon with no obvious signs of electricity, or solar panels anywhere.
We made it out of the pass/canyon as the sun was setting, that was our longest day eight plus hours and almost 200 miles. As we were riding to a PeeMex in Mulege Eric pointed to the motel we were going to stay at and at that moment my bike coughed and ran out of gas. Fortunately I was able to coast to the station, but when kick starting it didn’t work we resorted to bump starting it again after two failed attempts I on the third realized I once again hadn’t turned the key on. I didn’t think Eric saw me turn the key on, but no such luck; he wasn’t happy and again called me names.
The next morning with all the bike problems I’d been having we decided to ride up the coast on the highway to San Ignacio instead of back tracking through the canyon again. Too bad I really wanted to go back that way. We stopped at an auto parts store in the coastal town of Santa Rosalia to see if we could find a battery for the bike. We were able to find one that just about fit, it took a little shoe horning and some new cabling to make it work, but with help of some young guys at the store we made it work. A couple of these guys raced and when #33 showed them on their store computer what hero’s we were on mx43.com they couldn’t help us enough. Eric told them he would put their pictures on the web site which I’m sure he will.
With a new battery and once again electric start we were off, unfortunately we couldn’t go back through the canyon and continued on to San Ignacio on the pavement. That evening after dinner Eric and I rode down to the square to see if there was anything happening on a Saturday night. There was, a lot of young people were gathered most of the young senioritis were participating in a jazzercise class. Eric and I just sat back enjoyed it. It’s interesting to note that I saw very little smoking while in the small towns and villages and all the young and old were very nice. The bracket that fits on the back fender where I tied most of my clothes broke and wouldn’t tighten up any more, so Eric and I found an auto parts store to see if we could buy bolts etc. to do a temp fix. The store was closed but an young man drove up and told us the store was going out of business but he was willing to get the keys and let us in to see if we could find something that would work. So after about forty five minutes Eric I and two young guys we were able to come up with some parts we thought might work. When I asked them how much we owed the young man says, nothing. What’s the chance of that happening here in the good old USA?
The next morning we headed for Bay of LA again, but by the time we reached Vizcaino again for gas the new battery was drained and I was back to kick starting again. Oh I forgot to mention after Eric and I came back from the evening’s entertainment in the Square we decided to walk over to the store. As we were walking it was very dark and I told Eric where was OSCA when I needed them I needed light. Eric says this is the Mexican’s way of natural selection; well it wasn’t thirty seconds later and I fell off the side of the road and ended up flopping in the middle of highway 1 with the sound of a bowling ball thudding on the pavement. That was very funny to Eric and might have been funny to me had not been hurting so much. And as long as I’m confessing I might as well admit that somewhere on that walk I lost the keys to my bike. Yes we looked the next morning but no luck. So after we wired around my latest faux pas we were off.
We made it to back to Bay of LA without further problems. Pulled into that same motel and once again enjoyed chips salsa and beer. This time the motel was full, two couples from Idaho and a bunch of riders who had come down to build some single track trails. One of the guys was a legendary trail builder who has come down to this area for decades, building trails for all to enjoy. The guy running chase for the riders was someone who’s been on the same race team as Eric. Eric was invited to use his bike and ride single track trail with them the next day from Bay of LA (On the Sea of Cortez) to the Pacific Ocean, he couldn’t turn that down. I’ll let Eric tell you about that adventure.
We also met a guy who was originally from Australia but has lived in British Columbia for thirty years. He was retracing part of a trip he made in the late nineties. On that trip he left BC and drove a Toyota Land Cruiser to the tip of South America and back up. He went down the West side then back up the East side, a two year trip. He had some very interesting stories to tell.
With Eric off on his trail ride Don and I took off for Gonzaga Bay retracing our path down. We stopped at Coco’s Corner and this time Coco was there. It was interesting to observe on this trip people who had some sort of handicap still out there trying to eke out some kind of exsistance. I have a lot of respect for them. Coco was a good example of that at one time he was no doubt a big man, but diabetes has cost him his legs. But there he was out in the middle of nowhere shuffling around on the ground with make shift boots on the end of his stumps, not asking for any special treatment.
When Don and I rolled into Gonzaga Bay it was full of people and the PeeMex had gas again. We had been making good time and thought there was a good chance the motel was full so we headed out for San Felipe. After leaving Bay of LA and some two hundred and twenty three miles we were back at Charlie’s house. We spent the night and in the morning when Don rolled our bikes out of the garage he accidently hit the starter button on my bike and guess what, it worked. I never tried it after we left Bay of LA just kick started it. I didn’t have the head light on so it obviously was putting out enough to recharge the battery. (The bike is now in the shop to check out the charging system)
Around 10:00 AM I headed out back to Northern California and Don waited for Eric who made that same two hundred twenty three ride and showed up around 12:30 PM. When I got to the border I picked the wrong line, you know the slow one. I’d say at least a hundred cars each in each lane went through before I got to the front. Then of course the border agent decided I needed to be further inspected, so I had to pull into another line. When they do a further inspection you have to open all the doors, hood etc. then park yourself in a fenced off chain link area until they call you. When given the all clear you have to close everything and rearrange anything they have gotten into.
On the trip home I had time to reflect on my first Baja adventure. Even though it’s all desert it’s amazing how much it changes, the geology and plant life certainly vary from area to area. The food was very good and actually everywhere we stayed felt clean. Much cleaner than a lot of places I’ve stayed in the good ole USA. I enjoyed the people very much, their needs are so much less than ours and for the most part seemed genuinely happy even with so much less. In the small towns and villages I didn’t see a lot of obesity, a lot of the older people seemed to smoke but I didn’t see a lot of younger people smoking. But what I did see a lot of was satellite dishes, makes me wonder if the government somehow subsidized it.
And of course the company made it all the more worthwhile, even though I was the entertainment for the week.
Doug 21J
PS As I was driving up my drive way at the end of my long trip I got a phone call from Eric who had received a call from one of the riders on the sixty team (Riders 60 years and older riding bikes) wanting to know if I would be interested in riding on their team for the first race of the season. There are three Score Baja races. The first is the San Felipe 250 in March, the Baja 500 and then the Baja 1000. I’m going to do it, so stay tuned for that adventure.
