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| From BAJA Don's |
Well let me tell you how I got into this. About 10 years ago, I was 63 then, I told some riders from back east that I'd get my six bikes running, and we'd all ride them down to Guerrero Negro, and go see the whales in Scammon's Lagoon.
Well, that ride went pretty well. About a year ago I got high on life one day, and invited folks again to do a ride to Baja on my five bikes.
Anyway, I couldn't get my 5 bikes all running and licensed, so I called off the trip that was to happen on April 21 of '14.....but Don Goldston contacted me, and said that he had his own bike, and couldn't we go anyway.
Yeah, we could go anyway, so a plan was hatched. We'd meet in Westmoreland Ca, at a friend of mine's house, and go down to San Felipe the first day.
We had a week so we'd travel slow, and take in Coco's Corner, Bajia Los Angeles, the Meling's Ranch, Coyote Cal's and parts in between....all the tourist things for a new comer to Baja.
Mike Daugherty from LA signed on as well. He'll be riding his new to him KLR650, While Don and I would be on Street bikes, an '05 FJR1300 and me on my old trusty Honda.
Ordinarily you don't take street bikes to Baja From Mexicali, but now that the pavement south of San Felipe is thru to below Gonzaga Bay, that would leave us only about 35 miles of dirt road to get back on the pavement at Hwy 1. How hard could that be???
We would probably set a record with the first FJR to Coco's corner if we made it that far.
Prelim to Baja
The bikes in question... BTW, Don's had his FJR for several years and has put 30000 miles on it. When he first got the bike there was a time that it went to running on 2 cylinder. At that time he looked for a wiring problem but never found anything before his bike went back to 4 cyl all on it's own.
Three days before Don left Co he also had a short burst of 2 cylinder running. He cleaned off the plug on his CPU in hopes of curing the problem...It ran good so far from Co to the bike shop....Don has his fingers crossed as we ride into Mexico for his first time.
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| From BAJA Don's |
Man oh man, I don't like this new Google map format...used to be they would give a different letter to indicate selected locations, then I could indicate a letter when I was talking about a place. Grrrrr! sigh.....
Here is the interactive map of the trip south to LA Bay where you can zoom into all the significant places Where we were....such as the hot springs on the waters edge at Puertocitos....or Meling's Ranch, [url]https://goo.gl/maps/sAZb4[/url] or
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
And this interactive map is for the return trip to just north of the border on the trip back to the USA at Tecate. [URL]https://goo.gl/maps/3shp6[/URL] or
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
My whole trip for the 5 days in Mexico was only about 1000 miles, and that included to and from my house. I like shorter day rides, and lots of puttsing around looking at places.
Don on the Other hand made a 900 mile trip from Parker Co (near Denver) into nearly double that, while he wore out his tires on every curved road he could find along the way.
Mike had a slightly longer ride from Tujunga just a little north of Los Angeles, but it felt much longer as he was riding on a Dual Sport seat. Hours spent sitting on a dual sport seat are brutal.
Anyway we all made our connection at Steve's house in Westmoreland. A word about Steve. Steve is that guy that knows everyone that you know and more. Steve lives in the out of the way place of all out of the way places, but everyone going within 50 miles of his place stops there to catch up on what's happened to anyone that you know, and haven't heard from in years. That's why I picked his place for the meetup.
I got there a little early, about 11am, and learned all about folks. I asked him if John Wright,who lives in Baja at Gonzaga Bay, was in Gonzaga now. He said he was. Cool we would stop there ....maybe get a fishing trip out of it.
I also learned that John has a new GF from a camp a little south of San Felipe....how about that? Who knows, maybe we'll meet the new gal friend down there somewhere. Other gossip included who is sick and who has died. Remember now we are geesers, me, Steve, and John. :rofl
Mike and Don soon arrived. Trip talk began in earnest. Don said that his FJR's rear tire was 250 miles new when he left Denver, but the 1600 miles on the way to Steve's had just about worn it out. It was a Metzler A6, and Don didn't feel like doing the rocky road past Coco's Corner with that tire.
El Centro has a decent all bike shop so we said goodbye to Steve, and went to that bike shop hoping that we could get a new tire put on in a hurry. The shop was great, and if we'd take the wheel off they would mount and balance it while we waited. We were out of there in an hour.
the Mexico part of this TR
Now we have good tires all around. Don got a street tire put on, but traction in the dirt wasn't likely to be a problem. He just wanted more rubber between his rims and any rocks.
Next it was off to Mexicali where we'g get insurance and change some money to pesos. That went smoothly, and finally we crossed into Mex at about 4pm.
Most of you know that the 20 miles of sprawling border town traffic is the most nervous part of these Baja rides. Anything from poorly signed detours to crazy drivers to renegade police trying to make a quick buck is possible.
I have to say that I haven't had any crooked copper encounters, down there, in 30 years or more, but it's always possible. So we dodged everything in town and drew closer to the Rio Hardy area about 35 miles from the border. I began to breath easier as we zoned in on our ride to San Felipe.
You've all seen picture of the mud flats on the way south from Calexico. Just so you'll know Cal-exico is a combo of California and Mexico (American side I think) and Mexi-cali is the reverse on the Mexican side.
We cruised on south in 100 degree temps. Crap, it was hot. The bikes ran great. I led the way and held the speed down to an actual 65 in honor of Mike's KLR. Turned out I didn't need to as he was good for another 10mph.
I hoped it would cool down next to the water.....and it did. It dropped 10 degrees when we got to the road in front of the Bay at SF (San Felipe).
We hadn't eaten for a while so we went to Rice and Beans on the Malicon. R&B is so good in San Ignacio that I thought it would be the same here, but the fish taco dinners we had there left us unimpressed. We should have gone to the open air cafes at the south end of the Malicon. Oh, well....
About 7pm we rode up to Ki Ki's RV park. Ki Ki's is right on the beach with 2 story shades camping sites and 10 or so motel rooms. We all had sleeping bags for emergencies, but this trip was to be motels and cafes, no camping. The sleeping bags were for dire conditions. I knew I'd miss the stars and campfires.
KI KI wanted 65 bucks for a 2 bed room. We got them down 5 bucks. I blew my air mattress up with my exhaust pipe, and threw it down on the floor. We'd gotten some beer earlier. We BSed for a while. I got to know Don a good deal better, then went to sleep.
Don was up at the crack of dawn. He walked down to town for coffee. That's quite a ways, a half mile or so. I was impressed. Go Don. He even brought me a cup of coffee back.....well, half of it arrived. The other half was on the street somewhere.
We soon were ready to leave. I halted everyone at the driveway exit, and asked if anyone had the room key in their pocket. I'm not usually that on the ball, but I was this time. I was assured that the key had been left in the room. OK, off to the gas station.
And then it was off south toward Puertocitos. We'd planed to eat at a place out front of El Virgel Campo some 30 miles to the south. We stopped for breakfast....
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Note the truck with Mexican bricks on it. A pickup just stopped by, and they hand offloaded a yard of bricks. Looks like that was the first unloading. So I'm guessing the truck load was parked there yesterday. Note the one missing tire near the front, and the already low tire at the back. That's Mexico.....I kinda like it.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
So El Virgel is where John Wright and his dad have a beach house, but I decided there was no use going to see if he was there because Steve said he'd be at his place in Gonzaga. It was only a 1/4 mile away but I didn't want to risk the 100 yards of 3" deep sand for summat that was likely to be for naught.
So we ate and during breakfast Don Said, "guess what I found in my pocket"? as he holds up Ki Ki's room key #12. We got a good laugh out of that. There was a Mexican couple out front sitting in a car. I asked them if they'd take the key and give it to Ki Ki. They said they would....problem solved.
So we continued south thru the Zone of Vado (dips) that is between there and Puertocitos. Last time I counted there were 42 of then in the next 15 miles, and some have taken the oil pans out of cars when under estimated.
Next stop will be the Cow Paddy.....
It's been a few years since I've been thru the dip zone, and much to my surprise and approval, the Vados have been smoothed out. Some are even gone as they've put in a few culverts. The one's that might launch you, if unnoticed, can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
I wanted to show Don & Mike the Cow Paddy bar. Mike had never been below John Wright's place at Campo El Virgel, so now we were into new country for both the guys.
Along the way....
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
BTW, it was 85ish today. Perfect for Baja as we pulled into the Cow Paddy. I usually leave from San Felipe and always catch the CP around 10am. Being a Beer and hot dog joint, I don't often see them open for business, and today was no different.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The door was open....but only for the gal who was cleaning up for the afternoon crowd. It's an interesting place with many pictures of the old days and local folks who've gained honorable mention.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Every wall inside looks like this. You can spend some time looking at all the lore or the area.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We talked to Brandy, the lady in charge. She lived in a campo a few miles to the north. She mentioned that her Sweety lived 55 miles away at Gonzaga. I asked who that was. Small world moment.....she said his name was John Wright.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
What's more, she said that he was up here working on a transmission at his and his dad's beach place at Campo El Virgel. Damn, I wished I had known, it would have been great to get a housing tour of a typical beach house setup for Don. Maybe next time.....
So it was on to Puertocitos and the ocean front hot springs. Some 20 years ago the person who ran the Puertocitos campo died and their kin took over. They doubled everyone rent and started charging to get into the hot springs. Grrrr.
Here's the beautiful bay in front of Puertocitos.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The tide was in by a third. When it's out the water level is way out to the end of the rocks on the left way out there.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Being a cheap SOB, I hated the price increase. The hot springs had always been free. The hot springs are almost unusable at low tide as the hot springs pools are too hot without the cold water of the bay mixing in. They are located out on the tip of the rocks on the left side of the bay on the Sea of Cortez side of the rocks.
We paid up and went for a soak. The pool we are in is being fed hot water from the pools above, and that is sea water on our left. There are several other larger pools higher up in the rocks that the tide will get to at high tide.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
There's no changing room so I went in in my jeans as I knew they would dry out quickly at 60 mph once back on the bikes.
We were soon underway again. BTW, I built the worlds ugliest dune buggy back in 1972. It now is alive and well at one of the houses in Puertocitos. I don't know just where it is, but Steve told me it's there....you know, the guy who knows everything. LOL
Did you ever see an uglier buggy?
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The old buggy (Named the Rusty Bucket) was rebuilt at least 3 time over the years. Steve, on the left, was the last to do it, and about a year ago he sold it to his friend in Puertocitos. Iconic things have a way of getting around.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We'll get to Gonzaga pretty soon....
I forgot to mention that there a place about 5 miles west of the hwy and 15 miles before Puertocitos where there are some mud hills and buried in those mud hills are 100s or 1000s of full (both halves together) bivalvular mollusk fossils.
OK, you didn't really need to know that....on with the ride.
The new pavement went, as far as I had known, down to the north side of a hill a couple miles north of Gonzaga Bay. I wondered if that hill would be a problem to our street bikes? ....but much to my delight I learned that the new road had advanced to a couple miles south of the Gas Station at Gonzaga.
We took a few pictures of the ride south to Gonzaga.....
Mike has recently changed from his DRZ400 to this very nice KLR. He's enjoying the Corbin seat on the KLR as we look back at the Puertocitos bay.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
My Dad brought me to camp on that beach several times in the late '50s. We called it Springer's Cove. There was nothing there back then. That big white house was recently advertised for sale for $400000. I don't know if it sold...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Everyone gets this picture of that dry lake on the beach...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Back in the early days the road south of Puertocitos endured through 18 miles of horrible mtn roads before it flattened out and made it's way to Gonzaga.
When I got out of the army in '62 a friend and I hauled a pair of motorcycles (a Velocette and a Jawa) over those mountain, from the south going north, in the dead of night with a howling wind blowing and no moon as I remember it. The hauling vehicle was a 1940 1 ton stake side Dodge truck that would cut out when the rpm got too low in a hard pull. I was 21 and wet behind the ears still. We didn't think we'd ever get over those hill.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
My camera strap tried to ruin the best riding shot that I got of Don.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Finally the road levels off....not that that's a good thing.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
That would have been helpful, but we really didn't need any as we were all good for 200 miles and had only gone a 100. So we rode over to Alfancina's for lunch. The road to Alfancina's was our first test of the Street bikes on gravel roads...not too bad.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
There are 60 or 70 house along that line . The bay is 30 yards to the other side. Airstrip on the right
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We had a couple beers and a plate of fish tacos each for lunch and then we decided that we had enough time left to get to LA Bay for the night. Finally we were going to test the bikes on a real Baja Dirt road.
The dirt road from Gonzaga to hwy 1 is a strange road. It not a road that a car/truck would ever get stuck on. It's graded and 2 cars wide, but it's road bed is baby head rocks covered with sand and a few ruts.
In actuality is not a road that you ever enjoy even on a real dualsport bike. It's just rough, beat-you-up road, but there's only about 35 miles of it...how hard could that be? Heh he.
.........................................Jaws of Death
Walking away from Alfancina's, and the best fish tacos yet....
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Anticipating 10 more mile to Cocos seemed like a hundred. I began to wonder, "What was I thinking....how hard could 35 miles be."
Over the last 55 years I've prolly been to Baja nearly a hundred times. For at least the first 20 years, when I'd get back, I'd swear that I was never going to go back. These 35 miles were having that affect on me as I watched my bike being shaken like it was in an earthquake.
The death grip on the handlebars was in honor of the fact that the front wheel could smack a rock or some soft sand could require immediate correction. You just didn't know when, so best be ready. Finally we could see Coco's a 1/4 mile away....I wicked it up to 50 so I wouldn't looks so bad to the Cocoites. Ruh, ruh. Cool! Coco was there. His jaw dropped a little when he saw street bikes....that definitely wasn't the norm.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We signed his log book and had a soda.....talked with Coco a bit. He's a hell of a guy. He said we'd never make it out the rest of the way to hwy 1.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Coco's warning scared me....had recent storms torn up the road ahead??? I didn't remember anything worse than what we'd already ridden. There was just 12 more miles of it before we would be home free, and on the pavement again. We Left Coco, and struggled on to the HWY at Laguna Chapala. Ah, the pavement at last. Damn that was a long 35 miles and 2.5 hrs. We were happy to have done it now that it was over.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Mike asked me about the few drops of oil on my rear wheel....hummmm? Seemed that the rear brake like had come loose enough to start dripping. Must have just happened as I hadn't lost the rear brake yet. I have carried,, for years, a 4" adjustable wrench and similar sized channel lock pliers in my pocket. A couple cranks with the wrench and we were ready to roll on down to LA Bay.
The turn off to LA bay was at 187 miles from our last gas. I had just gone on reserve. There was about 50 miles to LA Bay....I could prolly do that, but getting some gas from the 'gas pickup' at Punta Prieta was a better bet.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
It was about 4:30 when I gassed up. The ride to LA Bay is spectacular. The pavement is in excellent condition with fast twisties for the most part and about 50 mile long.
One thing that I've always noticed on this road it that the multiple arrow signs that mark turns are way over done at the beginning of that road. There will be 8 or 10 signs.....per corner at first, but there are some corner 25 miles in there with no arrows at all. ....but that's Mexico....I kind of like it.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
.......................................... Finally the Bay
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We cruised the town and settled on a fine Motel for the night. We were so happy to be off the bikes that we had a couple Tequila shooter after dinner to celebrate our escape from the 'Jaws of Death' unscathed.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
...............................A trip From Another Time
On our ride into LA Bay it reminded me of anther time that I made that trip. Remember the Velocette and the Jawa? Well, the story goes.....
My dad and a friend had restored a 1940 Dodge 1 ton, and drove it down to LA bay....and then flew home. Their plan was to fly in later, and then take the old truck further south in steps till they got to La Paz. That was in 1959 10 or 12 years before the road was pave beyond Colonet. They never got around to going down and driving the truck further.
So 3 years later, when I'd gotten out of the army, a friend on the Jawa and me on the 500 Velocette decide to ride down there and drive the truck out with the 2 bikes on the back.
My wife dropped us off in Tijuana, and we left early that morning. My Velocette was, shall we say, unproven. 30 miles out of TJ my rear brake torque arm came loose and brought me to a sliding stop. Investigation showed that if I threw the bent up brake shoes away, I could still ride.
Next, down around Santo Tomas, fifty mile later, an oil line broke and my engine began to howl and screech. An investigation show that we could cut the line off and reconnect the hose, and I could ride.
Next some 20 miles later, my gas tank sprung a leak at the rear where it goes over the top bar right in front of the seat. In San Vincinti we locate a shop, but the welder wasn't there. He had an acetylene generator that his 10 year old son showed us. We didn't know how that worked, but we did manage to braze the leak up without blowing ourselves up, and then I could ride.
BTW Acetylene generators function by you adding some water to Carbide material...Woila, Acetylene. It's the same technology that the early car head lights used
Things went pretty well after that. We got all the way down near Laguna Chapala, when I heard a clink hit my spokes. An investigation showed that 4 of the 5 nuts that held the rear wheel to the hub were missing, and the one that was left was loose. After tightening that one lug, I could ride. I retighten that lug nut every several miles for the next all the way to LA Bay. And switched it to different lugs from time to time. Loosing that lug nut would have been catastrophic to the trip.
We came to the LA Bay turn off. We had about an hour of day light left and 50 miles to go. Of course neither bike had lights, and we didn't want to spend the night in the desert without camp gear.
We were desperate to get to Mama Diaz's for the night. It might be close, but averaging nearly 50 mph wasn't going to happen with bikes that had 5 inches of wheel travel. We rode as fast as we could. Jim made me take the lead as he didn't want me to run into him as I only had the front brake.
The old sun ball sunk into the west. We had no idea where we were mileage wise as twilight approached. As dark approach a phenomena took over. As we could see less, we rode faster.
That's not the way it's supposed to work. Darker and darker produced faster and faster, until I made a hard left but not the immediate switch back to the right. Instead I hit a 3 ft bolder that didn't move. Over the handle bars I went. That was where we spent the night, and we had a can of peaches that we shared for dinner. We'd spent 13 hour riding that day. The room and soft mattress in LA Bay was not to be.
In the morning we straightened the handle bars and rode the last 5 miles. Breakfast at Mama Diaz's never tasted better. That trip was a crazy memory that I'll take with me when I go.
.............................North to Meling's Guest Ranch
We'd been having a good time. We'd planned a week in Baja, and we'd made LA bay by the end of the second day without pushing. We could have easily made San Ignacio or even Mulege in 2 days. This new road down the East side has truly opened Baja up to street bikes.
Baja has always been street bike friendly, but it was only from Hwy 1 thru TJ and Ensenada, and that is much of the time congested all the way till south of San Qintin.
With the exception of the little (How hard can that be?) piece that goes past Coco's it a beautiful ride down the San Felipe side. furthermore they are working on that Coco's Corner stretch as we speak...prolly at least 2 more years until the road is completed to Hwy 1.
We had a great evening in LA Bay at Costa Del Sol Hotel. That seemed to be the only one of a half dozen hotels with any business. I can see why as a mature hostess greeted us in the parking lot with a tour of the facility's amenities. The Hotel had a nice room, bar and restaurant, and a 'puter room for contacting your public that's waiting to hear about the particular 'Jaw of Death' that you're experiencing. In our case is was Coronas and Tequila shooter served by the beautiful Alicia.
There were several groups of bikers there. 3 street bikes from Canada had come down the west side, 3 dual sporters that we'd had lunch with at Alfancina's had come from Seattle, and a guy on a Razor side by side ATV from San Diego. Did you know that you can spend $26000 on a side by side.....I didn't either. Scheesh.
That right there might be the definition of having 'too much money'. Nah...just kidding. I know there's no such thing as 'too much money'. The side by side guy was interesting....said he'd driven down the west side, and allow'd as how that the pot holed road was bad for a spell in the Catarina area. Those SbySs are really clean units. Repeating this pic....
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We were pretty happy to be here without flatting a tire or any other problems. My most recent (unoffical) study says that there is a flat every 800 miles in Baja. We were already raising that average.
We had enough time to go further south if we wanted, but I had hoped to take a day and go up to the Observatory behind the Meling's Ranch at 10000ft. I wasn't sure what their policy would be or how long it would take. We headed back north the next morning.
I should add that we did have another complication from the dirt road at Coco's. Don had irritated his chronic lower back problem, and was favoring it somewhat. No real big deal.
We skipped breakfast and were on the road by 8am. Out past the old church that we'd come in by.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
and the rugged dry wash......
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
and the Cirio forest (Boojum trees)
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
and the rock pile north of Laguna Chapala
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We'd gassed at LA Bay, but we stopped at the Gas pickup truck at Catarina to discuss our gas situation. We all were sure we had enough to get to El Rosario.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
That's when we saw that Mick's KLR had lost a bolt securing his saddle bags.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
No other bolt could be robbed to fix this problem so we employed Ratman's rule #1. When in Baja there will always be a piece of wire within 20 feet of where you are standing. A quick search showed a piece of barbed wire at 18' that we could employ for the temp fix. Don the electrical engineer was up to the task of wiring up the KLR's rack. We might have wired it a second time to the top, but figured that would be overkill....and didn't want to use up all the Area resources.
........ Done and Done.....
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Breakfast was now on our minds....we motored on to El Rosario and Mama Espinosa's Historic cafe. there's a beautiful section of road thru these rocks just north of Catarina. This was always a favorite ride of mine back before the paved road...smooth sand winding thru huge boulders and cactus.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The pot holes had all been filled since the RZR guy had come thru. We were living right.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Eighty miles of much improved pavement from years past produced Mama Espinosa's place and breakfast. There are even shoulders on much of the improved road. Mama's has been there since the early 1900s, and has been active in all the off road racing since the beginning of time, I think. There are racing poster inside to the max.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Fed and gassed up we continued north to the Meling's Ranch. Once you get to San Qintin the slow farm traffic is a pain. We endured the 30 miles to the turn off that goes 25 miles east up into the mtns. The park and observatory are an additional 25 miles past Meling's to reach the 10000 foot peak that overlooks the Diablo Dry lake and San Felipe.
My father used to go there in the '50 and 60'. He was in his early 50's at the time being born in 1908. He and his buddy Hersch Larrick (from the Solano Beach lumber yard) would buddy up and go there with him. I've been past the place on a couple buggy trips 30 years or so ago, but I'd never stayed there. My dad spoke fondly of the place. I was always curious. I would find out on this trip.
There was always a mention of Ada Meling who ran the place in Dad's stories. I supect that she was a large reason why the boys liked the ranch so much. She was in her 40s during those years (zoom in for easier reading)
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The whole of the Meling's Guest Ranch was a delightful, relaxing place for us geezers, Not withstanding Mike who hasn't reached geezer status yet. There is horse back riding into the nearby mountains and hiking and rock climbing for the younger crowd. We were there mid week so there were only 3 other guest of the 50 year old vintage, but I understand the place is pretty busy on weekends. In case you didn't or couldn't read the above it's been there since the early 1900.
Here's a pictorial of the place
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The rooms were nice with wood fire places (with wood supplied) for heat. The generator ran from 6 pm till 10 pm.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Mike makes a friend....
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
a budding courtship blooms
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
A plaque on this tree says....
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The Good Samaritan pilots planted this tree.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Mexican wiring and ingenuity provide ambiance in the evenings.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Stone covered cooler/water dispencer
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
An antique Delaval cream separator from the '40s. Those nozzles rotate as do the plates for the containers in order to direct the flow to different places...very cool
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Old International work truck has seen better days.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
...Old wagon...mtns in the background...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
a timeless chapel...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Goats eat weeds/breakfast thru the fence
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The original Meling's Ranch house...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Great old trunk...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Two 1942 army cook stoves cook our breakfasts with the help of the kitchen girls.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Meals were extra, and had to be ordered....there were no menus, but they would consider any request if they had it.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
After dinner, Don bought us a couple six pack of Corona. We did not see the light go out at 10pm when the generators shut down.
It had been a great day. The boys gave Meling's an 'A' rating.
Nakidness and bike trouble would rear their ugly heads tomorrow.....
One Massage, but Two Ladies
The Observatory was out. We were told that no motos were allowed in the park. Years ago we were told that they were very dust sensitive up there. I suppose that's the reason, and that they really targeted dirt bikes, and we harmless street bikers got caught up in their rules.
So after breakfast we headed back toward the coast, and expected to spend the night at Coyote Cal's hostel some 75 miles away on the coast at Erendira....a great place to spend some time.
As I photoed the ride out to Hwy 1, my sleeve caught on my camera's lanyard, and the camera hit the pavement at about 20mph. Crap, when I got back to the camera it was almost in 2 pieces. A close look showed that all the screws that hold the case together around the innards were gone, but the good news was that it kinda snapped back together and still worked.
I still haven't found screws for it, and it's still holding itself together and still taking pictures. It's a 16MP Canon point and shoot. Canon builds a tough camera. The funny thing is that I put lanyards on all my cameras, and have dropped at least 3 of them because of getting the lanyard caught on things. Grrrr....you'd think I'd learn. Aren't lanyards considered SAFETY straps? :huh
So back to riding... The road out of there is a narrow 2 laner. Quite fun with scenery to spare.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Did you ever try to make a straight row....I didn't think so. Me either but the old farmers in Ohio, where I grew up, talked very highly of a straight row. Pretty good job down there in the bottom land on the way out.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Pretty nice ranch house for Mexico.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The road out to the coast and Coyote Cal's was in good shape Pavement wise for a change....not always the case.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
I stop at the store in Erendira for some oil as I was sure that I could use some. The old Sabre uses a bit, as it's motor is made up of three donor mtrs. The frame, though, is approaching 300000 miles, and doesn't use any oil. :rofl
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The check out girl was cute as a button.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
There's a lot of farming along the coast that you never see down there. The mud in those field run out into the street when it rains hard down there.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Mike and I and OMB (Old Man Bud) made a trip out to cal's hostel right after one such storm 6 or 8 years ago. We got good at helping each other pick up our bikes. The pavement goes all the way to the road along the water. Cal's is 3 miles north along this road.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
This road is a little rough, not as rough as Coco's road, though. When we got to the hostel Don told us that his bike had gone to 2 cylinder for a bit in the last couple miles. Up until that time we thought that Don's gremlin was gone. No such luck.
Here's what Don saw (his picture) when we rode into Coyote Cal's. That's all new murals up there. New whale and he's added the off road scene, as many of the Baja Races go right down the road in front of his place, so he enjoys a lot of business from that venue.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
I had told Don that Rick, the owner's wife, did massage, and Don really focused in on this as his back was kicking up fits of displeasure.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
It's been a few year since I've been there. Rick constantly makes changes always improving the place. It's really a well run Hostel worth the 20$ per night. One of his current changes is a new bartender, Heather. Heather had been going for a bicycle ride when we showed up so Rick signed us in. We got out bunk assignments and Don laid down for a nap and to rest his back. He told me he was definitely going to go for a Tigh Massage. I told Don that Mike and I would ride up the beach a couple miles to Puntas Cabras and visit my old buddy Larry, whom I'd met while spectating a Baja race a few year back.
Ok, Mike and I get ready to leave, but we run into Heather coming back from her ride. I mention that Don would like to get a Tigh massage, and would she alert Rick's wife which we hadn't seen yet. Heather, who's only been there for less than 2 weeks, tells us the the Tigh lady had a bad wrist and is out of commission for a while....but she knows Swedish massage, and will see if Don is interested.
So off to Larry's we go. Larry's more geezer than me, but Rick told me he is still alive, so we expected that he's be there. The drought we're having has caused the road to be dustier than I'd ever scene it.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We arrived at about 2pm. Wanda greeted us and called for Larry. Larry was looking good, and gave us the tour of the house he's been building for 30 years. Larry is a craftsman. I've photoed some of his stuff.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
There were a couple of sheep dogs in that group that ran Mike and I the hell out of there in no uncertain terms.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
There's Larry and Wanda.... Larry is 77, and I'm sure he could kick my ass. There are certificates on the wall of 2 black belts that he holds. Luckily he's wasn't into ass kicking today, and was happy to show us around.
He makes a lot of jewelry out of mother of pearl shells...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
He's a creative guy....
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
He says he's read all that...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We went back out front for more BS. Wanda said 3 whales just swam by on their way back north inside of the last white foam line out there. That's three times as close as I've ever seen a whale up where I live.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
While were sitting there I saw a few quail sneaking up on us, and mentioned it to Larry. He says they're moving in for dinner. Huh? Yeah Larry feed about a 100 bird every evening at 3pm sharp. So sure enough Larry threw out a quart or more of scratch out there in the drive. The birds went crazy. Didn't I tell you that Larry was cool?
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
So we got back to the hostel and found Don sitting on a bar stool lean his head on the bar with Heather massaging his back. They both had shit eating grins on their faces like they had a secret.
It turns out that Don got up from his nap and wandered upstairs. Heather caught up with him and told him that she had asked Rick and he'd ok'd her to sell Don a massage if Don was still interested since the Tigh lady was out of commission....You could kinda tell that Heather was desperate to make some extra money besides bartending....and Don is a generous guy who would prolly take a massage from her just so he could help her out.
...but this time Don was really looking for some help for his back. The real massage lady has a room with a real massage table and is all set up. Now Heather has ok'd it with Rick, and told Don to go in there and strip and lay down she'll be right there. Don said, "With shorts or nekid?"
Heather said either way take your choice, Don choose nekid and laid down with a couple towels on himself. Then Heather shows up, and is ready to start work. Does anyone see the problem that is about to jump up?
No one has gotten permission from Rick's wife the Tigh Lady to use her room. The Tigh lady comes storming in and starts sputtering about the goings on, and begins to run Don out of there, but Don doesn't really understand what's happening. The Tigh lady grabs the towels while Heather is trying to explain that Rick had said it was ok, and she had told Don to take his cloth off. About that time the Tigh lady see that Don is nekid, then the sputtering escalated and Don got the idea that the massage was off, and he escaped to put his cloths on in another place.
Most of the time being nekid in a room with 2 lady can be a good thing, but this time, not so much. We had a few good laughs about the whole thing later that night at the bar with Heather.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
...................... Leaking forks and Cocino Familiar
In spite of the massage fiasco, we were still hungry. It was about 4pm. We hadn't eaten since breakfast. So we rode into town to see Gloria at the Cocina Familiar. The place has been there for the 15 years that I've been going to Coyote Cals. Good food and great service. Well used by the locals.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
She doesn't serve beer, but you can go get your own sixpack and she'll keep it cold for you....so I did. We ordered up Bifsteak Rancheros and a plate of tacos as recommended by Larry. Delightful as always.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Back in the parking lot at the hostel I notice that my left fork seal is leakng badly. Oil's run down the slider and is dripping on the ground. Lately I've found out that leaking seals are usually caused by dirt in the seal lip allowing oil to pass. See the oil on the back of the slider and caliper mt?
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
so I got out my homade seal cleaner.....and passed it around the seal a couple times on both seals, since I had it out.
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| From moto mechanicals |
After bouncing the front forks several times and wiping down the residual oil. I had a much happier pair of forks.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
I find it hard to believe that ever time someone get a fork seal leak and they're riding in Colombia or BFE, that they always go to a bike shop and get the seals changed. I can believe it here in the states where seals are available, but I'd think that all the out of the way places would know how to clean seals.
As you saw from a previous picture we ended the night with Heather at the bar, and we were actually up till after 9pm for once.....not much after, though.
........................................ Semis and just 2 cylinders tomorrow....
We all had a good night's sleep, although there were rumors of Tequila induced snoring. That's just hearsay on my part as I never heard a sound.
Rick includes a light breakfast with a night's stay, and he was in the kitchen cooking soon after this shot.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Before we go I should report that Rick had a gringo down there doing a roofing project. He's arrived on this dualsport bike (rumored to be legal in all states but California).
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
At first glance I took it to be a KTM, but no, it was a Chinese 250cc bike. Mike (the roofer) said that it can be bought in Riverside Ca from an internet sight for 1300 bucks. He said it got 70mpg and ran pretty good. Damn, I can't think of the website name right now. I just remembered http://www.superiorpowersports.com/
Mike the roofer was an interesting guy. He had thrown off the reins of the USA, and wandered the world these days....don't know how he found Coyote Cal's
Then it was loading up and back out the 12 mile wash to Hwy 1. Coyote Cal's did not disappoint.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Don reported, when we stopped that his bike was falling to 2 cylinders worse today than ever before. He said that it took near full throttle to keep up when it was on 2 cyls. That would be half of 140 minus the HP it took to drag the 2 dead cyls along...so figure, maybe 50hp at full throttle.
Then imagine what that would feel like in a hard corner and the full 140hp would kick in. Don was not having much fun.
We stopped for gas in Ensenada after a 60 mile ride from the hostel. I was happy to report that my forks were dry as a bone.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
We made it thru Ensenada, Near Santo Tomas...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
Huge flag in Ensenada
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
........two cruise ships were in the harbor...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
I have to out myself for the dumbass that I can be at times. We're cruising along out around the little Russian town of Guadalupe. I'd been passed by a Miata a ways back. He stacked up behind a semi with a long trailer. We're in twisties and the road is the old two laner with no shoulder. We've caught up and are running 45mph.
Hummmm, I don't want to be following a semi running 45 mph. Now remember I'm 70+ years old. Why should I care?....but there still some ego in there somewhere, I guess. I begin to think that showing that Miata a thing of two would be fun. Why would I think that? So I plan a pass.
We are coming out of a corner where I'll be able to see a ways ahead. I get it ('84 Honda 1100cc V4) down into 2nd gear and have a little run going at the back of the Miata so I'll be going faster than the Miata when I can see the passing zone when it comes into sight.
As I tell this story, I'm thinking what a colossal dumbass, but I'm compelled to fess up. Anyway, The sight of the road ahead comes into view. I have about 75 yards (maybe a 100) to get this pass done on both the Miata and semi with a 40 ft trailer. If I nail it now, and a vehicle should come at me after I have committed. I have to make the decision quickly to abort the pass and duck in between the truck and the Miata.
I Nailed the throttle. The Honda was in it's power band. All systems were go. Every split second that no oncoming traffic would show was a plus.
What a dumbass? No sooner than I was committed and beside the trailer, a vehicle showed coming at me....not just a vehicle, but another semi. Oh shit, this was going to be tight.
The 1100cc engine roared to give me everything it had....my ass bit a chunk out of my Corbin seat. Both trucks honked their disaproval as I squirted thru the hole between them with a few feet to spare, no, that may have been inches.....and then it was over. What a dumbass, and a 70+ year old dumbass at that.
There were a dozen ways that could have gone wrong. I've stopped counting, and hope I have learned something.
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
The border was a snap. We passed a 1/4 mile line of cars and merged into the front of the line. Couldn't have been more than 10 minutes.
Don and I moteled it in El Centro that Friday. Don was worried about getting back to Denver with his bike the way it was running, so in the morning we went back to Steve's house and Don tore the plastic off his bike in hope of finding the cause of his misfiring.
The wind blew last night so badly that it wiped the digital memory from Don's bike's puter...static charge Don figured, and it was blowing this morning. It was really nice of Steve to let us into his garage to work. This time Don found the cause of his bike's missing. It had to do with the cobbled in wiring of some of the farkles that the PO had installed.
That was good news. The bike was back together by noon. The races started at 1pm so we had enough time to buy Steve lunch at the local taco stands and still be fashionably late to the start of the race.
Did I say the wind was blowing??? As we started to leave the Taco stand for the race, Don wisely asked, "How much fun do you think it will be to watch the race in this dust storm?" I said that I didn't think it would be much fun, so we aborted the race plan. Don hit the road back toward Denver (I heard later that he got there just fine as Did Mike back to LA.)
As I rode home I contemplate our short Baja adventure, and made a note of how great a trip can be when you are with the right people as I was this time.
I only had 150 miles to ride back to Oceanside. The wind blew, but subsided by half once I got on top of the SD mtns. I was home before dinner time....It was good to be with my darlin again.
So there you have it....a recipe for a short week in Baja. Thanks for riding along.
I got some photos from Don so here are some of his shots...that I didn't get I got Don's 1.5 Megabites of photos the other day, and thought you might like to see them. He shot some good ones and also got things that I didn't get. A few mile south of San Felipe. The start of that development on the left has looked like that for at least 40 years...
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
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| From Baja, Mike and Don |
........................ Return Trip of the Old Dodge [QUOTE=Baja Ho;24117875]Ratman Thanks for the report. loved the story about your dad the old truck the Jawa and the Velocette, good times for sure. Did you have any problem getting the old Dodge started after setting for three years? And were you able to get it home?[/QUOTE] Funny you should ask about rescuing the old Dodge from Baja.....The story goes like this...... I used to run with a best friend who was 8 years older than I was. We did a lot of beer drinking on the weekends. Some of it would be at some of my buddy's friend's garages while they worked on their dirt bikes to get them ready for the desert races that were popular at the time. One such beer fueled conversation was about the old Dodge truck that was down in Baja languishing away, and that I'd like to go get it some day. Stretch who was about 6'5" tall and easily the gentlest of all the giants that I knew got on board with the idea, and said that he'd like to go to Baja on this adventure. Stretch owned the Jawa, which was also his desert racer. I don't think that I ever considered actually going down there to get the truck until Stretch said that he'd go. I was a lightweight when it came to motorcycles, but I did own a 500cc Velocette thumper, that I'd ride around on weekends. Back in the early '60s we could ride dirt roads/trails right out the back door most places in San Diego county. Now when I say 'ride around' I mean maybe I'd put a hundred miles on the Velo. It was a used bike when I got it and I didn't know squat about bikes, and it certainly had not proven itself reliability wise as was evident from the breakdowns on the way down to get the truck. All those breakdown were caused by me not preparing the bike like it should have been. So now your getting the picture. A wet behind the ears kid of 20 year, and the fairly experienced 28 year old were going to ride the 400 miles to LA Bay, get the truck running, then load the bikes on the truck and bring everything back to Encinitas Ca (north San Diego county). How hard could that be? :evil The dynamics of all this was..... I was kinda in charge due to the fact that it was my dad's truck, and I had actually been on the route when we took the truck to Baja in the first place. Stretch on the other hand was the guy with 8 more years of skills and bike experience. He'd also never been south of Ensenada. So jump on the bike and ride them south. That whole couple of days was quite an experience made possible by my friend Stretch's experience and patience with my bike problems. So we get to LA Bay. Antero Diaz is my dad's good friend and was the major domo of LA Bay. Of course they had borrowed the battery out of the truck and a fan belt off it, but Antero replaced those things and we got the truck running without any problems. One other thing we wanted to do was weld my rear wheel to the hub,, in place of those nuts I'd lost, so that if the truck quit somewhere we could ride the bikes out. So we got that done, and then loaded the bikes. I mentioned that the truck was a flat bed with wooden stake sides. I should also mention the truck was a three speed so there was no granny gear. The one problem that the truck had was when it would lug down to the low rpms, and when you needed all the power that the 6 cyl flathead engine had, The engine would fall on it face and start missing badly. It would run fine until you were in a tough situation. So anyway the morning came to leave. We had the bikes tied in with ropes. Back then there were no cinch straps that motorcycles use for tie downs...or at least, we didn't have any, but we had a lot of rope. There was also a Diesel mechanic down there at LA Bay who had been there working on Antero's big diesel boat. He'd come from San Felipe where he lived, and needed to go back there as the diesel job was finished. He asked if he could come along with us. I/we didn't know that route, but the Mexicans said the road was alright....and I knew that the truck had had that missing problem on a couple hill on the way down from Ensenada, so we decided to go back the San Felipe route. We told the mechanic that we'd give him a ride. So we left LA Bay the next morning. We didn't get a 1/4 mile away before the motorcycles began to fall over. As far as tying motorcycles goes, I remembered that we retied motorcycles for the rest of the trip about every half hour. That part was fairly frustrating.... We got north, about 60 miles and 5 hrs, to the turnoff into Calamuije wash that goes to Gonzaga Bay. There was no road to Gonzaga from Lake Chapala like there is now. Calamuije Wash is a wet wash all year long. Going into that wet sandy wash scared the shit out of us, but it wasn't too bad until we came to the hill at the northeast end. That hill is a couple 100 feet long climb out of the wash. It was slow going and the truck needed to use the low rpms of first gear. Of course the bikes fell over, but we got to the top. Now it was another 40 miles to Gonzaga. Besides being slow going with a lot of sand we managed to get to Gonzaga by 5pm after the 9am start we'd gotten that morning. As I remember the mechanic rode in the back holding onto the rack standing up. He was a tough guy....reminded me of a piece of manzanita or sage brush. We got something to eat in Gonzaga and asked about the road north. They all said that there were some mountain just before you got to Puertocitos called the Three Sisters that were sort of tough. Gulp! We set out for this last difficult leg and arrived at the 18 mile 3 Sister section well after dark with the wind blowing 30mph and no moon in sight. Our physical condition was a disaster from beating around in that truck for over 12 hrs, and dealing with the unknown had weaken us mentally. We felt that we were not just going back to the US, but by this time that we were running for our very lives. Those 18 miles were all rocks and the climbs had many stepped rock outcroppings in the worst places. Trucks that supplied places south all has a granny gear to crawl over those steps. We didn't have that luxury. We lost the engines power in the one of those long climbs. The only thing to do was back down in the dark. Of course there was no back up light. Stretch was out there with a dim flashlight. I could hardly see him with the bikes in the back, and the wind made hearing him almost impossible. And I'm talking back down 2 or 3 hundred feet with a cliff on the sea side of the road. There'd be no hope of going forward a little bit, if I got off line too much. The situation was desperate. The guys got out on the next run. I hit the tough spots a little harder bouncing off the ground this time, but I still didn't make it. We backed it down again, and decided that we'd have to unload the bikes there in the middle of that mountain in pitch black with out a loading ramp. They had to be man handled off the truck and back on later. The next run, with the truck bouncing at least a foot off the ground on those steps, and risking a broken axles or worse was successful, then came the riding the bikes up a 100 yards in the black of night and getting the bikes back on the truck. We made it. Just telling the story has the feeling of that night flooding back through my mind. :eek1 It was still 4 or 5 more hours to San Felipe and the paved road. One time after the sun had come up, the Mechanic had asked thru the back window what was the time. I attempted to tell him in Spanish, but stumbled with the 'son las' or 'es la', and Stretch had all he could take of me, and the gentle giant snapped with, "God Damnit, tell him in English. He speak better English than you do Spanish." It had been that kind of nearly 24 hours. We found the Mech's house and dropped him. We got something to eat, gassed up, and drove on home. We were home by early afternoon. That's the kind of shit you do when you're in your twenties. On that ride home from San Felipe we both swore that we'd never go to Baja again. .....and that's the story of how the old Dodge got home. :freaky
