Baja California Norte 2005/6 (Not Scott's trip!)

[goodtimes]

Some of us were not fortunate enough to have the time needed to join Scott on his 2+week adventure, so we settled for a shorter one. Thanks to Chuck (Urisadie or however the hell you spell that) for setting this up and only making me break my jeep twice while trying to keep up with him on *that* road. Highlights are as follows (full version will come later).

Day #1. Leave Tucson, realize that I don't have my birth certificate (needed to get a tourist permit). Call and get a copy faxed to me in Calixico. Head south to San Felipe for permits, gas, and pesos. Encounter a guy stuck in the mud on the beach with tide coming in. Break winch trying to pull him out. Head south to deserted beach to camp.

Day #2. Spend morning kayaking. See dolfins, scare pelicans. Head south to Gonzaga bay on the roughest road on the face of the planet. Fatigue gets the better of my steering stabilizer bracket, which breaks in half. Jeep sized pot hole in the middle of the road at 40+/- mph shears the bar-pin on the right rear shock, and bends the l/r bar-pin. Jeep rides funny. Camp ~1 mile from Punta Final.

Day #3. Spend morning kayaking in Gonzaga Bay. Meet other sea-kayakers (from SLC), have nice chat on the water, then head back to camp and south to Bahia de Los Angeles, stopping at Coco's Corner for a cervesa.

Day #4. Meet Bajaxplorer and head to a "remote beach" he has heard about. First stop kinda nasty, and being used as a fish camp. BX and his buddies head up the coast to the next beach, Chuck, Brian and I head south to look for suitable camping....and come across the perfect location. Near white sand, completely deserted, very little trash, protected from what little wind there was, and has a cool island just a short paddle away from shore. Spend the afternoon watching rays in the sand, and setting up camp, and checking out the dead animals on the beach. OK, not really, but we did find a dolfin skull in great condition, and a sea turtle carapis. Mess with Chucks head regarding the incoming tide, which the tide chart lists as +19.3. Low tide was at -3.9. We tell Chuck that there will be a ~22' tidal swing. Chuck thinks we are saying the tide will be 22' above where it was the night before, which was about 5' (vertical) below our camp. Chuck fretts all night and gets up at midnight to check the tide...which was only 1' above the night before....but he was rewarded for his efforts with some bioluminescence, presumably from the phyto-plankton (OK, I'm just guessing on that last one....I was told long ago that phyto-plankton were the primary source of bioluminescence in the ocean......I have no idea if that is true or not, but it sounds good).

Day #5. 'Yak out to island, see whale, spend time checking out marine life all around the island (there was alot). Hike to highest point on the island, which stinks like bird crap (because it is covered in it). 2 more turtle carapis's on the beach, one still has the head attached. Chuck gets freaked out by some large crabs. Take nap. Go kayaking again. Watch Chuck dig for crabs, shovel in one hand, tecate in the other.

Day #6. Head over the the petroglyph site near the San Borjas Mission. Spectacular drive through a cardon forest. Then we head back to Bahia de Los Angeles for gas, and decide to not take the road from hell home due to my lack of shocks. Spend ALL day driving through catavina, ensanada, cross back to the US, and grab dinner about 9:00pm at Coco's in La Mesa. They probably didnt' like us since no one had showered in about a week. Chuck got a nasty wiff of something, then discovered it was himself. Hot shower at Motel 6.

Day #7. Drive from La Mesa to Tucson. Take nap. Post pictures.

 

[Scenic WonderRunner]

I'm sure this is just the "short version" of the story (just left us hungry:chowtime: for more!)......I bet the long story is way better (if it could get any better!)! What FUN! Thanks for the report!!

 

[UncleChris]

Sounds like it was a pretty cool trip. Nice Pics.

 

[goodtimes]

This was one of the best trips I have ever been on. Almost every aspect of the trip was supurb. It will be hard to top this one...it was simply awesome!

 

[jeffryscott]

very nice ...

magnificent. It looks and sounds like and incredible trip. Beautiful pictures Brian. Can't wait to hear more.

Jeff

 

[Ursidae69]

Glad your jeep made it home amigo! :smilies27

One of the best trips ever, I'm in Phoenix, can't kep my eyes open. Have to drive 8 more hours in the morning... :ar15: Previewed my images on my mom's PC, a few good ones.

I'll be missing that remote beach... Ahhhh Ensenada Alcatraz.........:arabia:

 

[BajaTaco]

:sunny: COOL!!!

Man, I can't believe we missed you guys. I'll do another report so you can see where we were when. I kept the radio on during our return trip, and would call out for you guys every now and then. I knew you guys would be in 'yak heaven - the weather was so sweet, and the 'W' word wasn't spoken at all! hehehe

Brian, those pics are great!!! That Cardon is just enormous. And I thought I snapped a good "rig posing next to cardon" shot - but I think yours beats it. And the Jeep looks killer with the kayak on top.

You thought the road was bad?? Damn, I thought it was in really good shape compared to how it has been before. The new blacktop south of San Felipe is just awesome. I couldn't believe it was actually smooth for 36 miles! It used to be all bomb cratered like the last few miles are now, with only the first 5 or 10 miles smooth, if I remember correctly. And then all of the dirt south of Puertecitos was pretty good too (relatively speaking of course). We didn't drive the section between Coco's and Chapala though. We found a dirt route all the way to LA bay :victory:

Looks like you had Cazadores along

 

[BajaTaco]

GT, I like that blue shotglass you have there. :xxrotflma

 

[datrupr]

Brian, sounds like a great trip. I can't wait to get a full report from you and Chuck. I agree with Chris too, the Jeep looks good with the Yak on top.

 

[goodtimes]

Chris, we talked to BX, and believe our paths crossed when we were in 'yak heaven. The road probably wasn't as bad for you in the plush baja-mobile....but in a short wheelbase jeep with a "short arm" lift, it pretty much sucked. My jeep was totally out of it's element on that road. As with all things, what makes my jeep work great on the rocks, makes it bad for washboard roads. Plus, the fact that we were hauling butt (we exceeded 50 mph many times) didn't help. I am still weighing my options with both the jeep and the dodge.....I just need about 12 grand to spend on the dodge to get it set up for the long haul.......

Thanks for all the kind words about the photo's......and yes, that is one hell of a shot glass.

 

[goodtimes]

I wish I had an additional 3 weeks to spend down there......must be nice!!!

Small update, both rear shocks are destroyed. So now I guess I am going to move the lower mount outboard to keep the shock body away from the spring bucket (I rotated my pinion up when I installed a CV driveshaft, so now the shocks hit the buckets). Of course, for twice the price of a good set of shocks and new brackets, I can buy a set of Ford Superduty shock towers, cut a notch out of the frame and weld in the Ford parts, weld on a new lower mount and install a pair of 12" Fox 2.0 Emulsion series shocks and have a setup that performs well on big rocks as well as washboard roads....

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

Nice to hear Baja roads haven't improved too much since we were there. That would be a shame.

Great photos, Brian! Glad you and Chuck had good paddling weather.

 

[Ursidae69]

I'm finally home and unloaded. Lots of miles the past few weeks. :elkgrin:

I don't have any pictures here with me today, I'll post some tomorrow, but I have a few thoughts on the trip.

Day 1, Dec 27th
We crossed the border on time and made great time to San Felipe. Brian got his birth certificate faxed to Calexico before we crossed and the tourist permits in San Felipe were easy. (Thanks Hltopper for the info on the immigration office in San Felipe!!) :bowdown:

The road from San Felipe south was better than I remember it, we did go fast when the conditions allowed. Sometimes the washboards are better above 30mph. Just maybe not so in a Jeep!

We started to camp at Campo Percebu, but it was loud and noisy there. We took some time out to try to save this poor idiot stuck in the tidal zone in a new Ford. Brian's winch overloaded, we tried everything we could, but we had to leave him. As we were leaving, the tide was coming in and he had just paid some locals 150 bucks to try digging him out. Hope he made it.

We drove south and camped on a deserted beach.

Day 2, Dec 28th

The kayaking on the 2nd morning was fun. We were all testing out our kayaks but the water was so still there wasn't any challenge to it. The sit-on-top I was using took some getting used to, but after I figured it out it went well. After the morning yak, we drove south to Gonzaga Bay and camped on the beach just south of Campo Beluga.

Day 3, Dec 29th

The kayaking the 3rd day on Gonzaga Bay was more than perfect. We crossed the large bay from near Punta Beluga to the point at Punta Final and about halfway across I stopped for a while and took pictures. More than a mile from shore and the water was like glass, like being still in a bathtub. It was so perfect. More than a couple times there were large boils in the water ahead of me, never did see what made the boils. Probably some fish enjoying the sun, must have been a big fish though.

Near Punta Final we met a nice couple from Utah. He worked for the Forest Service doing water use permitting and we talked for a while about our jobs, life, the bay, etc. They were tryning to find a group of folks there were supposed to meet, but they never showed up. Nice folks though.

While we were out on the bay, I understand that Bajataco drove through the area. We didn't even get off the water until well after noon that day. Sorry we missed you amigo!

When we headed south to Bahia de LA that day we stopped at the overlooked and tried to raise folks on the 2M with no luck. We might have caught Scott's crew had we went south to Animas.

We camped on Punta la Gringa with a few other campers nearby. The wind blew on this night, so we hit the rack early.
Day 4, Dec 30th

We awoke to the best sunrise of the trip and took tons of photos. Chatted with Michael (BajaXplorer) on the 2M that morning discussing the remote beach trip. We met up at the Pemex around 10am and headed out. The day trip with BajaXplorer was a lot of fun and I wish we could have hung out more. The crew with Michael were a unique bunch. I've never seen so many radios in a vehicle as I saw in Wild Bill's Dodge, that was crazy. Ralph was a neat guy too, turns out I had met him in 2003 when I went to Mission de Santa Maria. Ralph lives in Rancho Santa Inez and helped get me on the right road that day back in 2003.

After we had lunch at the fishcamp north of Cerro Guadalupe, our group split off to head south to find some remote sand. We made it over to the south side of Cerro Guadalupe and things were okay there, but to the south we could see this huge white sand beach and there had to be a way over there. We found a old 2-track and followed it for a while and finally made it to our beach. This round bay and beach was over half mile long, white sand, and no tire tracks, no trash, no nothing. It was perfect. The wind was coming up some and the bay was getting choppy so we jumped in the kayaks to play in the chop. My sit-on-top was harder to flip than I thought. I did some snorkeling too, chasing bat rays around the sand.

The guys had me going about just how high the tide was going to be. Having driven through several recently wet low areas to get to this beach, I worried our route out would be underwater. I did get up in the middle of the night to see the high tide mark. It was high, but the thing that fascinated me was the bioluminescence. I've never seen that before and it was everywhere. At first I thought the stars were twinkling in the water, but it wasn't the stars. I sat on the sand staring for a long time.

Day 5, Dec 31st

We awoke to again, perfect kayaking weather. We jumped in the yaks and explored the bay, the point to the east and the island. The water was full of life! We chased a whale early on, but he left. The rocks around the island were full of colorful fish, some species I knew, many I didn't. The pretty one with the vibrant blue stripe, I plan to look that one up! There were 2 sea lions around the island all morning, they never came really close to us, but it was fun having them there. The starfish were everywhere too and there were these hideous red crabs on the rocks and when you messed with them they would walk away with this mechanical sound like little transformers! The ¼ mile between the island and the point was really shallow with this reef that extended up from the depths. The tidal flow really was exaggerated in this area with extremely strong currents which made for fun kayaking! On the island we found remains of a large sea turtle, I think it was a green, I need to look it up. The carapace was 3 feet long.

We played all day in the water and on the beach. It was a great day. At Baja midnight (9pm), we said happy new year and went to bed!

Day 6, Jan 1st

We left our little beach and headed back out to the Bahia de LA road and headed over to the rock painting site off the San Borja Mission road. The paintings are really unique looking and the area they are in is beautiful too. The cardon forest was very dense in this area.

After this, we headed back to Bahia de LA to gas up, air up, and head out. Brian was really not wanting to go back up the Gonzaga road with his injured Jeep, so we decided to take Highway 1 out. We kicked around the idea of camping near Catavina, then home on the 2nd, but we thought it would be good to do a big driving day, then the last day home would be an easy one. So, we drove all the way out. We crossed the border around 9pm, then looked for some eats and ended up at Cocos. We were going to camp east of town, but it was raining like crazy, so we got some rooms at Motel 6 and crashed.

Day 7, Jan 2nd

The drive back to Tucson was uneventful, then I went on to Phoenix to stay with family.


Final Thoughts

The trip was a huge success and I am looking forward to writing up a full detailed trip report and picture log on my website. :ylsmoke:

The kayaking was just insane! :jumping:

I stressed my 9-pack Deavers really well this trip, they were squatty as hell, especially the driver's side. I might have to go to a 10-pack.
.
.
.
.
My thoughts are still on that beach watching the green glowing creatures in the still water around my feet in the middle of the night. That is one of my new happy places for sure..........

 

[Ursidae69]

Also, just heard in my email this morning that Baja had an earthquake this morning. Pretty strong one too it seems. Glad we missed it and I hope the other Baja trips will miss it.

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake IN GULF OF CALIFORNIA has occurred at:
28.10N 112.07W Depth 10km Wed Jan 4 08:32:31 2006 UTC


Time: Universal Time (UTC) Wed Jan 4 08:32:31 2006
Time Near Epicenter Wed Jan 4 01:32:31 2006
Eastern Standard Time (EST) Wed Jan 4 03:32:31 2006
Central Standard Time (CST) Wed Jan 4 02:32:31 2006
Mountain Standard Time (MST) Wed Jan 4 01:32:31 2006
Pacific Standard Time (PST) Wed Jan 4 00:32:31 2006
Alaska Standard Time (AST) Tue Jan 3 23:32:31 2006
Hawaii Standard Time (HST) Tue Jan 3 22:32:31 2006


Location with respect to nearby cities:
90 km (55 miles) NNE of Santa Rosalia, Baja Calif. Sur, Mexico (pop 10,000)
115 km (70 miles) W of Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico (pop 97,000)
150 km (95 miles) SW of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico (pop 545,000)
1620 km (1010 miles) NW of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico


For maps, additional information, and subsequent updates,
please consult: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

 

[flywgn]

Brian, Chuck, glad you guys had such a nice trip. Sorry we weren't in residence to receive visitors.

Brian, one of these days we'll have to coordinate a visit. We have two kayaks in the garage and they hardly ever get used. I also keep a good supply of replacement shocks.

Chuck, thanks for posting the earthquake info. Since that volcano on Isla San Luis is still a viable vent I'll have to plot those numbers and see how close the quake was to us. The San Andreas is out there off the coast. I'll e-mail my buddies at the beach to see if they felt it.

On Edit
This from my buddy's (Tioga George) Blog
2:30AM - Earthquake!
A pretty strong earthquake shook MsTioga and The Team early this morning. The quake lasted about 15 seconds, and sort of bounced MsTioga. This morning we looked for news of this quake.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- A strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale was detected in the Gulf of California off the Mexican coast on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey website said.

The quake occurred at round 2:32 a.m. local time (0832 GMT) and its epicenter is 89 km from Santa Rosalia, on the east coast of Baja California peninsula.

The Pacific Tsunami Center said that no Pacific-wide Tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data.

However, "earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter," it said in an advisory

George and his Tioga Class C are camped in Santa Rosalia. If you haven't visited his Blog, it's worth a read. He's a peach of a guy and a First-Class Ambassador to Baja.
http://vagabonders-supreme.net/

I haven't heard back from Punta Bufeo.