I forgot that i was a member of this forum and never posted on my trip i had in September 2006 in hurricane john. Well here it is and was a truely humbling experience.
Hi all, i just returned from surviving the hurricane. This was a truely humbling experience for me, my wife and brother & sister in law. This is my account of what we experienced in Hurricane John from Friday September 1, 2006 thru Wednesday (my birthday) September 6, 2006. My wife and I and our dog Daisy (in my white 4x4 toyota tundra dbl cab) and my brother in law & sister in law and their dog Naya in a grey 4x4 ford expedition arrived in scorpion bay, 689 miles south of the tijuana border, on Friday september 1, 2006 at 5pm. We came in on the north road which is 105 miles of rugged offroad terrain where it was in okay shape, same as it had been for the last couple years. The Ford popped a tire at the middle of the north road, had to use the spare. After putting the spare on, we were scared that we didnt have another tire incase another popped, so vinay drove at a snails pace and took about 4.5 hours overall to get in on the north road. We surfed that night, small surf, but extremely warm water - 75 degrees at least.
We were camped out right at the driveway to second point. We went to bed at 10pm - weather extremely hot and humid - it felt as if we all had yellow fever or something. We were awakened at 3 am by pounding rain, nasty winds of 40-50 mph. We tried best we could to pack up camp and stay in our cars. At 5am, i called my friend Sam in San Diego(via my satellite phone) and had him check the storm path. He confirmed it was over La Paz and heading directly to scorpion bay. We decided at that point to get out while we could. We left Scorpion Bay at 5:30 am and headed out the south road towards La Purisima. We passed a grey toyota 4runner, and a white ford f350 crew cab with a motor bike in the back with some long boards strapped down. I confirmed with them what the weather was doing and we all drove like bandits to get off the road.
We reached the town of Ciudad Insurgentes, gassed up, and procedded to get on mex 1 north to loreto. By this time, it was raining extremely heavy, with gusty winds of 50 mph - at least. We drove 25 miles up the road and were stopped by a local family driving southbound. They said the road was gone up ahead and we had to turn back. Meanwhile, the guyes in the 4runner and ford decided to continue north. We followed them a couple miles but the rain was coming down soo hard we couldnt see 100 feet in front of us. So we stopped, turned around and made it back to Ciudad Insurgentes, then on to Ciudad Constitution, where we found shelter at the hotel "EL TESORO". The owner, Marcelo, is truely a great man and helped us out alot. We stayed there all day saturday, saturday night, thru sunday mid day.
After pulling into the hotel on saturday tho, we noticed that the Ford had another flat tire. Now stranded without another spare, we had to go searching for a tire shop. Marcelo put vinay and I into his Chevy Tahoe and drove us around during the hurricane for a tire shop. The town was pretty much locked up for the day, except for the one big Goodyear tire shop in the middle of town. We went inside and they were already closed, although the door was open, and told them of our situation. We looked through thier entire tire selection hoping they had the 17" rim size the ford needed. To my surprise and complete delight, they had a brand new set of BFG All Terrains in a 265-70-17. I pointed at those and he gave us a price of $780 for all four, and he had an extra one for the spare rim for a price of $90. That price was exactly in line for what i just paid for my BFG's for my Tundra i had put on just before we came down to baja for this trip. So price being good and us being up Shiat creek needing tires, we told em to put em on. Only thing was, he was closed and had to find a tire installer. Within 10 minutes, we brought the Ford back to the tire shop and the installers were there right after us. Within 30 minutes, they were mounted balanced, and on the Ford. Talk about quick service. We tipped the installers and were on our way with a great sense of security knowing that we had some good meats under the ford now. We went back to the hotel where we hunkered down for the night.
Having a feeling that we could all be stranded in Baja for many days or weeks to come, we decided to try and make it to either Loreto Airport or La Paz airport where the girls could get a flight out, and maybe vinay and i as well. After repacking our stuff sunday morning, the bulk of the hurricane had passed and the rain had stopped and sun came out, we decided to leave the hotel. We tried to get out of ciudad constitution via the north, but the arroyos had taken out the road in 3 sections and the bridge towards Insurgentes. The arroyo was 30 ft deep at the bridge, and took out the road on either sides of the bridge leaving it standing by itself. (I will post pics soon). Other spots between there, and Constition we had to forge thru mud/water in to get thru. We decided to head southbound to La Paz to get our wives Ronelle & Tanya to the airport so they could fly out to get to work by Tuesday. This is where the real adventure began.
We drove about 50-60 miles south where we came upon a bridge that is about 400 feet long which goes over an arroyo normally completley dry. The arroyo was full of water - 15' deep and took out the north side slope (onramp) to the bridge. We waited (2nd vehicle in line) 3-4 hours while the tractors dumped sand/dirt/rocks to fill up the missing roadway to get up onto the bridge. (again, pics soon) Once on the bridge, we continued south another 10 miles where we came upon another arroyo that was full of water. There was a federale (mexican cop) that didnt want people to cross. This time the road was gone, but few trucks decided to tempt their fate and cross. A couple vehicles crossed but ended up hydrolocked (sucking water in the engine) and were seized. Others continued and made it. At this point, we decided to go for it being we had more capable and higher vehicles than most. I dipped into the rio first, water up to the headlights, 4wd locked low 2nd gear and plowed right through. The bottom was silty mud and sand. My truck made it and up onto the other side. We watched my brother/sister inlaw go for it and it was the same for them. They made it and up onto our side. After a quick visual check of the vehicles to make sure we were okay, we continued south another 4 miles or so to the next arroyo. This one was 300 ft across and was filled with mud. Some locals already carved a path thru for vehiles, but was by no means good. With our truck in 4low agian, we procedded thru slipping and slidding to the other side. The mud thick, with water still running down the arroyo. We conitued another few miles where there was another Arroyo. This was the same as the last 2 and made it thru this one as well. We continued south passing some more arroyos but at this point, there were soo many they all just seem to blend together. We were past the worst ones, but not out of danger.
We arrived at La Paz around 8pm. IT took us 8 hours to drive 130 miles. Usually that distance is done in 2 hours max. We arrived at the airport tired, pretty stressed out, hungry, but with a sense of relief. We checked for flights, but didnt find anything less than $700 without 3 stops. At this point we decided to drive to cabo airport because there were plenty of non stop flights to LAX from there for $200. We got back on the road and headed south. The roads were in pretty good shape, but you could see where the mud had filled the road and tractors had cleared a path. We arrived in Todos Santos where the streets were full of mud - Full of Mud! It was pretty packed down alredy from people driving on it. We continued to Cabo. By this time it was about midnight, roads were in pretty good shape except for the washouts on the roads where we drove thru slowly. We arrived in cabo, at 12:30am at the burger king because thats all that was open, ate some burgers, and drove to the community of Cabo Bello where we own a couple lots of land and crashed for the night.
Monday morning we woke up to a beautiful day, warm, sunny, humid, just like paradise should be. Took the dogs down to the beach and let them run around cause they too had been cooped up in the cars the whole time we were. Got the wives off to the airport, and then Vinay and i went to the beach for a surf. We went surfing at Old Mans in San Jose Del Cabo, and chilled for a while, and ate some food before heading north again.We stopped at Costco and Soriana for supplies like meat, water, essentials like donuts and beer, etc... and were on our way north at 5pm. Passed thru Todos Santos fine, La Paz fine, and continued north. We came upon the arroyo crossings that i mentioned above, and the tractors had cleared paths thru the mud, the water had recedded for the most part except for a few areas, and made our way back to the hotel in Constitution at 11:30pm where Marcelo didnt have any rooms available, but was kind enough to open his garage area to let us park and sleep there.
Hi all, i just returned from surviving the hurricane. This was a truely humbling experience for me, my wife and brother & sister in law. This is my account of what we experienced in Hurricane John from Friday September 1, 2006 thru Wednesday (my birthday) September 6, 2006. My wife and I and our dog Daisy (in my white 4x4 toyota tundra dbl cab) and my brother in law & sister in law and their dog Naya in a grey 4x4 ford expedition arrived in scorpion bay, 689 miles south of the tijuana border, on Friday september 1, 2006 at 5pm. We came in on the north road which is 105 miles of rugged offroad terrain where it was in okay shape, same as it had been for the last couple years. The Ford popped a tire at the middle of the north road, had to use the spare. After putting the spare on, we were scared that we didnt have another tire incase another popped, so vinay drove at a snails pace and took about 4.5 hours overall to get in on the north road. We surfed that night, small surf, but extremely warm water - 75 degrees at least.
We were camped out right at the driveway to second point. We went to bed at 10pm - weather extremely hot and humid - it felt as if we all had yellow fever or something. We were awakened at 3 am by pounding rain, nasty winds of 40-50 mph. We tried best we could to pack up camp and stay in our cars. At 5am, i called my friend Sam in San Diego(via my satellite phone) and had him check the storm path. He confirmed it was over La Paz and heading directly to scorpion bay. We decided at that point to get out while we could. We left Scorpion Bay at 5:30 am and headed out the south road towards La Purisima. We passed a grey toyota 4runner, and a white ford f350 crew cab with a motor bike in the back with some long boards strapped down. I confirmed with them what the weather was doing and we all drove like bandits to get off the road.
We reached the town of Ciudad Insurgentes, gassed up, and procedded to get on mex 1 north to loreto. By this time, it was raining extremely heavy, with gusty winds of 50 mph - at least. We drove 25 miles up the road and were stopped by a local family driving southbound. They said the road was gone up ahead and we had to turn back. Meanwhile, the guyes in the 4runner and ford decided to continue north. We followed them a couple miles but the rain was coming down soo hard we couldnt see 100 feet in front of us. So we stopped, turned around and made it back to Ciudad Insurgentes, then on to Ciudad Constitution, where we found shelter at the hotel "EL TESORO". The owner, Marcelo, is truely a great man and helped us out alot. We stayed there all day saturday, saturday night, thru sunday mid day.
After pulling into the hotel on saturday tho, we noticed that the Ford had another flat tire. Now stranded without another spare, we had to go searching for a tire shop. Marcelo put vinay and I into his Chevy Tahoe and drove us around during the hurricane for a tire shop. The town was pretty much locked up for the day, except for the one big Goodyear tire shop in the middle of town. We went inside and they were already closed, although the door was open, and told them of our situation. We looked through thier entire tire selection hoping they had the 17" rim size the ford needed. To my surprise and complete delight, they had a brand new set of BFG All Terrains in a 265-70-17. I pointed at those and he gave us a price of $780 for all four, and he had an extra one for the spare rim for a price of $90. That price was exactly in line for what i just paid for my BFG's for my Tundra i had put on just before we came down to baja for this trip. So price being good and us being up Shiat creek needing tires, we told em to put em on. Only thing was, he was closed and had to find a tire installer. Within 10 minutes, we brought the Ford back to the tire shop and the installers were there right after us. Within 30 minutes, they were mounted balanced, and on the Ford. Talk about quick service. We tipped the installers and were on our way with a great sense of security knowing that we had some good meats under the ford now. We went back to the hotel where we hunkered down for the night.
Having a feeling that we could all be stranded in Baja for many days or weeks to come, we decided to try and make it to either Loreto Airport or La Paz airport where the girls could get a flight out, and maybe vinay and i as well. After repacking our stuff sunday morning, the bulk of the hurricane had passed and the rain had stopped and sun came out, we decided to leave the hotel. We tried to get out of ciudad constitution via the north, but the arroyos had taken out the road in 3 sections and the bridge towards Insurgentes. The arroyo was 30 ft deep at the bridge, and took out the road on either sides of the bridge leaving it standing by itself. (I will post pics soon). Other spots between there, and Constition we had to forge thru mud/water in to get thru. We decided to head southbound to La Paz to get our wives Ronelle & Tanya to the airport so they could fly out to get to work by Tuesday. This is where the real adventure began.
We drove about 50-60 miles south where we came upon a bridge that is about 400 feet long which goes over an arroyo normally completley dry. The arroyo was full of water - 15' deep and took out the north side slope (onramp) to the bridge. We waited (2nd vehicle in line) 3-4 hours while the tractors dumped sand/dirt/rocks to fill up the missing roadway to get up onto the bridge. (again, pics soon) Once on the bridge, we continued south another 10 miles where we came upon another arroyo that was full of water. There was a federale (mexican cop) that didnt want people to cross. This time the road was gone, but few trucks decided to tempt their fate and cross. A couple vehicles crossed but ended up hydrolocked (sucking water in the engine) and were seized. Others continued and made it. At this point, we decided to go for it being we had more capable and higher vehicles than most. I dipped into the rio first, water up to the headlights, 4wd locked low 2nd gear and plowed right through. The bottom was silty mud and sand. My truck made it and up onto the other side. We watched my brother/sister inlaw go for it and it was the same for them. They made it and up onto our side. After a quick visual check of the vehicles to make sure we were okay, we continued south another 4 miles or so to the next arroyo. This one was 300 ft across and was filled with mud. Some locals already carved a path thru for vehiles, but was by no means good. With our truck in 4low agian, we procedded thru slipping and slidding to the other side. The mud thick, with water still running down the arroyo. We conitued another few miles where there was another Arroyo. This was the same as the last 2 and made it thru this one as well. We continued south passing some more arroyos but at this point, there were soo many they all just seem to blend together. We were past the worst ones, but not out of danger.
We arrived at La Paz around 8pm. IT took us 8 hours to drive 130 miles. Usually that distance is done in 2 hours max. We arrived at the airport tired, pretty stressed out, hungry, but with a sense of relief. We checked for flights, but didnt find anything less than $700 without 3 stops. At this point we decided to drive to cabo airport because there were plenty of non stop flights to LAX from there for $200. We got back on the road and headed south. The roads were in pretty good shape, but you could see where the mud had filled the road and tractors had cleared a path. We arrived in Todos Santos where the streets were full of mud - Full of Mud! It was pretty packed down alredy from people driving on it. We continued to Cabo. By this time it was about midnight, roads were in pretty good shape except for the washouts on the roads where we drove thru slowly. We arrived in cabo, at 12:30am at the burger king because thats all that was open, ate some burgers, and drove to the community of Cabo Bello where we own a couple lots of land and crashed for the night.
Monday morning we woke up to a beautiful day, warm, sunny, humid, just like paradise should be. Took the dogs down to the beach and let them run around cause they too had been cooped up in the cars the whole time we were. Got the wives off to the airport, and then Vinay and i went to the beach for a surf. We went surfing at Old Mans in San Jose Del Cabo, and chilled for a while, and ate some food before heading north again.We stopped at Costco and Soriana for supplies like meat, water, essentials like donuts and beer, etc... and were on our way north at 5pm. Passed thru Todos Santos fine, La Paz fine, and continued north. We came upon the arroyo crossings that i mentioned above, and the tractors had cleared paths thru the mud, the water had recedded for the most part except for a few areas, and made our way back to the hotel in Constitution at 11:30pm where Marcelo didnt have any rooms available, but was kind enough to open his garage area to let us park and sleep there.
