isignay
Observer
Baja 2019 | 10 Weeks | 4,500 miles.
Longtime observer, time to contribute.
I’ll start with the obligatory vehicle run down:
2008 Tundra 4x4 with Icon Suspension, ARB Leafs (With an added leaf) and an Auburn LSD in the rear. Running stock dimension tires with BF Goodrich AT.
We have a Genesis Dual Battery Kit with 3 12v outlets in the rear that run 2 clip on fans & our ARB fridge.
We bought some solar panels from ACO Power which have proven to be durable. They are directly fitted to the accessories battery when we’re parked. They come plug and play ready.
I built a wood sleeping / shelving system which proved to be a disaster from the very get go (built hastily and without time to test it). Our new system is aluminum welded bomb proof overkill, but what can you do, live and learn. There’s plenty of scrap wood floating around baja, which we utilized to patch our constantly breaking sleeping platform and shelves. Don’t forget to pack a drill and a handsaw on your next road trip, you never know when they’ll come in handy.
The Trip:
We used our wedding as an excuse for a long honeymoon. My wife’s a teacher, we’ve explored northern baja for a few winters and the allure of dozens of well edited youtube videos had us set on the very same, plus we didn’t want to leave our dog out of the adventure.
Day of departure I spent all day packing and as soon as my wife came home from her last day at work we hit the road, I’d advise against this if you have the luxury of time on your side, it only added unnecessary stress to something that was supposed to be relaxing.
Dwindling sunlight didn’t deter us, we’d been to our first stop a dozen times and I felt comfortable with the roads at night. 5 hours of nonstop driving brought us to our windblown frigid campsite. We were greeted by a football size field of goat thorns, quickly realizing that the entire cliff we’d already began unloading on was riddled with them, too tired and cold to deal with packing and moving camp, we settled into our goat thorn wonderland. We hastily ate, cursed the thorns, I cleared out the tornado which came through my 5 hour ago well organized truck bed (one of the supports for the shelves snapped), and we barely had the energy to say goodnight, passing out into a dead sleep. So much for the starry night beautiful bonfire, welcome to baja.
We spent about 2 weeks in Northern Baja usually traveling less than 2 hours every few days, the surf and desire for a hot shower dictated our stops.
Our camping setup is simple, we have a Springbar tent that we deploy if the weather is bad, but realistically if the weather is crap for an extended period of time we stop at an AirBnB or hotel to wait it out. No matter your rig, there’s no better way to keep your significant other happy than a 45 min shower at a hotel (no matter how dingy).
Northern Baja highlights: catching up on sleep at Punta Cabras, searching for surf around San Quintin, and not seeing a single person for days when we did the top half of the 7 sisters stretch.
Yes, you can do the 7 sisters stretch without 4x4, but we were thankful we had it as we often took the ‘give it more gas and pray’ approach to exploring the unknown. We used our ARB tire deflator regularly (no affiliation, great tool), we ran our tires at 20psi and that seemed to be the perfect number to keep the truck from rattling every single one of its bolts loose.
No, you do not need 35x12.5” tires to drive in the sand. Our Tundra’s a heavier vehicle and I can’t imagine driving anything heavier in thick sand. We carried MaxTrax but never had to use them, although I could feel the Auburn LSD working overtime when we were in the deep stuff.
No, you do not need a compressor. There were enough llanteras (small auto repair shops) for us to fill our tires whenever we exited a ‘rough’ stretch, we’d pay them in chocolate or a couple bucks for their efforts which seemed to be appreciated.
After exiting the 7 sisters we were ready for a driving break and wanted to catch the next incoming swell at Abreojos. The swell didn’t hit but the home we rented was stocked with 100s of VHS tapes and a VCR, after a marathon run of Casino, Austin Powers 1 &2, daily lobster feasts, and blistering winds (the area is known for them) we were ready to head south.
Four days of cold (relative) at Abreojos had us longing for warm water so we continued our way south, stopping to camp south of Muluge, which proved unbearable, 100 degrees at night, 115 during the day, beautiful for swimming but even with the doors open and our fans pumping, we baked in the back of the truck. This is when I was thankful we had a dual battery kit & solar as our fridge was running 24/7 to keep pace with the sweltering heat.
Tip, study your user manual, it wasn’t until we returned home that I learned our fridge had multiple battery drain settings, we could have avoided the numerous safety shut downs had we adjusted the settings of our fridge to ‘low’ which meant it would stay on longer knowing it wasn’t draining our battery.
We used a 10x10 mosquito net fastened in place with painters clips to keep the bugs out, cheap, windproof solution for a peaceful nights rest with the doors open.
After sitting in the water all day we continued our way south, stopping in Loreto for 2 nights of A/C and WiFi. I work from home but if it weren’t for my need for stable internet we would have kept moving.
En route to La Paz we stopped at a couple new (to us) surf spots on the way down, enjoying the slightly warmer water.
We cruised through La Paz, only stopping for gas, the 5.7L is always hungry, we were thankful for the extra jerry cans we carried during our 7 sisters stretch. I have a love hate relationship with jerry cans, they’re cheap, practical, and easy to use, but after using them multiple times and having hands that smell like gas (1st world problems I know) an aux. gas tank is definitely on the table for our next long trip.
We rolled into the town of Todos Santos, plenty of cheap AirBnB options, enjoyed the well stocked markets and tasty restaurants, but the surf wasn’t happening, so after four days we trekked into Cabo.
Surfing in San Jose Del Cabo is crowded to say the least, but we enjoyed exploring the area, eventually landing at the East Cape.
Like Muluge, the East Cape was scorching, except there were no Palapas and camping proved to be too much, at this point my wife was enjoying full swing pregnancy and the heat wasn’t helping her stomach. We found a dreamy condo rental, were visited by family, celebrated the pregnancy reveal, and surfed our brains out for 4 weeks straight. Hurricane Barbara was a dream.
Eventually we had to turn North, booking it home in about 4 days. This was the WORST part of the trip, we rushed it and should have taken at least a week to get back.
Longtime observer, time to contribute.
I’ll start with the obligatory vehicle run down:
2008 Tundra 4x4 with Icon Suspension, ARB Leafs (With an added leaf) and an Auburn LSD in the rear. Running stock dimension tires with BF Goodrich AT.
We have a Genesis Dual Battery Kit with 3 12v outlets in the rear that run 2 clip on fans & our ARB fridge.
We bought some solar panels from ACO Power which have proven to be durable. They are directly fitted to the accessories battery when we’re parked. They come plug and play ready.
I built a wood sleeping / shelving system which proved to be a disaster from the very get go (built hastily and without time to test it). Our new system is aluminum welded bomb proof overkill, but what can you do, live and learn. There’s plenty of scrap wood floating around baja, which we utilized to patch our constantly breaking sleeping platform and shelves. Don’t forget to pack a drill and a handsaw on your next road trip, you never know when they’ll come in handy.
The Trip:
We used our wedding as an excuse for a long honeymoon. My wife’s a teacher, we’ve explored northern baja for a few winters and the allure of dozens of well edited youtube videos had us set on the very same, plus we didn’t want to leave our dog out of the adventure.
Day of departure I spent all day packing and as soon as my wife came home from her last day at work we hit the road, I’d advise against this if you have the luxury of time on your side, it only added unnecessary stress to something that was supposed to be relaxing.
Dwindling sunlight didn’t deter us, we’d been to our first stop a dozen times and I felt comfortable with the roads at night. 5 hours of nonstop driving brought us to our windblown frigid campsite. We were greeted by a football size field of goat thorns, quickly realizing that the entire cliff we’d already began unloading on was riddled with them, too tired and cold to deal with packing and moving camp, we settled into our goat thorn wonderland. We hastily ate, cursed the thorns, I cleared out the tornado which came through my 5 hour ago well organized truck bed (one of the supports for the shelves snapped), and we barely had the energy to say goodnight, passing out into a dead sleep. So much for the starry night beautiful bonfire, welcome to baja.
We spent about 2 weeks in Northern Baja usually traveling less than 2 hours every few days, the surf and desire for a hot shower dictated our stops.
Our camping setup is simple, we have a Springbar tent that we deploy if the weather is bad, but realistically if the weather is crap for an extended period of time we stop at an AirBnB or hotel to wait it out. No matter your rig, there’s no better way to keep your significant other happy than a 45 min shower at a hotel (no matter how dingy).
Northern Baja highlights: catching up on sleep at Punta Cabras, searching for surf around San Quintin, and not seeing a single person for days when we did the top half of the 7 sisters stretch.
Yes, you can do the 7 sisters stretch without 4x4, but we were thankful we had it as we often took the ‘give it more gas and pray’ approach to exploring the unknown. We used our ARB tire deflator regularly (no affiliation, great tool), we ran our tires at 20psi and that seemed to be the perfect number to keep the truck from rattling every single one of its bolts loose.
No, you do not need 35x12.5” tires to drive in the sand. Our Tundra’s a heavier vehicle and I can’t imagine driving anything heavier in thick sand. We carried MaxTrax but never had to use them, although I could feel the Auburn LSD working overtime when we were in the deep stuff.
No, you do not need a compressor. There were enough llanteras (small auto repair shops) for us to fill our tires whenever we exited a ‘rough’ stretch, we’d pay them in chocolate or a couple bucks for their efforts which seemed to be appreciated.
After exiting the 7 sisters we were ready for a driving break and wanted to catch the next incoming swell at Abreojos. The swell didn’t hit but the home we rented was stocked with 100s of VHS tapes and a VCR, after a marathon run of Casino, Austin Powers 1 &2, daily lobster feasts, and blistering winds (the area is known for them) we were ready to head south.
Four days of cold (relative) at Abreojos had us longing for warm water so we continued our way south, stopping to camp south of Muluge, which proved unbearable, 100 degrees at night, 115 during the day, beautiful for swimming but even with the doors open and our fans pumping, we baked in the back of the truck. This is when I was thankful we had a dual battery kit & solar as our fridge was running 24/7 to keep pace with the sweltering heat.
Tip, study your user manual, it wasn’t until we returned home that I learned our fridge had multiple battery drain settings, we could have avoided the numerous safety shut downs had we adjusted the settings of our fridge to ‘low’ which meant it would stay on longer knowing it wasn’t draining our battery.
We used a 10x10 mosquito net fastened in place with painters clips to keep the bugs out, cheap, windproof solution for a peaceful nights rest with the doors open.
After sitting in the water all day we continued our way south, stopping in Loreto for 2 nights of A/C and WiFi. I work from home but if it weren’t for my need for stable internet we would have kept moving.
En route to La Paz we stopped at a couple new (to us) surf spots on the way down, enjoying the slightly warmer water.
We cruised through La Paz, only stopping for gas, the 5.7L is always hungry, we were thankful for the extra jerry cans we carried during our 7 sisters stretch. I have a love hate relationship with jerry cans, they’re cheap, practical, and easy to use, but after using them multiple times and having hands that smell like gas (1st world problems I know) an aux. gas tank is definitely on the table for our next long trip.
We rolled into the town of Todos Santos, plenty of cheap AirBnB options, enjoyed the well stocked markets and tasty restaurants, but the surf wasn’t happening, so after four days we trekked into Cabo.
Surfing in San Jose Del Cabo is crowded to say the least, but we enjoyed exploring the area, eventually landing at the East Cape.
Like Muluge, the East Cape was scorching, except there were no Palapas and camping proved to be too much, at this point my wife was enjoying full swing pregnancy and the heat wasn’t helping her stomach. We found a dreamy condo rental, were visited by family, celebrated the pregnancy reveal, and surfed our brains out for 4 weeks straight. Hurricane Barbara was a dream.
Eventually we had to turn North, booking it home in about 4 days. This was the WORST part of the trip, we rushed it and should have taken at least a week to get back.
