Heading West towards the tip of El Vizcaíno Peninsula I pass a salt zone. Super cool!
While looking for camp on a side road I cross this wet sand. looks suspicious, vehicles have turned around here.
More deep wet ruts. I keep high into the dry loose stuff.
This looks good. Further up closer to the water I can be seen by the small fishing village a mile away (respect). Here I’m hidden and no bother, paradise. Tent up boots off all good.
It gets dark early this time of year so having activities that use time at camp is important. Zen and Yoga stuff on the beach. Collect firewood along the miles long beach until almost dark. Read motorcycle and adventure stuff with a headlight. Then ending the night tending a campfire is perfect. I try to pack in a beer or two also for times like these. Can deal…
Another great morning drinking coffee, eating, hydrating and planning the days ride. This is totally working.
The goal today is to explore more of El Vizcaíno Peninsula and hopefully discover another pristine beach camp for tonight. Before starting this ride I created several tracks along this coast and inland Peninsula that need to be checked out.
”Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory. ” George S. Patton
While riding along I see a trail down to a water crossing I thought I should explore. Suddenly I have a bad feeling and abort at the last second. My only problem is when I turn around to retreat, I go too wide. OUCH! It’s like the bike is cemented in place and will not budge!
I pull all the gear off the bike, find a good size boulder and place it next to the foot peg. With everything I got I crank and crank the bike over onto its side and pull and slip on my ass several times until I get the rear wheel to pop out of the mud. Then I drag the bike back onto the trail which is firmer ground. Not the type of challenge I was bargaining for but the exhilaration of this victory is still sweet, freaking yeah!
Unreal! The bike is completely covered with wet thick clay mud, I ride through a small costal village and a guy is out watering some plants in his driveway. So kind he hoses me and the bike down for as long as it took, no questions he was just glad to help out. So great!
Mini marts in Mexico often have delicious homemade food in plastic containers at the checkout counter. These empanadas are killer good! My wife Heidi will be jealous, she loves empanadas.
I look close for signs of wetness on the trail today.
Score. I can’t believe these camping spots I find. The sound of waves and birds is intoxicating. And no people.
The beer tastes good tonight. No PM campfire, dry wood is scarce here. Saving the fire for morning coffee.
“Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.” Denis Waitley
Black coffee and warm beans on the beach, perfect way to start a day.
When I pick a campsite I make an effort to situate the tent for an unobstructed view of the rising sun, if possible. This makes a big difference at camp in the morning.
My father was a long haul Appalachian trail hiker and a front line soldier in WWII. I’ve hiked sections of the trail with him and I always remember him stressing to leave ‘no trace’ behind at our campsite. It just feels right, and good.
Even when the temperatures are not hot it still feels good to rest and regroup in shade. In the desert you often have to be creative and take advantage of whatever you can find.
My face happy to make it to San Ignacio. I’ve ridden through here a few times during NORRA races but never returned to enjoy it. I sure enjoy it today.
Attempting to reach Scorpion Bay today via the northern route. This is rumored to be a tough stretch on a motorcycle. Nothing too bad just deep sand sections with hidden rocks and beautiful constantly changing scenery, no problem.
I study this section on foot before crossing. Solid, all good.
San Juanico (Scorpion Bay) Heidi and I first rode here on our Sportster 15 years ago! Back then even the southern route was mostly dirt and deep sand. Wow what a challenging ride 2-up on a Sportster, we still talk about it.
My face happy to be at Scorpion Bay. This is my first pay camp site $10, the cold shower and utility sink for laundry alone makes it well worth it.
Set the tent up right at the edge of this cliff. After when I look, I see it’s a 100’ straight down to boulders cliff! I move the tent back several feet. Even then I tie a string with a bag attached to my big toe to help me remember the cliff is there if I happen to get up in the middle of the night. I'm known to sleepwalk!
I collect a bunch of dry firewood from other vacant camp sites. The fire is roaring when SNAP! A hunk of wood spits out hot embers several feet away. Humm… I think not good. Before I react another bigger SNAP with hot embers fly inside my tent burning a big hole in my air sleeping pad and the tent floor! Da! I learn my lesson but now I don’t have a nice soft mattress to sleep on. Humm….
“Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.” Gilda Radner
Morning camp coffee. I did not walk over the 100’ cliff in the middle of the night, glad for that. It’s another beautiful day. The plan now is ride side dirt routes as much as possible heading toward La Paz, most likely a couple days. No idea of where I’ll camp tonight, should be fun. My only concerns are long silt sections. I know a lot of races do these trails including NORRA. I constantly have to remind myself that I’m solo, I need to be cool and get myself back to Heidi in one piece, otherwise she’ll kick my A__! ;)
15 years ago Heidi and I stayed in a hut just to the right of this photo.
Gassing up in town before heading out. I love these Baja gas stations.
Nothing but beautiful scenery.
And bad roads, what’s not to like?
More fun fuel stops.
My turn for fuel, Ciudad Insurgentes is larger than expected with lots of great and fun street food.
It’s been a long day and I am fried. Tried a few dirt tracks and then the bike dies, had a difficult time starting it again. My thermometer says 96F so maybe a heat thing, don’t know. I bailout and double back to the tarmac once I got the thing started again and into Ciudad Constitucion. I try two motels I knew of, both have no vacancy. I stock up on supplies, water and food and head out into the desert along this year’s NORRA 1000 track. It is not hard to find good desert camping here. It is kind of eerie, the desert floor looks like it’s been swept and cleaned, just perfect, I mean ‘perfect’! As if this area was flooded recently and anything loose has been flushed away. Just great!
Day-7 Baja Adventure Ride - Silt
"Everything is so dangerous that nothing is really very frightening." STEIN
Day-7 camp coffee with cavebiker. Beautiful clean desert spot, a lucky find with plenty of dry sticks that burn, perfect.
Coffee noodles H2O, this is working.
It’s important to me to have a comfortable spot in the tent that I can sit up for reading. I can spend hours in a good location reading adventure stuff and studying maps, a dream come true on this ride for sure.
The dirt track I have plotted for today is the long way to La Paz. At start I go start straight West to the Pacific coast, then south fifty miles before turning east again towards the city, a 100 mile track. Fantastic trail with scenery constantly changing. This area has a more southern Baja feel, warmer and drier.
While zooming along I encounter a couple ‘Oh S!’ moments hitting small silt beds at speed and almost kissed some large cactus. Didn’t think it was silt, I have to learn to spot it better! Or ride it better? Further down the trail I slam on the breaks before hitting a massive silt bed. Every direction looks bad, real bad. I crashed too many times this year in the Mexican 1000 race, all of them in silt I didn’t see. It still hurts. I take inventory, wimp out and turn around to ride another day. It will be a great ride back. I tell myself “I will Not Crash” in the two small silt beds I need to cross! I know where they are...
“Fesh fesh” “Silt” whatever you call it it’s like riding through air. If your good you just ride straight through it. If you are like me you start sliding sideways then all sorts of bad things happen :| I turn around here.
La Paz! I found this motel during this year’s NORRA race when the hotel on the Malecon wouldn’t honor my reservations. A real score, more in the locals part of town with great Mexican food close by. At $20 a night you cannot beat it in La Paz! The Malecon is just a walk away, perfect. I take two nights so I have time to checkout a rental for next season. Plus, at day-7 I am ready for a little chillen ;)
Mandatory taco shot, or in this case enchiladas de pollo with special homemade sauce, shot. Just around the corned from the motel, real Baja food at local prices. This is the same place my chase driver Tom C and I ate during this year’s NORRA race, just fantastic.
”If you can dream it, you can do it.” Walt Disney
Day-8, street food in La Paz. These are the types of places I look for when searching for Mexican food. If a place is filled with locals, is right on the street and looks permanent or at least semipermanent, bingo. Prices are a fraction of what they are on the Malecon just a few blocks away and I would argue you cannot beat the quality and flavor.
Looking for street tacos…
Street food flourishes starting three or four blocks away from the Malecon.
You add whatever you want as much as you want. I’m simple, lots of raw onions and whatever homemade hot souse is there. Fresh fish tacos made to explode with flavor in your mouth, just super.
Malecon La Paz always a favorite destination.