Baja by GPS......huh?

My first GPS ride.

I just got back from an adventure ride for lack of a better explanation with a couple of guys I had never traveled with before. It was a great time and quite an eye opener riding with new companions and seeing new areas in Baja California (Mexico) that I had not visited before. The new riders were “Baja Bob” and “GPS Track Tracy”. This was a new experience for me since I am a ride by sight kind of rider that looks at the terrain and tries to figure out what is the best general direction to go. Not these guys, they came prepared with their GPS tracks all loaded and mounted! I spent most of the time following them and their GPS tracks until, every once in a while batteries would go dead or the route had been washed out since the tracks had been loaded into their electronic devices. Then it was almost funny to observe what happens when things go off course. We got separated once or twice and had to find each other and had an occasional misunderstanding when someone would deviated from the “track”.  I simply rode along like I always do enjoying the ride and not having to look at a screen to see where I “should” be going. I kind of like it like that!

I guess someday I am going to come into the current century and get one of these things and learn how to use it but for now I am having too much fun riding and getting myself lost once in a while.

The ride was a ton of fun and I was exposed to some new areas I had never previously explored along the coast and through a couple of mountain ranges that seemed to go forever with roads taking off to who knows where. I will go back some day and explore those roads then let you know just where they go. But since I was on a ride with other people I had to stick to the plan.

On our first day we did meet up with a Canadian rider that has a place in Bahia de Los Angeles by the name of Al Perrett. I rode behind Al for a while and was thoroughly impressed with his riding ability considering he is 74 years old! If you watched him ride you would never guess this until he stops and takes his helmet off. The guy is a specimen and in unbelievable shape for being 74 years young. Al invited us to stay at his place in Bahia de Los Angeles (Bay of L.A.). We took him up on it and had a great time seeing his place and having him show us where to have breakfast the next morning. Local knowledge is always good. Baja Bob had his shower and then felt relaxed enough to have a beer and relax on the couch as if he were at home. It was quite a sight, him sitting there on the couch drinking a beer next to Randy (support truck driver) who looked rather uncomfortable considering Bob only had on two things. His underwear and a smile!  We talked and told stories until it was time to go to bed.  The perfect way to end a long day of riding.

The next few days were spent riding areas I had previously ridden with a new route called the Green Door trail thrown in. That was a lot of fun but added about 2 hours of ride time to the day. It had everything from deep sand to very rocky which made it well worth seeing. I got to see Baja Bob at his best. I have NEVER seen Bob go as fast as he did when we hit that deep sand with no rocks in it.  I found out that if you take Bob and mix him with deep sand he goes from 74 yrs old to 16 in about 1.5 seconds! I had to chase him down and I didn’t have much throttle left on my XR 650!

We explored the next few days along the coast and found a route none of us had ever been on that ran along the coast overlooking some cliffs along the beach. There were seals sunbathing and swimming along the way. At one point we came across an area of sand dunes that looked too good to pass up. I told Bob I would like to ride over and take a look. What a surprise that turned out to be, the sand was so fine and soft that our bikes would sink if we went too slow. It reminded me of the dunes I have seen the Dakar riders struggle with on those monster sized bikes they ride in the Dakar race. What a newfound respect I have for those guys even riding in sand like that with those bikes! My XR 650 is a lightweight compared to what they ride and I was having trouble keeping it from becoming buried in that soft sand. At one point I let off the throttle going down a dune and almost got pitched over the bars!  After that we were able to ride on the beach for about 18 miles before we ran into a rock formation that forced us up onto the dirt roads above. We were having so much fun I had to be the party pooper and remind Bob and Tracy that it was almost 4 o’clock and we still had to cross the peninsula to get to our destination in Loreto along the Gulf coast. Needless to say we rode into town in the dark and having to tip the bikes over to get the last bit of gas to the petcock to make it to the motel.

We loaded the bikes in the truck and headed north to pick up a trail called the “Window Rock Trail” that I had ridden before. It is the trail you would see in a magazine if someone were going to put the perfectly manicured desert trail in a photo. It took us about 3 hours to polish this one off and arrive at the truck to start the long drive home. It was the perfect way to wrap up the week since this is possibly the best trail in Baja California, thanks to Bill Nichols. Bill is the guy that laid out this trail and found a way through previously inaccessible areas which had to take a lot of time and effort. Thank you, Mr. Nichols.

We made the long drive home and said our goodbyes. Bob, Tracy and Randy were all home since they are all from So. Cal.  I still had about 4 hours to drive home. All the way home all I could think about was those roads we passed on the first day. I wonder where they go and how soon before I can get back there to find out. After all, I don’t want to keep all of you wondering………………………………………………………

#33

It doesn’t matter how slow you go,

as long as you don’t stop!