Baja in the Spring

There's no better time of the year to go to Baja than Spring time.  Winter storms leave plenty of water behind which in turn prompt long dormant wildflowers to bloom filling the open expanse of desert with color.  Not to mention the daytime temps are typically 10-15 degrees warmer than my native San Francisco Bay Area which to me is a real plus!

The Plan - Load up the van with dirt bikes and kayaks for a safari to Baja.

How Long? - Two weeks!

How far South? - Loreto or bust!

Cast of Characters? - Laurel and I.  (There were supposed to be more but due to last minute schedule changes some folks didn't make it down there until after we started trekking back north)

To be honest, the first couple of days were nothing but driving.  One long haul to San Diego and another to Bahia de los Angeles.  The high point of course being that final rise over the hill with the Sea of Cortez staring you right in the face.  Love it!

Once we settled into our room at Guillermo's we toasted our arrival with fresh sea food and giant margaritas.  After 900+ miles of driving I was toast and an early retirement was in order.  Too bad the drunks next door weren't amenable to my needs.  All I can say is some village was missing it's idiots and man were the residents happy about it...

The next morning dawned windy but warm.  We chose to flex our muscles a bit and geared up for a nice dirty bike romp out to Mission San Juan Borja.  I had never been out to the mission before but assumed it was like one of the missions further north in that it was an abandoned site with nothing but a foundation left.  Boy was I wrong!

Our romp out and back was a hoot.  Open fast desert road mixed with beautiful mountain country and cactus for as far as you could see.  When we finally rounded the last corner we were greeted with...cars, people, picnic's and more!  What?  Turns out this mission had been rebuilt and access was much better along another road.  There were people everywhere and it turned out they were there to listen to a somewhat famous soprano sing in the church.  Wild!

We wandered around a bit and enjoyed a couple of good conversations with folks who were curious about the bikes before we turned tail and rode back to town.  I stopped to shoot a video of Laurel and she did one of me out there.  What a hoot!

The next morning we set out for a nice easy paddle across the bay and around the point.  The weather was perfect and the winds from the day before had died down to nothing.  We enjoyed the quiet time on the water and had fun chasing birds and watching fish swim beneath us.  It was nice to notch it down a bit and relax.  No cell phones, no computers and no work!!!

Roll Practice video!

Next stop, San Ignacio!

Look up the word "Oasis" in the dictionary.  Now replace that work with San Ignacio.  The description fits.  Though it's located out in the middle of the Baja peninsula the place feels like an oasis.  Two large lagoons surrounded by palm trees and greenery.  The last thing you would expect in the desert!

We wandered around a bit before deciding on a room at Rice and Beans.  As we checked in we were greeted by a couple of young guys who were having their rental car detailed.  Detailed?  Yes!  Seems they misjudged the degree of difficulty of a dirt road they were on and bottomed out the car.  The oil pan took the brunt of the hit.  They called the rental company and were waiting for them to show.  in the mean time they decided to clean up the car thinking that maybe it would look better than it was?  Dunno.  Yet another crazy encounter in the Baja.

That afternoon we zoomed off on the bikes to the Lagoon out on the Pacific Coast.  In the Winter time the gray whales come down to Baja to feed, mate and birth.  Not a bad pass time if you ask me! We decided to explore the route out to the coast and see what there was to see.  A pretty rough ride as the road was nothing but washboard and rock.  Still, it was worth it.  Not only was the view pretty cool but we managed to score a couple of cold Corona's from an Eco Camp host.  Life is good!

Mulege or Bust!

From San Ignacio we shot back over to the Sea of Cortez and stopped in Santa Rosalia.  This old mining town is a major port city for Baja and the ferry here runs over to Guaymas on the main land.  We wandered around town a bit and ended up buying some fresh pan dulce from a great little bakery.  If you've never had fresh "sweet bread" you have no idea what you're missing!  Not to mention the peanut butter cookies were excellent!

Another 80 miles down the road and we were in Mulege.  Years ago I first came to Baja on a dual sport motorcycle ride with Ray Roy and the gang.  These rides always stopped at Mulege before returning back to the border.  I have fond memories of those butt-killer rides and a stop in Mulege is a must.  We drove out to the shore line where we stopped for a beer and enjoyed the cool breeze of the Sea of Cortez.  Back into town for lunch and then off we went in search of a place to crash for the night.

Santispac Bay

Talk about the perfect campsite!  This was it!  Conception Bay is a long narrow bay tucked along the eastern side of Baja just below Mulege.  Many of the beaches are accessible and make the perfect place to camp.  We found just such a camp spot in Santispac Bay.  We paid a sum total of $7 for a campsite on the beach barely 20 feet from the water. Awesome!

After setting up camp I left Laurel and her book under the sun shade while I went for a paddle.  The bay was fairly shallow and well protected from the wind.  I enjoyed an easy glide along the beach and then out and around the nearest island.  There were some small fish below and plenty of pelicans, egrets, herons and other birds above.  This was what I had imagined when I planned this trip.

When I returned to camp I found Laurel shaking her head.  What?  Turns out some guy in a pickup swung buy asking if she wanted to buy some fresh scallops.  Not knowing if I had the means to cook them she declined.  Oh no!!!  No worries.  Within half an hour another truck came buy. In just minutes I was in possession of half a kilo of fresh gulf shrimp.  That night we enjoyed shrimp sautéed in olive oil and garlic pepper sprinkled over penne pasta with a nice Pinot Noir.  This is living!

The next morning we both paddled out and around the little island and then explored a bit more of the bay.  Unfortunately I was feeling a bit tender from our campout.  No tent camping is not a good idea for me when I'm on a beach.  Seems the no-see-ums think I'm tasty like the gulf shrimp.  (Last count I had over 70 bites!!!)  Ah well, a terrible sacrifice to support the local bug population.  I survived with only a bit of itching and scratching to endure.

Loreto is a Bust!

I had heard stories of Loreto from my buddies and after some internet research I decided we would make that our turn-around point for this trip.  There was one dive shop in particular that looked promising so we decided we could hang out here for a few days.  That was the plan until we actually got there.

I suspect there were several factors that made our visit to Loreto unsatisfactory.  The weather was overcast and cool with strong winds from the north.  All of the main hotels were full.  No one was due at the dive shop until early evening and generally we weren't happy with what we saw.  Maybe I'm missing something but we really didn't see much attraction here.  So we left.

We zoomed back north and ultimately came to a spot I had visited way back in the early 90's.  What was then a little sports bar on the beach is now a restaurant with rooms and beach camping.  We paid $20 for two nights of camping at San Buenaventura Beach.  It was money well spent.

The margaritas were good.  The shots of Mescal were excellent.  The fresh fish tacos even better!  Oh yeah, and a fresh water shower was priceless!  I did get a chance to go practice some rough water paddling the next day when the winds kicked up a notch.  It was a solid on-shore wind with gusts upwards of 25 knots.  I paddled out in the Looksha IV and had a blast surfing back in and then powering back out.  I'm sure the RV crowd lined up along the beach thought I was nuts.  Too bad, it was great fun!

The second night we went in for our usual margarita and dinner.  The friendly bartender used a killer Mescal in our 'rita's and then gave Laurel the bottle as a keep-sake.  Too bad the owner forced him to come out and collect it back in the morning.  Rats!  We meant to write down the name so we could track it down somewhere.  It really was that good!  Ah well, next trip we'll find it...

Video of the bay.

Ojo de Liebre

To be honest, camping at Scammon's Lagoon was a bit of a bust.  We entered the "park" and drove down to the shore.  The visitor's center left a lot to be desired and the amenities were pretty bare.  We found a camp site down by the shore and set up our sunshade.  The wind was howling out of the North making life a touch difficult.  I wedged our bags and gear under the edge of the van and that helped but it really wasn't very comfy.

We settled for a light dinner under the sunshade and retired early after a serious round of cribbage.  It was decided that in the morning we were going to jet back up to Bahia de Los Angeles.  You just can't beat the place!

The Bay of Los Angeles

Bahia de Los Angeles used to be a sleepy little fishing village.  No more.  There's a new road out to La Gringa that is populated with new homes and businesses.  We wandered on up this road and found a sign for Villas Bahia.  What the heck!

In retrospect it was one of the best moves we made during the entire trip.  Picture three main buildings, all two-stories tall with a second level deck that connects them.  They are set just back from the beach and have an incredible view of the bay and islands off shore.  Behind the main buildings is a small "power house" consisting of two wind generators, a solar array, a propane tank and two small gasoline engine generators.  Perfect!

We plunked down our $80 per night for three nights and settled into an upstairs unit.  Cocktails on the deck?  I was jazzed!  Perfect beach access for a paddle across the bay.  No one else in the place so it was quiet.  Great food was to be found in a new restaurant just a short walk down the beach.  Whooooooo hooooooooooooooo!

The view video.

That evening we wandered on down to Guillermo's for some killer margaritas, excellent fish and shrimp and a very mellow evening.  We talked about how much fun it was going to be paddling out on the bay the next day.  Yeah baby!

Got wind?  To our dismay the winds came up and in a big way.  By mid-morning the winds were blowing off-shore with 20-30 knot gusts.  I could hear those wind turbines howling out back.  Yikes!  What to do?  Ride of course!  We jumped on the dirty bikes and wandered on South towards Bahia de San Francisquito.  But instead of going all the way down to the bay we peeled off around the 30 mile mark and made a run for Las Animas.

Campo Las Animas is a very cool beach that isolated out at the end of 10 miles of bad road.  Well, only bad if you are on four wheels.  The XR seemed to like it.  I was whipping it up to 60 in some of the sandy two-track and then thumping down hard in the tight stuff.  Laurel was right behind me on the little DRZ winding it all the way open.  She did manage to take a couple of interesting detours along the way but in the end we both made it to the beach.

On my next trip to Baja I'm bringing a van that can go off road!  Las Animas was awesome!  A protected beach with tons of tide pool action, some locals out fishing and way off the beaten path.  I could easily have spent my entire two weeks hanging out here.  Instead we wandered some tide pools and talked about Log of the Sea of Cortez by Steinbeck and then checked out the next little bay to the North before jumping onto the bikes and heading back.

WFO in the desert can be mighty fun!  In many areas of Baja the main dirt road is usually hard pack or rock with a lot of washboard action.  In some places there are two-track roads that parallel the main road but with some twists and turns added.  This is what I love to play on.  Crank it up good, get a head of steam going and then have fun with berm shots and jumps.  I can't tell you how much fun it was to blast along in that moderate to deep sand with the XR literally jumping all over the place.  By the time we got back to the villas I was wiped out!

That afternoon we enjoyed a little quiet time on the deck.  Some college students had arrived and were down on the beach hanging out.  Soon they found the stash of kayaks that were available and took them out to the beach.  Danger Will Robinson!  With an off-shore wind and a group of novice's I was sure that disaster was about to strike.  I kept my van keys at the ready in case I needed to run down and grab my boat.

Sure enough, one guy had his boat upside down while a couple of girls with canoe paddles proceeded to spin around in large circles.  None of these folks knew what they were doing.  In time they all somehow made it back to shore.  Whew....!

Unfortunately the show wasn't over.  Two of the guys decided to try their hand at fishing.  They took a two seat paddle boat out and used a rock and rope to anchor it.  Somehow it managed to stay in place for over an hour.  But then I noticed it starting to drift.  I think they did too.  Soon they were pulling up the rock and paddling the boat back toward shore.  At that point I noticed that instead of coming to shore they were going backwards out to see.  Soon they had a white towel hooked to the end of a fishing rod and were waving it frantically back and forth.  Crap!

I ran down to the van, paused long enough to notify the lodge hostess that there was a problem and then proceeded to gear up.  By the time I hit the beach the guys were a good 200 yards off shore.  Fortunately another local down the beach had noticed the guys and was backing his panga out into the water.  I still took off and paddled out to the guys.  The winds were still gusting upwards of 20-30 knots but with minimal wave action.  The panga showed up, hauled the guys out of the paddle boat and then hauled it up and out of the water.  I turned back and made my way to shore.

It just amazes me how little reaction I saw from the hostess despite the fact that she was liable for what just happened.  The guys returned to shore and really showed no emotion over the ordeal at all.  They just shrugged their shoulders and then went back to their rooms like nothing happened.

I later learned that at least once a year someone dies out on the bay due to poor judgment and lousy boating skills.  You think people would be more concerned!

The following morning dawned clear and calm.  The breeze was very light and from the North.  A good sign.  Laurel and I geared up and launched early.  We did an nice open water paddle out to the nearest island to the East.  It was pretty rocky and barren so we circumnavigated out to the East side and then crossed down to the next one.  Lots of birds, some fish and a few crabs.  Nothing super amazing but hey, it was a perfect day to paddle and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Video of me on the water!

Video of the view from my cockpit.

Soon the breeze kicked up and I decided we should make our way back to shore.  Laurel is still learning the ropes and I didn't want her to get too uncomfortable out there.  Only one near miss allowed on the bay!  By noon we were back to our comfortable chairs reading away under the Baja sun.

The next day we pointed the van back north and wandered up to Ensenada.  A nice night was spent eating lobster dinner and having one more margarita.  From there is was a long haul home with a night spent at Mercey Hot Springs to soak away the road grime and ease ourselves back into reality.  It had been a wonderful two weeks on the road and a great reminder of why I've always loved it south of the border.

Go here for the land photos and here for the sea.

Hasta la vista!

Craig