BAJA!! Day 5

We woke up on the last day of our trip with quite a drive. We headed up the bumpiest dirt road and saw some amazing sites!
This was the view from a brand new un-finished house by itself on a cliff. AMAZING!



We headed up through Puertacitos and on up to San Felipe.



I'm not a fan of big cities.
Off towards calexico, but to the military check point first.

There was a huge dust storm on the highway. Little scary!


Had to stop and check out Gordons well. I mean, the sahara.


And after the trip

Notice the Puma foot prints. At our stay at the Beluga camp they told us about a Puma in the area attacking one of their dogs and we woke up to its prints on the car. The back was open and he must have been sitting right above us. Yikes!

Thanks for looking. I hope you enjoyed!
See ya next time!

BAJA!! Day 3 and 4

SOOOO, after loosing my keys on that beach we decided it was time to cross over to the other side of Baja where the Sea of Cortez is. Is the cross over we saw these cactus that look like they should be in a Dr. Suess book!



There are so many little chapels on the side of the road we decided to check a couple out.







These saguaro's were much bigger than the typical one in AZ.


Since I first got into desert racing I heard stories and legends about Coco's corner where every baja 1000 race goes by. All of a sudden after traveling down a teeth shattering dirt road we came upon it:




There's Coco


Coco asked whether I had a "cooler" in my truck. He was sure that us traveling in this heat was still crazy. He offered us a chair and a couple of beers so we stayed a while. We eventually bid the ever so kind Coco good bye and we headed out. (I couldn't wait to see water again!
After a while we came to two signs

and

Tough decision, but the big whale seemed nicer so it was off to camp Beluga.
It was a good decision to say the least.

I promptly went free-diving and speared a fish for dinner. MMMMMMMM good!

One of our kind neighbors suggested we stay for two nights. This was beyond hard for me. I am always wanting to see what's over the next hill, but I forced myself to stay here for two days. By the time we left I never wanted to leave. I love this place. Absolutely amazing. The proprietor is a kind fellow named Rafael.
He must have given me more free beers than I paid him to stay there for two nights. Amazing people down here.





Sun RISE! WOW!

BAJA!! Day 1 and 2

I was dying to get out of town and feel free again. Find myself and all of that BS. I like working hard, but there is probably nothing more stiffling to ones creativity than sitting in a cubicle being pushed around all day.
One of my favorite places and the place I seem to feel the most free is Baja and I hadn't been for a while. I haven't been able to afford racing and I didn't have the free time I did in college. I started gathering maps and checking water and weather temps to see where I wanted to go.
There was all the prepping,




I ended up settling on a loop because I know what a problem I have with sitting still.
Tuesday I literally ran out of the office as early as I dare. A whole 30 minutes early!!! (thats just sad) I was completely ready and I picked up Danica and we were off. Carpool lanes are great! We made it to a little town just on the US side of Tecate by 10pm and camped.


The next morning we did the windy road into Ensenada. Always exciting with the semis almost taking off your mirrors. Sometimes I've seen the fog so thick you can't see the hood of the car. I was glad it was not so bad today!

Ahhh Anthonies! Where you can find all of the baja legends and big teams with their families on a race weekend. Its a whore house. That being said, you walk in and get a table and they bring a free bottle of tequila over. (there is a whole story regarding that on a past trip... my brain hurts thinking about it) There seem to be a lot of single women standing around and occasionally they disappear with one of the gringos into the back... Its a completely weird feeling. Being in a whore house and seeing a family eating dinner at the next table...

Time for my favorite thing! Baja Carne Asada!!!!!

I can still taste them mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Nothing like a breakfast beer in baja!

The monkey even had a beer!

Some shots of Ensenada



I have to admit I was a bit envious of these guys doing a baja ride!

Just outside of Santo Tomas I was running on the 500 and 1000 course and memories of passing race cars and dodging civilians came to mind. I started ramping up my speed until I was catching the motorcycles just posted and wham! It was a bad noise. The truck still fealt fine, but I decided to pull over and check it out. I'm glad I did. The tire was loosing air like the arizona cardinals.

Plugged it up and we aired up and it didn't give me any other issues the rest of the journey. Apparently a large boulder got lodged between the tire and the fender well. Whoops!
Finally the ocean. What every arizonan dreams about.

We cruised south through fishing villages until we saw this.


And a couple minuted later camp was made right down in our own cove with no one else in site!

Except these guys


BRRRRRRR! IT was cold! Couldn't have been more than 70! Yikes!
We had our own tide pools near by,






We were freezing so we headed out early in the AM. We headed to an old favorite spot from prerunning the 1000 in the past called the old mill in San Quntin.



I could stay here for a while, but I didn't want to pay for much on this trip. The tidal swing will put these boats in the mud. Its fun to watch!


Last time I was here Robby Gordon flew into the little dirt airstrip nearby, grabbed some lunch and then headed out in his waiting 300k prerunner to run the course and then back home.

No need to bring your own dog, Mexico is always happy to lend one.



Nothing is waisted! Here a guys uses a jet ski with a slightly smaller motor, himself.

Kept heading south until we saw this gorgeous beach!




Perfect place to stay? NOT when I lost my keys to the car on the beach in all of that river rock for about 20 minutes and the tide had already come up enough to get them wet by the time they were found. I will now heed all of the advice and carry an extra set. Smashing my own window to get to some keys sounds minor when compared to being stranded.
With this bad omen we decided to head over to the Sea of Cortez side. 110 degrees and 90 degree water, sounds good to a phonecian! Lets go!