The Baja Extreme 2016

DAY 10 (Sunday Sept. 18, 2016) Part 1

It is a glorious day in Baja, at an ancient aboriginal shaman ritual site, maybe 2000 years or more old, what could be better... and it was my birthday, too! The fossils of oysters and other sea creatures are everywhere, as well... Talk about real sea level rising! We are 20 miles away from and 1,000 feet higher than today's ocean.

Greeting me was our resident Hollywood actor, Marland Burke ...



Back to Hwy. 1 at Km. 80 (14 miles from El Rosario) we stop to do a final airing up of our tires. It takes about 15 minutes overall, as we all have fast air pumps.

Pat wants to see as many missions as possible and it just so happens that one is just a block from the highway in downtown El Rosario!





El Rosario was the first Dominican founded California mission, July 24, 1774 by Padre Francisco Galistéo. The story of this and the other 27 missions of Baja California are all told in my new book (published Feb. 2016) 'Baja California Land of Missions' available from the publisher at www.oldmissions.com (free U.S. shipping, no tax added) or from distributors such as Sunbelt, Discover Baja Travel Club, Mission San Luis Rey, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc. Thank you for your support of my historical research in the land that was California first!



Each vehicle in this Baja Extreme tour received a complimentary copy as my token of appreciation for trusting me to show them Baja places so few go to and making these 11 days a blast to travel.

I am happy to discuss Baja via email or PM anytime!

We drive a short distance more and stop at the Baja Cactus Pemex station in El Rosario for a final fill up to reach the border. The price was consistent all through Baja on this trip. At the exchange rate we got pesos at, a week before the trip (17.805: dollar), the price per gallon of 87 octane Magna was $2.97. I took on 13.4 gallons since Villa Jesus Maria (246 miles) and my mileage was 18.2 MPG, which was great considering the heavy load and four wheeling into and out of Las Pintas. It has to do with using pure gasoline and not the ethanol diluted stuff we have in California!

Leaving El Rosario, we climb the steep grade to the top of the mesa and a military checkpoint (the last one of the trip)... 6 miles from El Rosario is the signed road to La Lobera, the sea lion crater. It is 3 miles of very dusty driving and there is a rough detour at the arroyo crossing... passenger cars should no longer attempt this road. The seafood project has been abandoned here... the strong swells damage the intake pipes needed to circulate fresh sea water to the abalone, lobster, and other things being raised here... in the structure just beyond the crater.








The cave leading into the crater is below here.







Coming up next... to San Quintin and Ron Hoff's Oyster Farm and Limpet Project...

 

DAY 10 PART 2:

After coming out from La Lobera, we head north on Hwy. 1 for San Quintin and stop for ice and beer at the El Gol liquor store on the hill north of Los Pinos (where the highway bends westward and drops down to the plain, northbound). We can get Facebook on the Internet so I send Ron a message we are running 1-2 hours late from our noon estimate to meet him.

San Quintin & Lazaro Card##as are very busy this Sunday midday... lots of traffic! We turn left at the military base wall (no signal here, but it is a major road junction).

It is a dozen or so miles to La Chorera on the Pacific coast, almost opposite San Martin island. We drive to the camp area overlooking the beach, and I suggest the others wait there or begin unloading while I find Ron and see where we are going to meet him.

Driving north through the village I am soon going along a wall and see a tall Baja Gringo walking along the other side! I tell him the others are at that camp area and will go get them. Ron was inside his oyster farm compound and opened the gate for us.

Going back to get the others, they are relieved that we are not camping in that camp area! Apparently, it was quite unappealing and dirty as they discovered walking about. We all went to the oyster farm and Ron said we could camp there, inside with the ocean view.

Ron and his Mexican partner, Reyes, are going to explain the oyster process and why they are having all sorts of success. Then we are treated to a crate full of huge oysters to "sample" both raw, in shooters, and barbequed.

The enjoyment of the afternoon goes on and on and with the addition of some local halibut, Chef Jesse prepares a final feast that is incredible! The evening is topped off when they distract me for a time only to surprise be with a birthday cake complete with candles (1 for every 10 years, I think).

Thank you: Ron, Reyes, Pat, Jesse, Marland, Ham, Jerry, Nick and Christine!

One last night campfire was enjoyed and we exchanged thoughts on what places really stood out or were exceptional! That was hard because they all were great in different ways!

On my last part to wrap up the trip home on Monday, I will go over the places and events with my thoughts on them.

PHOTOS:

RON "GOMEZ" HOFF, BAJA GRINGO, your TALK BAJA host on Facebook.












Limpets may be the future of finding cures to many diseases, we learn.








Reyes shucks an oyster.




A little hot suce and lime juice is added...




Ron demonstrates.


Jerry gets into it.


Shooters are readied.



Fish and veggies are cooked...







Ron delivers the birthday cake! THANK YOU!


Ron dances to the Bob Marley tunes playing.. yah mon!

 

If anyone here is a Facebook fan, many of these photos are also being posted on TalkBaja there. Here is the link to the Baja Extreme photo album:

 

Here is a nearly 4 minute video (with Spanish mission background music) made by Ham showing some of the mission sites we went to (San Borja, San Ignacio, Mulegé, San Fernando, and El Rosario):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zb6u8vpbriklc5x/missionsbaja.mov?dl=0

 

So cool! So are you for hire as a baja guide?

clint

 

You bet!
Tell me what your interests are, what kind of sites you want to see (beaches, palm oasis, exotic cacti, old mines, Spanish missions, ancient rock art, pine forests... Baja has all that and more! A sampling of places I go to can be seen in my many trip pages at www.vivabaja.com
David... traveling Baja since 1965!

 

David!

Lots of cool stuff there man! The wine region, bay of concepcion, shell island. all great stuff. Also found a cycling vid that had the guys crossing from Pacific to Sea of Cortez and an observatory in the middle (they were slapping your sticker in a cafe on the vid). Let me brainstorm some more with the family and brother. It may be a bit to get everyone stoked on baja like I am. Is PM here good or email through vivabaja?

Clint

 

Hi Clint, my email (info AT vivabaja.com) connects with my Hotmail account, so use that. Put Baja in the subject line for me. I can seat one guest in my Tacoma front seat comfortably, and two more in back if necessary. Otherwise, if you have a 4WD and good tires, I can lead you or others to see then sites... or a combo of one rider and others following. I live in San Marcos, San Diego County.

 

Right on David. Emails and links to family and friends are going out now. I will be in touch!

Clint

 

I made maps to illustrate the areas we might visit on the trip for Pat, Jesse and the others...

























The only things altered on the actual trip from what was pointed out on the maps where: not seeing Desengaño, La Gringa, Mission Santa Gertrudis, road we used was near Km. 74, and the WWII manganese mine.

 

Subed for fallowing
This looks insane!

 

Tacomas are built in Baja for driving in Baja... at least mine was!
The TRD OFF ROAD was developed (in part) with input from Ivan Stewart and racing the Baja 1000 and Baja 500 for many years... and it shows!

 

So your saying the stock TRD Offroad taco is?

 

I miss that guy. Went to quite a few of his shows when I was a kid I can still remember at the LA Coliseum coming through that Archway usually made it jump thru there!

 

Goes without saying, yes! I have owned three 4x4 Tacoma Off Road TRDs (2001, 2005, 2010), the first two with over 230,000 combined miles and my current one is just over 90,000 miles. In Baja, they shine!

 

I went to the very first SCORE L.A. Coliseum race when the went through those arches... it was great... back in 1979, I think? Fun times... It was Mickey Thompson's dream with SCORE to bring the excitement of desert racing to the people. The Riverside race and the stadium races achieved that.

 

DAY 11, Monday, Sept. 19, 2016:

The night before, Ron suggested a breakfast idea... he could order up breakfast burritos at a place along Hwy. 1 in San Quintin and we could grab and go with them! The only problem was finding the place... It took a while and the first place we stopped at seemed to match the directions, but it was a half mile too soon. Driving ahead, I went past as neither Pat or I saw Ron's vehicle parked in front! Luckily the other three Toyotas spotted his vehicle... and we turned around. They were good burritos, too!

Traffic was typical of the San Quintin to Colonet corridor... and why Hwy. 5 will be such a joy to go south and north on. A small detour near Santo Tomás for the road widening and a longer one on Hwy. 3 south of Tecate as they are working on the remaining older style highway, replacing it with the newer (bike lane wide shoulder) highway Mexico is building.

I top off the gas tank with good ethanol-free gasoline at Tecate. The Pemex prices are lower along the border, matching with California USA prices. It was 12.90/ liter and for our pesos, that was $2.75/ gallon... 22 cents cheaper than the rest of Baja, south of the border zone. I got 17.7 MPG on the leg from El Rosario (and 18.3 MPG on the previous leg north from Villa Jesus Maria). Not bad with the heavy load and some miles in 4WD! In California, no or small load, on California gasoline, I get 14-15 MPG around town and 16-17 highway!

The border wait is 40 minutes (1:30pm-2:10pm). The inspector only asked what we were bringing back... Pat bought a bottle of tequila in Tecate. That was it!

In my next post, I will summarize each of the places we went to...

 

Here are my mileage notes and comment on each day's locations. We had obtained Pesos at the Chula Vista Costco a week before the trip at 17.805 per dollar:

DAY 1:
San Diego North County 7:30am to El Centro 10:15am: 152.5 mi., 9.8 gal. = 15.6 mpg.

El Centro to Calexico 11:00am 11.8 mi.

Arrive El Dorado Pemex, San Felipe North 2:10pm: 128.3 mi. from El Centro gas stop 7.52 gal. = 17.1 mpg. 5 gallon can filled, total 664 pesos.

Go to malecon in San Felipe, enjoy tacos, find fresh corvina for sale on the north end by the 'dry dock' area. Head south for Shell Island... several pot holes around Punta Estrella. Get onto Shell Island, deflate tires, drive to camp site. Chef Jesse makes us Chile Verde and it is delicious!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DAY 2:
Leave Shell Island at 8:00am. Stop at photo op of Enchanted Islands (Km. 99). Military checkpoint at Gonzaga Bay. Stop for gasoline at Gonzaga Pemex: 117.7 mi., 8.5 gal. = 13.8 mpg (possible inaccurate pump). Go to Rancho Grande store across the highway. Leave at 11:30am

End of pavement is 20+ kms. south as it has been since early 2014. Drive to Coco's Corner (22+ miles from Gonzaga). After visit with Coco, we head east towards Calamajué. Road rougher than in 2012. Stop at gold ore mill ruins and at mission ruins before heading up the canyon. Water in canyon very light. Reach Highway 1 at El Crucero (ranch operating here in 2012 is now abandoned).

Take highway to San Borja road and turn south for Mission San Borja, 22 miles dirt road, mostly good with only a few rocky miles. Arrive late afternoon. Nice palapa camping with showers and flush toilets, only 50 pesos per person (US$2.81). We tour the hot spring and orchard (gave a 50 peso tip for the Sra. and daughter). Chef cooks us amazing Corvina Gumbo.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DAY 3:
We tour the mission (tip paid to family) take photos and are on our way to L.A. Bay. I get a rock puncture flat about 19 miles from the mission (3 miles from the highway), put on the spare. We take the 6+ mile side road to see Montevideo cliff paintings by ancients here. The side road is much rougher and overgrown since my last time on it in 2006.

Arrive Bahia de los Angeles, stop at gas station (164.3 miles from Gonzaga fill up, 11.3 gal. = 14.5 mpg. Go to Camp Archelon to set up camp. Palapas on the beach and they each have large canvas cots for sleeping. Cost was adverised at US$8 per person, but using pesos the owner (Bety) asked for 100 (US$5.62). Chef Jesse made us fried chicken and pancakes with jalpeño maple syrup... wow, was that good! We all were asking for more chicken the next 24 hours!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DAY 4:
I get my tire patched at Sammi Diaz' tire shop (across from the Xitlali market near the end of pavement for 170 pesos (US$9.55) and it has not leaked since. Sammi Diaz III did the change and Pepe Smith was there, as well.

We all go to the museum, but at 9am it is still closed (sign says open at 11 am). We look at all the mine displays outside plus go see the train engine in the town plaza near the museum.

A left turn at the tire shop onto dirt for the long day's drive... ending at San Ignacio. The graded road south is in great shape. We stop at Las Flores to tour the jailhouse and railroad bed. We stop again at the junction to Bahia las Animas, where a new sign is on a surfboard there. Then we arrive at Poncho's San Rafael Camp and have a great visit with a most humble man. He recalls when my kids and I had dinner with him back in 2003!

A detour around a washout is encountered, otherwise, the entire road south from Bahia de los Angeles is excellent. We arrive at the end, turn left for the short hop to the newer road, pass Rancho el Progreso and head west on an even faster, sand base dirt road... until we reach the bottom of the famous grade, Cuesta de la Ley, and it is paved with concrete!

We stop at the El Camino Real crossing then park at the base of Mesa el Carmen to hike up at take in the giant cave painting there. One of Jesse's off road lights breaks off on the road in.

Next, we tour the ghost gold mine town of Pozo Aleman, active in 1910. From there, I seek out a short cut to get on the El Arco to Mission Santa Gertrudis road... and end up on an older, but parallel dirt road for a few miles! Along the way towards Santa Gertrudis, Nick and Christine (4Runner) have an alternator light come on and we deem it necessary to skip the Santa Gertrudis tour and head directly for Vizcaino, a large town with a well stocked Pro One auto parts store (east side of highway, just south of the north gas station). We cross into the state of Baja California Sur and also lose an hour going into Mountain Time Zone.

At the north Vizcaino Pemex, 7:24pm, we all top off. Like at L.A. Bay, I get 42.9 liters (11.3 gallons) for 600 pesos, 170.6 miles from L.A. Bay = 15.1 mpg. The Pro One store has the alternator Nick needs, as well as a bank, next door so they can get pesos. We move back to the Pemex station and park behind to do the alternator swap... It takes Nick less time to do the work than it took to buy the thing!

We drive on to San Ignacio in the dark to get to the La Huerta Motel. Pat and I each get rooms and the younger people elect to camp in the parking lot to be next to their trucks and fix another outstanding meal... pulled pork sandwiches! We are 45 miles from Vizcaino, the rooms were only 550 pesos (US$31) and they paid 500 pesos to camp. Ice at the market at the motel entrance was 17.50/ bag (US$1).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More coming!

 

DAY 5:
Breakfast at Victor's in San Ignacio across the street from the mission church is great. We tour the mission and some buy a few handmade gifts from the lady there who also offers to show us a back room where restoration of artifacts is underway.

We take photos at the river crossing. Ham needs a bolt for a rear stabilizer and they check with the Pro One auto parts at the Hwy. 1 junction into San Ignacio. No luck there, but at the next Pro One store in Santa Rosalia, success. It is on the east side of the highway, north of the east side Pemex. A fruit market is across the street.

Damage from the hurricane the week before is quickly dealt with and we have only a few detours around or drive slowly over damaged roads. We arrive in Mulegé and head straight for the 1705 mission for a quick tour and photos of Mulegé from the high vantage point.

Next stop is the gas station on the south end of town. It has been 134.3 miles since the fill up at Vizcaino and the truck only takes on 6.2 gallons, which means and incredible 21.7 mpg was achieved on this partial tank, all highway, not driving fast, great gas (no ethanol)! Cost was 330 pesos for the gas.

We head south to Mark and Olivia's Playa Buenaventura Bar/ Restaurant/ Room Rentals Resort. Mark's son Nathan is also there helping out and doing great things for business. We are all impressed and Olivia and staff feed all 8 of us with ease cooking fish, chicken and cheeseburgers. It all comes out together (which in itself is rarely seen in Baja restaurants off grid).

While I hope the others will want to enjoy this area and maybe camp a mile away at El Requeson or La Perla, Jesse has had the quest to drive all the way to the end of the 25 mile long Concepcion Bay peninsula. It is already late in the day, but we push on. It hindsight it is so great that we had a good meal late that day at Playa Buenaventura!

We drove until midnight before finding a suitable place to put up our tents. We drove nearly 25 miles of the estimated 32 to the desired beach before a deep gully (hurricane last week) dashed that goal. We turned back for 5.6 miles to get out of the brush and reach an open, flat area for camping. It all worked out, even though a scorpion somehow got into my truck while we scratched through heavy brush that had encroached on the ancient road.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DAY 6:
Chef Jesse made us a great bacon scramble in the Dutch oven, so the day was a great start. We thought that since we didn't reach our goal of Day 5, we could visit the petroglyphs or pictographs found up Arroyo los Pintados.

We spent some time in the water, took photos, a pufferfish was friendly, and we then packed up and left about 12:45pm. About 5 miles south from camp (which was at or near Punta Amolares) was a closed gate that we passed through and re-closed. About 10 miles south was the three cardón cactus marking the Arroyo los Pintados, which had no tracks (hurricane) to follow. Driving up the arroyo, a major fork is reached in 3/4 mile. We first go left (which would have been correct for Los Pintados) but in less than a half mile, see no signs of passage, so I turn around and opt to try the right fork.

The right fork soon becomes a visible road that climbs out of the arroyo to the right. There is a major technical gully and Nick needs to make a few attempts as he is the lead vehicle now. The rest of us with A-TRAC or front and rear lockers have no problem, but we did toss some rocks in the gully to help prevent bottoming out the back end of my longer than others, truck.

The road we used cut across from Arroyo los Pintados to Arroyo Tres Marías, which we drove up for at least two miles as the running water and scenery were just irresistible. When we could drive no more, there were signs of a former ranch, owned by 'Pancho Arce' from 2001. We hiked to the source of the stream water, which was a spring coming through what appeared to be solid rock!

On the return out of the canyon, Ham (using his Google Earth pre-downloaded images) found us another old road to use that bypassed that bad gully we came in on. In no time at all, we were back to Highway One (near Km. 74) and turned north to have a nice beach camp at La Perla.

For dinner, Chef Jesse made us Thai Curry Corvina, finishing up the fish we bought in San Felipe that was kept frozen in Ham's ARB fridge in his high-tech FJ Cruiser. All was good, we slept well! Note: while there were no bugs on the beach where we camped, a short walk away from the beach near the brush would invite an attack of mosquitos... be warned!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More coming...

 

@WileECoyote
@ODNAREM
Thought you guys might enjoy this. I know I have the little I have read and seen!

Super epic!