Our baja fun run this past weekend.

[miguelitro]

Baja- Things go wrong and work out perfect.

Partybargepilot and myself left Pacific Beach Thursday evening and headed for some cold beers and a good nights rest at the the luxurious Hacienda Santa Veronica. We
knew we had a long day of riding ahead of us so we took it easy with only about a 12 pack between us. We awoke Friday morning to a beautiful sunny, yet crisp day, and the rest of our party in the parking lot.


Jordan, and his brother Jeff, are some great people and were a life saver on this trip as you will see. Jordan got a flat tire straight off the bat and decided to truck it down to his place near Canon De Guadalupe, where we would rondevouz or gas, lunch and a beer.
The three of us set off towards Rumerosa to found the course and got instantly lost near Rancho Ponderosa


After 30 plus mile of being lost we found the infamous old Rumarosa grade.



It doesn’t take long to get to the bottom, for your ears to pop, and for it to heat up by 20 degrees. Here is Jeff peeing in the pool at the bottom.


As soon as we got to the bottom we started to really move as we had a lot of miles to do to make it to San Felipe for Halloween. I started to get in the groove and passed Brian who instantly hit a rock and pinched a tube, but I didnt know this until I stopped about 30 miles later and waited 30 minutes for Jeff to find me and then we waited an hour for Brian who never showed up, but finally I found him to give him one of my spare tubes.
This was attempt number 1, he pinched it. At least he had the good sense to stop where they sold cold cervesa!

Attempt 2 held air and we were out across the lake bed to Jordan place at Ejido Manatu.
Halfway there Brian, being pinned for 20 miles, melted the tube(front tubes work in rear tires in a pinch but you have to go slow or the friction ruins em quick) and was again airless.
We pulled in hungry and exhausted, and without enough light to get to San Felipe.

Jordan, Jeff and their father John invited us to stay the night, have dinner with them(steak and potatoes!) and take a trip up to the hot springs of Canon De Guadalupe which was just awesome!
The road up to the canyon-

The Canyon-

The tubs-
This place is one of the magical places on earth and I want to throw a huge thanks out to these guys for their hospitality and true baja spirit. We all need to be more like them when down there!

Saturday coming soon....


Woke up to the sunrise despite the bottle of tequila and the beers the night before. The mountains turn some pretty colors at this time of the day.

On top of that range is Laguna Hanson.
In continuance of how how awesome our friends are, Jeff let Brian put his bike in his truck to drive into San Felipe to get a new tube.
Jeff and I would hit the course at RM190 and ride through to 280 and then into San Felipe.
The course started out out across Laguna Salada, which was dry in this area thank god, and then got nto some low lying sand dunes which were fun to ride and would be great racing action to watch. It then comes out of the desert and starts into the wash sections...here is Jeff coming in to the wash.



Looking down the wash.

“You cannot force open the petals of a desert flower” El Guapo

The washes out there are a mixture of deep sand and ball bearing gravel with some BIG rocks mixed in to keep you on your toes. I got a little out of shape at one point and went straight over a two foot boulder, should have gotten a picture of my tire track going right at it but I was busy changing my underwear. There is one really tight section around MM255 that will be interesting for the TT’s to get through as it is a really tight “S” with a 2 foot waterfall in the middle!
Here is Jeff coming up on the downhill wash heading towards the 3.




This was a nice place to rest but we didn’t stay long as our next stop was a better rest spot.


After exiting this wash we came upon some nasty whoops that wont be fun for a tired rider just wanting to get off the bike at highway 3. Bumbed a half gallon of gas(still had to put the bike on its side and invert it to get all the gas I had onto the petcock side) from a support truck at the road and Jeff and I rode into San Felipe to meet up with our lost compadre Brian. Where to meet up in San Felipe?
Duh, Bar Miramar for Margaritas and and Pacificos as well as tacos from next door!

The three gentlemen with us here had just finished prerunning the SF loop and had stopped in for a beer. 2 were baja virgins and none have raced down there before. Besides being great people to have a beer with they are also veterans of many types of racing, including Pike’s Peak, and one plans to ride the 1000 to Rumorosa, get in the car, drive to Mexicali, cross the border and compete in an Ironman Triathalon event in AZ the next day. Que Loco!!! We had some dinner with them then had a few beers out on the town before turning returning to our kick ass accomodations as we would all ride together back to HSV the next day.



We took Zoo Road west, stayed off the course and got on Laguna Diablo to make some time.
The group.


The road.


Th Sierra(i love this view!).

We all made it back to HSV without incident, Brian and I taking the Laguna Hanson road to Rumerosa and the other guys going into Ojos to prerun most of the way back(they ran out of day light and their only remaining headlight disintegrated). We had a Pina Colada(Penis Salada) at HSV, stopped for some Tacos at El Guero, and sat in traffic for an hour thinking about how epic this trip was! Total milage around 475 miles, no injuries, no problems!

Adios amigos!
Miguelitro

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[J Caster]

Man that looks like so much fun! I haven't been to guadalupe in years.

[Dezertpilot]

Nice! Boy am I jealous!!!!

[calds650]

You are lucky Steve Martz got shot Sunday outside Valle ds Trinidad They are saying it might have been a hunter

[miguelitro]

Anytime everyone in the group makes it back from baja 100% you should feel lucky. There is plenty written about steve in the General Off-Road, leave it there please.
thanks for the comments, there is nowhere on earth better for experiencing off road than baja1
Mike

[JENN]

Awesome pics!~ Scenery is GORGEOUS! I can't wait for the 1k!!! Thanks for sharing!

[Vtr_Racing]

That is just awesome. Great shots. Been there and man I miss being down there.....Glad you guys made it there and back with no incidents.

[BANNEDFROMBAJA]

hey i was at HSV that weekend well just for a few hours on saturday night

looks like you had a great trip

we went from rm40 to rm110 that section was a blast

[miguelitro]

hey i was at HSV that weekend well just for a few hours on saturday night

looks like you had a great trip

we went from rm40 to rm110 that section was a blast

my truck was the green tacoma with rattle canned flat black fenders, camburg front susp.

going through baja withdrawls right now
Mike

[JohnnyAirtime]

Mikeee... as you know... Good report, good pics...

I'll surely miss it.

... You'll be stuck sweepin' with me forever! haha