Day 9 Mulege to San Fransquito

Day 9

Mulege to San Fransquito

175ish Miles

Once again, I am up before dawn. Bombearo is wrong, it can be Christmas every day, I'm up and excited wanting to drink it all in. I watch some more pelicans bomb the water and make a cup of coffee on the old Jetboil. J finds an odd looking "beetle" crawling on his pillow. Turns out this Montana kid has never seen a cockroach. I was surprised that this was the first one we had seen. We had a pretty long dirt end of the day planned so we headed out pretty early, stopping at the Pemex just south of town for fuel. We followed the highway north into Santa Rosalita and the continued on to San Ignacio. We knew that Effrain's place would deliver the goods, so we pulled for some Pacificos and tacos dorados.

We continued north onto El Marasal/Vizcaino and got some more fuel at the Pemex. We also made a stop at a store and picked up some provisions before diving off the grid to San Fransquito.

Fast forward.........A little nice bottle of tequila would go well with the beach.

Some more jerky and water, and we headed up the black trail for a bit, before breaking off for the dirt heading east. This section was one of the smoothest riding roads we had been on. Nice sand, not too deep, good scenery. We made good time and pulled into SF around 4pm. Juan was there, no Rosa. Man, we really wanted to meet her after reading a few other trip reports. Juan told us we could camp for 150 pesos/pp at the far cabana. Like others have mentioned, the place is in disrepair and the weather has beat it up pretty good ripping roofs off a few of the structures. But with that said, the shitters were as clean as we had seen and there was even a plunger. He asked us if we wanted to eat dinner, fish tacos at 6! We all soaked in the beauty and solitude of the place. I took a quick dip in el mar....it was chilly. J headed off for the rocks and did some fishing.

The fish tacos were some of the best on the trip and the Pacificos muy frio. We slapped up a few stickers and headed back for a nice fire on the beach. I slept like a log and probably sounded like I was sawing some. The stars were epic. I can't say enough about how much we enjoyed this spot. I had heard so much and it lived up to it. It's simple, rustic if you will, off the grid, all that shit. It's great

Believe it or not, this rig actually runs, even with 2 flat tires. Juan fired it up in the evening and drove it over to maybe where he kept his generator. KIR

Thank you to all who recommended it!

Another one minute highlight - watch in 1080p

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Day 8 Rest day

Day 8

Rest day

Nada miles 1

So much for rest that morning, I could hear pelicans bombing the water right outside our hotel room. Every couple minutes they were taking a fish from the river next to Hotel Serinidad. The sunrise was worth the wake up. A quick jet boil and we strolled out to the inlet, passing the military outpost near the airstrip. Interesting. J threw the flyline out and wasn't able to connect with anything. We all headed down to downtown Mulege to grab some pesos from the ATM, some breakfast (chiliequiles) and some more oil for oil change.

We headed down to Santispac, the colors ....wow.

Made a hammock buddy

The water was beautiful and perfect for swimming. The bar/restaurant there had beer, we took advantage of it. And then we proceeded to get burned as hell laying around in the sun all day. Everyone except for the ginger, Bombearo, who apparently thinks sunscreen is important? We talked to 3 people from Utah that had dingied in from a moored sailboat. They had flown down to Matzalan and bought boat, were sailing back north where they would take the boat out and trailer back to Utah.

J didn't bring the flyrod all this way for nuthin!  Look at this monster......a finespotted jawfish

We ripped the black trail back to Hotel Serinidad and had a marg and swim. Bill the local drinker informed us of a good place to eat that was running a chile rellano night. In! One of my only painful get offs would occur on the night ride back to the hotel, a sandy corner, darkness, shorts/sandles and too many rellanos = one gash to the shin.

Highlight 60 second video---use 1080p

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Day 7 San Ignacio to Mulege

Day 7

San Ignacio to Mulege

220-ish miles

We got a decent start on the day and went down to eat with Effrain, his parents were working the place this morning. His madre cooked up some mean huevos rancheros.....yep again.  They paired well with Pacifico, amazing how well it goes food. 

The road out of town was paved for a while then turned to improved dirt closer to Laguna Ignacio. The ride after reaching the water was awesome. Pulsing through perfectly smooth flats and small depressions. Again, some of my favorite riding of the trip.

THere were nice pockets of sand in here too and some really slick ass skimmed mud, better watch that at 70mph! Looks like it would be some epic mangrove exploring along here.

We rolled through a couple sleepy fishing villages and got to hand out some more stickers to some great kids.

There was dodging dogs as well, almost dumped it on the sandy corner as I tried to outrun this pit bull.

We stopped in Scorpion bay for a lunch of dorados tacos and beers. There's a good little gas shack out towards the point. Some weird red tide on the water. Nice clean town. The day just kept getting better. We dropped off the pavement and then started a series of bisecting a few valleys that had small river crossings in the bottom. And then hit the pavement for a bit into La Purisma.

The "pass" heading east out of La Purisma was one of my favorite vantages of the trip.

That was followed up by some beautiful country, passing small and very remote ranches. These folks out here are tough. I wish we could have pulled in and talked to a few. There were lots of burros and horses out here. I was pleasantly surprised to not be flatting. The rocks were relentlless and varied. I was runnning HD tubes and about 23lbs of pressure. That's what I rocked most of the trip. I had considered lowering the PSI, but I wasn't pinch flatting, so I dealt with the rockhard pressure. 

When we connected to the hwy and headed north, we were ready for Hotel Serinidad. Unfortunately, we hauled ass up north and didn't take as much time as I would have liked to take in the bonita vistas. Next time.  at 5pm. .

We pulled in around dusk and for some reason decided to do some bike maintenance. It's a great thing to do after riding over 200 miles.[emoji12]  But some Tecates seemed to help the job. The food at the hotel was pretty decent and were the margs.

Day 7 highlights - turn on high quality

[MEDIA=youtube]mgPLpZvKQXI[/MEDIA]

Day 6 Bahia Asunscion to San Ignacio 180-ish miles

Day 6
Bahia Asunscion to San Ignacio
180-ish miles

 

We enjoyed a great sleep at the La Bufadora. And found an excellent sunrise out on the point from La Bufadora,. We only had one unfriendly....a scorpion in the shower...smash.

J took a picture of this exotic looking lizard. Too bad he was fake, fooled us. 


We headed down to Mari's for some excellent huevos rancheros, yet another variation....on tostadas this time. Pacificos called our names, so we obliged. We stopped for a few supplies at the local "hardware"/marine store for a few hose clamps, looked for some locktite but had no luck. A quick fuel stop at the Pemex and then we made a right on to the dirt track paralleling the beach outside town. After a while next to the powerlines, we found a track that was closer to the beach, another favorite track for the trip.

Saw a few dolphins playing the surf as we took in the beauty, but you can't see them in this photo...sorry.

We found a great little entrance down onto a beach just outside one of the fishing villages. The beach went on for miles, but we were too chicken to attempt continuing on and getting back up to the road, so we just back tracked.

Back out to the washboard road following the coast, we drifted through a few little towns and then Punta Abreojos. I wanted to check out Campo Rene but didn't make it happen. As we rolled down the black trail near there, I spied some stopped vehicles up ahead and slowed as we approached. There was a shot up Tacoma 50 feet off the road, riddled with bullet holes and a few policemen on scene. They had police taped the area off and had all the shells marked off on the pavement. We were wave around and kept on rolling. Kind of an eerie scene. .

A few miles further, we came up on the Marinos, which were decked out in the usual and had a car stopped on the highway. Just mind your own business and keep on tracking. 5 miles further and J got startled by the Marinos truck hurtling past him as he hugged the center line, they blazed past at probably 90 mph. I was starting to think we were in the hot zone. Luckily shortly there after, we hit our turn off into the dirt and braaped some nice double track towards San Ignacio.

Once in Mulege, we took up the Big Dog recommended hotel, Desert Inn. Great little spot with a clean pool and clean rooms. Not a bad price, as they also offered a room with 3 beds....no spooning tonight Bombearo! They also have secure gated parking. We rolled into town and hit up a little taco stand called Kadakaamán close to the Mision. The owner Effrain was awesome, the silver tongued devil pulled us in and we had a great meal and cold beers.

The mision was closed by the time we finished up la cena. We closed out the night with some margs at one of the restaurants and chatted with a few translator gals that were leading a tour bus of blue hairs. Bombearo quizzed them on their EMS skillz. Surprisingly, but not really, they had no EMT or immediate plans if one of their customers went down. Bombearo proceeded to teach them the CPR and other field protocols. I'm sure they left like OK, thanks Los Trago Humo.

Check out the highlights clip --and be sure to watch'r in 1080p

Day 5 San Borja to Bahia Asunscion 175ish miles

Day 5
San Borja to Bahia Asunscion
175ish miles



 
After dreaming of snakes crawling out the palapa onto my tent, I awoke and enjoyed a badass sunrise with some java. We had a good sized day inline and hoped to get another good start as we had the day before. We had asked Jose about Huevos Rancheros (he probably rolled his R's about this stupid gringo request) and he said he could make it happen. Unfortunately machaca pescado would have to do, it was good stuff though.

We headed south and left the hwy after about 10 miles from Rosarito. It was some great flowy 2 track that headed west towards the coast and then more south. A few spots as we neared Laguna Manuela were a bit tricky on the loaded KLR with deep sandy ruts. I had one get off in that stuff, but no damage.

In G. Negro we found a great taco truck and filled our faces. A stop at Pemex and a couple Tecates. We short cutted the pavement with some great 2 track towards Bahia Asunscion. You could roll wide open in most parts. And that's just what Bombearo did. J and I came around a corner and started seeing tools scattered in the berm. Getting off our bike we picked up tool, after bolt, after trinket for a couple hundred yards. Bombearo had been having issues with his tool pouch riding on top of his Giant Loop. It had apparently decided to give up the ghost. We finished and mounted up finding him just around the corner with the bike on it's side and him prying on something. SHIT.


He was trying to remove a wad of metal and plastic that had took up residence in his rear brake rotor. The tool pouch had ripped open, its contents somehow dropping down into the rotor, where they became instantly lodged and brought his bike to a skidding halt. There was a plastic bag, a rag and some chain links shoved in there. After 3 monkeys F-d the football for a few, we got it out and found everything in good shape.



We rode by a couple pieces of beef jerky, but it didn't taste good. 


The highway was brutally windy crossing the salt flats, cool looking though.


Thanks to BigDog's recommendation, we found Juan at the La Bufadora Hotel, what a great guy. He called ahead for us and pointed us to a stellar dinner at Mari's .

Highlights for the day - turn on 1080p

Skiers vs Snowboarders 1985

Haha. Well one of these days maybe I'll get around to linking up the rest of the Baja trip. For now, laugh on this.

Day 4 - Coast camp to San Borja Mision

Day 4
Coast camp to San Borja Mision
110ish miles

A great night sleep in the damp ocean air led us to some scenic ass coffee overlooking the waves. The jetboil delivered some of the best coffee for 50 miles around.

We headed out southeast down the coast around 9am, with the weather picture perfect. This ride was another favorite of the trip. Nobody around, just a few fishing camps.

Drink it in.....

The great riding gave way to some good washboard and then dumped us onto the pavement near a little town. We dropped down in to see what was shaking and found a little beach access. 

It was the first time any of us had officially road sand on the beach. We thoroughly enjoyed our childish selves ripping back and forth up the beach, possibly harassing the seagulls as well as the campers. Sorry.

Progressing down the highway we ran into the town of Rosarito and fueled up at the "gas truck" :-). 

Poor man was in some serious leg pain, part way through the fill up he asked us to self serve. But we still paid the FULL SERVICE rate :-) We chowed down at Mauricios and then repeated our drybag/ice/tallboy method out of the abarote. Beers aren't even shaken when we get to camp!

The ride up to San Borja was great, desert was green and the road lively. We got to the mision earlier than we had on any of our previous days. It felt good not to have the pressure of night fall.
We had a tour from the younger son and then had Jose, the father show us around their property. They had been working that land for 70 or 80 years. It was interesting to see the contrast of the fertile and irrigated trees and the desert just feet away. We asked about the possibility of cena, and he replied no problema. We ate at their house and enjoyed a simple meal of rice, potatoes and beans. Deliciosa.

Today's sermon....more throttle

This snake snuck up on J, just looking for some shade in the palapa. Anyone know what this is? Jose said it wasn't bad, but he may have mistook my poor spanish. It later cruised up in the rafters.

A great sunset. Well worth the 150 pesos/pp

We almost took this little perro home.

Day 4 highlights - Turn on HD 1080