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 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

Summer in the Winter time

Everyone in the West is talking about the lack of winters presence with snowfall in West almost non-existant in some places. Oregon and Washington are reporting anywhere from 18 to 50 of average snowpack. Alaska is reporting around 36 percent of average. The water content of the snowpack in the Sierras, ranged from a paltry 17 to 41 percent of the average on February 26. 



.
Around Missoula, the lower elevations from my guess have got to be below average. The college rag ran this graphic recently. We haven't really had any substantial snow in the valley to speak of. Let' s hope this isn't a developing trend.

I rolled the dice and opted not to get a Snowbowl pass this year (did the same last year). It's been odd not to have the coveted piece of plastic to rely on when I'm bored or feel the need to stretch my legs. But I have to say, this might be one of those years to be okay missing (at least considering the total number of deep days we've had this year). I've been lucky enough to hit 2 good deep days (12" plus). 





Tracy and I also were able to con my parents (just kidding) into watching the kids while we had a insanely refreshing vacation in the Puerto Vallarta/Sayulita area. It was everything we wanted and then some. Now we have to deal with remaining dreams of buying a house down there. Anyone have a couple hundred $k you can spare? 

We've been getting out with the kids and they've been having a blast. William is wedging to a stop and we've had 2 days at Discovery so far with NO CRYING! Not a tear shed by one of them. And another milestone was reached, Payton and Gwynn got on the chair and rode it all by themselves! Almost brought a tear to dear old Dad's eye ;-0.

 I leave you with this funny little note that semi-rad.com wrote to old man Winter. 

Dear Winter:

Hey man. How’s it going? A few of us were just talking about you. And by “just,” I mean for the past two months. Wondering what you’re up to, where you’re at, if you’re going to make it out West this year, or if we should just put the skis and stuff away until December.

I saw via a couple people’s Facebook and Instagram feeds that you’ve been spending some time and precipitation in the Northeast—that’s cool, please give those folks a high-five from us and tell them to enjoy it. I don’t want to sound entitled or anything, but it seems like you’ve kind of blown your whole wad out there this year, don’t you think?

I mean, I could be wrong, but I don’t think the people in Boston are that stoked about you dropping five feet of snow on them this month. Vermont, yes. Boston, well, that’s a lot of shoveling, and not a lot of skiing.

Reality

Way Out from Yukai Du on Vimeo.

I found this animation very interesting and saddening at the same time. I too find myself being literally sucked into my phone. Looking around at the others in your vicinity doing the same. I'm not saying I'm giving up my phone, but these sorts of things make me wonder what our future holds. This post is a bit heavy and sappy, especially for not having been active on Kneetopia as of late. The trend may continue, so many things to do, so little time. But don't give up on me yet!

However, T and I just did return from a rejuvenating and invigorating trip to Mexico, sans kids. Interestingly and sadly enough, I noticed the same thing in impoverished places in MX, adults and kids living in poverty with their faces glued to the screens. That's the age we live in i guess, cliche and all. The drones and phones will soon dominate all?

Anyway, I'll get some photos up here from our trip. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the family support network that made it possible. You all are the best and I owe you!

Doin' it Baja series

Doin' it Baja looks like it will a good series to follow if you like the desert and the beach. I recently finished watching Part 1 of 8 while sipping on a Michelada. I had drank the Miller Chills etc, but saw a recipe to make your own. Tasty. I squeezed a 1/2 lime into a pint glass, a few dashes of Worchester, couple drops of Tapitio, followed by a Pacifico..........magnifico

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/doin-it-baja/doin-it-baja-trailer

Sayulita, Mexico

Almost one year ago, some great friends of ours visited Missoula from a far off Alantic island. It was a bit of a homecoming for them, visiting the town where they had grown fond of each other while jumping from perfectly good airplanes. They had a hankering for cool mountain air, good tunes in the street and fantastic trout fishing in crystal cold waters. Low and behold they dropped a proposition on us that seemed far fetched at the time, but a few days later was total reality. Let's go to Mexico.

Our tickets out of Western MT were booked in the dead of winter. Which in some cases I'm sure contributed to the overall success of the trip. White blasted the land and the mercury hovered in the twenties, who wouldn't want to go to Mexico? The promise of 90 degree temps with the equivalent in shirt-soaking humidity sounded like the perfect remedy to winter's cold clutch. Never mind the soon to be 21 month old twin girls that would surely attempt to take over the cockpit while en route to our destination.

Oh the preparation, you have no idea my friend. We analyzed every possible toddler necessity one may need while in a 3rd world county. In the end after a massive heap of baby gear, medicines and clothes were sorted on the bed, we crammed it all into two suitcases and maxed out our baggage weight (50lb/bag). Distractions for the kids on the plane were priority numero uno (that's number one for those the don't speak Espanol). Let it be known that you should not underestimate the power of a 50 cent Winnie the Pooh wrapped in a gift sack. These little gems ran interference on the kids like nobody's business.

Three legs on the plane dropped us into Puerto Vallarta. After which we hit up the Mega SuperMarket and stocked up on 20 pounds of chorizo, drinkable yogurt and diapers (Okay, a few other items were added to the card). We learned that efficiency in a mexican super market and paying with traveler's checks do not go hand in hand. After solving the dinero challenge, I was greeted with another. One of the girls decided that the foreign smells and heat did not agree with the bottle of milk she had finished 2 hours earlier. T was unfortunately wore the brunt of her upchuck. Prior to that moment I did not know how to say "Clean Up on Aisle 7" in spanish.

The winding jungle road out of Puerto Vallarta north was a great introduction. We topped the rise and dropped down into the great town of Sayulita. Our driver knew the name of the house we were staying at, didn't even need an address. After 18 hours of travel it felt muy bueno to be setting up shop at the casa. Sounds cliche, but the place had sweeping ocean views from the patio/hammock with ocean breezes blowing through the palm trees.

The next 2 weeks or so were mainly spent something like this; walking down to the beach at dawn to try and catch a wave, lounging by the pool in the sweltering mid-day heat, sucking down Pacifico's laced with lime, sampling the best fish taco's at great little restaurants, enjoying the surf and sun at some great beaches, and constantly pondering what else we should put on the tortillas (I should have brought a case of those home). Another cliche, it was good to leave all the worries at home.

The sounds and sights of a different culture were refreshing. The slower way of life, cobble and dirt streets were perfect. My only recommendation is that they place air-conditioned booths every 300 yards for gringos like myself. I would then be able to dry my sweat soaked clothes and avoid all moisture related sores and diseases. JK. Our whole crew had a great time. A six year old learned to surf; twins developed a fine taste for sand and to frolick in the ocean spray; a land locked mountain boy caught some waves and landed a monster 30lb dorado; and parents relaxed and watched as their kids enjoyed a new world.

And I even came home a smarter man. I learned that passing on corners is not a good idea, making coffee with mexican tap water speeds up "Montezuma's revenge", the key to fish tacos is fish, mexican speed bumps are big, watching sheet lightning on the roof is exciting, wearing sandals where scorpions lurk is a good thing, and last but not least - Mama is always right. I could go on but hopefully I'm painting the picture that this vacation was just plain kick ass.



And finally, the fish that made my year, a 30 pound dorado (aka Mahi Mahi, dolphin fish).