David K - 11-19-2006 at 11:53 PM
Hi Gang!
This will be short because I am too pooped to type (much)!
Look to the Baja Nomad Baja Trip Reports forum in a couple of days for the PHOTOS and details of our trip to the Baja 1000...
Crossed south at Tecate on Tuesday (14th) with Baja Angel and her son Josh, in my Tacoma and TheSquarecircle (Roy) driving along with us in his
4Runner... Tuesday night we had rooms reserved at Baja Cactus in El Rosario.
First we went to the San Nicolas to get a SCORE race program... was there 2 hours before they were scheduled to sell them... I saw Sal Fish (Score
president) drive up to the hotel and even asked him if there were any I could get before we left for Rosario... no dice.
Margaritas at the El Palomar in Santo Tomas was Roy's idea... no further comment... (lol)
Baja Cactus was awesome, naturally... Lobster dinner at Ed's place on the edge of town (Baja's Best Bed & Breakfast) was great... We returned
there Wednesday morning for breakfast, too!
A visit to La Lobera sea lion crater was next... Josh has never been south of La Bufadora and we wanted to see if this trip would give him 'Baja
Fever'... So we crammed as many sites and flavors of Baja in as we could.
A climb up to the painted cave near Cataviņa was next...
Arrived to set up camp at our PIT location at El Crucero, about 2:30pm... Very strong wind all afternoon and most of the night... tons of people
poured into El Crucero...
La Tijereta (Kris) came but to say hi and gave me a Score program and a sticker... THANKS KRIS!
TW came by and visited as well!
We were BAJA PITS pit #7, 328 miles from the start... We helped Roy with team communications and marking the big sheet of over 110 RACERS utilizing
the great pitting service... Baja Pits teamed with Locos Mocos to have 20 pits for this year's 1000.
The first bike passed by us at 12:02pm and the first Trophy Truck at 4:25pm Thursday... We were up until 3:30 am... Roy stayed up even longer and
recorded 2 more of our race team by dawn...
The weather was great and the breeze mostly worked in our favor.
We went to Bahia de los Angeles Friday late morning and I found us some rooms at the Las Hamacas after Roy tried to get some at Casa Diaz... The Las
Hamacas restaurant, next door in a different building than previous trips was as great as ever for dinner and breakfast.
While Roy was having fun with the rest of the Baja Pits team, Baja Angel, Josh and I went to visit with Paulina and Dern, were we found Curtis, Bedman
& Emma, elgatoloco & Baja Barb, and others. We heard that Mary Ann Humfreville and the boys had already returned north... We payed our repects
to Mike, where he has a permanent view of the Bay of Angels.
Saturday, we headed north to Coco's Corner for a really nice visit with Coco... He looks better than ever... Very happy and had good things to report
on the race crowd there the previous days...
Roy, TheSquarecircle, treated us to a wonderful Garlic Shrimp meal at Alfonsina's where Antonio introduced us to his new wife Marta. THANKS ROY!
We really wanted Josh to see Shell Island, so we drove all the way there from 3:30pm to 6:30...
The road between Gonzaga and about 10 miles south of Puertecitos was very ROUGH! The worse I have seen... but I think the rains and race were the
reasons. 10 miles into Puertecitos was very smooth, except for one spot...
Surprise: NEW PAVEMENT at Puertecitos for 1 mile, then 2 miles of unpaved road to the NEW PAVEMENT the remaining distance to San Felipe!!!
Shell Island was awesome... Roy hung with us to camp out there last night... camp fire with magic rocks, rum, beer, etc. put us to a sound sleep.
Sunday (today)... Shell collecting, then pack up for home...
Fish Tacos in San Felipe, 40 minute border wait at Mexicali EAST (4:45pm to 5:25) was a good thing, too!
Photos coming soon... Check the Baja Trip Reports forum!
Buenos Noches Amigos! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
[Edited on 11-20-2006 by David K]
Corky1 - 11-20-2006 at 08:42 AM
David,
Sounds like a fun trip.
Glad your back, very quite
here when you are gone!!!!!!
Corky
David- if that is what you call 'short'
thebajarunner - 11-20-2006 at 09:25 AM
Man, I hate to see "long"
Great report, make it as long as you like,
you missed all the fun on the ' do you like ' the Baja 1000 post- but then it finally got stupid so we all quit reading it!
David K - 11-20-2006 at 04:45 PM
Thanks guys!
Hey Corky... I think Josh got Baja Fever because after I told him how you, BillB and Max (McGyver) tried to find the short cut across Baja, he studied
my Baja Almanac and is determined to make a Jeep trail across!
Some KTM bike racers at Baja Cactus were talking about the Bill Nichols trail and the 'Lizard Lady' (Kacey Smith, Baja GPS Guide), etc. and Josh got
to thinking about that!
bajalou - 11-20-2006 at 04:54 PM
I have plotted the Bill Nichols trail from below Puetrecitos to Catavina on www.everytrail.com if that would be any help.
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=379
should get you to the right page, if not look around for posting by me
David K - 11-20-2006 at 04:59 PM
WOW!!!
Did Bajalou get a bike?
bajabob - 11-21-2006 at 01:59 PM
Lou,
That's a neat website, great map. Hope all is well with you since we last met. I was hoping to take a trip down south and stop by; sorta scary stuff
happening down there giving me 2nd thoughts. Corky, r u ready to go? bob
Corky1 - 11-21-2006 at 07:39 PM
Bob, check u2u's
Corky