Solo and First-time Baja Norte Trip - Part 1

Intro: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=25757
Part 2A: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=25839
Part 2B: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=25844
Part 3: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=26053
Part 4: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=26055

My first border crossing experience

An accident greets me and other drivers along the San Diego Old Campo Rd (94) and Barrett Junction

Rd just a few miles from Tecate. The road is closed and emergency vehicles are driving back and

forth in the other side of the road. Vehicles towards the border are lined up a mile or so deep.

Two hours later, and by now it's 3:30PM, the accident is finally cleaned up and vehicles start

moving. The delay has me worried now because it's likely that darkness will find my drive to Laguna

Hanson, the first leg of my trip.

Photo apology: Taking photos was a low priority, something I now regret. Next trip, I'll shoot better pictures.


Tecate Border Approach Photo

As my vehicle enters the gates I am surprised to get waved through, as if they are in a hurry to get

everyone through. No secondary inspection as expected. So I keep driving through the tight streets

ahead where my GPS points I should go. My rig could barely fit through the double-parked streets.

Then I am faced with Mexicali Libre or Couta choices. I do not choose one; I keep going from the

lane I'm driving on which leads to the Couta route. I know Libre means "free" as in freeway and I

should have taken that. Couta - I don't know what it means - but it sounds like "restricted or

limited" so I think I'm now in trouble. But what the heck, I say to myself, one gets in trouble,

one gets out of trouble. It turns out that this is a TOLL road.

As I cruise through the wide-open toll road to Rumorosa, it dons on me: crossing the border is too

easy; something must be missing. I'd expect at least to have someone come up to me and ask a few

questions before they wave me through. Thinking about FM-T. Where do I get it now? As I ponder the

possiblilities where to get it elsewhere, I see a sign that says RETORNO and I take it and I'm now

going back towards Tecate. Unfamiliar with the place and how to get back to the Mexican entry

gates, I keep going and finally but wrongly end up at the US entry gates. Great, I mutter, I've

been in Mexico for 30 minutes and now I'm back in the US!!! I explain the situation ("I'm lost; I'm

looking for the place to get a Mexican FM-Tourist card") to the US border officer and he smiles and

takes my passport and slip a piece of pink paper in it, clip the passport under my windshield and

points me to the secondary inspection area. He also instructs me to ask the secondary inspector for

the direction back to the Tecate entry gates. I give the same explanation to the secondary

inspector and he points me to the left of the exit gates, going back to the Tecate entry gates.

As I approach the Mexican officers again (for the second time), they flag me down, as if they know

I'm lost. Now, this is the expected secondary inspection. They ask me to bring the dog out and I

comply. They go under the vehicle, they poke holes through some boxes, open cabinets, ice chests,

etc. Everything takes 15 minutes to clear. Then I ask one of them: where do I get FM-T? He points

me to an office a few meters back to the right of the gates and instructs me to park and then walk

over to the oficina. But where to park? There is no parking place. Every street is already

double-parked. But I know I have to park somewhere, so I drive around a few times trying to find a

parking spot. No luck. Try harder, I say, and then I find a place that maybe I could triple-park!

There is a man watching the double-parked street and he comes to me and actually "invites" me to

park behind a line of parked cars. He points to his eyes and points to my vehicle - that to me

means park here and I will watch your truck. I say si, I lock my rig, turn on the A/C (leaving dog

inside), and tells the watchman quince minutos.

I walk hurriedly to the immigracion oficina and hand my passport to the oficial. He hands me back a

form to fill. I see 180 days and (Mex)$230 on the completed form. I ask where I could pay and he

points to the HSBC bank across the entry gates. I walk accross and knock at the bank where a lady

is behind the register. She signals the bank is closed; I see the hours on the door and she's

closed indeed. It's now 4:45PM. I signal to her, please please please make an exception you're

still here anyway. No luck; she's closed. I go back to the imigracion oficina and tell the oficial

the bank is closed and I can't pay. Can he give me a "free" 7-day FM-T. He says don't worry (he

speaks English), you can pay on your way back. Yeah right, I say in my mind; I don't buy it but I

have no other options. So I go, no problemo, on to my trip.

I go back to my parked rig and hand over a US$5 bill to the watchman; he looks happy but as I back

out the truck he comes to me and asks, in Spanish, for another dollar. OK, I say, I just want to

get out of here and hand him a $1 bill.

By now, I'm a little more experienced to move forward. This time I choose to take the Libre way to

La Rumorosa. The road is fine and I see no significant advantage in taking the toll road. In a

little while my GPS shows just a hundred feet away to the the trail to Laguna Hanson; however I

spot a Pemex beyond and decide to top off my 42-gal tank and fill my two 5-gal mil gas cans. Magna,

I say, but the man says No Hay. I point to the other pump, and he says No Hay; Premium he says. OK,

premium it is. I check to make sure the pump is reset to zero before he pumps, but it seems that is

automatically reset to zero when the pump is turned on at the beginning of every fill. I pay him

and get out of the way and park next to the side of an adjacent store. I take my dog out for a cold

drink (iced water) and a little walk and then we're back on our way to the trail. By now it's

5:45PM.

Teeth-rattling Ride

The trail to Laguna Hanson has many high-frequency amplitude (valleys and peaks) roughness that a

vehicle, when not aired-down or driven slow, it would shake terribly. My tires are set for highway

driving (at 50 psi) and so I slow down and think whether or not to stop and air-down. I decide not

to; it's part of the test, I say. My rig shook terribly. I find out soon that the comfortable speed

at my tire pressures is 10 to 15 mph. At that rate I will reach my destination when it's dark, 9PM

perhaps. That is bad because I am not familiar with the campground. All I'm navigating with is GPS

mapping and a handheld spotlight. We'll see how it pans out, I say, I'll take my chances as I don't

really want to sleep along the trail and I really want to spend the night at the camp.

This area has a network of trails that without GPS aid one could easily take the wrong fork. There

are a few sections of the trail that require high clearance or correct placement of tires and that

requires one to drive very slowly. Otherwise most passenger cars/trucks could go through, I would

think.

By now it's dark and on the cool side, exactly 8:51PM and I start spotting camper tents and

vehicles scatterred among the tall pine trees, before and after passing the dry lake bed. I use my

hand held spotlight to find a vacant campsite. It isn't hard to do; I find a couple of sites and

settle in one of them. I bring the dog out and feed him, tied to the front winch hook. I get back

in the RV, open a few prepared food, stick them in the microwave oven and eat dinner, over a bottle

of Pacifico. I fold out the sofabed and retire for the night. However, in the middle of the night,

I am compelled to retrieve and slip into my sleeping bag because the air is too cold for me.

A Cool place to be in summer

Considering 3-digit temperatures while travelling during the day, Laguna Hanson is a cool place to

be in summer. At night, I am guessing it's low 70s, and in early morning mid-60s. I wake up to an

overcast morning just as the sun starts peeking from the east, through the tall pine trees.







[Edited on 8-3-2007 by edm1]

judy, happy to oblige, but as I said sorry I'm not good at taking photos.

This is all I have of Uzi during this trip.

To funny ED Been there done that,looking forward to more

Nice trip, wich entrance did you used? I have used the main road from la rumorosa and never have to lower my tires down,but that's just me.Hanson it's a great place to be in any weather.

loney tree in Hanson

[Edited on 7-23-2007 by BAJACAT]