Gadget
Senior Nomad
Posts: 851
Registered: 9-10-2006
Location: Point Loma CA
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Mood: Blessed with another day
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Baja 500 LocosMocos trip report
Dedicated to a fallen Baja and offroad comrad Chris Lokken aka Mr. Nibbles. RIP
5/31/2007
Preparations are complete, GSB is prepped and the pit trailer and gear are in the final stages of last minute thrash to head south. I make my drop
off of gear for the pit to Baja Jones' Rancho Trabajo and head back to the coast. I have a newby, Jacob Rozanski, a carpenter working for me, as
co-dog as neither the wife or son are available this trip. Jacobs only visit south of the border is once to TJ. He's in for a wild weekend.
Cross the border about 2PM with our plan in place is to hit Horsepower Ranch and then hook up with crew at Motel California for the night. Two of my
favorite carracters Johnny Johnson and Rod Hall are being honored.
Many years ago I had a little Nissan 4x with some of Rods suspension gear on it. A defective weld took out my V6 engine on my way back to the hiway
from Abreojos and caused me a major ordeal. When I got back to the states I took the part to Howard at ORW. He called Rod on the spot, told him he
had a problem and Rod repaired the suspension and put a new engine in my truck. He's a stand up guy and I love that he is still racing at 64 years
old.
Dinner was great and the evening was beautiful with a near full moon rising over the foothills.
THE SHAKEDOWN:
We were stuffed and ready to head for town about 10PM and headed for the dirt parking behind the ranch. The clouds had come over so it was pretty
dark as we stumbled to GSB. I needed to dump some ballast and proceded to do so next to my rear tire when a guy walks up and asks what I was doing,
so I told him in a slightly un-friendly fashion. I turned to get in the Bronco and a cop pushed my door closed. A second and third were soon beside
me, then a female cop and a fifth show up.
Feet back and spread em, I was shoved up against the Bronco and frisked, pockets emptied and my Leatherman was pulled out of its holder. "Oh so now
you were peeing in public and you're carrying a weapon" one of them tells me. " Thats not a weapon and this is a dirt parking lot in the hills" I
tell them.
I've got one guy with his leg between mine holding me against the Bronco, with his cuffs out and I'm being told I'm going to jail, it's very dark, the
lot is maybe 1/3 full still, there's five of them and I have a brand new rookie Baja guy with me. This aint good!!!
I practice martial arts and I am sizing up if I can beat my way out of this. Only two of the four guys have guns nor does the female cop. Jacob is
6'4" and 300+lbs and I'm wondering if he would wade in if I went at it. At 6'3" and 210 lbs I have 40 lbs on each of them and lots more reach. I'm
thinking hard. I got to get moved over to the other side of the truck where Jacob is and keep out of those cuffs.
"Show us some ID" one of them asks, and that is my chance. "It's on the other side" I say and walk around to Jacobs side. He's freeked,
justifiably. I get the ID and start a little dance with officer cuffs of always keeping just out of his reach and him in front of me. He doesn't
pick up on the maneuvers.
My head is spinning, I NEVER pay mordida, but this is going to be hard to talk my way out of. There is no-one around to make a scene in front of.
Talk of 3 days in jail and $300 starts to be thrown out by them as I continue to circle around them and size them up. I start asking them questions,
who's in charge, whats your name, does Horsepower know you're here? Officer cuffs starts to get agressive again so I back up to the Bronco and start
shaking my head.
"Don't do this" I tell them. "You're messing with the wrong guy". "I know people down here". "Keep my "weapon" "I'm sorry I was peeing in the dark
in the dirt and let us go". The dollar amount starts coming down, but they won't let us go. I go into my fund stash and pull out 5 - 200 peso bills
and hand them to El Capitan. He won't take them, but the English speaking cop does. They disappear into the dark as I think of smashing into a
couple of them from behind a truck before they know what hit them. I'm shaking...
I lock up GSB and tell Jacob to follow me and we head back into whats left of the party. I look for security or ranch personel and see none. Where's
a good cop when you need em? I'm directed to Tony, a security guy for Papas and Beer and tell him what happened. He assures me that this will get
fixed. Soon I'm introduced to Rafael ( I think ) the Ranch GM and we head for the dirt lot to look for the pack. No sign of them. Back to the
courtyard where I recognize the female cop. She is told to radio in the crew which I now learn has been hired for the night to provide security in
the parking lots for the party goers property. Rafael assures me that he doesn't give hoot how many of us releive ourselfs in the dirt and that its
private property so its not against the law either.
Soon there are 12 cops standing nervously by but we can't ID the 2 main guys. I know the gal because she looked at my ID and 2 of the others had to
be standing there. She is asked if thats all of them and she says there are 3 more. We can see 2 more from across the patio and I can tell it's them
from 200 feet. So we all walk across to them and Rafael ask for positive ID from us, which we give.
They immediately cough up my Leatherman but deny they took any money off me. Then a big tall handsom cop walks up. Its the Chief of police who is
having dinner with Rafael and is wondering where he went. He gets the low down and shoots a glance over at the entire crew that could stop time.
They are all head down and shuffeling their feet. He tells me the two main guys will be losing their jobs.
I now recall a teaching by Jesus, that we should love our enemies, show them compassion when they don't show us any. I ask the Chief if those two had
any kids, he says one has two and the other three. I tell him I don't care any more about the mil pesos, I make plenty of money. I don't want them
to lose there jobs and have their kids go hungry. I want them to know that, and that they messed with the wrong guy and to stop being banditos. I
also asked for assurance that after they had been publicly humiliated in front of hundreds of wondering eyes that they wouldn't chase me down the hill
and retaliate. "Well, Rafael says, they don't have a car, they were all bussed up for the party. You've got to be kidding me!!!!
Look folks, don't pay mordida, no matter how bad the situation seems, always call their bluff. I had them on the ropes, but I couldn't press it any
further cause I had a newby with me. If my son was with me I would have put him in GSB and told the cops " lets go to Ensenada' and the jig would
have been up. I guess we would have had to call a cab for them to take me to jail.
"Thats all I got to say about that" ala Forest Gump.
6/1/2007
Pre-run day
Up early to the rumble of ratty horsepower being warmed up. Great breakfast at Papagayos and off to the fuel dump in Ensenada. Preruns are decided
and we head out.
Our plan is to run the 50 miles of new course from Uruapan to Ojos and be back in town early so Jacob can hit contingency and I'll help load the
trailer and hold court with Carlos.
Barry heads south with us and we seperate at the course and he heads south to scout the pit site.
We are once again teamed up with Baja Pits and have 66 bikes / quads and 38 vehicles signed up for fuel, tires and or emercency service. The Locos
are pit 4 in the chain up San Telmo road at RM 164.
10 miles in on the course from Uruapan we have locked the front hubs and are slogging through silt hils climbs and some really rough stuff. Pass Ryan
Herzog and 2 co-dogs in Jessie James former trophy pre-runner F150 J arm truck. We play the Thouroughbred and the Mule for the next 20 miles as he is
having overheating issues, passing each other several times.
We climb out of a gully to find them with hood up in the middle of the course. Not good. Ace wrench Ray Teeter has the fuse panel pulled apart and
is combing through the truck to find the issue. They have partial power, fuel delivery but no spark. A couple other prerunners stop to help, they
get a sat phone call off to Ryans crew to head for Ojos with the trailer.
We strap up to GSB and start dragging them out with 15 mile of nasty course to go and 8 miles as the crow flies to Ojos. I'm calling turns and
obstacles over the radio as the big red prerunner is disappearing in clouds of dust. Ryan is doing his best with no steering but he's still smashing
into rocks and on and off the course multipal times. We finally get to where GSB will not get them up a hill climb out of a gully. We're 6 miles
from Ojos on course and 2 in a straight line.
Some other prerunners stop and a bypass dozer trail is scouted out. Its just a 1000 yards or so and ends in the back of a rancho with a road out to
the pavement and the Pemex at Ojos 2 miles away. Ureka!
Off we go only to have the steering box finally give up. Ray and Scott from team Honda ( the other co-dog ) are now manually turning the tires as
they walk along side the truck which is now short straped to GSB. Ryan pleads with me that I give it up and just leave them, as I'm just beating the
heck out of GSB. "No Ryan, I finish what I start," I tell him, "I'm getting you to your trailer".
Strap hook-up to trailer and chase crew, 5 hours.
We say our goodbyes with new friendships made as only another adventure in Baja can cement.
GSB in wounded with smashed rear caliper mounts, tie-rod issues and a clunking left locking hub, but is still kicking as we bolt for Ensenada. It's
5PM.
6/2/2007
Race day finds the Locos Mocos at one of the most beautiful pit sites of memory. A white granite sand beach with 30 foot water crossing, blue skies
and a nice little breeze. This could be good! Jones and I have busted Barmos eggs this morning that the sand is too deep and everyone will be stuck
in the pit. Then we reason that the Trophys will all drag a 100 gallons of water each out of the stream and the 200 feet of course through our pit
will be watered down and dust free. Hehhh, no dust, say it aint so.
We set up the fuel and tire pit on one side of the course and the repair pit on the other. We fueled most of our bike and quad sign-ups and waited
for the TTs. We heard the cops had done their thing again holding a dozen or so up on the hiway. We had 7 choppers with 10 TTs through us in less
than 10 minutes. The water crossing was great. The TTs would slow for the water and then hit full throttle to the rev limiter to climb up into the
deep sand. You could almost walk along side and ask the driver hows she running with it at full song. Very cool.
GSB was parked strategically on the repair side and a big rope with hook ends a local brought was strung out. When the vehicles came along and one
got stuck in the water or sand they had a rope on them and were yanked out in short order. Add another 15 or so extraction notches to GSBs belt of
well over 50 racer / chaser / crew extractions. She' my little mule.
Things slowed down and dinner was made. Thanks to Baja Jones once again for the awesome grinds. You haven't eaten in Baja until you've filled your
belly in a Locos pit. The fire got started and the winding down began, or winding up in somes case.
Perry McNeil scooted by late only to turn around and shoot back into the pit. Heh, he didn't need to do that just to say hi. Nope, radiator issues.
Several of us went to work helping them, BSd as per usual, got the cooler leak free and he wound his Nascar V6 power plant back up and shot off into
the night in the venerable 702.
Ryan Herzogs 213 pro-truck hit our pit in 1st place only to give it up to 4 others in class do to an uncommon track bar issue.
Tragedy of race 157 medical rescue radio comm finished our night.
6/3/2007
Packed up the pit and headed for San Telmo road. Lunch at El Poblanos in Maneadero, dropped off at Baja Pits dump in Ensenada and headed north.
Took the new road from Fox studios to the border at Otay. 4 hours to cross. Brutal!!
Gadget out. 
[Edited on 6-7-2007 by Gadget]
"Mankind will not be judged by their faults, but by the direction of their lives." Leo Giovinetti
See you in Baja
http://www.LocosMocos.com
Gadget |
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64526
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Gadget... totally 'unreal' but amazing experience you had!! I want to trip down with you amigo!!! Thanks for standing up to the 'hired' policia...
amazing!
We ended up staying home.... Mision Santa Maria was such a high dose of 'Baja' the week before, we couldn't handle any more, so soon!
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surfer jim
Super Nomad
Posts: 1891
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: high desert
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What is ....GSB?
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Gadget
Senior Nomad
Posts: 851
Registered: 9-10-2006
Location: Point Loma CA
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Mood: Blessed with another day
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SJ,
Go to my profile and scroll through to a post called "Photo Smart" posted 12/2/06 at 5:13 PM. A picture's worth a thousand words.
"Mankind will not be judged by their faults, but by the direction of their lives." Leo Giovinetti
See you in Baja
http://www.LocosMocos.com
Gadget |
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DonBaja
Nomad
Posts: 139
Registered: 5-9-2006
Location: OC
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Mood: Just Cruzin'
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Sounds like a great first trip for a Newbie... Great report !!! I was at home listening to weatherman when the code red came out...very sad 
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
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Great report. I bet the newbie had a lot of stories to tell when he returned home. Glad things came around for you at the ranch too, what an
experience to go thru.
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