Neal Johns
Super Nomad
Posts: 1687
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Lytle Creek, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: In love!
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Baja Trip - The Last Frontier Part 1
Time to go to Baja! The group was a great assembly of long time friends and fellow Baja nuts. John M had a long background with Score and knew Coco
before he left Ensenada many years ago for Coco's Corner. TacoFeliz wore out a Jeep down there and is now abusing a Tundra. Alan is the retired
Coordinator at Zzyzx, the Desert Studies Center (with passenger Tim, a former manager of the DSC) and has done quite a bit of botany in Baja. Bossing
the whole outfit was Dixie Johns, the Siberian Husky. She kept asking “Are we there yet? This doesn't look like the Siberia I remember!”. Oh yeah,
Marian, my current wife, was along. Note: All WiW's, remember your numbers!
We loaded our four Toyotas up with pesos and crossed the border at San Diego with no problems getting our tourist passes (excluding the lecture I
received for using a birth certificate instead of a passport). Hwy. 1 was a joy! No tourists! No spring breakers! No severed heads in the median! No
cops! On several stretches, the lanes had been widened a foot or so and a two foot shoulder added. Amazing what a difference it made, no more
puckering up when a big oncoming truck came into view.
Flower report: We were a little late for the peak of blooms, but still found areas of spectacular Goldfields that completely covered some meadows and
hills.
Military checkpoint report: Routine and fast. One wave-through Federal checkpoint below El Rosario.
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We had lunch at a taco stand south of Ensenada and went onward to camp at a wide spot off the El Marmol road. The next morning we found an old road
previously spotted on Google Earth and drove to a geoglyph site found by old Baja hands Marv Patchen and Eve Ewing. This was a small knoll with a
straight path leading several hundred feet down to an arroyo. The rock circles at the top of the knoll were in some disarray and there was little else
to see but is was interesting to find. The narrow old road we found was as interesting and exciting as the geoglyph. Creosote bushes put exotic
pinstriping on the sides of our Toyotas and no one cared. This is what we bought them for!
Part Two soon!
Boss Trail Dog Dixie Johns leads us up the trail:
[Edited on 4-13-2009 by Neal Johns]
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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Neal Johns
Super Nomad
Posts: 1687
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Lytle Creek, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: In love!
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The fields of Goldfields:
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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El Camote
Senior Nomad
Posts: 514
Registered: 9-7-2003
Location: Above the clouds
Member Is Offline
Mood: y Blues
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...and the crowd yelled, "More, more old dudes, more!"
   
Knowledge is good. - Emil Faber
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Neal Johns
Super Nomad
Posts: 1687
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Lytle Creek, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: In love!
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Old? Old? It's great to find out that you are still alive!
Below we have a dug well in a wash just off the road to El Marmol and near the old dirt Hwy. 1, rocked in to keep the wash water from filling it in.
No longer used, it is full of trash.
[Edited on 4-13-2009 by Neal Johns]
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64490
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Cool Neal.
That geoglyph was spotted by Marvin while flying, then he located it on the ground. He and I exchanged a few emails as he was trying to tell me where.
I got 'Satellite Man' (www.satprints.com) to send me some close ups of the area near the El Marmol and original Baja main road jcn. where Marvin said it was near... but
still couldn't pick it out from space (pre-Google days). I have the article from Marvin and Eve on the site. GOOD DOG for finding it! 
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64490
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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To Part 2 of 4 parts: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=38216
[Edited on 11-2-2012 by David K]
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64490
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Bump up on of Neal Johns' great trip reports. Neal came with us the next year (2010) to Mission Santa MarĂa with Baja Bucko as co-driver. His trick
rear differential blew up internally and he needed to be pulled out of the mission canyon, up the widowmaker, etc.
At nearly 80-some years of age, that was his final Baja trip... heck it was hard on all of us.
Neal doesn't use the computer anymore but I do chat with his wife, Marian on occasion. They still travel but no more off-road camping.
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Bubba
Senior Nomad
Posts: 957
Registered: 2-17-2009
Location: Pismo Beach, Ca.
Member Is Offline
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Nice report, thanks for posting.
Making America Great Again
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