Our group rolled up the winch cable and headed toward Canyon Isabel to see the big compound, but we never found it. Instead, we stopped for lunch,
turned our Jeeps toward Cohabuzo Junction, and headed south from there.
One last look at Corral de Molina
We drove for about 2.5 hours before reaching the fence at lower Mano Canyon. We quickly set up camp and prepared for a 41 degree night in the desert.
Cloud cover had disappeared, and the moon shone like a spotlight into our tents all night. For stargazers, this region is dark and views of the
Milky Way are plentiful.
Our Baja Camp Jeep
The next morning, we reviewed our routes and promptly left camp at 9 AM. The Mano Canyon trail is extremely slow and rough on any vehicle. Extra
care must be taken due to the narrow path and high elevations traveled. No mistakes can be made when crossing Mano Canyon.
It turns out that this steep drop off wasn't so bad. Things got much, much worse the further we drove in.
Can you say >>OFF CAMBER!
After the chills and thrills, we found a safe place to park our Jeeps. The trail quickly became damp from the snowy winter soaking it received making
us even more nervous behind the wheel.
Victor's LJ Rubicon on the Mano Canyon Trail
We quickly made it into La Sierra Juarez where the trail smoothed out considerably, placing us favorably near Ojos Negros and Ensenada.
Originally posted by woody with a view
washout! a totota driver would have got the shovel out and ramped both sides down a little bit!
those boulders woulda made me turn around tho!
I will bet they, like me who also has a winch, will use any excuse to put those expensive tools into action---------it's called "justification", and
it's all part of the adventure.
That was quite a hole Ken was in!!! and a great trip they were on.
The 4 day run is now over. Our Jeeps are in need of serious attention after the punishing terrain took its toll.
Victor - Air chuck irreparable - On-board air system non-functioning.
Ken - On-board Viair Extreme system stopped working,
- steel winch cable fell off of the drum while spooling it out below Mano Canyon (repaired in Tijuana).
- shimmy turned into a strong shimmy at speeds above 40 mph on Hwy 3 (partially repaired in Tijuana).
Vicki - No problems to speak of - She's ready for more Baja!
Vicki in Sierra Juarez with her new (to her) garden shovel!
Once our group reached Ensenada, we had the Jeeps cleaned up and the salty mud hosed off.
Clean as a whistle!
Thank you for reading, and Thank You Baja Nomad for use of the bandwidth!
Mano canyon road looks like as much fun as it was 10 years ago... Fun driving from desert to pine forests, on a Baja dirt road! Hey, and that was the
Baja 1000 race course of just a couple weeks ago!
Trip report for JustRuns 4WD Club of San Diego, CA
On Saturday, November 23rd my Wife Leidys and I met up with two other parties driving well-equipped Jeep Wranglers for our 4 day "Pole Line Run." An
early rainy season soaked the dry lake bed known as the Laguna Salada, leading our group to re-route the entire run - what we came up with exceeded
everyone's expectations!
We first began our trip with a visit to Asadero Morlan #2 in the sleepy farming town of Progreso, just outside of Mexicali - minutes from the Calexico
Point-of-entry. Asadero Morlan prepared some of the most amazing marinated Chicken and Carne Asada Tacos, Burritos and Tortas that set the tone for
this great trip that we all enjoyed. After some incredible moments at the lunch table, we piloted our Jeeps to the Laguna Salada. What is normally a
soft dirt path across miles of desert terrain was now a muddy pit that gradually sent our Jeeps sideways, begging for control as the mud packed in
both our All-Terrain and Mud-Terrain tires without an ounce of mercy. We each carved wide arcs back to our point of origin, and with the help of the
now out-of-print Baja Almanac Map book, we continued down the graded dirt road which follows the Sierra Juarez escarpment. With dark storm clouds
billowing off in the distance, we knew that our run down the 1942 Pole Line Road was out of the question. Our destination would instead be the
camping and hiking-friendly Caņon Palomar for two days and nights. Twenty four miles past Caņon de Guadalupe was El Corral de Molina, and from there,
we were presented with a two-hour night-time run past semi-challenging rock gardens, around washed-out ditches, and past abandoned homesteads into the
mouth of a spring-fed canyon featuring a cold water stream and a hot spring suitable for bathing.
With temperatures falling to the low 40s, and the occasional sprinkles our group set up camp, ate dinner, and quickly turned-in. Morning temperatures
hovered in the low 50s, permitting attendees Tim and Vicki an opportunity to hike and climb some of the rocky peaks that surround Caņon Palomar.
Victor eventually woke up, and after he saw how much fun they were having, began rock climbing himself! Leidys and I took it easy, strapping on our
hiking boots and tracing the source of the hot spring that provides warm water to the man-made pool just below our camp site. The hiking
possibilities lasted the entire time we stayed in this canyon, and it was really nice to relax in the Baja wilderness. Our second night was spent
around our camp fire conversing with each other and warming up Vicki's shoes that she soaked while hiking with Tim earlier in the day.
On Monday morning, our driver's meeting was spent discussing route changes that would keep us out of the water-logged Laguna Salada and take us high
above where we had camped into the Sierra Juarez - a region that had seen a dusting of snowfall, but would allow us an opportunity to make a speedy
exit to Hwy 1 and later I-5 just past the Mexican border. We drove for six hours that day - spending about 2 of those hours playing on the 4
mile-long dirt access road that crossed rock gardens and lush palm groves back to Corral de Molina. We hunted for the luxurious desert compound
tucked deep into Caņon Isabel - but, did not find it before eventually linking up with Cohabuzo Junction, and later the base of Caņon El Mano, where
we camped our last night.
Our group hit the Caņon El Mano trail at 9 AM. What started as a rough, rocky dirt road developed into a cliff-hanger of a trail - complete with
off-camber sections, wash-outs with 300+ ft. drop-offs, but views of the entire Laguna Salada region. Steep hill climbs presented sections where
stair-steps covered in loose gravel gave us the challenges our Jeeps were engineered for. By 1:30 PM, our group had safely made it past this trail
like no other, and through the Sierra Juarez where we were just a short distance from Ojos Negros - named for the numerous water springs that fill the
Sierra Juarez with clean, drinkable water year-round. By 4 p.m., we entered Ensenada where our Jeeps were hand-washed (to avoid trouble at the border
for the hardened mud which covered our under carriages), and then off for dinner at La Cocedora de Langosta (+52 646 178 3742) - adjacent to the
Ensenada Fish Market. Near Tijuana, our group split up with Victor and Vicki's Jeeps heading toward the San Ysidro Point of Entry while Leidys and I
stayed in Tijuana to have my bad steering shimmy remedied the next day by my Tijuana mechanic - Luis. Our JustRuns group had an incredible time
camping, hiking, and 'wheeling along some of Baja's most challenging trails. In 2014, Leidys and I plan to do it again!
Originally posted by MexicoTed
Great photos and trip report Ken. I had no idea you could head up that way to Ojos Negros.
Our Pole Line Group followed the 2013 SCORE 1000 route from Cohabuzo Junction to an area right outside of Ojos Negros. That's how we knew where we
were going. We followed those 'Wrong Way' placards through some serious terrain.
Originally posted by David K
How warm/ hot was it where she is?
At the origin of the spring, the water was hot - about the temperature of a hot tub (~105 deg. F.). As the water worked its way downstream, its
temperature dropped to about 95 deg. F. Where Leidys was standing, it produced steam. The water collects further downstream where it was about 90
degrees.
Hoses were in disarray, but cut have piped the water to the handmade pool near our campsite.
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others
cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law
Thankyou to Baja Bound
Mexico InsuranceServices for your long-term support of the BajaNomad.com Forums site.
Emergency Baja Contacts Include:
Desert Hawks;
El Rosario-based ambulance transport; Emergency #: (616) 103-0262
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