Sharksbaja
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Memoirs of Malarrimo
time: summer 1970
place: Malarrimo Beach
who: two thrill seekers
If it weren't for the 14X17.5 custom fabricated Firestone rims mounted with 10 "real" plys Duplex N/D 36"ers this trip would have not been
considered.
An earlier account of the windy beach with it's beachside treasures, flotsom and jetsom got us stoked.
Just getting to G. Negro presented problems. The old road on which we had plyed so many times had been overtaken by heavy equipment carving out Hwy 1.
Once in G. Negro the first stop was for gasoline to fill the 55 gal drum bolted down in the back.
Finding the road west to Malarrimo was very difficult and while on it, it disappeared for miles along the way. Skirting the vast salt flats was also
spooky, always wondering how firm the ground was. It was a long 4 or 5 hrs to finally reach the only (ranch)civilization since leaving the main road.
Since we had not much daylight left we waved as we crept through.
Descending down an arroyo towards the Pacific we took time to air down the tires. We really didn't have any trouble en-route the entire trip getting
to Malarrimo.
Once on the beach we realized how deep and soft the sand was high on the beach so we drove along the surf halfway south down the beach and found an
arroyo while trying to escape the strong incessant winds.
Down the beach the next day we found a horrific site. A huge turtle was high on the beach, dead in the sun. AS we drew nearer we saw the poor beast
had been tethered to a large log with heavy rope. We couldn't believe what we saw.
At the end of the beach we were rewarded by some medium sized abalone of the pink variety we found under some rocks. Late, finding a perfect lobster
trap I launched it at low tide from a reef . The next morning , WOW a whole bunch of bugs..
Did some combin' then drove up to the north end where you are halted by the entrance to a lagoon. Very soft sand here. We donned our snorkle gear and
swam across to the other side of the narrows.
It was amazing all the junk heaved up over there. Many large whale bones the size of washing machines. We found a "note in a bottle" thrown overboard
some 2 years earlier off San Clemente Is. by a teacher. He replyed to the note later then shared the info with his science students.
We spent hours exploring the "other side" of the lagoon.
We headed back with a trove of flotsom weighing us down. The tide was going out and it made hard work crossing the 100 meters or so. Somewhere about
halfway back snorkling I spied in the churned up ocean a large dark blur which caught my attention.I lifted my head to view my partner crossing in
front of me.
As I watched he literally picked himself up and ran, or so it appeared, to the other side. Apparently, it was a huge shark passing just inches in
front of him.
 
sidenote; popped a tire on the way out so stopped at Rancho de Castro for repairs and the worst ground abalone pile and XXX beer I ever sampled
[Edited on 8-6-2005 by Sharksbaja]
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mcgyver
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Great story! I tried last year to get there through Tortugas and came up short due to a hellaeous storm and mechnical breakdowns. I am going to try
again this October using the Castro's route. I have heard that it is rated in the top three beachcombing spots in the world. I would have to be
something to beat Cape Yakatanga and some of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. I have a slide picture I am trying to locate that I took in the Aleutians
that has over 200 glass fishing floats visible in it. Cape St. Elias north of Cape Yakatanga is also a super place to beachcomb on the south side of
Kayak Island. They run regular float plane trips out there now for beachcombers. Mallarimo would be a great place to take a Super Cub with beach tires
if the Mexicans were not so paranoid about airplanes.
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bajajudy
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Isnt it a wonderful place. We did not find any glass fishing balls. Lotsa light bulbs(how do they survive when some of mine dont make it home from
the grocery store?) and even more balloons. We figured that they were from cruise ships but there were hundreds of them, some still bown up, many
with ribbons still attached. We also found a bulkhead from an F-14. My husband took the part i d plaque from it and reported it to the USAF. Also
found many whale bones and fishing bouys. I tied the bouys to my backpack and dragged them down the beach that way. We also made quite a carravan.
One bone had to be jettisoned...too heavy.
That is one of those trips that you tell people about for years. Also one of those things that makes you wonder...do we have to have those plastic
bottles(10's of 1000's of them.
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Neal Johns
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Good report! Been there a couple of times and no matter how many warnings given to the people with me, at least one of them gets stuck in the
mud-under-sand traps on the beach. Have never found anything worth keeping except some thongs. (for the feet, Ladies)
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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David K
Honored Nomad
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Great report... one of Baja's special places, I want to visit! Malarrimo Beach... always good stories from those who go...
Here is a photo from Mike McMahan's book of some of the loot lifted at Malarrimo...
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
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Malarrimo
I went down to Malarrimo with a friend in my Baja Bug back in February 1977. Due to miscommunication we spent half of the first day wandering around
the Salt Evaporation ponds trying to find the road we'd been told about. After we finally found what we thought was the correct road, we came across
a fenced area filled with equipment and a small hut. There was an old Mexican guy there and we tried to talk with him to verify we were on the right
road. He spoke no English and it turned out he had been hired as a caretaker in Ensenada by the Oil Exploration outfit that was drilling in that
area. He had no idea where Malarrimo Beach was, or for that matter, where he was.
Once we arrived on the beach we spent three days there and never saw another human being. We found our beach exploration curtailed somewhat by only
having one vehicle and constantly running into soft spots on the beach. We never found anything of value. The most impressive thing was the huge
felled trees (probably from the Northwest) that were high and dry well above the tideline. We wondered about the storm that must have done that. The
other thing that impressed me was how much crap the U.S. Navy must dump into the ocean. Discarded military cannisters everywhere. One thing we
never ran out of was firewood, which was good because it got cold at night.
At that time, visitors had carved their names and placed placards on the South Canyon Wall so we spent an evening making up a placard, burning our
names and the dates into the wood. The guy I was with went back the following year with some others and a storm had obliterated all of those names.
Leaving Malarrimo, we had planned to go to Bahia Tortugas and then out to San Ignacio. We stopped at the Rancho where we had bought gas and asked for
directions to that road. One of the few things I understood from the directions was "Ropa Roja", but I couldn't figure out what he meant by it.
Driving down the road, we passed an intersection and on one of the Creosote bushes was tied a Red Rag. It made sense then. A little later we had one
other case of misdirection. We came to an intersection and took what looked like the most heavily travelled road. After 45 minutes of driving, we
dead-ended at a Fish Camp on the coast.
I always wished I'd gone back, but after that I spent most of my time on the Sea of Cortez side of Baja.
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TacoFeliz
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Oops
Been there. Wish I hadn't done that... 
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TacoFeliz
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A friend joined in the fun, the ocean got a lot closer as time passed...
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John M
Super Nomad
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Good photos!
Yikes!
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Sharksbaja
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| Quote: | Originally posted by John M
Yikes! |
Had the same experience near San Quintin many moons ago. Only all 4 of us got stuck and my buddy hiked out and found a Mexican wity a tractor, thank
god. Poor bastard drank the water tho and was sick all the way to La Paz.
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mcgyver
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OK, Finish the story! How DID you get out?? There was a sort of contest one time on the Amigoes forum about "The best stuck story"" with pictures if
you had them and yours looks like a winning entry to me!
Now down on the Cortez side south of Bahai De Los angles there is a place called Las Animas. certain members of this forum can tell some hairy stuck
stories about it if you go the wrong way! A little futher down the road there is another called Boca Grande and there have been a few wheels spun
there also. Getting stuck in the dry is inconvenice, getting stuck where you were is pocketbook threateding!!
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4baja
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drive to the beach and launch your quad, if it gets stuck(rarely) very easy to get out . your truck has to get you home, your quad just has to get you
down the beach and back. 
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TacoFeliz
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Getting unstuck
We had help. Highly recommended .
There were two other vehicles with us, Nean and Marian Johns in one of their earlier Tacomas, and Jim Heaton and family in a 92 Landcruiser wagon. We
arrived at the beach at around noon at low tide. After scouting the beach to the west and finding hard, wet sand and a lot of styrofoam and plastic
bottles, Neal and Marian took off into the dunes to look around (or maybe fool around).
I went back to the east just below the high tide line, but the footing was better a little farther out, for a while at least. We ran down the beach
about two miles and WHAM! Full stop, jeep sinking fast. Seems we had tempted fate just a bit too much and had broken through the surface. The odd
thing was that the jeep just kept sinking and water was coming out of the wheel divots like artesian wells. Seems that all the storm surf and rain
gets blown up behind the dunes and trickles back to the sea under the surface of the sand...
Hollered to the Bronco on the radio not to follow us. He only heard part of the transmission and not only followed us but passed us and went thirty
or forty feet further toward the ocean and sank right up to the frame rails. Also hollered for help from Neal who appeared in a shot and started
looking for driftwood and planks up on the high tide line. Found some and brought them (by foot) while we dug trenches toward the ocean to drain the
wheel divots.
A local with a Tacoma showed up (2WD!) and served as an anchor for the winch on the jeep, but the winch wasn't enough to pull out of the muck. We put
planks into the muck and jacked and winched and jacked and winched until we were almost up on top, then the Tacoma jerked us the rest of the way out
and we were off like a scalded cat for higher ground to try and pull out the Bronco. This was about hour two of the saga.
The Bronco had few jacking points and was lots heavier, so progress was miserable. It looked really bleak so they completely unloaded it and put all
the gear up the beach, first to lighten the load, but also in case the Bronco didn't get unstuck. We put the winch cable to the bronco rear frame, a
jerk strap from the back of the jeep to Neal's Tacoma, then another snatch strap from Neal's truck back to the Landcruiser. All tugged slowly. No
good. All jerked in unison, also no good. Way stuck Bronco. We jacked, we lifted with all the adults pulling up on the back bumper, still stuck.
By this time the tide was up and the water was lapping at the grill on the Bronco. We lifted, we tugged, then decided it was time to try lifting with
as many as adults as were available while the others drove and tried a mighty last ditch jerk/lift combo. It was either break the remaining pull
stuff (we had already broken a cable and two jerk straps at this point) or watch the Bronco get swamped in the surf. The second go was timed with a
mighty lift effort by the guys on the bumper and it just lifted the Bronco enough to break the mud seal. It launched out of the muck like a breaching
whale and the owner was on the gas in reverse and flying toward us with the cable gear still attached! Everybody was cheering, exhausted, one puked.
It was a GREAT moment. However - the tide was almost all the way up and we weren't anywhere near an exit from the tidal zone.
Gear was piled in cars, winch cables and straps were looped over hoods and through windows and the caravan took off flying down the beach about three
or four miles to find a beach exit. Did I mention the sun went down?
Anyway, found a canyon, turned left and got about about half a mile in before stopping for the night and letting the exhaustion shakes take over.
Neal and Marian celebrated with unlabeled cold canned goods, the rest of us were too beat to cook so we grabbed whatever and killed a bit of tequila
to take the edge off. A campfire never looked so good.
Jeep is still in service (sold it to my cousin last year to become a competition rock crawler) though the leaf springs were beyond help a month after
that trip. Bronco guy hasn't left the pavement in ten years.
As far as bad stucks go, sometime ask Neal how he liked the accomodations at Laguna Percebu in his Landcruiser days... It's no wonder he doesn't like
water. I'm not too crazy about it either after the Malarrimo fiasco.
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David K
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Yes, Neal has fond memories of trying to drive to Shell Island and getting off the compacted tracks leading across the tidal flats... I too was
temporaily stuck, in the muck that year (1980) tryin g to access the 'island'.
So, TacoFeliz.... you being one of the Desert Explorers (I presume), have we met?
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TacoFeliz
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Yep.
DK - I've enjoyed meeting you and tipping a cerveza at several Viva Bajas and the Cielito Lindo Boojum Bash... Still trekking around the outback in
general and Baja in particular, though now in a Tundra with a pop top. (I no longer drive on the beach.)
Cheers,
Jay Lawrence
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David K
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Hi Jay, welcome to Nomad! Your photo is in some of my Viva Baja event web sites... Glad to see you here keeping Neal 'honest'!!! 
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Neal Johns
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Jay did not mention that he gave up trying to get his Jeep (the one in the picture) running and now is the owner of a Toyota, I say again, Toyota,
Tundra 4X4!
Are you reading this, Ken Cooke?
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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Sharksbaja
Elite Nomad
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Can u say..[/size]
[size=164]HEMI
wow, it works. Only 1000 posts and I figgered out the text. Duh!
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