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edm1
Senior Nomad
Posts: 568
Registered: 8-23-2006
Location: Oak Hills, Ca
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Wow, ken after all these years travelling in Baja, you still manage toget lost :-)
Nice writeup and photos. Thanks for sharing.
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Wonderful... how many poles did you see still standing? |
The poles closest to the "road" were all but eliminated. But, as you traveled along the most precipitous sections of trail - where your rear locking
differential is necessary, the poles are located north of the trail and are nearly inaccessible. There, you would see poles placed approximately 200
ft. from each other. I must have seen about 10 standing.
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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| Quote: | Originally posted by edm1
Wow, ken after all these years travelling in Baja, you still manage toget lost :-)
Nice writeup and photos. Thanks for sharing. |
Yes, I went to sleep near a pile of rocks, woke up, traveled in the correct direction, then got turned around. Completely lost my direction - without
a GPS. Next time, I will own a GPS and have one in the Jeep for accurate directions.
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
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Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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My Jeep coming down the entrance to Caņon Jaquegel.
My Jeep literally slid in sections of Basketball Hill, so I chickened out when it came time to drive into Jaqueguel canyon. Joe offered to drive my
Jeep down while I photographed it. Yes, I was real nervous and thought the Jeep would slide itself into the canyon, but Joe showed that the tires
gripped as they should.
Here is where I thought my TrXus MT tires would inspire fear, but Joe simply stopped on this sidehill section to prove that the tires were not sliding
as I expected them to.
Inside of the canyon, Huitzi's Jeep developed an issue with the swaybar sliding into an awkward position. Repair work took approx. 10 minutes.
Upper Caņon Jaquegel
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
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Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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One of the intact telephone poles near the trail.
Clearing the road of debris.
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
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Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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I walked upper sections of a real tricky hillclimb that must be negotiated. Once again, my fear of tire slippage encouraged me to get out of the Jeep
and walk up the entire hill to examine road conditions.
Our group made it up the hill and now, we are dropping into a tricky section of trail which is well worn and requires careful attention to tire
placement.
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
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Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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Pole Line Road completed!
After crossing the 0.6mi. Arroyo Grande, our group traveled toward Hwy 5. We arrived to the pavement at 4:30 pm and all ended well with
Huitzi/Agustin traveling north to Highland, CA and Joe/Greg traveling south to San Felipe.
The lonely Laguna Salada
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
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Mood: optimistic
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Wow, Ken, that is one of the best photo-adventure posts I have yet seen!!!! The Pole Line road and approaches and exits has got to be one of the
premier 4x4 adventures in North America----------thank you so much for taking the time to post this.....
Barry
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bajalou
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4459
Registered: 3-11-2004
Location: South of the broder
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Ken, looks like you're running a lot of air in those sections which you need traction. Couldn't see any bulge at all. Been hanging with rock
crawlers and 8 is pretty high pressure on the trail for them. (Curtis running 54's, Don running 48's)
No Bad Days
\"Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference\"
\"The trouble with doing nothing is - how do I know when I\'m done?\"
Nomad Baja Interactive map
And in the San Felipe area - check out Valle Chico area |
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajalou
Ken, looks like you're running a lot of air in those sections which you need traction. |
I was running 15 p.s.i. in my tires. With all of the weight I was carrying, I did not want to ruin my new set of rims. My last set were bent from a
trip along the Pole Line Road while running 11 p.s.i. Plus, our gasoline was an issue with Huitzi not topping off his tank while in Progreso - only
filling his two gerry cans, and filling his gas tank in Calexico.
By keeping my tires at 16 p.s.i., I was able to give Huitzi 2 gallons of gasoline at the end of the run in order to reach Mexicali. Joe also gave
Huitzi 2 gallons of gas, and he used his remaining 8 gallons at the end of the run to give himself half a tank of gas to reach San Felipe.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64536
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Sounds like I need to go in there in give the A-TRAC* a workout!
*A-TRAC= Active Traction Control, Toyota's front and rear automatic nearly 0 slip system in Low Range. We also have a rear locking differential and
you can combine A-TRAC and the rear locker. Unstoppable! 
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BAJACAT
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2902
Registered: 11-21-2005
Location: NATIONAL CITY, CA
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Ken, you where right, my truck would have a hard time travelling on that small trail..Im already looking into getting a 4 door jeep next year,the RAM
is already paid off, si I think is time to help the economy by buying a new car.
I Enjoy your trip report alot...
PS. David, I think what I need is a fully lock POWER WAGON, so I can go and pull all the stuck jeeps and yota's.. 
BAJA IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO BE, FUN,DANGEROUS,INCREDIBLE, REMOTE, EXOTIC..JUST GO AND HAVE FUN.....
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64536
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Best to get an FJ Cruiser or 4Runner or 4 door Tacoma... if you really want to be the one who doesn't get stuck or broken down...   
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Best to get an FJ Cruiser or 4Runner or 4 door Tacoma... if you really want to be the one who doesn't get stuck or broken down... |
The shorter the wheelbase, the better. The rocks were unrelenting in several places. This trail was much more difficult than in the past.
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
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Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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The road to Caņon del Diablo
Benny and Avi are a pair of new amigos that we met on the JustRuns.com 4WD Club. Their vehicle is a 1990s Toyota Land Cruiser that is in PRISTINE
CONDITION. For that reason, they DID NOT DARE take this vehicle on the POLE LINE ROAD.
Leidys looked at the PEARL WHITE running boards and told me, "This vehicle would be deteriorated after traveling on THE ROAD with us, yesterday."
Here is our vehicle as they saw it parked in front of Motel Diamante, north of San Felipe.
Our destination lie to the right of this photo where a large inlet provides an easy hike into the Caņon del Diablo.
The Junction leading towards the Laguna del Diablo.
Traveling West towards our destination.
The road becomes a track across sand dunes which can become problematic for 2WD vehicles.
Behind this peak is the massive Picacho del Diablo.
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
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Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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As we arrived near our destination, we needed to check our location against the Baja California Almanac.
Back on track, we saw wildlife up close - just like if we were in a nature preserve.
Ascending the escarpment of Caņon del Diablo, the vegetation became more green in color as if watered more frequently.
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
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Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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The road to Caņon del Diablo
The hiking area contains a nice staging area where we parked our vehicles and loaded up on water before making the hike. Here is Benny and Avi's
Toyota Land Cruiser parking in the wide staging space.
Parked, and on our way up!
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
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Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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Hiking the massive Caņon del Diablo
Leidys kept up well!
Benny struggling up the massive canyon with a smile on his face.
Avi followed Leidys up most of the canyon.
Stopping for a nice family photo.
She was the first to comment on this old tree that was bearing leaves and a sturdy bark.
Benny and Avi standing next to the same tree.
Now, it was my turn for a photo!
One more of Benny and Avi.
Getting carried away with photos!
[Edited on 11-27-2011 by Ken Cooke]
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8923
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Its Pole Line Road time
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A small dam was built to contain water for the animals of this region. This explained all of the dead animal carcassas nearby.
We could not proceed because the water caused there to be only water where I had previously was able to walk up sandy inclines.
Passing this series of boulders would be difficult. There were very few options, so we decided to proceed no further.
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Roberto
Banned
Posts: 2162
Registered: 9-5-2003
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Just curious - what size tires are you running? What's your clearance (lowest point) with them?
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