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Emerson
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My Quest for the Santa Maria Mission
This is a story about a quest to reach the Santa Maria Mission in the Catavina area in Baja, from Day 1 I knew the standard way to get there, but hey!
Why not try alternate ways, right?
I started studying google earth in detail, and with the help of DavidK, I soon found out the old Camino Real crossed the mountains between Gonzaga Bay
and the Mission area; I measured, roughly 11km, not bad, reviewed pictures from DavidK trip thru el Camino real in, didn’t seem that difficult; well,
I started to set a team and schedule.
It’s funny that when I started to promote the trip among my friends at work, almost everybody says yes, at one point I had a group of maybe 15 people;
3 days before the trip, it was down to 5 people; not bad, considering the group had to have certain physical condition to endure the distance; the
plan was simple (at least it seemed that way); Drive down to Gonzaga on Friday, sleep at beluga, wake up early Saturday morning, walk half day, reach
the mission, rest, and then head back to our cars that we planned to leave on the arroyo bed…easy!
So off we go; we had a nice Toyota crew, a ’07 FJ Cruiser, a ’11 4Runner and my ’94 Land Cruiser; 6 people total; left Mexicali at 8pm Friday, this
was the same Friday before the Baja250 race at SanFelipe; very windy from San Felipe to Gonzaga, in some parts on the “Loba” mountains, the wind was
so strong it could change my 3 ton Cruiser from lane to lane in a heartbeat, reached Gonzaga at midnight, arrived to Beluga and Rafael greeted us
coming in, we explained our idea and he recommended us to take someone to watch the cars for us while we walked, didn’t sounded bad Idea, so arranged
a local fisherman to help us with that. We camped and slept near 1am, total peace! I slept inside of my car, the wind was so strong I just didn’t
wanted to deal with putting a tent on.
Next day, 6am, slight sunlight coming out of the horizon, everybody woke up, grabbed a small snack and hit the road; we were told the road thru
Palmita was washed out bad, so we took the arroyo bed; VERY heavy sand, 4Lo was needed almost immediately, some areas had heavy brush and vegetation,
small scratches to the cars, nothing severe, the morning was cloudy, light breeze, but the clouds looked menacing.
We reached the parking spot around 6.45am, left our watchman there and started walking in a attempt to find the starting point from DavidK’s
waypoints, found the trail, and started our journey out of the arroyo bed, as soon as we left the arroyo bed we watched a off looking plain, filled
with short yellow grass, very odd, but beautiful; with my iPhone and MotionX app in hand, 2 gallons of water on camelbacks in my backpack and food, we
pushed forward.
Soon, the terrain changed, from plain and leveled dirt into loose rocky, uneven and steep terrain, nobody in the group complained but, we all felt the
difference.
We continued on a series of small passages, up the hills, not even near the arroyo bed; some sections of the trail are clearly visible thru the rock
formations and in some cases the rocks are worn from old traffic, it was also obvious in some sections of the trail, the rocks had been pushed away
from the main path.
About an hour or two into the trail, we reached a small summit, were we regained vision of the canyon; from that point on we had continuous sight of
the canyon; the trail continued around hills, in some parts the path is very slippery and dangerous, it’s important to mention that the wind that day
was aggressive, blowing against us on our way there; it blew one of the members of balance while jumping from one rock to another, small cuts and
bruises were treated immediately.
After the incident, wind started to blow hard, but we kept pushing, by noon, we had a total of 2.5km to go, from which 1km was to come out of the
hills down to the arroyo bed; and another kilometer to reach the mission thru the arroyo bed; so, decision time; we still had to eat and rest, reach
the mission, and come back before dawn to our cars.
In short, we decided to stop and come back, one of the biggest fears I had was not time nor getting tired, it was the fact that if someone got
injured, like a knee or ankle, it was going to be a very ugly scenario, the terrain is just very rough, carrying someone its almost impossible, and
communication was not possible; so I guess it was a good call, we all promised to come back next year or even during fall prepared to sleep in the
mission, and then walk back the next day, no rush.
Yes, it was frustrating for me, I had my hopes up about reaching the mission, like in the old times, thru El Camino real, but man, I cannot get my
head around how the people got around those paths in the past, 5 guys, with above average condition, hiking boots and all the other gadgets could make
it, I can blame the wind, but I won’t.
On our way back (down), our ankles started to remember us they could complain, no injuries, but we came back tired, about one hour before reaching the
cars, the clouds cleared, and some came out, then, we understood the clouds did serve us in favor; upon reaching the cars, we rested for a couple of
minutes, and head into Belugas again, defeated and hungry, wind picked up again, and we ended up lighting the BBQ on the back gate of my car due to
the annoying wind.
Slept like a champ, with a mixture of exhaustion and defeat; next day, we had breakfast at Alfonsina’s, and head back to Mexicali, but with the
feeling that I needed to reach that mission, and I couldn’t wait for fall to calm this urge.
Folder with Pictures @ Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lhho3t0s2boea3f/d6lp894-WX
So, a good viable option was to plan for the trip during Easter break in Mexico, in 2012 we did the Pole Line road, climbed the Summit, came down and
then up thru el Mano Canyon arriving to Laguna Hanson, on 2013 we did La Corona de Arriba/Corral de Sam Trail in San Pedro Martir; and this year,
well, Santa Maria Mission; the participants were a Ford Bronco, a Jeep Cherokee and 3 Toyota 80 Series Land Cruisers, we left Mexicali at 8pm on
Wednesday; arrived at San Luis Gonzaga around 1am, we could only reserve two rooms at Alfonsina’s; so the rest of the group camped at Rancho Grande,
it was packed!; next day, we had a quick breakfast at Alfonsinas and headed south; the road construction keep moving fast, there preparing for a nice
and high bridge over Arroyo Santa Maria; plenty of movement was observed; picked up a good pace going south, road is in general good condition; after
40 minutes we were at Coco’s corner, sat with him, drinked a couple of beers, had a couple of laughs, and continued south not before Coco’s warning
about sharp rocks on Km 12-14; nothing out of the normal in my opinion; reached Hwy1, aired up; and continued north towards Catavina; during this
period I looked for the trail to the right leading to La Turquesa mine; I plan to explore this route next fall; I had a waypoint on my GPS; and it
lined perfectly where the entrance is.
Reached Catavina around 4pm; checked in on the Hotel; great place by the way, we got our Baja resident discount; settled in, and gathered for a quick
bite at the restaurant; weather couldn’t be better; after eating, we rested, and gathered later that night for a few beers in the bar; we had to sleep
early since we knew the next day was going to be a long one, and man, it was.
We woke up early (8ish, ja!); prepared everything and we were entering Rancho Santa Ynez, and airing down by 10am; I approached Oscar, to greet him,
and ask his permission to enter his Rancho, once permission was granted and we chat a bit, we started our real off road adventure.
The first section of the trail is pretty good, of course, the rocky terrain gets really tiresome fast; but not real bad; weather was perfect, we
reached the part where you could see punta final and the sea in clear days; great desert view in that point; from that point on; the road started to
get rougher and rougher; the descents were really steep and sometimes there were just cutoffs, 90 degree rock steps on our way down, it just looked
like you needed to be careful were you placed your tires and you were set; no spotting required; once we reached the widowmaker, we guided all the
cars down; once down, we looked up, and just said, hell, we’ll deal with this tomorrow; we continued forward and entered the oasis/swamp area, I
encountered a section were you had the option of drive thru a pond to your left or scratch the paint to your right; with a few beers on my head, I
took the left option, well… the pond was deep, going in was easy, getting out was fun, the first attempt, going slow, didn’t work, hit reverse, and
throttled my way thru, still couldn’t get the rear wheels out, reverse again, locked the front and rear diffs, and throttled again, and got out;
warned the guys back not to try the pond, and they opted for the right paint stripping route.
The next to cross was the white Cruiser, he got stuck trying to cross the mud up to solid ground, I tried pulling him, and that resulted in a near
flipped cruiser, the front passenger tire popped out of the rim, while being pulled, tilting the cruiser on to a very dangerous angle; beer level
dropped into zero after facing this situation, we took out the winch, and slowly pulled the cruiser out of the mud, placing counterweight on the
driver side; after we placed it on solid ground, we continued to change the popped tire with the spare one.
With huge mosquitoes, high humidity and sharp vegetation leafs, this was fun to do in this specific location.
After the oasis/swamp, we passed a few more interesting specific tire placement spots; and reached the mission; finally and instantly my itch for
reaching the goal disappeared; looked around, took pictures, signed the visitors book and sat to take a short rest; while I was sitting down, I
noticed oil dripping from my rear diff, closer inspection revealed a oil leak thru the pinion seal, and further inspection also revealed oil leaking
from the passenger tire axle tube, from that point on, my engineer mode kicked in and started to think about why this happened, I will tell you later
on what was the culprit and fix.
After a rest, we continued on, towards the arroyo, tired enough we set camp on a nice flat spot, started the carne asada, and topped off with some
beers, tequila and whiskey; great times lasted until 4am, not the best of my decisions since the next day my goal was to reach Mexicali (had to pick
my wife in SD airport on Sunday).
On Saturday, by 8am, the sun was enough to get me up and going, coffee was required immediately, followed by high doses of water, breakfast was
glorious; packed all the stuff back in the cars, and started heading back.
After coming out from the arroyo, I immediately noticed that the huge drop-off steps we had traveled one day before looked way worse to climb back up;
I pretended I wasn’t concerned and just approached all the obstacles without showing a doubt and attempted the climb, and to my very pleasant
surprise, my Land Crusier took it again, like a boss, no wheel spin, no undercarriage drag, no complaints; I can’t say the same for the Bronco and
Cherokee; the Bronco had a fundamental issue, lots of power from its 351 V8 engine; 35 inch tires and a very heavy load on its back bumper, all these
factors caused the front axle to lift tires every single time a significant incline was present; making at the same time the back tires dig instead of
grab forward; with the Cherokee, the suspension worked great, but the worn all terrain tires, open differentials and its wheelbase didn’t help a lot;
so we had to aid their ascent in several 90 degree ledges; crossed the swamp area with no problems, on the widowmaker, we aided everybody with
detailed spotting; the only incident here was that the Bronco punctured a sidewall of a KM2 with a sharp rock, we guided him up before he lost all the
air pressure on the tire; besides that, no problem. Its worth mentioning that Oscar mentioned back in Santa Ynez, that a Cherokee had suffered a
rollover in the widowmaker recently, and indeed, there’s a abandoned red Cherokee on the bottom of the widowmaker arroyo, as you can imagine, we
couldn’t miss the bullying to our Cherokee member, comments like “look at the designated Cherokee parking spot down there” were discussed extensively,
nevertheless, I respect those vehicles as all others.
Continued our way back, again, all the spots looked way more complicated going up, but it was a nice challenge; besides aiding the Cherokee and Bronco
up, no other significant incident happened, we reached Santa Ynez around 3pm; my rear diff leak continued; both on the axle seal and on the pinion;
checked the level, normal; so I carried on.
The Cherokee decided not to start up again on Rancho Santa Ynez, troubleshooting was done for an hour or two, finally we found the start killer relay
installed in the past gave out; bridged the relay (with a fuse) and got it fired up, we aired up, and by 5pm, we were heading south back to Cocos road
entrance; I was starting to get impatient, sun was coming down, and I didn’t want to go thru the dirt roads at night; we reached the intersection to
Cocos road; stopped, aired down (again), and while I was my 2nd tire, a person that was on the tire shop across the road approached me, my first guess
is that he would want to hitch a ride; I was wrong, he wanted to pass a message to a stranded trucker in Coco’s; the story was that they both were
driving semi’s trucks carrying used cars thru that road, one truck had a flat near coco’s and the other one continued until reaching the road; the
tire shop didn’t have any pick up truck to take the tire back to Coco’s; so I served as a messenger letting the stranded guy, that the truck on Hwy1
was going to leave him and head to LaPaz; luckily once I got to Coco’s corner; coco already had offered him his truck to go for his repaired tire;
after quickly saying goodbye to Coco we continued south with a quick pace; reaching Gonzaga around 8pm were we got greated with the surprise of no gas
was available! I had half tank left, as well as the rest; we aired up and continued to Puertecitos in search of gas; Pemex was closed also, with a
quarter left we headed to San Felipe with feather throttle, made it safe without the low gas lighting up, meaning I had more than 5 gallons or so
left; fueled up in the Saturday night frenzy in San Felipe, left around 11pm and arrived safely to Mexicali around 1.30am; success!!
Folder with pictures @Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wfw8m543vcgp2r1/XH6EhrMBre
So, after all of the driven miles (~600); my Land Cruiser grew on me; its capability and reliability keeps surprising me, I hope this keeps happening;
I do miss my CJ-7; there’s a place in my memory for all the adventures I had with the Jeep; but that chapter is closed now, the new Toyota chapter has
begun!
Oh, I almost forgot, the oil leak, well, after consulting the experts in IH8MUD (which I have to admit, I’m addicted to); the diagnosis was that the
diff ingested water; and the failure mechanism was pretty interesting actually; seems that on my swamp water crossing; the diff was left underwater
for a few seconds, enough to cause it to cool rapidly, and due to a obstructed diff breather the difference in pressures forced water into the housing
thru the pinion seal and the wheel hub; I confirmed by draining the oil, and yes, water was present mixed with Oil, changed the oil; bought the seals,
and I having a shop do the replacement together with fresh gear oil; also new extended diff breathers are going in; I learned my lesson!
Overall, I liked the Catavina area, great dessert scenery; excellent hotel; and a great trail going to the mission; I still have the challenge to
reach the mission by foot from Gonzaga again in fall.
Sorry for the ultra-long post; tried to compress all the details.
Future plans for next fall are La Turquesa Mine Road (east to west), and Arroyo Grande (east to west).
-Emerson.
[Edited on 5-2-2014 by Emerson]
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TMW
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Wow nice pictures. Too bad you didn't make it to the mission on the hike. It appears the road into the mission has gotten worse since I was there
last, that was 10 years ago. We stopped by the Turquesa mine last week and noticed the two track into the arroyo was gone and a new single track
closer to the parking area was made. Thanks for the report.
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Jack Swords
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Thanks for the post. One of my favorite trips was to this mission. We had lots of water in pools ro swim in, sleeping circles and other artifacts to
explore. Spent several nights there. Truly an awesome place.
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David K
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Epic adventures Emerson! Isn't it wild that the Spanish and Indians traveled the country without the drama that we have 250 years later with our
modern machinery and technical skills?
Just yesterday I got a text message from Cameron Steele (off road racer and TV show host) who just tried to get to Mission Santa Maria with a Ford
Raptor and Dodge pickup... They didn't make it all the way, so walked the final 1/2 mile or so. Left Santa Ynez at 6:50 am and got back at 2 pm... 7
hours for 28 mile round trip drive. I had told him to allow at least 3 hours going in and perhaps 2 coming out, but that full size pickups were not my
first choice of vehicle... However, our own edm1 did it with a 4WD motorhome!
The El Camino Real hike I would like to do again... Thanks for the photos of the mission road of 1700's and 1800's
[Edited on 5-3-2014 by David K]
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willardguy
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santa maria via gonzaga bay? why not just ride up there and back, like Alexander Smith does? course he says it makes Erzberg look easy!
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nandopedal
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Hi Emerson check your U2U, thanks.
\"There are many dangers in Baja. The most serious of which is not going.\" Christophe Noel (EXPO)
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JohnK
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Wow. Thanks for the post. And the pictures!
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Whale-ista
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Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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Excellent post! Beautiful photos and great report. Thank you for sharing with us.
Nice to have adventurous friends to travel with, and the right vehicles to explore those areas.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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David K
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Looks like such a great group out of Mexicali! Can you tell us about how you guys got together, are you in a 4WD club?
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willardguy
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Whale-ista
Excellent post! Beautiful photos and great report. Thank you for sharing with us.
Nice to have adventurous friends to travel with, and the right vehicles to explore those areas. |
talking
about having the right vehicle, my next door neighbor and his dad bought two of these 2WD motorcycles expressly for making the trip from their house
in catavina over the mountain down to gonzaga bay. they performed awesome.
[Edited on 5-9-2014 by willardguy]
[Edited on 5-9-2014 by willardguy]
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Jack Swords
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Ralph, who has a home just outside Rcho. Sta. Inez has a similar bike that he rides to the mission and all over the area. His tracks are everywhere.
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sargentodiaz
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I looked at your pictures and was awed at how the Jesuits and their servants/soldiers found their way through this land to find any place at all.
And, when they got there, they had to learn the language, scout the area, and try to erect structures to do their thing to impress the Indians.
Would we have that stamina and dedication today?
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by sargentodiaz
I looked at your pictures and was awed at how the Jesuits and their servants/soldiers found their way through this land to find any place at all.
And, when they got there, they had to learn the language, scout the area, and try to erect structures to do their thing to impress the Indians.
Would we have that stamina and dedication today? |
Exactly what fascinates me with the mission sites when I visit Baja... We go in 4WDs with camping gear, gadgets, and can travel hundreds of miles in
one day... What a difference!
These men were super humans compared to people today... Keep reading!
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Ateo
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Amazing photos and amazing written report. Thanks!
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Emerson
Junior Nomad
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Registered: 6-24-2013
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Thank you all for reading and commenting on the thread.
As several mentioned, I just can't get my head around how people could walk on that kind of terrain all year long, amazing.
I believe the area provides a magical or mystic feeling, I really like the feeling of being somewhere where long before history was made, I always try
to imagine how the area looked like in the past, and how the ruins of the mission had seen rains, winds, storms, droughts and many, many visitors thru
the years; as some say, if those walls could talk!
The group I travel with is mainly people that work or used to work together on the factory I work on, there's members that participate often and there
others, like me, that participate most of the time; it's a great group, no show-offs, or any other of weird behavior is present; we do a couple if
trips around the year, summer in Mexicali is really brutal so we tend to explore during fall thru spring, our Easter trip is normally the end of the
season. I normally try to document myself before trying some new path or trail, DavidK has helped me greatly on sharing his experience and passion for
Baja.
Again, thanks again to everybody for reading, and let's keep exploring!
-Emerson
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memm
Newbie
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Congratulations
Great trip! Congratulations!
| Quote: | Originally posted by Emerson
Thank you all for reading and commenting on the thread.
As several mentioned, I just can't get my head around how people could walk on that kind of terrain all year long, amazing.
I believe the area provides a magical or mystic feeling, I really like the feeling of being somewhere where long before history was made, I always try
to imagine how the area looked like in the past, and how the ruins of the mission had seen rains, winds, storms, droughts and many, many visitors thru
the years; as some say, if those walls could talk!
The group I travel with is mainly people that work or used to work together on the factory I work on, there's members that participate often and there
others, like me, that participate most of the time; it's a great group, no show-offs, or any other of weird behavior is present; we do a couple if
trips around the year, summer in Mexicali is really brutal so we tend to explore during fall thru spring, our Easter trip is normally the end of the
season. I normally try to document myself before trying some new path or trail, DavidK has helped me greatly on sharing his experience and passion for
Baja.
Again, thanks again to everybody for reading, and let's keep exploring!
-Emerson |
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BooJumMan
Senior Nomad
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Hey Emerson whats your name on MUD? I'm a fellow 80 series owner myself. I've owned 4runners my entire life and a 40 series, but have had my 80 for
the last 2 years and love it.. so far..  Lots of space for camping and lockers
for exploring. That looks like a great trip.
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Emerson
Junior Nomad
Posts: 42
Registered: 6-24-2013
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Cool, 80's rock!
Im BajaCruiser94 @ Mud.
-Emerson
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David K
Honored Nomad
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Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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The original link to the Camino Real photos from Feb. 2014 has been changed to: https://docs.google.com/folderview?id=0B6hmzzBtiGV8bndLVWVEO...
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rts551
Elite Nomad
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I was wondering when you start dredging up old posts
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