BajaNomad

Help a baja newbie...

beachbum - 10-22-2005 at 05:19 PM

Hey all-
I know the questions are for the questions spot, but I got no hitters there. I thought the campers might be of more help. I used to camp down in Punta Colonet about fifteen years ago. It was a spot with a cliff overlooking the water. I want to find it again and return and am looking for a little help from some baja enthusiasts. Any advice, directions, stories, etc would really help this novice out. Thanks and I hope everyone is enjoying their adventures.
Cheers

Beachbum-----------

Barry A. - 10-22-2005 at 08:17 PM

If nobody responds, it probably means that nobody can answer your question-------I know that I can't. Keep trying.

Bajaboy - 10-22-2005 at 08:49 PM

Hey Beachbum=

Grab a AAA map and go check it out...please come back and educate us. I'm sure you will find a few more people around but plenty of good camping, too.

Also, give your post some time...I'm sure someone will get back to you.

Zac

MICK - 10-23-2005 at 06:53 AM

Beachbum, Just as you are entering colonet there is a dirt road on the rignt that turns up a little hill and back a little. From the road you can see a white house at the top of the little hill. turn there and that road takes you to the beach. its about 7 miles if I remenber right. once there you will come to some dunes you can go to the left around them and find some nices spots to camp. An old guy might come around and ask you to pay him. I think it was 5 bucks a night last time I was there. The baja Almanac is a good Idea it will show you all the roads around the area to.
Mick

beachbum - 10-23-2005 at 03:25 PM

Mick and crew-
Thanks for the advice.
Also, Mick, do you know if its still pretty primitive, or is it crowded with campers these days? The spot you're talking about is exactly what I remember (little memory as I was probably seven the last time). I think we will head there, but please drop me a post if you have a recommendation that you prefer. Thanks.
Cheers,
Sandee

rts551 - 10-23-2005 at 03:55 PM

I think you will find that the whole San Quintin Valley has changed a lot in the last fifteen years. Colonet has become a major agriculture area.

Taco de Baja - 10-24-2005 at 08:13 AM

If you want primitive camping with no crowds AND along the coast, you basically have to be south of El Rosario these days. You will probably be disappointed that Colnet does not fit your memory from 15 years ago. The Colnet mesa itself is still very pretty, especially in the spring after a lot of rain. More species of wildflowers than you could ever imagine!

At a secret spot ;) I go to on the pacific, south of El Rosario; we rarely see another person let alone a moving vehicle for the entire week to 10 days we camp there. Occasionally the fishermen stop by for a visit, by panga or truck, but that is not guaranteed.

David K - 10-25-2005 at 02:41 AM

They are building homes there now... Didn't Cyndarouh respond to your question on some forum?

My dad and I camped there in the 1960's to fish... I liked rolling down the huge sand dune!

I camped there in 1981 or so, and it was not much different. I found a bottle with a message dropped by National Geographic to research currents... found it while riding my ATC 110 down towards Cabo Colonet.

Guess I need to go back and see what 24 more years has done to San Antonio del Mar!

So much Baja...

beachbum - 10-25-2005 at 07:38 AM

David K-
I have the same memory. I was last there in 1985, on my first ATV ever-I was 4. I played in those dunes for hours on foot and on my bike. But its been years and I think I ought to return. And the forum members all claim its well worth the journey.

I also remember catching lobster and digging up those delicious pismo clams and cooking them with butter and fresh basil. Yum. I wonder if they are still safe to eat with all the ocean pollution that travels down from Cali?

The bottle from National Geogrpahic is a good story for the campfire. Did you send it back to them?

Thanks for all the information everyone! Enjoy your travels and maybe we'll cross paths in Baja!
Sandee

Cyndarouh - 10-25-2005 at 09:43 AM

Bajabum, The Clams are still the best ever, as well as the Lobster. I do suggest you buy clams from the local Clamers coming out at low tide. This is how they make a living. By doing this you will also make friends. If you don't know them they do get a TAD Bent out of shape seeing some one takeing Clams. The lobster is the best ever and much larger than I have seen in Baja in many years. We took down a few traps for a local fishing family in June. Boy did that ever keep us eating well for ten days. (Sept 30th=Oct 10th. Fresh Clams, Lobster, Quail, home made Tamalies, Torts. I had made a large pot of Black beans before leaving home. We also brought a lot of produce and fruit from Ensenada down. The kids Love Watermelon. Now I am hungry. When are you planning your trip down?

David K - 10-25-2005 at 10:10 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by beachbum
David K-
I have the same memory. I was last there in 1985, ...

... The bottle from National Geogrpahic is a good story for the campfire. Did you send it back to them?

Thanks for all the information everyone! Enjoy your travels and maybe we'll cross paths in Baja!
Sandee


Yes, I sent in the questionaire (it was printed in several languages) that was inside to report the date and location... I was hoping to hear back from them as to when a where the bottle was dropped... Alas, they sent me a thank you note and a wall map of the world, but no details on the bottle's history.

A few years later, the story came out... and was in the local newspaper in Escondido (an AP story I think) where I lived near in the 1980's:

The bottle, and hundreds more were tossed overboard by students off Long Beach, not more than a couple months before I found my bottle on Cabo Colonet... The bottles were found all around the Pacific ocean (South America, Philippenes, China, Soviet Russia, Alaska, and they continued circulate the ocean... The note inside was orange and the bottle had a rubber cork...

Patti and Tom Higginbotham shows one of these bottles found on Malarrimo Beach in their great central Baja guidebook 'Backroad Baja' c1996. Here is the photo of the find held by friends of the authors...

[Edited on 10-25-2005 by David K]

beachbum - 10-25-2005 at 12:18 PM

Cyndarouh-
The lobster traps are a great idea. Where would I get some/make some to bring with us as a donation? We've definately donated clothes, beer. toys and the like over the years at other remote caming areas (Saline Valley-check it out if you ever get the chance, it's beautiful). Any other ideas for stuff to bring along the way that might make us cosy with the locals?

We're planning on going in late March 2006. I'm just already too excited to sit still so I thought I'd research. I'd love to leave right now. Damn that rent and car payment!

Also, Daivid K- I have a scanner somewhere in the depths of my junk that I'll try to hook up soon and post some of those old photos from '85. There's a great one of my dad and uncles naked except for lobsters covering the essential areas. You'll get a kick out of them.

Thanks, I love this forum!
Sandee

bajaandy - 10-25-2005 at 02:21 PM

Hey BeachBum,
I spent quite some time down there in the San Antonio Del Mar area in the early '90s. I don't think it's quite as nice as it used to be. A bit of trash on the beach now, and more people than there used to be.

We used to take the road towards the beach, then take a right at the Johnson Ranch road (you'll see all the big Eucalyptus trees) and head North for a ways. The road goes up on the mesa, which it follows all the way north eventually to Ejido Ernidira. As you travel across the mesa, you will see the occasional road branching left towards the beach. The third or fourth one leads down to a piece of land which I have been told is part of another Ejido and is open for people to camp on. It terminates at a bluff above the beach with a nice trail down. If you catch the right road, one of them leads all the way to the beach, and if the tide is right you can drive down and camp right on the beach.

A couple of miles north is Rancho la Concha (or what's left of it.) I had befriended the owner, Senior Moises Rubio, and he granted my friends and I permission to camp on his land. In the summer of '96, a guy showed up claiming that the property along the beach was his. I have no idea if the claim was legal or not, but a fued of sorts insued, and the place became less and less user friendly, eventually to the point that our little trailer was broken into and ransacked. The last time I went down there, I was deeply saddened to see that all three structures at the rancho had been burned to the ground. Two houses and a large barn. (Miraculously, the water tower right next to the main house somehow survived the fire. Go figure.) Anyway, it's a beautiful stretch of coast, still with few people around. And the last time I did go there, we camped right on the beach and the only other people that showed up were some fisherman and their family.

Go and have some fun! Recapture some of those early Baja memories, while you create some new ones. When you get back, let us know how your trip was.

[Edited on 10-25-2005 by bajaandy]

Taco de Baja - 10-28-2005 at 08:10 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by beachbum
Cyndarouh-
The lobster traps are a great idea. Where would I get some/make some to bring with us as a donation? .......Sandee


The easiest thing to bring and pack is a roll of heavy duty wire mesh. The mesh size should be large enough to let the chicas out, but not so big the "legal" sized ones can get out. This way you don't lose valuable packing space, and the fishermen can make the traps in the style they like. Plus, they know what they are doing and can probably make 10 traps in the time it would take us to make one...:lol: