BajaNomad

1966 trip to el rosario

jimgrms - 6-9-2006 at 04:05 PM

In 1966 i was going thru pre deployment school in coranado prior to going to viet nan,, i owned a 57 dodge p/u,and a off road club in san diego was making a trip to el rosario to help the flying doctors , build a orphanage ,so we decided to go and help . as i had previously been a instructor at the n t c i went to the mess hall (kitchen) and talked the cook out of some excess food ,he told me to help myself , and as i was in uniform i had the cooks helpers load my truck with bean and lot of canned veggies and powered milk and flour, the next a m we took off, what a trip 4 broncos 6 or 7 jeeps carrying clothing for thekids and 1 dodge truck carying 7 100lb bags of beans 200 lbs of flour 4 cases of veggys and 15 small boxes of powdered,, seems like it took forever, as every thing was in g i issue boxes and bags mama espinoza in el rosario had some problems reading directions on powdered milk but after it being explained how to mix the milk she was overjoyed. she wasn'even mad that all the labels had rubbed off the cans and only had 4 1/2/bags of beans and 2 1/2 bags of bean powder (vibration ) the suspension and shocks on the truck was destroyed and i abandoned it in el rosario had planed on returning with parts to fix it, but had to go to viet nan sooner than planed s,so turned it in to allstate as a theft, then found out i had 200 deductable and the truck was only worth 300, , that was my first trip to baja , how was i to hnow that hwy 1 was not much more than a goat trail :bounce::spingrin:

Crusoe - 11-2-2006 at 05:57 PM

Ah Yes Jim---You bring back fond memories. In those years after skiing in Colorado for the winter we always headed to the El Rosario area and other points west and north. I had a 56 Studebaker Transtar 1/2 ton with small topper. We carried 3 mounted other tires and a handyman jack with 200ft of 5/16 chain. There was lots of problems on the old hiway but also lots of help. Shake rattle and roll. The ignorance of youth!!!!:coolup:

TRIP TO EL ROSARIO

dean miller - 11-2-2006 at 09:53 PM

The days of our mis-spent youth..

Made a number of trips south of El Rosario to Punta Baja about 10 years prior to your adventure--and what an adventure the trips were!

The memory lingers on...

SDM

thebajarunner - 11-2-2006 at 10:50 PM

My first trip to El Rosario (and on to El Arco) was 1971.
Pavement ended at Camalu, and the potholes through San Quintin were heroic!!
But the last stretch into El Rosario was a fast track.
Great memories!!

David K - 11-2-2006 at 11:36 PM

My first trip to El Rosario was the summer of 1966... on our way to Cabo San Lucas in our Jeep Wagoneer!

Pavement ended 4 miles north of Colonet (72 miles south of Ensenada), and the washboard graded road to San Quintin was so bad, whenever possible we would get off it and stay in the parallel tracks... South of San Quintin the grading gave way to a less improved, but better riding desert road.

El Rosario was the LAST town until San Ignacio, 330 desert dusty miles south! Small villages of Punta Prieta, Rosarito and El Arco were between along with a many lonely ranchos.

El Rosario Hospital in 1963 (Howard Gulick photo)...



[Edited on 11-3-2006 by David K]