BajaNomad

My Christmas Gift to Nomads with GPS

David K - 12-20-2003 at 08:57 AM

?Feliz Navidad Baja Nomads!

I have made available (for a limited time) my Baja GPS web site, list of waypoints... my thank you for being (mostly) good this year and tolerant of my many posts and poor spelling, on this board!

Have a great holiday! Here is the link... If you want, make a copy for personal use as the site will not stay online. http://community-2.webtv.net/TheBaja/bajagpslist

There have been additions since the first time I shared this site, on Amigos de Baja.

[Edited on 12-20-2003 by David K]

Debra - 12-20-2003 at 09:11 AM

Couldn't you just send me a GPS with all the waypoints loaded? :)

Thanks

MICK - 12-20-2003 at 09:39 AM

I'm with debra! but short of that thanks alott for these I have allot of them but everytime we go I am looking for different ones. I'll print them and put them in My Almanac
Thanks again

Thanks

akbear - 12-20-2003 at 11:11 AM

Thanks David K,
Printed out & added to Almanac.
I have not frogotten the slides, just haven't gone thru all of them yet.

GPS coordinates.

Ski Baja - 12-20-2003 at 11:29 AM

Pretty much everyone knows my feelings on posting GPS coordinates about historic places in a country you don't even live in. I have been discussing it with Profepa and INAH in fact.
In spite of this, I will post the story of one and even give the coordinates.
The Baja Search and Rescue Confluence expedition.
Some of you may be aware of www.confluence.org and I have been in contact with these people for some time now.
Jose and I left San Luis after his advice to bring the camp gear because nobody knows what is out there and how long we will be gone. This made the adventure sound even more exciting so I was pretty happy. We stopped at his cousins ranch and picked up Izekiel, who was a little more familiar with the area we were heading to but hadn't actually been to the area we were going.
After driving for hours through the mountains, we were stopped by soldiers in the most remote area I have seen thus far in my travels. We hadn't seen a ranch or sign of habitation the entire trip as I was told that only hunters come here. Even the le?eros don't come out here as it is to bad of a road to bother with.
After an hour with the soldiers inspecting all of our stuff ( they didn't know quite what to make of 2 Mexicans and a Gringo out here in no-mans land) but they decided we were ok after receiving a box of Playboys. And I bet they were all feeling pretty ok themselves after such an extensive library being delivered to their outpost.
On with the trip and finally come to a more used road where we headed to the first ranch to inquire about road conditions. By then it was getting dark so we were invited to dinner and to stay there for the night which we were more than happy to accept the offer.
After a dinner of Machaca de Venado, cheese, beans, rice, and the usual fare in the mountains, we sat around the fire killing Tarantulas and discussing our expedition for tomorrow.
Our new host decided since he was closer to the area and knew some of the people back in there he would accompany us which we were very happy about. He likes adventure as well as the rest of us so now we are a party of 4 and 2 dogs.
After driving a few more hours and showing these guys that this 2wd van can go where they haven't taken their 4wd's, we finally come to a spot that is the end of the "road" for vehicles. And this is not the spot where any of my maps show the road ending.
And not only that, there was never a road there and never has been! The walls of the canyon and huge boulders everywhere would have made it impossible for a road to have ever existed there. Cartographers ? What's up with that. This isn't the first time I have seen discrepancies on the maps. And it doesn't come as a big surprise because according to my guides, when a certain point of our expedition was reached, no white guys had ever been there before. Two of my 3 guides hadn't been this far before either so I am pretty sure that those maps aren't entirely made by actual researching other than perhaps from a plane.
We reached another rancho where we talked for a while while one of the goats freaked out about Big n Andi. Dogs, now being used to being around about every animal imaginable including Peac-cks and Turtles are ignoring the goat while it is jumping, kicking and going wild while under it's owners leash.
Now, the owner is holding the rope of this full size goat that is bucking and kicking and just going nuts while standing there perfectly still holding a conversation about Confluence Points and multi colored whacko's wanting to hike into that country. We didn't pick up any more guides at that rancho but did learn of one more farther up the river.
After about 8 Kilometers of beautiful hiking with many stream crossings (dog heaven!) we come to probably the most primitive and remote rancho in Baja where we meet the 65 year old owner and his wife.
We had noticed a couple Kms. back a number of fully loaded orange trees along the stream. When we arrived at this ranch and made introductions, the owner brought out a bag of oranges that would put both California and Florida oranges on the sour fruits list. We each ate about 6 oranges they were so good.
While we were eating our oranges, the owners wife was tending to his foot. About a month ago he had a cactus spine go in between his toes and it had been one ugly mess with infection. He had also lost the sight in one eye because of a splinter from cutting wood for carbon about a year before. Not an easy life in these hills but damn, do they ever eat well.
So, we chat for a while and discuss his foot problem and medicine and our destination. I tell him that I will get one of the ranchers to bring him out some Hydrogen Pyroxide which I have back at the van when we return from the confluence point.
We set off in the general direction of the point which the GPS says is about 2 miles away. We are hiking along and had taken a wrong turn into a canyon when who shows up but the rancher who had just been able to barely walk because of infection. And he has his sandals on with bare feet. This is not easy hiking territory. Both mine and Jose's arms are bleeding from cactus spines in about a hundred spots on each arm and the boulders are loose so you really have to watch your footing as well as the cactus. And at this point, we were still on a deer trail.
El Se?or turns us around and shows us a much faster, easier and more direct route through the cactus and kept us on a deer trail to within about 150 yards of climbing up a fairly steep grade through every sticker known to man. And following our new guide as best we could, ( I accused him of being part Venado ) he led us to the confluence spot with very little help from the GPS.
All of the locals understood what a confluence point was and their significance globally. They have a keen interest in the rest of the world, especially in keeping it at a distance.
We celebrated with canned pineapple, string cheese, and some oranges, took pictures and notes for Confluence.org and headed back to the rancho.
Mrs. Venado then cooked us lunch of guess what, Venado stew, tortillas, beans, cheese and fresh squeezed orange juice. And then she brought out a hand cranked phonograph and played 45's while we were enjoying lunch. What a hoot!
Well, after seeing all of their collection of things and some of the prettiest hides of deer, goat and vaca as well as hand made saddles, presents were exchanged and I said I would have the medicine sent out and to use the aloe vera regularly after he had cleaned it with hydrogen.
Nope, I don't need to have it sent out because he will walk back to the car with us to get it. Now this trip turned into 12 miles round trip through the nastiest of territory and he had just done about 4. And now he wants to go another 8 miles in his sandals. These are some humans!
He naturally led us the whole way out with our trying to keep up with him. We blamed it on the backpacks we were carrying and he said that we didn't need those either. hahahahaha
This was a wonderful trip with many new friends being made and more flavor discoveries. Also successful in logging the most difficult to get to Confluence in Baja.
25.00x 111.00

David K - 12-20-2003 at 12:31 PM

The link to the web site J.R. is talking about is http://www.confluence.org It is very interesting! The site is a home for photos and stories from every place in the world where someone has been to a 'confluence' (intersection) of lines of longitude and latitude, like North 25?0' X West 110?0'. Just another fun thing to do with a GPS, like 'geocaching' http://www.geocaching.com

FrankO - 12-20-2003 at 01:47 PM

Thanks David, Feliz Navidad

PabloS - 12-20-2003 at 02:17 PM

Thanks David, dumb Greengos like me need all the Baja travel help I can get, next time I head for Tinaja Yubay I'll find it.

Happy Holidays to you and the kids.

Paul

Thanks!

El Jefe - 12-20-2003 at 02:54 PM

Thanks David. We'll check out some of this on our trip south next week. Merry Christmas to you and the kids. Tom and Paula

BTW, Nice truck with Callen Camper Pablo. Looks just like mine ceptin mines a white Dodge.

Travelbuff - 12-20-2003 at 02:55 PM

WOW! I am impressed. Have you really been to all those places? In my next life I want to be just like you.

Things

academicanarchist - 12-20-2003 at 03:29 PM

David. That is nice of you to share the GPA coordinates, but you are not forgiven for poor spelling.

David K - 12-20-2003 at 03:55 PM

Hi Travelbuff, the answer is 99% yes! The one at San Bruno came from Kevin C. from my Baja missions web site. I waypointed the road to San Bruno on Hwy. 1 and I thought it would make sense to have the destination waypoint as well. I used Jack Sword's published waypoints (converted to NAD27) for Loreto, Mulege, and San Ignacio missions, but I was at each of them with my GPS, and it didn't make any sense to re-enter the same waypoint again. Otherwise, all of the rest came from my own GPS. In fact I have a lot more waypoints, but you have to do some fresh exploring on your own, right?

Proof that I was at all the places, is in the photos in my web site, OF all those places!!! All the ones in Baja Sur were collected in one trip http://davidksbaja.com/baja15 (two years ago, this week!)

There is another big list of Baja waypoints at http://www.bajagps.com (on Baja Quest). Some are strangely the same as mine off my photo web sites of some exotic spots. The author hasn't returned my email questions or request for credit if he 'borrowed' them. He does have many places I do not, including Mike's Sky Rancho and the observatory, etc.

[Edited on 12-20-2003 by David K]

Anonymous - 12-20-2003 at 03:59 PM

AA - what's a GPA??

Corky1 - 12-20-2003 at 08:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ski Baja
Pretty much everyone knows my feelings on posting GPS coordinates about historic places in a country you don't even live in. I have been discussing it with Profepa and INAH in fact.
In spite of this, I will post the story of one and even give the coordinates.
The Baja Search and Rescue Confluence expedition.
Hi Ski, I think you have a good point about placing GPS way points on the internet.
I also feel that the type of people that would damage or desicrate (sp) any of these land marks are to lazy to but forth the effort to get to them.
With that said the story related was great. It gives you and insite as to how good most of us have it.
Thanks for the story. Waiting for more. Corky:biggrin: :biggrin:

bajalera - 12-21-2003 at 01:55 PM

David K - Thanks for sharing that list.

JR - Thanks for sharing your adventure.

Anon - GPA is Grade Point Average. He's an academic, you see.

- bajalera

HUM????

Debra - 12-21-2003 at 08:56 PM

I'm still waiting for the Mail lady each dayI 'know' anyday she will bring me my GPS.....not sure what the hold up is....David???? :)

Great Timing

Big Al - 12-22-2003 at 09:28 AM

Thanks David, great timing.

Sportmart had the Magellan 310 on sale yesterday for $49.99. They had exactly zero in stock and never had a single one. The manager could see my frustration with this advertising tactic, since it was the second time in a month that they had a sale on this GPS without a single one in stock. The manager sold me a GPS 315 for the sale price, regularly $149.99. I scored. Anyway, thanks for the data.

Wish I could join you all in BOLA, but I will be eating Bakalou and romeritos in Cuernavaca over the holidays.

Big Al

David K - 12-22-2003 at 05:31 PM

Have a great Christmas in Cuernavaca, Big Al.

Remember when you load the waypoints into your new GPS, first change the map datum setting to NAD27 Mexico... for all my waypoints on that web page and any from the last year in my and Neal Johns' trip photo pages.

My first postings of GPS were at the factory setting (WGS84)... I give that info. with the waypoints.

David K - 12-22-2003 at 07:36 PM

I NEVER posted any waypoints I have been asked not to. Ask Neal Johns, ask Jimmy Smith, ask Norm Cristie... they are the only people who have asked not to make public waypoints to places they told me about or took me to (Las Tinajitas, Real de Santa Ana, Gonzaga's Onyx Springs) Go look at the photos for those three places and you will see no GPS data for them with the photos, I took. All the other waypoints in MY list are mine except those 4 I noted came from my friend's GPS. Wild Bill has NEVER given me any GPS data. IF he ever did and didn't want it posted, I wouldn't or I would remove any if he changed his mind.

[Edited on 12-23-2003 by Q87]