I have seen it used on here for for several years, but was just reading Walt Peterson's book 'The Baja Adventure Book' written around 1990/91 and he
to used the phrase...
'Mission Impossible' in reference to the Mission at Santa Maria.
So does anyone know where this started?David K - 5-12-2008 at 08:26 AM
I would say that Walt first published that name because of the very tough road to get there...
The first detailed guide of the road since the 1962 Lower California Guidebook mentioned it (it wasn't finished then), was Jim Hunter's 'Offbeat Baja'
c 1977 in which he calls the chapter for Mision Santa Maria: "An Inaccessible Mission".
Here's Roy (The squarecircle) and his 'go anywhere' Land Rover coming down the 'widowmaker' grade, a mile from the mission...
Neal Johns - 5-12-2008 at 01:26 PM
The following story was submitted to, and published in a 1998 Discover Baja Travel Club (http://discoverbaja.com/) monthly newsletter under the title of Mission Impossible:
La Jornada a Mision Imposible
Mission Santa Maria de los Angeles, established in 1767 between Catavina and Gonzaga Bay by Padres Link, Arnes and Diez, is the least visited Mission
in Baja and with good reason. Fifteen miles from Rancho Santa Inez doesn’t seem very far but wait till you see the road! In the recent book “The Lost
Treasures of Baja California” by Padre Francez, it is the only Mission without a picture no doubt due to the difficulty of access.
This trip really started back in Southern California when a few Discover Baja members were sitting around getting antsy for a trip to Baja. Where to
go? We were all experienced four-wheel drive Baja backcountry travelers but several of us had not been to the Mission. When I mentioned that a site on
the Internet had said a landslide closed the road, it was taken as a challenge. Just in case the road could not be repaired enough to allow passage we
said we would just go in and have a look at the closure. This ego-saving ploy fooled no one and we all carried shovels, tow straps, high lift jacks
and the usual backcountry paraphernalia to ensure passage.
Eight people and five four-wheel drive utility vehicles and pickups made up the expedition, including a guest we coaxed into coming along using the
unusual wildflower show this year as bait. Alan Romspert, the Coordinator/Botanist of the Desert Research Center at Zzyzx (http://biology.fullerton.edu/facilities/dsc/zzyzx.html) had been tricked into accompanying us into the interior before and his knowledge was
invaluable. Who else could show you all three varieties of Elephant Trees within thirty feet of each other?
The most unusual vehicle was Bob Martin’s Hotel. In reality, it was a Toyota with a pop-top cabover Skamper camper shell on it. At first glance you
wouldn’t expect to see it in the far backcountry but then you noticed the 33-inch tires, four-inch lift kit and locking differentials front and rear.
So far we haven’t managed to find a place where we could go and leave him behind. Trust me, we have tried. This trip requires a minimum of 31-inch
tires and a locking differential in the rear to make it in and out without the probability of damage to the vehicle.
The road was constructed several decades ago by the Santa Inez ranch owners in an attempt to get all the way to the Sea of Cortez near Gonzaga Bay
but increased difficulties in the mountains about two miles past the Mission and decreasing money put a stop to the project. Time has taken its toll
and the road is down to lumpy bedrock in many places.
The trip from the border to Catavina and nearby Rancho Santa Inez was uneventful. We then drove east a few tenths of a mile along the arroyo from
Rancho Santa Inez to where the road turns north and crosses the arroyo to start to the Mission. The moderately steep hill leaving the arroyo is
heavily eroded and if this gets your attention, then turn back now because this will seem like a freeway later! The good news is other than being a
little lumpy; the first ten miles are of very moderate difficulty. In about five miles you will come to the first sand wash with palm trees but no
surface water which is a nice spot to camp. We saw no evidence of blockage and started to become optimistic about making it all the way to the
Mission. In a few more miles we climbed over the peninsular divide and could see the Vermilion Sea ahead of us. If you have ever been on the west
shore at sunset, you will know how it picked up its nickname. The fun began shortly afterward, the road is cut into the mountainsides and water has
eroded the steep (very!) parts into bedrock ruts. An occasional thump was heard in spite of the 32-inch tires on my Tacoma and being lifted a bit.
When we got to a particular bad downgrade about one and one half miles from the Mission, Alan parked his non-lockered Pathfinder and rode with Dave.
The rest of us drove down the hill and through a swamp of reeds and palm trees to pick up the road on the other side and continue to the Mission. We
made it with no landslide in sight!
The Mission adobe end walls and door are still standing with only lumps of adobe three feet tall to show where the side walls were. Set in a grove of
both the common fan palm and the blue palm, it is a magnificent sight and well worth the effort to get there. Several motorcycles and a Hummer made
the only tracks we saw!
We followed the road past the Mission a mile and a half, into the wash (with water running) and climbed out the left side to camp overnight on a
large ten-foot high bench. Both the road and the separate six foot wide El Camino Real ascend the hillside from this bench. The road (undriveable near
the top even for a Hummer) ends in a few tenths at the top of a saddle, where an Indian trail complete with petroglyphs continues. The nearby El
Camino Real, which was a mule trail, shows it’s 230-year-old age and is hard to hike. Graham MacKintosh (http://www.sdwebservices.com/graham/grahammackintosh.html), popular author and Discovery Baja member failed to travel over it with his faithful
burro Mision last February) because of several accidents. You know it’s bad when a burro can’t make it. We hiked to the first summit and gave it up.
The next morning we reluctantly headed out, picking Alan’s Pathfinder up and managing to get it up the hills with a few extra tries (and thumps).
Back at Rancho Santa Inez we treated ourselves to their special combination lunch and headed down the road for another adventure: The Grand Mural
Style Pictographs in the Sierra de San Francisco so well described in the Jan.-Feb. Discover Baja Newsletter by Marie Hale.
Neal Johns
The Group:
Neal and Marian Johns
Bob and Marilyn Martin
John Page
Paul Ferry
Dave McFarland
Alan Romspert
The Trip (in addition to all being Discover Baja Members except guest Alan Romspert) was under the aegis of the Desert Explorers, the 150 family,
four-wheel drive section of the Barstow Mojave River Valley Museum and has members all over California.The squarecircle - 5-12-2008 at 06:12 PM
Greetings Neal, >>> Thank you for the nice trek report. >>> Lots of interesting history in that whole area. >>> I will
always cherish my conversations with Sra. Josefina Zuniga and her ranch hand, Mr. Fred Hampe who is responsible for dozing the trail to the mission.
>>> La Sra. related to me how she became the first Mexican woman to fly in an airplane as a child on the Mexican mainland. >>> Best
Regards, sq.BAJACAT - 5-12-2008 at 07:26 PM
Since I remember,It was David's saying.also Shell island,is one of them.
I kind a like it?.Fatboy - 5-12-2008 at 11:21 PM
Thanks Folks...So Walt is the first in print as it now stands but I wonder from reading his book where he picked it up from? In the book it is in
qoutation marks which I take to mean he was using the name from some where else.
David K.....I just ordered Jim Hunters book and should have it here in a few days, can't wait!!
Neal Johns...Thanks for posting that here for us to read. So, you wrote '...constructed several decades ago ...'. When was it bulldozed, in the '60's?David K - 5-13-2008 at 10:42 AM
Fatboy, I have all editions of the Lower California Guidebook (1956, 1958, 1962, 1967)...
The '56 and '58 editions only mention a 6 hour mule trail from Santa Ines, however the '62 edition says, "... in 1961 a road was under costruction to
the ruins of the Santa Maria.... This continues up the arroyo and crosses the peninsular divide (10.0 mi.), ending 12.1 miles from Santa Ines, about 2
mi. from the ruins."
Marv Patchen's book 'Baja Adventures by sea, air, land' (page 181) says this:
"In mid-1950 Fred (Fred Hampe, Santa Ynez ranch foreman) and Tano bulldozed a road a mile beyond the mission, planning to reach the Gulf at Punta
Final, where Josefina (the owner of Santa Ynez) also had a popular fly-in, shore front community of second homes for Americans. The route would have
cut nearly 80 miles off the traditional way in through Calamajue. When the paved main highway became a reality the mission shortcut was abandoned."
I think it was actually '1960' rather than '1950', based on the highly accurate Lower California Guidebook's details... but it is a good account of
the the effort to make a shortcut to the east side of Baja.
It was reported that Josefina also courted the Mexican government to build and pave the road from Santa Ynez to Punta Final when they were building
Hwy. 1 in 1973. She managed to get a paved airport and paved driveway, but the engineers nixed the Santa Maria route to Gonzaga Bay and built the new
road east from Laguna Chapala instead.
Photo by The squarecircle of my Tacoma climbing 'the Widowmaker' on our way back to Santa Ynez from the mission:
[Edited on 5-13-2008 by David K]
Bob and Susan - 5-13-2008 at 12:12 PM
i forwarded this picture to your insurance company DK
they will be contacting you soon with your new rates
oh yea...that's why you DON'T buy a used truck!!!
[Edited on 5-13-2008 by Bob and Susan]
David K - 5-13-2008 at 05:33 PM
Because I want to get in and out of places like Mision Santa Maria without any problems! Buy a used 4X4 and you are buying someone else's problems.
There was NO damage, mechanical or body, to the truck (it's a TOYOTA afterall)... One of the 4X4 mudflaps did come off and that was replaced after
that trip, but a while later on a wet Laguna Salada, the weight of the laguna mud took all four of the mud flaps from the truck... and that's the way
it remains today.
[Edited on 5-14-2008 by David K]Steve&Debby - 5-13-2008 at 09:42 PM
Toyota is fine for easy stuff like the mission trip,but for the real tough stuff get a JEEPThe squarecircle - 5-14-2008 at 02:16 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by Steve&ebby
Toyota is fine for easy stuff like the mission trip,but for the real tough stuff get a JEEP
Where was your 'real tough JEEP' and all the other bad boy jeeps that tried the La Turquesa Trek ??? >>> If you need a tough rig, I have a
hint for you! >>> Keep looking. >>> you have not yet found it!!! >>> Be Lucky,sq.Steve&Debby - 5-14-2008 at 08:24 AM
Could not make it down for the La Turquesa Trek ,had to work.From the pictures I have seen it looks like a highway. Where does the tough stuff start?
Hey Square, if you want to bring your luxury cruiser up to northern California I will take you on a couple of trails up by Tahoe and we will see who
has the tougher rig.By the way, I thought ROVER was a dog
[Edited on 5-14-2008 by Steve&ebby]Fatboy - 5-14-2008 at 07:45 PM
Some fighting words going on there!!!!
JEEP, TOYOTA, ROVER...
What's around Tahoe that is tough (and legal)?Steve&Debby - 5-14-2008 at 09:24 PM
The Rubicon Trail or Fourdice Trail,Just to name a couple of the easy ones.Fatboy - 5-14-2008 at 09:40 PM
I wouldn't call the Rubicon tough.
Fordyce? It is harder, mainly because of a couple of spots.
Then again, depends on season and vehicle too.
Some guys over at 4x4Trailhunters are planning another Rubicon Run this summer. Local guys from Redding, Red Bluff and Chico mostly.
ebby
