TMW - 7-4-2004 at 09:06 AM
This is from our trip made during and after the Baja 500 race this year.
Once again the Wimberly brothers ventured south of the border for a great action packed week. This time we traveled in my new GMC Z71. Arriving Friday
June 4th in Ensenada we hooked up with Brian Salley and his race team 105x and were given our assignment. Sat. morning we picked Brian up and after
watching the MCs start we headed for Santo Domingo. Our first pit was in the wash before the bridge. All was well and the bike was running 3rd in
class. Next pit was on the other side down the mission rd. after the racers come around the mtn from the bottom loop. They were running 4th when Brian
got on and headed for Mikes. Tim Morton was helping 101x and they were in first by 10 minutes. 105x finished 5th and they were pretty happy so we were
too. We headed to the San Telmo rd. crossing and watched the rest of the race till about 6pm, then back to Ensenada.
Sun. morning I called my wife to learn that Reagan died and Smarty Jones didn't win the horse race. Went over to check the final results and was
surprised that Ragland didn't win, but thats racing.
Down the coast we headed for a great garlic fish lunch at Cielito Lindo south of San Quintin. We spent the night at El Marmol near the El Volcan wash.
The next morning I took my project NX125 bike out into the sand wash. Not enough power, needs more hp. We went to where the onyx is bubbling out of
the ground and further up the wash where someone had been mining the onyx. Interesting place. I'm told the bubble hole blows about once a month.
On we went to our fishing hole at Santa Maria and Seal Cove for the night. The yellowfin croakers and corbina were biting and a couple of surf perch.
After a day and a half of fishing we went to Malarrimo's for lunch. At the check station they looked at our visa's and wrote our names on a log and
they took my lemons, limes, tomatoes and avacados. They might as well have taken the chips. We went on to Mulege and the Serenidad hotel. The next day
we toured Mulege and found a new hotel on the north side of the river toward the mouth called Brisa del Mar. 3 stories high with the bar and
resturante on the top floor. We toured the place and talked to the manager/co-owner. Great view. We headed west out of Mulege to La Ballena on the
coast road north of San Juanico. This was a new route I had not been on before. The road is a good one by off-hwy standards. It crossed the wash
several times but no problems. Met an old cowboy on horseback. Also two road workers clearing rocks etc. They really liked our cold cerveza. At La
Ballena we went north taking the coastal route thru El Datil and then back to San Ignacio and the La Pinta hotel. Met some Harley MC street riders at
the hotel, one of which was from Bakersfield. He was in a little pain from dumping his bike in some rocks at the state line Pemex station.
The next morning we headed north on the hwy to where the 1000 race comes out at about KM133. We traveled up the course until it was so overgrown we
couldn't go anymore. We picked up a road west to a ranch and then north to a road that had been watered and led to a large open field. No one was
there but they are going to start growing something or build a wherehouse or something. We went out the road to hwy 1 in Vizcaino. Up to the El Arco
road and in. We stopped at Pozo Aleman and spent a couple of hours looking things over. Then on over to San Rafael and more fishing only this time it
was little bass and big puffers. That evening after dinner we decided to do a test of what coyotes like best. We put a mostly empty can of beef chile,
can of tomatoes, and a can of Denny Moore beef stew. During the night the only can the coyote took was the Denny Moore. Maybe it was the carrots and
potatos he liked. Fishing wasn't any better the next morning so out to LA Bay for lunch and north.
We again went off-hwy at K11 on the LA Bay rd and into El Desengano and spent time roaming around. Watch out here because there's a deep hole that
you could fall into. On up to Catavina and the cheap pink hotel. There we met two familys going to El Salvador, they were driving chevy diesel crew
cabs. They were taking the ferry across from La Paz and the Inner or Inter-American hwy or something like that. One guy said it was like an interstate
hwy. Another couple staying overnight was a guy moving his girl friend from Reno to East Cape. They were driving a chevy suburban loaded and pulling a
trailer loaded like the Beverly hillbillys. I got the impression they were not going to be together too long. He was already drinking Captain Morgans
at 7am from a very large bottle.
The next morning we head up to El Rosario for breakfast at Mama Espinosa's. There we met a couple from Palm Desert driving a MB SUV. The funny thing
was when alone each said the other was not adventurous, not wanting to go to new places off hwy in Baja. We helped them as best we could on going to
LA bay and then back up to San Felipe by way of the Gonzaga road. It wasn't until we were leaving that we noticed they had the the large rims and thin
tires on the SUV. O'well, I hope they made it. We took the cut across road from K103 to Trinidad and then into Mikes Sky Ranch. Looks like they are
dumping a lot of dirt on the road for grading. At Mikes Chris Haines had a MC tour group there although Chris was not with them. Also a couple of
Englishmen were there. Chris's groug had a woman motorcross champion from Japan and her grandpa. Grandpa was pretty tired and took one of the chase
trucks out the next morning. Overall a fine group for conversation. We crossed the border at Mexicali after getting lost trying to find the 2nd more
east crossing. Not to worry it only took us about 3 minutes to cross.