Baja Adventure trip, July 2011 (Part 1 - Shell Island Freak Weather)

Just got back from a 3-week 2,500-mile Baja adventure trip in my motorhome, July 2-22, 2011, with stops at:
Going South (entry: Mexicali border):
1. Shell Island (joined David K's party)
2. Gonzaga Bay (Alfonsina's and El Sacrificio)
3. Villa Jesus Maria (Morro Sto Domingo / Laguna Manuela)
4. Guerrero Negro
5. Asuncion (Shari's)
6. San Roque
7. San Lucas Cove
8. Loreto
9. Ligui
10. Santispac (Bahia Concepcion), short stop/swim
11. La Pocitas (lunch/siesta stop)
12. La Paz (BajaTripper/ Steve and Zully's and Walmart's parking lot) 9 days, including 2 days of motorhome's front suspension work)
13. Tour - El Tecolote/Playa Tesoro
14. Tour - El Sargento, La Ventana, Los Planes, Playa Turquesa/Punta Arena
15. Tour - Todos Santos, Los Cabos, SJC, Los Barriles
Going North:
16. Santispac (Bahia Concepcion)
17. Rancho Sta Ynez (Catavina)
18. Exit: Tijuana border

Thanks to Shari in Asuncion for her hospitality and to Steve and family in La Paz (Zully, Nikki, Alberto, and Jorge) for their hospitality and untiring assistance with my motorhome's suspension issues.

And of course thanks to David K and family (Baja Angel and daughter Kristi) for their cheerful company at Shell Island, despite the almost disastrous freak weather).

Stories/Pics follow.

Part 1. Shell Island Freak Weather (July 2-3)
Part 2. Gonzaga Bay to Norte-Sur border (July 4-5)
Part 3. Guerrero Negro to Asuncion (July 6-8)
Part 4. Southbound to La Paz (July 9-11)
Part 5a. La Paz, Los Cabos and Vicinity (July 12-19)
Part 5b. La Paz, Los Cabos and Vicinity (July 12-19) . . . continued
Part 6. Homeward Bound (July 20-22)


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PART 1. Shell Island - Freak Weather (July 2-3)

• Crossing the border
• It’s high tide
• Stuck in Mud
• No Problema
• Dinner across the lagoon – Not!, "it's a snake!"
• Breakfast across the lagoon - Yes!
• Shell Island shellfish for lunch

It’s Saturday 3:30AM and it’s time to leave for our 2011 Baja Adventure trip. This would be the maiden long-distance trip aboard our custom 25-ft 4x4 Class A motorhome and my first time into Baja Sur. Aboard are my wife and our 45-lb dog Penny, a German Shepherd / Lab mix, along with the usual dual spare tires, shovel, recovery gear and tools, and above all refrigerator/freezer and ice chests stuffed with enough food for at least 2-weeks. The plan is to tour both Cortez and Pacific sides of Baja.

Crossing the border

We cross the Mexicali border early and at 7:30AM, traffic at the gates is very light. The “secondary” inspection is more of a quick formality, compared to my past border crossings at Tijuana and Tecate. Since this is my first crossing at Mexicali, I have no idea where to get an FMT and forget to ask the inspectors before driving off. So, my first task is to find a parking place suited for a motorhome. Since it’s early in the morning traffic isn’t so bad but the first suitable parking spot I could find, after driving around twice, is 4 blocks away from the border crossing; it’s quite a walk. Nevertheless, I leave my wife and dog in the motorhome, now with the generator and A/C running, so I could find where to get an FMT. I return to the border crossing and start asking, in my broken Spanish, where to get a permiso. After asking different people, all friendly people even if they hardly understand my Spanish, I am led to the right place.

The gentleman at the counter speaks a little English - good for me. I hand him over my passport and state I wish to get an FMT. He gives me the form to fill out, which I then complete and hand back to him. He goes back to his computer and enters the info. Yes the border is computerized! After a few minutes, he hands me the FMT and tells me that banks are closed so I can pay at any bank on Monday or before I return from my trip. I go back to the motorhome and it’s my wife’s turn to go through the same process – so I walk her back to the place. But there is a problem, her passport is expired – the computer will not accept the information. And the gentleman will not accept her Driver’s License, not even her citizenship certificate! So we leave without an FMT for the wife. We now are faced with a problem with our planned crossing into Baja Sur. But that doesn’t keep us from our first destination – south of San Felipe, Shell Island. It’s already 10:00AM, we’ll definitely be late getting to Shell Island.

We top off our diesel tank in San Felipe, and fill up the generator gas tank as well as its spare gas can. We have lunch in the motorhome and walk the dog and let her do her thing. It’s past 2PM and that’s bad; it’s high tide soon at Shell Island.

Shell Island - it's high tide

After a slow and leisurely drive south, we finally arrive at the Shell Island “entrance”. I quickly air down the tires and engage 4WD HI. It’s 4PM and indeed the water is high. I stop before the water crossing, next to the concrete “bridge”, and try to gather enough courage to cross it. I go down and check the depth and consistency of the water and ground underneath. It’s not that deep and well below the motorhome’s water clearance of 32 inches so I thought this well-equipped motorhome would be able to cross. It’s only 50 feet across. But there is no doubt it is slippery in and out of the water. After much deliberation and considering my lack of mud-4-wheeling experience, I chickened out. No I’m not crossing that thing! So I back out all the way, using the rear camera as a guide, as both sides of the elevated dry path are covered with slick mud.

So what now?, I ask. How do we join David K, Elizabeth and Kristi at their usual camping spot? Well I wonder if there are other ways into the beach. I know there’s one to the east – toward the fishing hut – no mud there but the sand is deep (I got stuck there 4 years ago with my 2WD van). There are trails leading north and to the west of the lagoon. David K would be camped at the other side of the lagoon. There might be a trail going further north that leads to an access to the beach. I follow one of the trails leading north; unfortunately, it’s not one of the driest and I get stuck in mud! Well, time to engage 4 LO and switch on the lockers. After a few revs, I get out of the mud, whew!!! Note to self: remember to take the drier trail on my way back.

So we proceed further north and now we see David K’s blue Easy-up and tent across the lagoon. In fact I see a David K waiving, trying to tell us something I couldn’t figure out. I park the motorhome and as I step out, David K is already halfway across the waist-deep lagoon coming to greet us!

Photo: David K crossed lagoon to meet us



Photo: Of me to meet David K after he crossed the lagoon


David tells me that he heard something revving and thought it might be us but couldn’t see, through his binoculars, mud around our wheel wells. Yes it was us stuck but we managed to get out. So I explain to him that I wasn’t brave enough to cross the water and I need some spotting help while I cross the water. I want to at least try to cross, emboldened by the presence of another nomad and another vehicle around. He agrees to come aboard the motorhome and I so drive back south next to the “bridge” where the usual crossing is.

Stuck in mud

Trying is fine but if your vehicle is not equipped for mud, you’ll get stuck. And the motorhome gets STUCK! The motorhome, although has good ground clearance, 4X4, lockers and all, has motorhome tires, of course. And whatever we did, the 4 wheels would just spin together with no traction. The ground is dry under the 4 inches of mud, but the dry ground turns quickly to mud as soon as the tires expose it. After trying so hard to get out of the mud, the motorhome slides further into the deep water. And the motorhome reaches its limitations. I wish I had mud tires; I wish I brought sand/mud ladders – were ringing in my ears.

Photo: Mud



David K has been away from his camp for several hours and he's starting to worry what Elizabeth and Kristi might be thinking. And while all of these are going on, what’s going on inside the motorhome, with the Mrs. inside, you ask? You bet, she’s in a panic, but she was kind enough to hand me the camera so I could take a picture.

Photo: Motorhome stuck in mud



“No problema”

I could see in David’s face that it was a bad idea even to try to cross the water. In my mind, since I’ve experienced a similar scenario 4 years ago, San Felipe is not too far away to get help or at least get traction aids like corrugated steel plates with holes, like those I’ve seen in use in African safari vehicles. Then David comes up with the classic “Mexicans always have the easy solutions, let’s see if someone’s at the fishing camp, (which is a quarter mile away)”. That beats waiting for tomorrow and driving to San Felipe, I thought. So we walk to the fishing camp. Here are several trucks there and we find one fisherman – his name is Esteban. David, in his Spanish, explains the situation to Esteban, who nonchalantly says “no problema”, grabs an oversized long rope and leads us to get aboard his truck.

While Esteban was driving us back to the motorhome, I couldn’t help but wonder how a 4000 lb truck could pull out a 12k lbs motorhome. No way, I said in my mind, I’ll have to drive the motorhome, while the tow truck helps to guide the motorhome off the slippery slope. And so, after Esteban ties the rope to the motorhome’s rear hitchbar, I put the motorhome in reverse at the same time Esteban pulls it up the slope. “No problema” indeed, it only takes one try and the motorhome regains its traction. Nevertheless, Esteban insists to pull further as if he needs to do more of the work. After all is done, I thank Esteban and hand him a $500 peso bill and he’s happy.

Photo: Motorhome gets pulled by a small truck.


David and I are happy; our day is saved. We climb back into the motorhome, open a couple of ice cold Pacificos and drink while we drive back to the west side of the lagoon, with David pointing out the drier trails to take. I park at a flat camping spot and bid goodbye to David before he crosses the lagoon back to the ladies Elizabeth and Kristi. We promise him Nora and I will cross the lagoon at night and join them at the camp fire.

Dinner across the lagoon – Not!, "it's a snake!"

We have no time to waste. It is getting late. Nora starts to deep-fry the egg rolls and I pre-heat the pot for the oxtail dish. The rice goes to the microwave oven. Not too long, everything’s ready. But it is past 8:30PM and it’s dark.

We change to our swimming trunks and prepare to cross the lagoon. I’m clutching the Tupperware full of oxtail dish and rice and Nora carrying the eggroll bag. My flashlight hangs from my front belt; her flashlight in her hand. I go first and walk straight ahead, no problem. She’s following me 5 feet behind, her flashlight scanning left and right until she spots about 3 feet to the side what she says seems like a rope which then starts to wiggle sideways. It’s a snake! she screams and heads back to the motorhome, “I’m not crossing that lagoon!”. I turn around and see what it is. It is a sand-color sidewinder that is wiggling away as fast as it could. I follow it and when I stop, it stops. I throw some sand over it and it gives out a rattle. It’s a rattlesnake. I leave it alone to go into the bush.

“Please, please don’t ask me to cross that lagoon tomorrow”, my wife pleaded.

We have a quick dinner of eggrolls and oxtail dish, shower/rinse our tired sweaty bodies then retire for the night. After all, the drive was tiring and the mud encounter taxing. It was very easy to fall asleep. Even as we could feel the fierce wind in the middle of the night, we feel secure in the motorhome, or so we thought, maybe because we we’re tired. It is a restful night.

Breakfast across the lagoon - Yes!

The water in the lagoon is very shallow that morning and my wife finally forgets what she said the night before. She agrees to go to the beach (i.e. cross the lagoon) as she starts to fry some fresh eggrolls (those from last night’s are already soggy) and I heat up the oxtail dish in the microwave oven. We would bring the breakfast to David, Elizabeth and Kristi. Crossing the lagoon is uneventful, not even a single snake in sight. And David is already up waiting for us at the other side of the lagoon.

“Did you have a good night sleep”, I ask David, not knowing how bad the wind was last night. No, he says, in a disappointed tone, “I had only one hour sleep”, “look at our camp” pointing to the disshevelled tent with holes and the broken spokes of the shade. Obviously there was a freak hurricane that night.

In retrospect, that rattlesnake warned us not to cross the lagoon that night.

Elizabeth and Kristi are still in bed, though it is not too early anymore, well maybe too early in Mexican ways? “But we brought you breakfast” and they were up in no time. We all chatted over breakfast. Due to the damage to their camp, David, Elizabeth and Kristi have decided to leave for their next destination. We too decided to do the same, but not until we spent most of the morning shell “fishing” along the low tide, while David’s party pack for their next destination – Gonzaga Bay.

Our next destination is also Gonzaga Bay. While David’s party is packing, we leave for the pavement first, but we stop before we hit the highway - to have lunch (we cook our shell island harvest of small shells for lunch!, unmindful of red tides), dog business, and most importantly, inflate the tires. Even with 3 kinds of inflation devices, it takes forever to inflate the big motorhome tires to 70 psi, not to mention I have to remove dried compacted mud between the wheels and brakes. David stops by to take pictures with us before they hit the highway.

Photos:



---- end of Part 1 ----




[Edited on 11-1-2011 by edm1]

[Edited on 5-5-2016 by edm1]

[Edited on 5-5-2016 by edm1]

[Edited on 5-5-2016 by edm1]

[Edited on 5-5-2016 by edm1]

A trip report would be nice but I would really like to see your rig
Rob

Quote:

Originally posted by baitcast A trip report would be nice but I would really like to see your rig Rob

The above two taken Sunday July 3 at Km. 26 when we all left Shell Island after the wind storm and headed south.

we sure enjoyed your visit and your rig created quite a buzz around these parts...it's awesome! here is a little reminder of our fun dinner at Loncheria Mari's...your wife can PARTY!!!


[Edited on 7-26-2011 by shari]

Quote:

Originally posted by baitcast A trip report would be nice but I would really like to see your rig Rob

Great looking rig,but I would have killed for your old one,who needs to stand straight up have had vans all my life but that was spot on.
Rob

Quote:

Originally posted by baitcast Great looking rig,but I would have killed for your old one,who needs to stand straight up have had vans all my life but that was spot on. Rob

Aren't you going to tell them about the sidewinder?

Quote:

Originally posted by David K Aren't you going to tell them about the sidewinder?

That's coming next David. Read about it tomorrow. There has to be some suspense - besides my white knuckles haven't recovered for prolonged typing :-)
]

[Edited on 7-27-2011 by edm1]

Oh good!

Quote:

Originally posted by David K Aren't you going to tell them about the sidewinder?

Hang in there Udo... I too am awaiting more of Art's report!