Trip Report/Rancho San Gregorio/San Juan Mine/ Baja 1000

(ON Edit: I've resized these photos twice to DKs specifics. So they are what they are. I'm over it! ;-)

Dern recently got back from working BFG radio relay for the Baja 1000-Rancho San Gregorio/San Juan Mine/Bahia de Los Angeles.

He worked on this report over the Thanksgiving holiday in Punta Banda. I am posting HIS trip report/photos.

"I got a call from friends of ours asking if I could do some radio relay for BFG, for the Baja 1k in or around the Bay of LA region. After tossing it around for a couple of days and figuring out my work schedule, I happily accepted.

My next thought was where to go. Bahia has some great locations to do radio work; the problem is getting to them. The mountain range goes from sea level to 5000’ ft real quick. Paulina and I were tossing around ideas when we both thought it would be cool if I could get up to the San Juan Mine. Hmmm… The challenge was on.

I remembered the thread on Nomad about LarryC going up there. I pulled up the thread and checked out the pics and read about San Gregorio on the western slope of the mountain range. Paulina sent LarryC a u2u and she located the email address for Rancho San Gregorio. I shot Rafael Villavicencio, the contact for RSG, a message of what I wanted to do.

I invited my friend Cy to come along. We got up early on Saturday, November 10th and left the Avila Beach area at 4am. We needed to meet the up with the whole BFG crew in San Diego by 11:30am for a meeting and to gather up necessary radio equipment.





After a long day of meetings, last minute Costco run, peso exchange, El Recreo in Maneadero, we made it to the house in Punta Banda around 6pm. We unpacked the truck and repacked it again with the things we needed for the trip down to Bahia, and headed out at o-dark –thirty that following morning. That would give us an extra day to do our homework and secure a spot before the race.

Got to Bahia around 2 in the afternoon and set up the house. Up till this point, I still hadn’t heard back from Rafael Villavicencio. So, the plan was to get up super early on Mon. and head out to RSG to see what we could arrange in person. As luck would have it, before leaving town, I stopped at the internet café that next morning to check my emails and there was a reply from Rafael. He said that he could take us up to the San Juan mine and that he had two pack mules that we could use. Whoo Hooo!! A plan is coming together.

I’ve been to San Borja multiple times but never San Gregorio. It took a few tries to find the final road that leaves San Borja and heads up to San Gregorio but we figured it out.



Waiting for his new owner to show up...




We got to the ranch around mid morning and met with Rafael. We explained to him what all we needed the mules to pack; generator, batteries, radio gear, 30’telescoping pole, antennas, water, food, clothes etc. We said that we have back packs and that we could carry stuff as well. He said that we didn’t need to carry anything, that the mules would do it all. Okie dokie. Works for us! He also gave us a tour of the ranch while we were there. What a beautiful place.

The main ranch house


The pila is huge, I'd say about 25'x25'


They grow most of their own veggies and raise chickens and rabbits for food. They are off grid and live out there fairly self sufficient. The funny thing is that they have internet and phone. He receives the same internet signal that Bahia gets. He has an antenna up on the Mine ridge that shoots a signal right down on him. He has to maintain it himself and just had to hike up there to fix it two days before we got there. That’s why we got a reply so late.

Rafael is also big in holistic healing, mainly using the native plants that grow in Baja. Throughout our time with him, he showed us many species that had a medicinal value. He also pointed out many edible plants.

Prior to leaving, we discussed a price for two guides and two mules. 2000 pesos. Seemed pretty fair to me since the guides and mules would stay overnight at the mine as well. We made plans to show up at the ranch around sundown on Wed., sleep there and get up early Thurs/race day to start our hike to the top to be set up before noon.

With all our ducks in a row now, that gave us all day Tues. and half day Wed. to round up things we needed from our place, get organized and ready to go for our adventure. The weather had been a concern in the back of my head. Upon arriving to Bahia on Sun., the North winds were howling. They didn’t even let up during the night. If it’s windy down low, I could just imagine how bad they would be up on the mountain. Luckily for us, they subsided on Tues. and the weather started to cooperate.

We headed out from our place around noon-ish on Wed. Before heading to the rancho, we needed to check in with the BFG Pit that was located in town across from Costa del Sol. We let them know what the plan was and that we’d be talking to them by noon on Thurs.

We made it out to the turnoff to San Borja/San Gregorio a little early and decided to kill some time on the side of the highway and see if our friends from Punta Banda that were going to stay at our place would pass by. No luck. Turns out, we found out later, they were already in town.

We headed down the road at 3pm on the button. With our last run to the rancho, we knew that it would take two hours exactly to get there. We pulled in just after dark. The sun goes down fast when you’re chasing it! We were offered to sleep in one of the bunkhouses but declined due to it being such a beautiful night with the stars and all. We set up our cots, had a little grub, got on the internet with our iphones to check in with Paulina and then hit the sack fairly early.

Both of us slept kind of restless as the ranch kitten was adamant on jumping on our heads throughout the night. It finally settled down in my sleeping bag and slept the rest of the AM.



The ranch did have three dogs, all female. They don't want male dogs peeing all over their gardens.

ILY Cactus at sunrise


We got up around 4am that next morning (race day Thurs.). I got coffee going and we packed up our stuff for the trek.

Making coffee on my tailgate


The guides were up and moving, feeding and saddling up the mules.

Rafael called this saddle, "chica nada"


They needed to get a jump start on us as Rafael suggested we drive up the arroyo as far as we could and meet them at the head of the trail, as this would shave off two hours of walking. This road/arroyo that we took was the old wagon trail that serviced the mine back in the day. This road was not designed for large vehicles. I wouldn’t do it in anything but a small size 4WD or quad. My little Tacoma had some tight squeezes and as a result, it now has a new /fresh set of Baja pin striping. After about 45 min driving, we met up with the guides. Rafael rode with us to ensure that the mules got packed up properly. He then walked back to the rancho. Cy and I and our two guides started our hike up the mountain.



Carga ancha


The hike went fairly quick. The views looking back to the west were spectacular. On Rafael’s last trip up to the mine, he saw 17 borregos. We kept a sharp eye out for them but to no avail. Our guides moved at a fairly quick pace, so if we stopped to take a photo or take in the view, they’d leave us in the dust. We followed behind the mules and had to pay attention to the one carrying the telescoping pole. He would stop in the middle of the trail to eat grass, next thing you know; you’re bashing your forehead into the pole. Half way through the hike I got smart and found a switch to whap the mules butt to keep him going.

Where is the red flag when you need one?


One of the guides was named Fermin. He must have been 65-70 ish, tall, skinny and everything he said came out super mumbled. Classic guy.



Fermin was from Tijuana and had worked with Rafael doing construction there for many years. He carried a machete with him and cleared a path as we climbed. He wore the coolest shoes; old school vaquero style with tire treads for a sole. I believe they are called “techuas”. (Someone chime in if you know the correct name.) I remember seeing a few pairs just like them in the museum in Bahia. Fermin’s shoes were made by a man in Bahia named Patricio. Turns out that Patricio is Rafael’s uncle, and grew up out at San Gregorio.

David was our other guide. He was maybe in his late thirties and was Rafael’s brother in law. Nice guy and very helpful. We found out that he definitely knows lots of cuss words after he got impaled in the thigh by one of those long thorny chollas. I didn't get a photo of David, only video.

The hike is deceiving. Once I got to what I thought was the top, it opened up into a big valley/meadow similar to what one would encounter up in the Sierras. I would estimate around 3800’ in elevation. In the valley we saw lots of remnants from the mine activity. I didn’t know this, but a train ran up there. We followed the railroad ties and track as we headed to the eastern ridge that we needed to climb to reach our final destination. We also saw several mine buckets that were used to carry material down the mountain.



There were some old rock buildings in the valley as well. After crossing the valley, we hiked another 500’ up to reach the ridge that would overlook the Las Flores valley and the town of Bahia.

The view was breathtaking! We could see the Pacific to the west, San Francisquito and Playa Rafael to the south and all of Bahia and the surrounding islands to the North.



We could also see the entire valley that we had walked through previously and two mine shafts in the distance to the west. Our final altitude was 4379’.



There were peaks that were higher in the surrounding area but access for the mules was impossible. We ended up adjacent to the cell/internet tower that services Bahia and Rancho San Gregorio.

Valle San Juan, looking west


Our spot was perfect. We immediately unloaded the mules and began to set up. We found a granite boulder that had just the right crack to wedge our antenna pole in and right behind it was a nice flat spot for our tent.

Cow hide mule boxes that we used for desks


Taking in the view




As soon as the mules were unloaded, our guides went back down in the valley and set up camp in a small mine shaft. The mules had plenty of grass to eat with all the rain that had fallen throughout the summer; however, there was no water. The following day, Fermin and David cut up a large barrel cactus for them. They loved it. I didn’t realize how much water is inside those things.

By noon we were up and running.

We did radio checks, chatted with folks on the course to see how long we could maintain contact, made contact with our relay to the north in Catavina and our relay south up in Sierra San Francisco. They came in loud and clear as if they were right next to me. I could hear one of our relays in Puertocitos but wasn’t able to make contact. At one point in the afternoon, I made contact with another relay all the way down just south of Loreto, approximately 250 miles away.

Our office for the next day and half


Things started to get busy around 3 in the afternoon and didn’t let up till 10 the next morning. It was a long night fueled with lots of coffee.

Getting the coffee started


During the night the weather turned on us. Thirty five mph winds out of the west and a little rain. I was a little concerned as I had left my truck parked in a steep, narrow arroyo. We had to do a scramble to keep the radios dry, and secure our tent better so it didn’t end up blown down by the Las Flores jail. Sometime in the wee hours of the am the wind let up and the rain stopped.

Our guides came back up to our spot around 9am Friday morning. We still had a few more cars to clear our area before we could pull the plug. At 11am we got the OK to wrap it up. It took an hour to pack the mules and we headed down the hill. 2.5 hours later we were at my truck. 1 hour later we were back at the rancho. We paid Rafael, got some watermelons that he grew at Aguaje, his other ranch, and then hit the road. We made it to the Bahia highway at 6pm.

After stopping for dinner at Alejandrinas in Bahia we headed to the trailers. What a long day! We chatted it up with our friends that watched the race from our place and shared stories. They told us they had taken a picture from our place, of the mountain we were on as we shined a 3000 lumen flashlight towards them. It made for a neat photo.



All in all we were up for 41 hours. I sure did sleep well that night!

Saturday morning we were up early and headed back to Punta Banda. Sunday, we were on the road at 4am and headed for Tecate. It took 1.5 hr to cross. We had no traffic through San Diego and LA and made it home to San Luis Obispo by 2pm. I still had time to watch some football. All in all, I had a great time and would do it all over again in a heartbeat."



So, there you have it, Dern's trip report.

Respectfully submitted, his personal secretary,
P>*)))>{



[Edited on 27-11-2012 by Paulina]

Which way did you go - I've shown a few options.

Quote:

Originally posted by Santiago Which way did you go - I've shown a few options.

Here you go Santiago... unless he says different, I bet this is the road Dern took?:

Ditto