BajaNomad

1973 Baja Road Log & Maps

David K - 12-4-2014 at 05:39 PM

Over on Talk Baja (Facebook) my first (self) published Baja guide cover was shown, and someone there was interested in seeing the inside...

Well, I finally got around to scanning a few pages and can share with you a look at what I wrote and produced on my summer vacation in 1973. I was 15, and my parents and I drove to Loreto, San Javier, and Puerto Escondido that trip.

Now the kicker is, we heard the Baja highway was nearly all done in mid 1973, so we thought nothing of not having a 4WD any more, so we took my dad's new Ford LTD wagon. He had modified it with an extra gas tank and air adjustable shocks before the trip... Good thing, as the highway was still far from complete and we were on the old Baja main road for quite a ways (San Agustin to Laguna Chapala, 60 miles). We had driven all of it in our Jeep in 1966, and my dad had again the year before (1972) in his 4WD Sububan but via Mexicali-Puertecitos and south to Cabo.

Imagine our surprise when the highway pavement ended not even 38 miles from El Rosario! We had no idea of where the southern crews had reached, we only knew it was at least to San Ignacio.

JULY 1973
Here are photos taken on that trip:


Laguna Chapala dust, on detour road along new highway roadbed.


On new roadbed, Laguna Chapala Valley.


We made it out of the dust, dad and I (note my Dick Cepek Baja Proven shirt!)


Mom... view towards El Crucero and L.A. Bay

I took notes off the odometer of every point of interest and where new road or pavement was... When the trip was over, after taking the ferry to Guaymas from Santa Rosalia, I went to work to produce the first data on the new highway route. My sister typed the report, I hand drew the cover and title page and maps... put it together and sold them in two Escondido book stores. The book was a success, it was shown on TV and written about in the paper. They kept selling even after the highway was completed, for as long as I put them together (with update notes added)!

Here is a sampling... scanned today:





























I would later discover that the old road was actually south of the highway before El Arenoso for a few miles (shown north on map), and it was west of the new road in the El Crucero-Punta Prieta section (the furthest north paved section: shacks to worker camp), not east of it.

Anyway not bad for a 15 year old I guess!

Big thanks to my parents who were just so wonderful and supportive of my Baja addiction (well, they are the ones who gave it to me)... and to Howard Gulick of the Lower California Guidebook who inspired me to make maps and take notes on my Baja trips.

StuckSucks - 12-4-2014 at 05:46 PM

Very cool - I'm going to have to really digest this.

Some day I will scan and share, but I have a photo copy of the circa 1967 AA Baja book - it talks us down highway 1 and what to expect. If I remember correctly, the pavement ends somewhere around San Quintin.

David K - 12-4-2014 at 06:02 PM

Quote: Originally posted by StuckSucks  
Very cool - I'm going to have to really digest this.

Some day I will scan and share, but I have a photo copy of the circa 1967 AA Baja book - it talks us down highway 1 and what to expect. If I remember correctly, the pavement ends somewhere around San Quintin.


That would be cool to see... Pavement ended just north of Colonet in '67, as it had for many years. My dad and I would go fishing west of Colonet that year (San Antonio del Mar area).

I think they began working the pavement south in '68, getting to Camalu. By 1970 it was at Colonia Guerrero and in 1972, San Quintin. VERY slow paced... but the Baja Sur crews were working at warp speed! In 1971-2 they paved all the way from Constitucion to Santa Rosalia, building the new roadbed over the mountains from Insurgentes to Ligui in 1970. In 1970, they paved the road to Cabo San Lucas too.

David K - 12-5-2014 at 07:38 AM

Here's the 1964 Auto Club guide...



and the 1962 guide...



[Edited on 12-5-2014 by David K]

4x4abc - 12-5-2014 at 08:02 AM

super cool! I am impressed!

David K - 12-5-2014 at 08:55 AM

Thank you! Baja has a power over me indeed!

4x4abc - 12-5-2014 at 10:43 AM

David,

I will have to pick your brain for some of my Baja projects

Loved it all.

fixtrauma - 12-5-2014 at 11:23 AM

Thanks for for the effort you took to post this. Enjoyed it all.

TMW - 12-5-2014 at 11:51 AM

Good job DK.

Bob H - 12-5-2014 at 06:25 PM

That was a great read David! Loved the maps of the areas when unpopulated (and no Cataviña).

Did you ever do a map of Mulegé in the 70's? What was the Serenidad Hotel like back then?

David K - 12-6-2014 at 08:49 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Bob H  
That was a great read David! Loved the maps of the areas when unpopulated (and no Cataviña).

Did you ever do a map of Mulegé in the 70's? What was the Serenidad Hotel like back then?



Hi Bob,

I am not sure if at the Serenidad or another place, but my parents did meet Don Johnson in '66 and had a fun discussion with him finding out he used to live down the street from them in L.A., long before I was born.

I do recall in '73 we stayed at the hotel up on the north mesa, the Club Aero or Hotel Mulege or whatever its name was, and there was a tame deer that would eat out of your hand. I have a photo of my mom feeding it, somewhere!

I think the Serenidad has been pretty unchanged for many years? I going in for a look around on one of our trips in the early 70's... then again when Capt. Mike took us up for a flight in 2001... same place.

David K - 12-6-2014 at 08:51 AM

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc  
David,

I will have to pick your brain for some of my Baja projects


Pick away! :lol: