BajaNomad

A Fond Farewell

CaboMagic - 7-10-2015 at 07:32 AM

To Fred Metcalf's Baja California Travelers Message Board.

With thanks for the services provided and the kindnesses extended.

May good health and happiness always be with you,
Tommy & Lori Garcia

David K - 7-10-2015 at 08:03 AM

Fred had one of the first (if not the first) message boards devoted to Baja news and information... Thanks for letting us know he was retiring it.
Here is the link, while it is still online: http://math.ucr.edu/~ftm/bajaPages/MsgBoard/MsgBoard.html

sancho - 7-10-2015 at 09:36 AM

Quote: Originally posted by David K  
Fred had one of the first (if not the first) message boards devoted to Baja news and information








No doubt, I'm sure many have never heard of Fred's board, depending on their age and Baja time

Hook - 7-10-2015 at 10:08 AM

I noticed that Earle Robitaille also expressed his appreciation to Fred. Good to see he is still around, too.

David K - 7-10-2015 at 10:33 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Hook  
I noticed that Earle Robitaille also expressed his appreciation to Fred. Good to see he is still around, too.


Agree with that!

Earle is 'Fang' here on Nomad... cool guy as is his son Eric, hosts of the Amigos de Baja forum to 2003.

Santiago - 7-10-2015 at 11:58 AM

Somebody needs to grab Mike's stories and keep them - I guess I just nominated myself. Will try to get to it by this weekend.

David K - 7-10-2015 at 03:51 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Santiago  
Somebody needs to grab Mike's stories and keep them - I guess I just nominated myself. Will try to get to it by this weekend.


Yes, thanks Jim... very important to keep Mike's stories alive: http://math.ucr.edu/ftm/bajaPages/Correspondents/BajaWithMik...

My web host is one of Fred's moderators and I have asked him to save Baja with Mike, as well.

Here is one of Mike Humfreville's stories:


Alluvial Fan ( Posted November 14, 2005 )


"Michael, not me, but a friend, was planning to hike up Mike's Mountain today. It's not named after either of us. And it's just a silly gringo name, not Mexican at all. Rather after another fellow that climbed the mountain and carried stuff up there many years ago where the air is rare and placed it in a cave; water, a cot, chairs and food. We first met Mike of Mike's Mountain when we lived where Gecko's is today, before Geckos existed, or anything else here for that matter, in the '70's.

Mike's mountain Mike distilled his own water from the sea in a small pan he created and an evaporative tilted drip of a runoff from a sheet of glass that led the water into a bottle. He made his own bread from flour he brought into the village of Bahia de Los Angeles from the north. He ground it by hand. He was quite a character. He'd kayak down from his trailer at Vista al Mar and visit with us daily so far back then, in years.

Today another Michael is hiking up the peaks of Mike's Mountain. Our map tells us its four thousand feet above sea level, where we sit. We tried to see him but the distance is too great. And we were looking into the sun, westward as the afternoon wore on. We moved the telescope to the west balcony and positioned it in that direction. Michael called on the FRS radio to check in and reported that he was nearing the penultimate peak. We spied on him but couldn't spot him. It's an old scope and feeble. Me too.

Then he called to tell us he was at the top. I was glad for him, wished I was with him but could never have made that climb. Driving by I notice the washes, the alluvial fans, that have washed down from the peaks and midpoints of the tall mountains over the millennium since they were created. I feel one with them even though I am unworthy. They are simply rocks and stones and sand but have been here far before and after me.

When we lived in our little self-constructed hut in the '70's here a chubasco blew through and dumped a number of inches of rain on us in a short period. Water rushed down the deep ravines of the mountains and washed out huge trenches on both sides of our hut, in which we were huddled, Mary Ann and me. I heard the noise and was shocked to discover the threat that could have killed us if we had been less conscious of our environment.

As I'm driving to town and listening to the Moody Blues I turn off the engine and leave the blues blowing dust off my speakers. They're singing a song about the ebb and floes of September through December. I've driven off into the desert a great distance several times so I can elevate the volume of this album without disturbing others and simply dream between the words of their music. But today I have a focus. The grand mountains falling through their tops, stones into gullies where they are tugged by gravity.

How long will we have mountains on Earth? How soon will it be flat, completely symmetrical and covered with some small depth of water? Certainly sounds silly but it sticks there in my mind and I continue to wonder. I think about the Earth's core cooling. Is it really? How do I know that even though I've read it several in places and it only makes sense? Maybe we should find another planet to inhabit before we wear Earth out.

And I wonder back over the years about the Indians, Mexicans, Europeans that may have hiked the trail where my friend Mike has headed up yesterday, coming down this midday. Virginia, his wife, will pick him up. My assignment is relaying messages between FRS and VHF radios. It's a pleasure to participate, given the few activities I have here.

My focus remains on the rock fans pushed, pulled down from the mountains. They're such a massive demonstration of nature's power. I wonder how many arrowheads, if any, are buried beneath the rubble, how many bones of us animals, at last equal and buried together? I want to walk up them, the fans, and I will someday. It won't lead to the top of Mike's mountain, not even close. But it will help me feel closer to the power of the elements, of nature.

In my dying years that will lead me to tranquility."

[Edited on 7-10-2015 by David K]

Whale-ista - 7-10-2015 at 04:26 PM

Wow- lovely. Thanks for the post/share.

I've had similar thoughts looking at desert alluvials, after climbing up peaks in Joshua Tree. Given time- water and gravity will take down those rocky peaks...

CaboMagic - 7-10-2015 at 05:23 PM

All true .. it's the quiet end to another era ..
Great idea Santiago and DK to get Mike Humfreville's writing saved/preserved ..
Hook indeed .. well said.
Sancho its a bit of a coconut in the head for me to realize how long ago that all was ..
Good time to say thank you Doug for picking up and modernizing the style too ..
Good health and happiness all .. LG

Santiago - 7-10-2015 at 08:26 PM

OK, I'll leave it to the pros.

sancho - 7-10-2015 at 08:38 PM

Quote: Originally posted by CaboMagic  

Sancho its a bit of a coconut in the head for me to realize how long ago that all was ..
Good time to say thank you Doug for picking up and modernizing the style









Don't even want to count the yrs, when Earls Amigos closed, I remember Fred saying he couldn't handle the Amigos numbers,
so BN filled the void. A lot of my Baja time was before the
internet, with nothing but a AAA map and Tom Miller. These
newcomers with instant info and google street view, how
easy it has become to drive 1

David K - 7-11-2015 at 02:43 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Santiago  
OK, I'll leave it to the pros.


It's not a done deal yet Jim, we haven't heard back from Fred as of 3 hours ago when my web host emailed me.... so just in case, if you want to copy and paste Mike's articles, great.

ofer - 7-15-2015 at 08:11 AM

this really brings back pleasant memories.
thanks to all that have kept up the Baja information going. specially David K.

David K - 7-15-2015 at 09:18 AM

Thanks... are you the same 'ofer' who was on Amigos de Baja, 15 years ago?

About Mike Humfreville's stories on Fred's web page... I sent a new email just now to see if there is any progress.

ofer - 7-15-2015 at 09:38 AM

Quote: Originally posted by David K  
Thanks... are you the same 'ofer' who was on Amigos de Baja, 15 years ago?

About Mike Humfreville's stories on Fred's web page... I sent a new email just now to see if there is any progress.


yes. are you the same David?..haha;)

David K - 7-15-2015 at 10:04 AM

Quote: Originally posted by ofer  
Quote: Originally posted by David K  
Thanks... are you the same 'ofer' who was on Amigos de Baja, 15 years ago?

About Mike Humfreville's stories on Fred's web page... I sent a new email just now to see if there is any progress.


yes. are you the same David?..haha;)


Yes, we met on Oct. 28, 2000: http://vivabaja.com/vivabaja/ as well as lot of Baja folks did that day... several are no longer with us, sadly.

UPDATE: Fred has not responded to the email as of this morning.

ofer - 7-15-2015 at 10:35 AM

Quote: Originally posted by David K  
Quote: Originally posted by ofer  
Quote: Originally posted by David K  
Thanks... are you the same 'ofer' who was on Amigos de Baja, 15 years ago?

About Mike Humfreville's stories on Fred's web page... I sent a new email just now to see if there is any progress.


yes. are you the same David?..haha;)


Yes, we met on Oct. 28, 2000: http://vivabaja.com/vivabaja/ as well as lot of Baja folks did that day... several are no longer with us, sadly.

UPDATE: Fred has not responded to the email as of this morning.


I surely remember that day. you have a great memory!

David K - 7-15-2015 at 05:13 PM

Thanks ofer!

Okay more news on Fred Metcalf's pages... My web host (and one of Fred Metcalf's board moderators) is saving Mike Humfreville's stories and he says that Fred may be shutting down the message board, but not necessarily his web pages.

Here are Fred's web pages: http://math.ucr.edu/ftm/baja.html
Here is/was the message board: http://math.ucr.edu/~ftm/bajaPages/MsgBoard/MsgBoard.html

Lindalou - 7-15-2015 at 05:28 PM

I remember that message board. It was one of the first I found before moving here.
Mike was still alive then too. I remember reading his stories. Many of them.