Tecate to Cabo

I know these posts are a little late but I'd like to share our trip with everyone. Back in November my brother and dad rode from Tecate to Cabo on Xr400's while my other brother and friend followed us in my truck. We had planned to leave on a Friday morning but of course that Friday morning would be the start of the 50th Baja 1000 so we decided to leave Thursday to beat the rush. Me being the only one that lives in San Diego I had to get everything ready. My brother and dads bikes arrived Monday before the trip from Denver and I had to finish some minor things to them including wiring the new Baja Design lights, wiring the GPS's, and adding bar risers (we are all over 6 foot). Once the bikes were done I prepped my truck with a new chase rack I just finished the week before. Wednesday rolled around and I picked up all of the crew from San Diego airport and headed up to my house in Alpine. With the last finishing touches on the bikes and adding airshocks to the truck we were ready to leave. Thursday came super quickly and we started the ride around 5AM to try and get to Tecate when the crossing opened. We all couldn't fit into my single cab Chevy so my brother and I rode from my house to the border as my dad, brother and friend followed us down the back way and onto the 94 to Tecate. Once we got to Tecate we crossed, got our passports stamped and headed east towards the compadre highway. The truck continued on the toll road east to Mexicalli to meet us in San Felipe while we went south towards Laguna Hanson. Our bikes hit dirt and we never looked back. A few miles in we passed two Raptors, a Tundra, and a 4 door Rubicon that were all upgraded with shocks and tires. We made it a couple more miles when we heard them catching us so we let them pass. About halfway to Ojos Negros we came to the water crossing and they were all setup drinking beers. Of course we stopped and we all swapped stories about all the fun we have had in Baja. With it only being 9AM we figured one beer was probably enough so we pushed on to Ojos Negros, and then Valley de Trinidad without any problems. We hit the bottom of the hill after Valley de Trinidad and immediately jumped onto the race course. I've never ridden such big whoops anywhere in my life. It makes Plaster City look like a daycare center. We didn't make it a couple hundred yards before I heard on the radio that my dad had fallen off. I turned around and he was standing looking at his bike in disappointment. Him being 53 years old, we helped him get going again. We then crossed the dry lake bed through the big silt beds (which the Xr's loved), crossed through Morelia Junction and dropped right into San Felipe. It was around 3 in the afternoon and we needed gas, food, and a cold beer. Me being a 23 year old looking at the map weeks before the trip decided that Gonzaga Bay was a reasonable stopping point for day 1. I regret that decision completely. My dad, and myself were pretty worked at this point, but we had to push on. We had a cold beer, topped off the bikes, ate the worst fish taco I've ever had in Baja and took off. The sun set and it got so dark so fast. I'd turn around to look behind me and it was such an empty feeling. We made it to Punta Bufeo, where we were staying that night, and put all of our stuff away, started a bonfire, and cracked the Pacifico Ballenon’s. Punta Bufeo was awesome. The owner was super cool and our rooms were clean. With it being the Baja 1000 there were multiple chase trucks there. All the guys were super cool and we drank beer till after midnight. Not the best decision, but hey why not.



[Edited on 2-22-2018 by wyatthurley55]

Here's the rest of Day 1

Awesome ride! Thank you for sharing.

Day 2 Punta Bufeo to San Francisquito
As the morning sun rose, we realized how beautiful Punta Bufeo and Gonzaga Bay really were. All the guys we partied with the night before left to get ready to pit for there teams. Offroad racing is purely amazing. The bikes for the race started at midnight Thursday night so Friday morning we heard them off in the distance riding by. Once everything was packed up we took off heading towards Cocos Corner. It was probably 11 when we reached Cocos and checked it out. What an interesting place. It was crawling with race teams and Score officials, which was really fun. All the locals thought we were racing, so of course I had to pull a couple of wheelies for the kids. I’ve always wanted to race in Baja and this made me want to do It even more. We followed the race course for about 50 miles then switched between pavement and dirt until we hit the turnoff to go south towards LA Bay. The amount of dirt they are moving to build the new highway is unbelievable. Right at the turn to go south there was 3 guys on bikes at the tire shop. We had to wait for my truck so we pulled up to talk to them. It was a father, son and friend. The father just rode the San Felipe section of the course in the 50 and over class and had gotten a flat tire. He was pretty peeed haha. Once they got the back on the bike it immediately went flat again. He yelled, Fu** it, I’m gonna leave this piece of sh** in the desert. I smartly chimed in, where are you gonna leave it? He started smilling then he laughed. That team ended up winning there class. Once the truck caught up we headed on the road south a made it to LA Bay around 2 in the afternoon. We grabbed lunch and filled the coolers full of beer knowing there wouldn’t be another Pacifico store for a while. We jumped on the race course again and headed south towards San Francisquito. The road was pretty hammered from prerunners so it made it interesting to say the least. We passed a pretty whooped out section and figured we would make sure my fully loaded truck would make it through. It made it, but right after the section they pulled off and stopped. We rode down there to see that the strap holding $75 worth of beer had come loose and the cooler had fallen off. 50% of the beer was broken onto all of our gear below the rack. Damnit!!!! We cleaned everything up and pushed on. The trophy trucks started at 10 that morning and we figured we would have plenty of time to get to San Francisquito before they passed us. We were so wrong. The sun just had set when we pulled off the road to go to the house we rented from Alberto? I think that was his name. Right as we pulled off we saw lights coming from down the road. Knowing it couldn’t be my truck my stomach dropped. Sure enough it was Apdaly Lopez in his RPM Trophy Truck. The same guy I personally have seen nerf locals on the race course. He went by, then another went by, and another. My truck, 14 year old brother, and buddy Jose, nowhere to be found. Knowing they were stuck on the course with Trophy Trucks was a terrible feeling. The 3 of us decided to go get the keys to the house and get situated. We got to the house and we were all pretty distraut. My brother Jett and I decided to head back to the turn and wait for the truck. My dad had the Satellite phone and was trying to get ahold of the truck without any luck. Jett and I made it to the course where we found some Americans from Alpine, of course, with plenty of beer and tequila. Jett and I proceeded to get a good buzz just sitting there biting our fingernails as each truck went by knowing they passed our brother. It was probably a good hour of us sitting there drinking beer when we saw lights coming, but didn’t hear the distinct V8 sound. I looked at Jett and said, dude that’s my truck. He said, no way they were way farther back. The lights got closer, and closer and sure enough there they were. I have never felt so releived in my life. Cade jumped out and was super exited to make it to the turn. This was his first encounter with a Trophy Truck ever and he told me next time he’d rather be sitting in a lawn chair watching them then being chased by Apdaly. We all loaded up and headed to the house. My dad had cooled off a little bit thanks to the beer and we busted out the Costco Flank steaks and macked down. It wasn’t long before we were all face down snoring. Hell of a day.

BRAAP!

And Some more from day 2

LA Bay



[Edited on 2-22-2018 by wyatthurley55]

Headed to San Francisquito

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Great... of course being on the race course on race day may have been not the best plan. Glad all ended well. The Punta Bufeo motel looked pretty cozy when I checked it a year ago. Your photos show it pretty well. Too bad the rooms are so far from the beach, is all. Was anyone landing at their runway that you saw (any planes parked)?

Quote: Originally posted by ehall

Good start. San Felipe is far enough for day one.

Quote: Originally posted by ehall

Sucks about losing the beer.

Quote: Originally posted by ehall

Sucks about losing the beer.

Day 3 San Francisquito To Mulege

So after the fun filled day of Trophy Trucks and the Baja 1000, we woke up to the beautiful bay of San Francisquito. I wish I had more time to spend there. The grounds were spotless and the beach was pretty badass! We walked out onto the dock, looking down at the sea floor and saw hundreds of little stingrays. The owner, cant remember his name for the life of me, was awesome. He was super helpful and spoke great English. We all overslept, waking up at 9:30 and frantically started getting ready. There were bees everywhere, and that beer that we spilled the day before was attracting them like crazy. Being super careful, we finished loading and took off. Fallowed the Baja 1000 course out, which turned out to be beautiful and a lot of fun. Broken down race cars and parts were everywhere. At one point it looked like somebody got nerfed by a trophy truck because there was fiberglass, lights and a number plate all within 50 yards of each other laying on the road. Me doing my duties to clean up Baja I scored 2 Baja Design Pods and a Rigid Led Light Bar!!!! Super score haha!! Every 30 miles or so we would stop and link up with the truck, grab some water, some salami, and a coke and then take off again. The terrain was a lot of fun on the bikes, and it was cool to see class 11 bugs putt by. We finally made it to El Arco and got super turned around. There are a ton of little roads running all over the place. I stuck to my GPS and continued on the race course. Bad idea!! The course went from a road to massive silt whoops really quick. I knew my truck wouldn't make it so I made the call to turn around and find a better road out. As soon as I turned around I saw a flash on the ground like a mirror, and stopped to see what is was. Another Baja Design Pod! It was like Christmas. In one day I found $1200 worth of lights. I through it in my back pack and continued back towards El Arco. I got half way back to the Road when I found my truck buried to the frame in silt. We busted out the shovels and my knock off Maxx Traxx and went to work. Surprisingly we got out in 15 minutes. The traxx were worth there wait in gold and I recommend them to everyone!! We finally made it back to El Arco and followed the graded road out to the highway. That was the worst part of the day. 15 miles of strait 3 inch tall washboard. We hit the highway and I literally couldn't feel my hands. The rest of the days ride was all pavement to Mulege and that was ok with me. It had been a long couple days so far. We rode through Viscaino, San Ignacio, and stopped for gas in Santa Rosalia. Santa Rosalia was an interesting stop. Lots of Asian influence for sure. We finally made it to Mulege, found our hotel, unloaded our gear and popped a couple tops. We found a killer restaurant right across the street and had plenty of margaritas, steak, shrimp and potatoes. Food Coma had set in and we all went to bed. Another badass day in Baja.

Day 3

Day 4 Mulege to Ciudad Constitution. I know its been a while, but Ive had some crazy stuff happen in the past year and this has taken a backseat.
After the great food and margaritas the night before, I woke up surprisingly early. I woke up my brother and we strolled around Mulege looking for a redbull. The only store open was the Six on the corner and they only sold Monsters. We settled for a Rockstar and headed back to the hotel. We had planned to ride to Loreto on the Hwy and then head to the San Javier Mission, but three 300 mile plus days had taken there toll on us. We rolled into Loreto and parked on the Malecon to have lunch. We walked into the Mediteraneo and had killer margaritas and smoked brisket sandwiches. The owner was extremely nice and from Texas. At this point I kept looking at my gps and saw that it was only a couple hours to Ciudad Constitution on the pavement. I relayed the message to the others and we didnt even have to say a word. Am i bummed we took the shortcut? Maybe a little, but I was dog tired and a michelada and sleep had my name on it. We rolled down the hwy jamming to some music and taking in the sun. We pulled into town around 3o'clock and checked into our hotel. Super weird but the hotel was brand new and the nicest place we stayed so far. They even let us pull the bikes into the rooms. After we checked in and got situated we walked down the street and found a Michelada cart. We sat there and talked with the owner for probably an hour. He pointed us into the direction of a pizza joint and we ate and crashed out. Super uneventfull day but a much needed break.

Day 5 Ciudad Constitution to La Paz
Day 5 was our last real day of offroad and our last long day. We new we needed to leave early in order to make it to La Paz before the sun went down. So we woke up around 5 am and started getting ready. A serious fog bank rolled in and you got wet just standing there. We got on the bikes and headed to the Pemex to fill up for the long day ahead. This was the only day where we wouldnt meet up with the truck half way through the day, we were on our own until we got just north of La Paz on the coast. After fueling up we started heading south to the turnoff to head dead east across the peninsula. The fog was so thick that I had to take my goggles off to see. We got to the turnoff and decided it wasnt worth it to ride into the fog like that. We could feel the sun coming through so we sat there for about 20 minutes for it to clear up. The truck had extra fuel so we topped off one more time and then headed down the road. there was a lot of traffic on the road we picked and the dust was pretty bad. We road for about 5 miles where we cought up to grader. He took up the entire road and couldnt see us or here us. I saw a narrow gap where I might be able to get around him and went for it. As soon as i put my tire onto the bank it sank about a foot into silt making me tip over. Somehow the bike got stuck on full throttle while it was laying there. It let off a couple backfires and the operator heard it and then pulled over. After i got back on my bike we road off didnt have anymore traffic the rest of the day. we roded for about an hour when we happened upon the San Luis Gonzaga Mission. We stopped and took pictures and talked to a couple locals. It was pretty amazing. After looking around for about 20 minutes we headed out. There were a bunch of little kids that we gave stickers too and pulled a couple wheelies and were off. The trail was pretty fun and highspeed up until we hit the base of the mountains. We started climbing some seriously rocky roads until we got into a large valley. There was fresh water running through it and there were little ranchos and cattle everywhere. Little kids lined the road as we rode on by. We kept heading uphil and came around the corner to one of the most beautifal things I had seen the entire trip. It looked like the Canyon, but is was super green. We stopped and took pictures and then pushed on. We made it to the coast around three o'clock after a serious day of rocks. As soon as we got on the beach I picked up a nail and had a rear flat tire. We pulled over and got to work. We got it fixed and headed south to La Paz. The truck met us near the Shrimp Farm and we convoyed in. About 5 miles from La Paz on the Hwy my brothers biked stopped running. We noticed it had been burning a lot of oil and we had been refilling it but we figured it had seized. At this point we had used all of our spare bike oil so we filled it up with the trucks mobil one synthetic. It took two quarts of oil which meant it was bone dry . We let it sit for five minutes and kicked it once and it fired right up. We were shocked!!! After that we pulled into the hotel on the Malecon and went and had dinner and went to bed early. It was a hell of a day and the most memorable of the entire trip.

Looks like a good crew and a great time...

Thanks for pics and story.