New Year's 2018 Surf/Camp/Off-Road Trip Report

New Year's Surf/Offroading trip

For New Year's 2018, We decided to take a trip down to camp, surf, and off-road in an area that's part of the Seven Sisters. My wife's cousin and her husband planned the trip. As part of the planning, he specifically asked that we not share any GPS coordinates or tracks with people, so I'm not going to provide any specific locations.

We met up with my wife's family in Imperial Beach on the morning of December 28. We had 5 vehicles, one trailer, 3 dirt bikes, 5 surf boards, and 14 family members. The drive across the border was non-eventful (yes, we got our FMMs!), and we got headed down highway 1. We made very good time, and by the early afternoon, got to El Rosario. Of course we stopped for fuel, and lunch at Mama Espinoza's. By early evening we got to Catavina and checked into the hotel for the night.

My father-in-law tells me that on the way into town, he had to swerve because there was a big piece of metal in the road. About that time, I realize that one of the ramps from our trailer had found it's way loose on the trip down. (Imagine that, on Highway 1... and it's potholes the size of Rhode Island). We deduce that the thing he was trying to avoid was our ramp. Oh well. I can make another one. I just hope no one hits it!

The next day, at daybreak, we woke up and got everything ready to go for our long day of off-pavement riding to get to our destination on the beach.

I hopped in the Razor with our 7 year old, and my wife took the truck with our 6 year old. The rest of the clan split up between a few other vehicles and bikes.

Since it's Mexico, since it's a dirt road, and since there's NO one in sight, my wife let our 6 year old sit on her lap and steer the truck down the road. Get 'em started young, right??? We each have radios in our vehicles, and after about 10 minutes on the dirt road, I hear a call from Leana, indicating that something is wrong. Apparently Jolene was steering and all of a sudden, couldn't turn the truck. She ran off the road (going all of 4 MPH). I turned the Razor around and came back to help. When I arrived, I found about a scenario that I had most definitely NOT prepared for.

My wife and I try to be VERY thorough in our planning. She's a list maker, I'm a doer. And we try to be VERY prepared for our trips. Unfortunately, I did NOT pack a spare tie rod end and drag link for my truck's steering. When I got to the truck, the tires were towed completely out from each other. I looked underneath, and found that the ball joint had popped out of the ball joint cup on the passenger side spindle/knuckle. That's NOT good. My head starts spinning. This isn't a part that you get at an auto parts store (as if there were an option of an auto parts store near Catavina). This is definitely a DEALER item. "Is there a Dodge dealer in Ensenada?", my mind thought. One of the relatives with us says "Hey,.. let's pull it off, and go back to find a little town and see if they have anything". In my head, I'm thinking that he's insane. There's no WAY that someone is going to have THIS part... and this is completely un-repairable. BUT, at about 8AM, we hop in a jeep and start heading back north on the highway 1. We left 2 vehicles on the side of the road, and sent the bikes and other vehicles on their way to get to the camp on the beach (there's no reason that EVERYONE has to be miserable, right??).

We find a llanteria somewhere about 20 miles north of Catavina. My uncle-in-law and I both try to describe what we need. After a lot of hand signals, broken espanol, and general confusion, we think that the best bet is to head back in to El Rosario. At this point, we're still figuring that we'll likely be going back to Ensenada (or MAYBE San Quintin, if we're super lucky). We pull into El Rosario, and find a llanteria there. The guy speaks pretty good english, and when we describe our issue, he says.. "Hey.. see right there, three houses up? There's a gringo there who can take care of you." We also have a spare tire that needs to have the SIDEWALL patched, and be mounted on the rim, so we drop it off at this shop, and head up to see the gringo.

We get to the house, and walk around the side. It looks like they have stripped every car in Baja, and thrown the bolts, u-joints, bearings, and other random pieces onto the ground. A short little mexican man greets us, as if we are his best friends. We explain the situation, and he directs us around the corner to talk to "the gringo". We find an older American gentleman sitting at a picnic table, drinking beer. He sees our dilemma, and tells us that we are in good hands, and we should be good to go in about 30 minutes. I ask the mexican guy if they have a spare part there that they are going to sell us. He says that they are going to FIX my broken part.

I explain that I'm skeptical of this so-called "fix", since I don't see how they'll accomplish this. The mexican guy says "Look amigo,... we do this ALL the time. Fisherman on the beach have these fail ALL the time. We can't go to the store like you americans can, to get new parts. We have to fix what we have. It's our livelihood.". I explain that I have my FAMILY with me, and I need to make sure that my steering doesn't fail on highway 1 while I'm trying to drive opposite a big-rig.

His response will stick with me forever: "Amigo, you are traveling with your family? And you need to get back to Estados Unidos? I give you my word. I guarantee, that you will be safe and get home. This is not something that they would ever do in the states, but you will be fine, I promise".

The gringo busted out his welder, grabbed some random washers, and a sledgehammer, and beat, shimmed, welded, and otherwise fabbed up my steering components to a state that I would say was ALMOST as good as new. I asked what I owed them for their amazing craftsmanship. $20 (USD) was their rate. I threw in a 12 back of cold cervesas. For our situation, I gladly would have paid HUNDREDS of dollars, and this guy knew it. But he didn't take advantage of us, and was extremely happy to get his wage.

We stopped back by the llanteria, and picked up our patched, mounted, and balanced tire. 100 pesos. Unreal.

We headed back to the trailhead, and the truck without steering. On the way back, on the top of the windy mountain road and mesa between El Rosario and Catavina, we came across a couple of locals who had lost their radiator cap, and were overheating. Of course, we had to stop. They spoke NO english, but we spoke the common language of survival. They were ABSOLUTELY not mechanically inclined, so they had no idea what to do. We found some old tire tubes and canvas laying on the side of the road, and we had some bailing wire in the jeep. We fabbed up a makeshift radiator cap, and gave them about 6 bottles of water, and we were all on our way. The feeling of helping your fellow human is such a great feeling.

Guess what else... In the middle of NOWHERE, halfway between nowhere and nowhere... we ran across my metal trailer ramp laying off the side of the road!!! We grabbed it and proceeded kept on moving!

We got back to our truck, hooked our like-new steering components back up, and by 1PM, we are back on the dirt trail through the amazing beauty of cactus and cirio for HOURS on end.

We pulled into camp at about 3:30 PM. The crew that had gone ahead is ASTONISHED that we were there. All had resigned themselves to the fact that we'd be arriving the NEXT DAY, if at all, due to our circumstances.

We spent the next week camping, surfing, buying abalone and lobster from the local fishermen, off-roading, and having an absolute great time. We setup a "treasure hunt" for our kids, placing clues and buried treasure all over the beach, which is something that they will NEVER forget (and, something that we are extremely proud of ourselves about -- but that will be another post).

One of the best memories happened on the 2nd to the last night we were camped there. We were camped about 500 yards from some local fish camp. One night, they informed us that they were going north to sell some of their goods. I believe they were headed all the way back to Tijuana. Well about 3 hours after they left, two of the fishermen came walking to our camp. They had broken down on their way out. They said that their broken truck was about 3km away from camp. They were asking for tools and parts to borrow. We loaded up the toolbox and told them to get into the Razor, and we went on a rescue mission. We found their truck and realized that the shifter on their manual transmission had come loose, and they were unable to shift. Well, my McGyver instincts kicked in. We found a hose clamp on their air box, some bailing wire in their glove box, two tent stakes that were on the floorboard, and somehow managed to get them back moving again. I felt amazing. After the total Baja-fix that was done at the "shop" earlier in the week, I was able to repay the favor by coming up with a "middle-of-nowhere" fix for these guys that were in a complete bind. Did they make it to TJ? I have no idea, but they took off into the night on their mission, and we returned to camp feeling very accomplished.

That pretty much wrapped up our amazing surf/camp/off-road adventure. We headed back north (taking the 5 and stopping at Alfonsina's on the way back).

Our entire family will remember this trip forever. Oh, and I kept driving on my baja-fab steering fix for about 2 months once we retuned to the states! The guy lived up to his word!!!



[Edited on 10-4-2018 by aburruss]

What a Great adventure. That is what Baja is about. Thanks for the story.

Perfect!
Thanks for sharing!

Quote: Originally posted by JZ

Great to learn about the shop in El Rosario. Any more details on where it is located?

Next to the old beat up 4Runner.

JK. But those WERE the instructions from the guy at the tire shop.

The tire shop is Llanteria San Borjas -- About 30.065174, -115.718860
Gringo under a tree is two houses up -- About 30.065585, -115.718517

Here's a picture of the way to get to the side/back of the house to find the gringo



[Edited on 10-4-2018 by aburruss]

Quote: Originally posted by advrider

That Gringo has been saving me and my Motos for years, very good guy. He has a pretty interesting story to. He welded a foot peg back on the frame of one bike that got rearended this year. We call the tree in the yard the tool tree because of all of the cool stuff hanging on it!