Fatboy's failed ECR hike

First of all sorry for not letting everyone know I was back.

The trip was really good even though I wasn't able to hike the ECR like I wanted to.

With all the warnings about Narco's in the areas and a severe drought in the area I wasn't to set on being able to do this hike.

Then combine that with the fact that I was still recovering from a case of
Covid bad enough to see me in the Hospital for a spell and then I was unable to arrange for rides so it probably worked out for the best.

I did hike around 40 miles over 2 1/2 days and it was interesting, the rest
of the week was spent doing some day hikes around Las Animas.

For what it is worth here is the story....

The crossing at Calexico went smoothly until I was in Mexicali and found that they had done some recent changes to where the actually crossing is and I got promptly lost.

After that it went smoothly to San Borja where it all fell apart. I was told I
could not leave the bike there. I think they thought I wanted to ride my bike on the El Camino Real (ECR). I wish I spoke spanish!

Dejected, I heading out and was nearing the BOLA road when the car broke down.
It was idling at about 1500 rpms and did not responded to the gas pedal. Turns out the Accelerator Pedal Sensor was failing.

By clearing the codes I was able to get it to work for awhile before it would act up again. Of course it was decision time now, what should I do? I was driving on the highway back towards Highway 1 when I found out it would only quit under a certain set of conditions and by clearing the codes I could get it working again, so I decide to continue on with my trip.

Since San Borja was out of the question now I figured I would head down to El Arco and find the trail North of the road and hike at least a few miles of the trail, going up and then coming back out. A storm had passed through recently and washed out sections of the road. I was hoping it had rained enough to fill some water holes on the trail but no such luck.



I passed through El Arco and continued on to the turn off to Rancho La Union where I heading north, thinking that this road was probably part of the ECR. I started seeing signs of the drought along this road with dead cows every few miles.




I found a wash to park in and started packing for an early start the next morning.

At sunrise it was a chilly 29 degrees.




Depending on the weather I had packed enough water for 2 or 3 days. I did not find any water on the trail and while I did pass one rancho where I could have gotten water there was no one around to ask for some. Lucky for me weather was very mild.

Came across this cool old trough in a very interesting forested area.



The trail varied between roads, bushwacking across the desert and following washes.
I did see what appeared to be Mountain Lion tracks that I followed for about
a mile up a wash.



I also came across what where probably Bobcat or a small Mountain Lion scratches in the sand.



Due the rain there was many plants flowering which made for some nice hiking.











Anyone know what this is?


I saw one snake on the trail.



It was fun looking across the desert knowing I had come from this distant mountain, or that I was going to that mountain off on the horizon.



Here I was heading to the base of this mountain where the red arrow is pointing



And in this shot the car is parked near the base of these mountains.



The drought did take it's toll though, there are seven dead cows in these
two pictures.





Did come across some interesting sites along the way, possible Kiln?

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These old rockwalls by a dried up water source.



First morning I awoke to a beautiful sunrise.



I turned around at, what I believe, was Rancho Nuevo. I could have asked for water and continued on for another day or so but I would have had to ask them for water on the way back also and it didn't seem right.

Taking a break on the trail



I covered 14 miles the first day, 16 miles the second and 11 miles the third day. While I was out of water before noon on the third day I knew the car was only a few hours of hiking away. You are never as thirsty as when you have no water and no way to get water, once you have plenty of water it isn't so bad.

After that I drove out and headed to Las Animas where I hiked up
Erle Stanley Gardner/Choral Peppers hill with the rock walls and sleeping circles.
I then then explored some nearby ranges where I found a couple of old hunting blinds and more sleeping circles.

It is hard to make out but the dark spot is what appears to be a hunting blind overlooking the wash...



That night while sleeping I was awoken by a angry coyote yapping at me, this was near the same area where I was bitten late at night by a coyote so it was a stressful night for me.

The next day I hiked up the western shore of Animas Bay where I came across this walled in cave. It is interesting that they covered the wall with brush...





Las Animas Bay






On my last day I rode the CT70 up to the turn off to the bay and climbed a mountain near the main road where I found more sleeping circles and this interesting short trail.





It was a great trip even if it didn't go as planned.

I had a couple of other adventures since then, including going to Utah and hiking up on the Kairparowits Plateau for 4 days, a multi-day kayaking trip with my daughter and her fiance on the lower Sacramento River, a multi-day backpacking trip in the South Warner Wilderness up in Modoc county, hiking a section of the Oregon Coast trail with my daughter and her fiance , a 3 day backpacking trip with my son, daughter and future son-in-law in the Yolla Bolly Wilderness and a hike up Arc Dome and to a WWII era bomber crash site in central Nevada and best of all to my Daughter's Wedding over Labor Day weekend.

Utah scene

Thank you so much for posting this. We were quite concerned and thanks to your daughter for responding that you were ok!

Beautiful photos and great exploring! The El Camino Real, where it isn't used by today's ranchers, must be badly overgrown? Were any of the ECR resources (maps, Google Earth overlays, notes) helpful? https://vivabaja.com/ecr-crossings/

Bahía las Animas has interesting mysteries, indeed! The odd walls, dam, and sleeping circles were noted by Choral Pepper in her Desert Magazine story and Baja book, following her time with the 1966 Erle Stanley Gardner expedition. She so wanted to return to it, she had told me, but couldn't get close in the vehicle she had. Thanks to Nomad 'Sharksbaja' for spotting it on Google Earth, we were able to go to it in 2009. https://vivabaja.com/p109/
Nomad 'geoffff' went in 2019 and with a drone, did some great flyovers. https://octopup.org/baja2019/las-animas

Again, good to see you back from Baja and alive and well!

From Harry Crosby's 'King's Highway in Baja California' 1974:

Not saying much but I’ve never heard of a coyote biting someone without being molested. I’d love to hear more on that instance.
What a great post, thanks for taking us along
Lionel

That coyote must have thought it was cabeza taco night
I’ve had them get into a lot but that’s a little unnerving
Glad you’re not detoured
Lionel

Quote: Originally posted by BajaRat

That coyote must have thought it was cabeza taco night I’ve had them get into a lot but that’s a little unnerving Glad you’re not detoured Lionel

The coyote 'just' bit me, didn't attack or anything, probably thought my head was food - thats kinda funny to say - and just snuck in to snatch it and run away with his prize! She was probably just as surprised as I was.

It does bug me when I know they are around at night and I am camping on the ground without a tent, this night one 'barked' at me for a minute or so around 10pm from probably 40 or 50 feet away, so I had some trouble falling back asleep that night.

Quote: Originally posted by Fatboy

Quote: Thank you so much for posting this. We were quite concerned and thanks to your daughter for responding that you were ok! Again, sorry about that, that trail by the Las Animas turnoff was in an odd spot, need to send coordinates to you to check out next time you are there.