Barbarosa
Nomad
Posts: 188
Registered: 1-12-2011
Location: Jackson, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: "On th' road again..."
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Baja Run 2011 – Day 4, February 7, Mulegé
Baja Run 2011 – Day 4, February 7, Mulegé
Corrections (well, not really), and omissions (yeah, that!).
First of all, regarding El Rosairo… Before we left home, there was a post here from BajaAndBack.com
They had mentioned leading a caravan (10 RVs) heading north, and I figured we'd cross paths on this day. We didn't see many caravans and only saw
one that day. I believe we had just rolled south from El Rosario. They'd asked folks to wave. We did. They did. I imagine it was probably them.
Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to see the news on their website.
http://bajaandback.com/
Damn shame.
I really enjoy that wild and wooly stretch (coming into BCS). Certainly some truly spectacular scenery.
And, IIRC, our first encounter of the entire Run with a manned federalie checkpoint was just north of Guerrero Negro. Based on experiences in years
past (with Connie on the back of the bike), I had a strategy. I pulled the group over and let the chase truck move up from the back. Cute Connie with
dimples flashing (and more Español than the rest of us put together) dealt with th’ kids with the automatic rifles. Proved to work pretty well for the
duration of the Run.
Guess that gets us pretty much current. Except for one thing. We did, on this Run, have (major dread) TWO mechanical failures. The first happened
in GN. One of m’ buds was out touring the town and the surrounding area during our down day and hit a tope. Hard. Took out his kickstand spring.
This is serious. A kickstand flopping around (and locking down) can absolutely throw you to the ground.
We phoned down to the only Harley shop in all of Baja (in Cabo, a mere 600 miles to the south) and reserved the entire stock (quantity 6) of kickstand
springs they had in stock.
And then, the next day, here we are, rolling south from Guerrero Negro. Just plain glorious (or course). And as we approach San Ignacio, we hit the
second federalie checkpoint. No BFD. Except… in the words of m’ bud, Len,…
“I knew it immediately... The grade up to the bump was high so the bump was relatively low... But there was a divot beyond the bump that my front
wheel fell into that caused the bump to hit against the spring... boing!
I knew it right away, pulled up to where everyone was bunched up getting ready to go, and said my kickstand broke!” (Well, that is to say, the spring
had made an escape.)
So, within 24 hours we had had our two (identical) mechanical failures. Predicted, before Danny had encountered the first one, by Len who
experienced this second one.)
I really love San Ignacio. (What’s not to love?) We stopped at the town square and posed for the obligatory group portrait. We also met Scotty, a
scooter tramp who’s ridden Baja for over a decade and never before happened on San Ignacio. Go figure?! Interesting character, who, I discovered a
couple of weeks later, was also a friend of my friends in Beaumont, TX. Small world, indeed.
Took time for some suds and grub and then rolled out for points south. I sent those with shorter range out to the Pemex on the highway (turned out no
gas; no sweat) while I stopped in at The Desert Inn to confirm our reservations for the return leg.
About the best fun on 2 wheels on all of Highway 1 is that coupla miles of steep descent down to The Sea of Cortez. Regrettably, we got detained by a
true tragedy. A fully loaded beer truck had gone over the side. (Some of you can say better than I the name of that curve where the trucks go over.)
We were sorely tempted to run down there and retrieve some of the carcasses.
Coming down to The Sea of Cortez is enough to give goose bumps. Baja California Sur really is just the best, and we were there!
Through Santa Rosalía, past the prison, and soon we were rolling through Mulegé. After topping up gas at the Pemex station, we reversed a klick or
two to another old favorite of mine, Hotel Serenidad. A sad commentary on the state of tourism, we were essentially the only ones there. Didn’t stop
us from having fun! The “girls” were in the mood for pina coladas, and most definitely satisfied their thirsts and then some. <SEG>
I had business to attend to. I headed back through town and out to El Patron (La Almeja). What an ordeal. The road is as bad as ever (or worse). I
almost got hung up in the soft sand but got out of it. Finally got out there and discovered they did not have sufficient fresh fish for our crowd.
In fact, the only patrons were a couple of local take-outs. (See: Baja tourism is dead.)
So, I got out of there, managed my way back to the pavement, and as I left town to the south, bopped down to Jungle Jim’s. Turned out that to have a
party there we were going to have to get in there pretty early in the evening. Wasn’t going to happen. Oh well. Time to get back to Serinidad.
Again, on the way out I got into very soft sand and actually high centered the bike (the rear wheel just dug all the way in). Fortunately got it out
without having to hunt down some help, but that bike was sitting there standing up by itself!
Too bad we pretty much missed most of Mulegé this time (definitely our loss), but the merriment was not at all lost on us at Serenidad. Well,
tomorrow is another (outrageously outstanding) day!
Barbarosa
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Frank
Senior Nomad
Posts: 861
Registered: 6-5-2005
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Is it time to leave yet?
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Thanks for all of the great stories of your trip down. It makes the wait for my trip a little easier.
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