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edm1
Senior Nomad
Posts: 568
Registered: 8-23-2006
Location: Oak Hills, Ca
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Is your target still the Golfo Camino Real between La Bocana (mis-labled as San Pedro in the Almanac) and Tinaja de Santa Maria?
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Affirmative.
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Neal Johns
Art, I sent you a U2U.
I will firm up decision real soon. TW, want a ride?
The W word is WORK.  |
I may be busy with the Baja 500 race, pre-running etc.
I would still like to check out the wall in that area. I thought maybe Pancho could get me a ride in a boat down the coast.
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edm1
Senior Nomad
Posts: 568
Registered: 8-23-2006
Location: Oak Hills, Ca
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Neal Johns
Art, I sent you a U2U.
I will firm up decision real soon. TW, want a ride?
The W word is WORK. |
Neal, got your message and responded.
V is definitely the word these days.
[Edited on 5-8-2013 by edm1]
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edm1
Senior Nomad
Posts: 568
Registered: 8-23-2006
Location: Oak Hills, Ca
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Frigatebird
| Quote: | Originally posted by edm1
We have Neal, DK, CG and I so far. Do you know anybody else who'd be interesed to join? |
Definitely considering.
I'm with DK on the avoidance of only playing chauffeur for my gear. |
So do you wanna join us?
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64850
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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If you guys still like seeing old stuff after the Golfo Camino Real, then the walls ('Lost Mission') at Las Animas Bay are not far off the road
between L.A. Bay and Tinaja de Santa Maria: http://vivabaja.com/109
You can see the mission trail on Google Earth, but a cloud obscures some of the trail over the ridge...
The section of mission trail is between G12 and G13 on this map:
Google Earth View... from high to low at Tinaja de Santa Maria, then following the trail back north over the ridge to the old road to Punta San
Francisquito (both the Golfo Camino Real and the Sierra Camino Real are shown in the highest view):
Have plenty of water!
[Edited on 5-8-2013 by David K]
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edm1
Senior Nomad
Posts: 568
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Location: Oak Hills, Ca
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Thanks for the maps and other suggestions, David. Sounds like you won't be able to joins us. Work? No worries, we will talk about you at camp :-) I
mean we will take pictures for our trip report.
I doubt all of those trails are passable by passenger trucks, as indicated in an earlier post, but if a few of them are we'll be happy. Heck, I'll
just be happy to be in and around BoLA for the first time.
[Edited on 5-8-2013 by edm1]
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64850
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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| Quote: | Originally posted by edm1
Thanks for the maps and other suggestions, David. Sounds like you won't be able to joins us. Work? No worries, we will talk about you at camp :-) I
mean we will take pictures for our trip report.
I doubt all of those trails are passable by passenger trucks, as indicated in an earlier post, but if a few of them are we'll be happy. Heck, I'll
just be happy to be in and around BoLA for the first time.
[Edited on 5-8-2013 by edm1] |
Hi Art, well Elizabeth gets only 3 days off, so Shell Island is the furthest south and she needs just some relaxation time on the beach.
I have driven to the Tinaja de Santa Maria twice, but that was 10 & 12 years ago. The Golfo Camino Real trail over that low ridge you can see as
you drive up the valley towards the Tinaja, but you can't see it from the old road to Punta San Francisquito, on the north side (east of La Bocana
ranch). We also drove up past La Bocana in the canyon (of San Pedro) where the Camino Real also ran, but didn't see any muestras (signs) of it.
The Tinaja is a 'coyote well', in that there may not be any surface water, but it lies not far below the sand and gravel where the sand arroyo meets
the big boulder step.
Dec. 2002:
Tinaja Santa Maria, photo looking west. That's Chis on his motorbike...the tinaja is under the sand at that big boulder step rock in the background:
The end of the 'road'. This water hole served travelers on the Gulfo Camino between Santa Gertrudis and San Borja. GPS is N28°26.07'/ W113°19.99'in
the Almanac (NAD27 Mexico). On Google Earth (WGS84) TINAJA DE SANTA MARIA is 28°26'05.20" 113°20'01.40"
Cerro la Sandia is in the distance. This is the same peak seen south from L.A. Bay
In 2001, several of us (including Neal Johns, DavidE, Paulina, Desert Rat, El Camote) searched for the lost mission and our guide (Jesus Flores) took
us to the Tinaja de Santa Maria: http://www.vivabaja.com/van1/page6.html
Neal Johns, July 4, 2001 at Tinaja de Santa Maria
GPS DIRECTIONS: L.A. BAY & SOUTH (WGS 84)
Hunfreville's Hut at Las Cuevitas: N29°03.30' W113°32.35'
Casa Diaz, Bahia de los Angeles: N28°56.77' W113°33.55'
Camp Gecko, south of town: N28°54.05' W113°31.73'
Las Flores (jail house): N28°49.10' W113°31.77'
Jcn. with old road south: N28°40.77' W113°25.45'
Arroyo to Las Venecas: N28°39.40' W113°25.86'
Site of Paredones, Jesus' ranch: N28°36.81' W113°24.59'
Road ahead to La Bocana & San Pedro, turn sharp left (east): N28°28.40' W113°23.47'
We turn right, off road here: N28°28.01' W113°20.46'
Tinaja de Santa Maria: N28°26.09' W113°20.02'
[Edited on 5-9-2013 by David K]
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hbmurphy
Junior Nomad
Posts: 59
Registered: 6-1-2010
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I wish I could join this great group! I will be exploring the Big Island 'til the 28th 
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64850
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Aloha Paul, have a great trip!
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hbmurphy
Junior Nomad
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Thank you! Hope you are well.
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edm1
Senior Nomad
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Location: Oak Hills, Ca
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Neal and I got back safely yesterday from a 10-day trip to BoLA and vicinity. Chris (CG) and his mechanic Luis were with us the first 4 days but had
to head home for work. Neal as usual drove his Tacoma camper, Chris drove his F250 camper, and I drove my big motorhome through its longest ever 4x4
trails. Other than camping at one of the town camps (we chose Daggett's as a base) we hit San Borja and Tinaja de Yubay. Due to a couple problems
(vehicle-related) and the lack of Diesel at the BoLA Pemex we were not able to hit Tinaja de Santa Maria within the pre-planned period.
My thanks to Neal and Chris for their company, support and camaraderie on this wonderful and unforgettable trip. Neal got me home and my motorhome in
one piece, well, with just a few missing/broken parts :-)
[Edited on 6-8-2013 by edm1]
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64850
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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I can't wait for the "rest of the story"!!!
Glad you guys are home! 
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edm1
Senior Nomad
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Location: Oak Hills, Ca
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What story? Neal, do you know anything about it? :-)
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Neal Johns
Super Nomad
Posts: 1687
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Lytle Creek, CA
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Mood: In love!
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Standby, DK and other interested readers, for the rest of the "Art and Motorhome Saga" staring lady gas station attendants and assorted other
ladies.
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64850
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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I can't wait... Good to read stuff, indeed! FYI, since it was discussed in the beginning of this thread: Baja Angel and I did go to Shell Island over
Memorial Day weekend... and because of the full moon, it was indeed an island... Instead of using the raised 1984/5 roadbed, towards the useless
bridge, we used the original route (through the sea water and mud) that heads for the fisherman's camp on the island, with no problem (L4 & A-TRAC
 . I am glad Art did not try with the motorhome, however!
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Neal Johns
Super Nomad
Posts: 1687
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Lytle Creek, CA
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Mood: In love!
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Well it was supposed to be Memorial Day, but was delayed a few days. No worries, we were on Baja Time. There were supposed to be six or eight vehicles
but somehow all but three dropped out or never signed up. Weaklings! Chris (with friend Luis) and I had real pickups with pop-top campers while Art
had Frankenstein’s Monster (FM from now on). Art is handicapped by having an Electronics Engineer degree but really writes software. (Software Puke
from now on). SP is not a derogatory term, just a Naval descriptor used to separate these inferior types from Hardware Pukes, a much higher organism
on the evolutionary scale. Ask any HP, me for example.
To balance out his life a bit and emulate certain higher organisms, Art took a perfectly good full sized motorhome, ripped out the axles and gasoline
engine and put Dana 80’s with ARB lockers underneath and a Cummings diesel in front. Eureka! A Frankenstein Monster! An amazing job, especially for an
SP. He is also quite a likeable fellow so grudgingly I treated him as an equal. Chris, I treated like a God because he came back to rescue me with
replacement parts on the Mision Santa Maria trail a couple of years ago after Art stopped towing me and left me to die. Oh, the shame, the shame, (I
was in a Tacoma too, DK!).
We camped halfway down in Erendira the first night, all the way past town with a view of breaking waves on a large guano covered rock just offshore.
Quite a nice campsite, kudos to Art for this. The next morning, onward to Bahia de Los Angeles; we paused on the top of the mesa just before dropping
down into BOLA to take pictures of the amazing bay with its many islands and then proceeded to Daggett’s Campground. It was quiet with a nice palapa
on the beachfront. If you need a sand beach near the water rather than rocks, you can go to La Gringa, but it is about seven miles north of town. We
checked it out the next day; there was only one isolated camper on a long sandy beach.
Chris wanted to kick back in BOLA, the weather was nice and why not? We paid Herman Hill, the Baja author, a visit and enjoyed his Baja stories.
FM didn’t like Art’s tugging at its door to get inside so it ate poor Art. See picture of Art’s feet sticking out of FM’s mouth. Luis tried to save
him but failed. Art survived but was never quite the same.
We decided to visit Misión San Borja rather than the original plan to visit Tinaja Santa Maria since Chris had to get Luis back to work Monday
morning. Everyone but me (been there, done that) took the tour of the Church, adobe Misión ruins, surroundings and then visited Jose, who lives in the
house adjacent to the Church. He was adding a metal enclosure to his pickup bed to haul a horse using a broken drill bit. Art gave him a new bit. Good
dog! Art! We got the tour of the hot springs that irrigate the garden and orchard, and the mini-museum by Jose’s wife and daughter. All of Jose’s
son’s have left the ranch for town life, the story of most Californios.
Jose can supply guide service with or without mules to the several interesting spots nearby. Two friends and I rode mules with Jose and son Jose Jr. a
few years ago to visit El Aguaje, an abandoned visita on the El Camino Real.
The most interesting part of the trip occurred after Chris and Luis left. As I remember it, Art insisted upon visiting Tinaja Yubay on the El Camino
Real. It is accessed by a typical Baja two track. Can you see the fun coming? Things started off rather poorly, I took a wrong turn and almost got to
a rancho in Arroyo Yubay before realizing my mistake and telling Art to turn around. The sounds of FM tuning around on a narrow two track haunt me to
this day. It was out of sight but is must have been Ugly. After taking a turn that I assured Art went toward the road we should be on, we came to a
locked gate a few feet from the road we wanted. Sigh. By this time I had lost all credibility with Art. We backtracked and took the right road but
every mile or so I heard a plaintiff little cry on the CB “How much further?” The road is what I classify as “Interesting”; we will see how Art
describes it. In an hour I arrived at the wide spot on the bank of Arroyo Yubay sometimes referred to as The Parking Spot. I looked behind me and
there was no Art or FM in sight. He was 0.2 miles back with a tree or part thereof sticking out of his tire. The air inside the tire was not sticking
in, but pouring out. He said something I dare not quote. After jacking the tire up and filling the hole with countless plugs, we proceeded to The
Parking Spot and checked for other damage. There were a few things wrong, such as:
One of the shock mounts broke and the shock flopped around until it died.
One of the sway bar mounting brackets broke.
The Beauty Trim Covers on the wheels were no longer beautiful.
And then there was collateral damage: Halfway through welding the broken shock mount Art’s Expensive, High Tech, Chinese welder bought from Ebay died.
His first Chinese welder had died too. Art, why can’t you get high quality stuff like Harbor Freight makes?
The next morning we hiked a mile or so up Arroyo Yubay to the tinaja (a bedrock depression in the arroyo that catches and stores rainwater). Tinaja
Yubay was one of the most important waterholes on the El Camino Real because it held so much water which was prevented from evaporating by being
partially filled with sand. Due to the several years of drought in Baja, the water level was about four feet lower than normal. We stayed there all
day and camped there one more night. The next morning the trail seemed much shorter because we were familiar with it. Meeting an oncoming vehicle, we
pulled over in a nearby bare spot and the passing men whipped out their camera to take pictures of the unlikely motorhome on this two track. When Art
started to pull out, he was temporally stuck in the silty sand and they asked him if he needed help. Art said “No thanks”, engaged his lockers and
drove away. :-)
Somewhere during the trip, FM decided that the engine would not shut off. A piece of cord was tied to a manual fuel valve by Art and routed into the
cab. Ta Da! You pull, it quits. But later….the engine would not run over idle speed with or without load. Cough, sputter, smoke resulted when you gave
it a little gas. This was a harder one. But…. Art has everything! In this case, a repair manual on a CD! And a printer! Working down the checklist,
Fuel Contamination was under suspicion as some diesel was bought out of cans in Punta Prieta. Testing with good fuel sucked out of a can showed no
change. Darn! Other things were checked but it looked like a fuel injection pump. But…Art had an injection pump repair kit and had rebuilt one before.
I may have to quit picking on Software Pukes! Double Darn! Bottom line, after two hours of disassembling things, he found the problem was an open
solenoid – which Art had and replaced. It ran! I left out a few fun things like idling along the highway at 30 mph for many miles to get back to camp,
etc.
It was a fun trip with great company.
Honest Neal Johns, a man you can trust
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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Neal Johns
Super Nomad
Posts: 1687
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Lytle Creek, CA
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Mood: In love!
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Art's and Chris' Wheels
BOLA
Locked out!
Eaten!
Hot spring pool
Hot spring 1
Hot spring 2
Our guides
Arroyo Yubay
Looking west
The tire tree
The tire fixer
No beauty
Broken shock
The welder
La Lobera
[Edited on 6-12-2013 by Neal Johns]
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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edm1
Senior Nomad
Posts: 568
Registered: 8-23-2006
Location: Oak Hills, Ca
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Oh, boy Neal beat me to it, posting at 1:30am. I regret that I got busy with family stuff during the last few days. I will post my version of the
story later, stand by . . .
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64850
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Wow and wow again... Having camped with Art twice and Neal more, I can agree with all of this story! LOL!!
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
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Great stuff, thanks
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