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David K
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June, 1978
Now, 20 years old... after watching the SCORE Baja Internacional (500) near Mike's Sky Rancho, my friend Jon and I drove up to the Observatory. I
replaced my 10 mpg Jeep Cherokee Chief with a 25 mpg Subaru 4wd Wagon!
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David K
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Nov., 1979
Here's My Subaru in Calamajue Canyon...
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David K
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Near El Crucero... the end of my first section to drive, which was to begin in San Matias Pass...
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David K
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1979 Baja 1000
This was the first year SCORE would run the race to La Paz, also the first La Paz run since 1973... I was really excited to be a part of it!
Here I am (22 years old) warming up the tires a couple days before the race...
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David K
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Yes, there was a road from Laguna Chapala north to Las Arrastras (near today's Coco's Corner), but was so poor, almost nobody used it... Just the old
NORRA Baja 500 racers! The main traffic went via Calamajue Canyon and rejoined the old main Baja road at El Crucero.
After Hwy. 1 was built, the government bulldozed the road from Chapala to Puerto Calamajue about 1983, so the Calamajue Canyon route was no longer the
main road to Gonzaga from Hwy. 1.
Here's a 1962 map of the area... note Calamajue mission. Where the road past the mission meets the main road to la Paz, that is El Crucero.
[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]
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Crusoe
Senior Nomad
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Oh Oh OH David---- You were quite the MAN.....Thanks so much for sharing. Such great old days those were then in Baja! Those old Meyer's Manx's were
tough puppys.
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by jdtrotter
Thanks David,
John remembers camping in that canyon. Do you know what is out at Calamajue now?
Thanks
Diane |
Melted walls from the short lived mission of 1766...
The gold ore mill ruins on the cliff near the road before it drops into the canyon (where I have photos in 1967)... a mineralized year round stream...
chewed up road in the stream from the Baja 1000... stuff like that.
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David K
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Laguna Manuela (actually 'Variety Beach' north of Manuela) about 1983/84... Dad has a Tecate and I have a 7 Up (I'm driving, eh?).
This was one of the last Baja fishing trips with Dad... We had a blast, caught all we wanted ... Lot's of good eating for weeks after...
I sure did love that man, he was the best...
Dad passed away about 5 years after that trip...
[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K]
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David K
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1982 Rancho Santa Ynez
A lunch stop on our way to Laguna Manuela...
It was Tom Miller (The Baja Book and Western Outdoor News Baja article author) who turned us onto Laguna Manuela...
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Sallysouth
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Wow, more awesome photos DK!! Thanks for posting the pics of Ramon and Cruz, such great men they were! I really like the photo of your Ford in the
devil dust of Chapala! Those were the days!!
[Edited on 3-10-2007 by Sallysouth]
Happiness is just a Baja memory away...
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David K
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When we took my dad's new (2WD) station wagon down to Loreto in June/July 1973 after hearing the Baja highway was near completion!
Well, it was still a long ways off from being completed...
Pavement ended near El Progreso (Mision San Fernando turnoff) and we traveled on unpaved new roadbed to near Agua Dulce... and were detoured onto the
old Baja main (1000) road there and took it past Santa Ynez and the other old ranchos until coming to new road construction coming north from the
south... near Laguna Chapala.
The detour road along the new roadbed was thick with the dreaded Chapala silt dust... We would be driving up on the new roadbed then come to a missing
bridge (no warning) and have to go back to where you could go down to the detour road... That's where I took the photo of my dad going through the
dust. It was his idea for me to get out and he backed up to get a good run in that dust, so I could photograph it.
In the old Baja road days, that dust bowl before Rancho Chapala was the worst part of the entire peninsula drive... followed by the best part, the dry
lake bed!
We started getting on sections of pavement near Punta Prieta, then all paved from Jesus Maria area on south... Just 4 more months and they finished
the road... the section north and south of Santa Ynez/ Cataviņa was the last to get built and paved.
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Vince
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Very good photos, David. One of these I will post my photos of us climbing Picacho del Diablo in the '50s, or maybe Barry will post his. I have
driven thru dry lake Chapala in a VW van and that silt just about burried us!
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vacaenbaja
Senior Nomad
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Give FORD its due, rescued by a VW.
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David K
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That '73 Ford was great... it thought it had 4WD!
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Bob H
Elite Nomad
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David, GREAT thread.... wonderful photos of the past. You are Mr. Baja man.
Bob H
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Paulina
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
That was when FORD was built tough! Well, at least my mom and dad was!
[Edited on 3-10-2007 by David K] |
Ford WAS built tough?
Still is.
Your mom and dad were too.
Thanks for sharing your photos and story. I liked the pic of the station wagon with only your dad's side, the driver's side of the windshield is wiped
clean!
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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Von
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Mood: getting ready!
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Man i really enjoy your pictures and stories David thanks so much for sharing...........
READY SET.....................
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Curt63
Super Nomad
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Location: San Diego, Ca.
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Mood: Fish tacos and Tecate
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Great pictures great memories
And you still have the Baja fever!
Thanks for sharing
No worries
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64845
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Baja Fever FOREVER! 
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toneart
Ultra Nomad
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Mood: Skeptical
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Baja Fever FOREVER! |
Yes Sir!
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