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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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Tecate to Cabo
I know these posts are a little late but I'd like to share our trip with everyone. Back in November my brother and dad rode from Tecate to Cabo on
Xr400's while my other brother and friend followed us in my truck. We had planned to leave on a Friday morning but of course that Friday morning would
be the start of the 50th Baja 1000 so we decided to leave Thursday to beat the rush. Me being the only one that lives in San Diego I had to get
everything ready. My brother and dads bikes arrived Monday before the trip from Denver and I had to finish some minor things to them including wiring
the new Baja Design lights, wiring the GPS's, and adding bar risers (we are all over 6 foot). Once the bikes were done I prepped my truck with a new
chase rack I just finished the week before. Wednesday rolled around and I picked up all of the crew from San Diego airport and headed up to my house
in Alpine. With the last finishing touches on the bikes and adding airshocks to the truck we were ready to leave. Thursday came super quickly and we
started the ride around 5AM to try and get to Tecate when the crossing opened. We all couldn't fit into my single cab Chevy so my brother and I rode
from my house to the border as my dad, brother and friend followed us down the back way and onto the 94 to Tecate. Once we got to Tecate we crossed,
got our passports stamped and headed east towards the compadre highway. The truck continued on the toll road east to Mexicalli to meet us in San
Felipe while we went south towards Laguna Hanson. Our bikes hit dirt and we never looked back. A few miles in we passed two Raptors, a Tundra, and a 4
door Rubicon that were all upgraded with shocks and tires. We made it a couple more miles when we heard them catching us so we let them pass. About
halfway to Ojos Negros we came to the water crossing and they were all setup drinking beers. Of course we stopped and we all swapped stories about all
the fun we have had in Baja. With it only being 9AM we figured one beer was probably enough so we pushed on to Ojos Negros, and then Valley de
Trinidad without any problems. We hit the bottom of the hill after Valley de Trinidad and immediately jumped onto the race course. I've never ridden
such big whoops anywhere in my life. It makes Plaster City look like a daycare center. We didn't make it a couple hundred yards before I heard on the
radio that my dad had fallen off. I turned around and he was standing looking at his bike in disappointment. Him being 53 years old, we helped him get
going again. We then crossed the dry lake bed through the big silt beds (which the Xr's loved), crossed through Morelia Junction and dropped right
into San Felipe. It was around 3 in the afternoon and we needed gas, food, and a cold beer. Me being a 23 year old looking at the map weeks before the
trip decided that Gonzaga Bay was a reasonable stopping point for day 1. I regret that decision completely. My dad, and myself were pretty worked at
this point, but we had to push on. We had a cold beer, topped off the bikes, ate the worst fish taco I've ever had in Baja and took off. The sun set
and it got so dark so fast. I'd turn around to look behind me and it was such an empty feeling. We made it to Punta Bufeo, where we were staying that
night, and put all of our stuff away, started a bonfire, and cracked the Pacifico Ballenon’s. Punta Bufeo was awesome. The owner was super cool and
our rooms were clean. With it being the Baja 1000 there were multiple chase trucks there. All the guys were super cool and we drank beer till after
midnight. Not the best decision, but hey why not.
[Edited on 2-22-2018 by wyatthurley55]
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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Here's the rest of Day 1
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64852
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Awesome ride! Thank you for sharing.
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Paco Facullo
Super Nomad
Posts: 1301
Registered: 1-21-2017
Location: Here now
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Mood: Abiding ..........
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Wyatt,
Way cool !!! More please....
Thanks for sharing..... Good times.!
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ehall
Super Nomad
Posts: 1906
Registered: 3-29-2014
Location: Buckeye, Az
Member Is Offline
Mood: It's 5 o'clock somewhere
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Good start. San Felipe is far enough for day one.
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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Day 2 Punta Bufeo to San Francisquito
As the morning sun rose, we realized how beautiful Punta Bufeo and Gonzaga Bay really were. All the guys we partied with the night before left to get
ready to pit for there teams. Offroad racing is purely amazing. The bikes for the race started at midnight Thursday night so Friday morning we heard
them off in the distance riding by. Once everything was packed up we took off heading towards Cocos Corner. It was probably 11 when we reached Cocos
and checked it out. What an interesting place. It was crawling with race teams and Score officials, which was really fun. All the locals thought we
were racing, so of course I had to pull a couple of wheelies for the kids. I’ve always wanted to race in Baja and this made me want to do It even
more. We followed the race course for about 50 miles then switched between pavement and dirt until we hit the turnoff to go south towards LA Bay. The
amount of dirt they are moving to build the new highway is unbelievable. Right at the turn to go south there was 3 guys on bikes at the tire shop. We
had to wait for my truck so we pulled up to talk to them. It was a father, son and friend. The father just rode the San Felipe section of the course
in the 50 and over class and had gotten a flat tire. He was pretty peeed haha. Once they got the back on the bike it immediately went flat again. He
yelled, Fu** it, I’m gonna leave this piece of sh** in the desert. I smartly chimed in, where are you gonna leave it? He started smilling then he
laughed. That team ended up winning there class. Once the truck caught up we headed on the road south a made it to LA Bay around 2 in the afternoon.
We grabbed lunch and filled the coolers full of beer knowing there wouldn’t be another Pacifico store for a while. We jumped on the race course
again and headed south towards San Francisquito. The road was pretty hammered from prerunners so it made it interesting to say the least. We passed a
pretty whooped out section and figured we would make sure my fully loaded truck would make it through. It made it, but right after the section they
pulled off and stopped. We rode down there to see that the strap holding $75 worth of beer had come loose and the cooler had fallen off. 50% of the
beer was broken onto all of our gear below the rack. Damnit!!!! We cleaned everything up and pushed on. The trophy trucks started at 10 that morning
and we figured we would have plenty of time to get to San Francisquito before they passed us. We were so wrong. The sun just had set when we pulled
off the road to go to the house we rented from Alberto? I think that was his name. Right as we pulled off we saw lights coming from down the road.
Knowing it couldn’t be my truck my stomach dropped. Sure enough it was Apdaly Lopez in his RPM Trophy Truck. The same guy I personally have seen
nerf locals on the race course. He went by, then another went by, and another. My truck, 14 year old brother, and buddy Jose, nowhere to be found.
Knowing they were stuck on the course with Trophy Trucks was a terrible feeling. The 3 of us decided to go get the keys to the house and get situated.
We got to the house and we were all pretty distraut. My brother Jett and I decided to head back to the turn and wait for the truck. My dad had the
Satellite phone and was trying to get ahold of the truck without any luck. Jett and I made it to the course where we found some Americans from Alpine,
of course, with plenty of beer and tequila. Jett and I proceeded to get a good buzz just sitting there biting our fingernails as each truck went by
knowing they passed our brother. It was probably a good hour of us sitting there drinking beer when we saw lights coming, but didn’t hear the
distinct V8 sound. I looked at Jett and said, dude that’s my truck. He said, no way they were way farther back. The lights got closer, and closer
and sure enough there they were. I have never felt so releived in my life. Cade jumped out and was super exited to make it to the turn. This was his
first encounter with a Trophy Truck ever and he told me next time he’d rather be sitting in a lawn chair watching them then being chased by Apdaly.
We all loaded up and headed to the house. My dad had cooled off a little bit thanks to the beer and we busted out the Costco Flank steaks and macked
down. It wasn’t long before we were all face down snoring. Hell of a day.
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del mar
Banned
Posts: 1057
Registered: 7-23-2016
Location: the cantina of course
Member Is Offline
Mood: lil' fuzzy
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BRAAP!
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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And Some more from day 2
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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LA Bay
[Edited on 2-22-2018 by wyatthurley55]
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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Headed to San Francisquito
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64852
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Great... of course being on the race course on race day may have been not the best plan. Glad all ended well. The Punta Bufeo motel looked pretty cozy
when I checked it a year ago. Your photos show it pretty well. Too bad the rooms are so far from the beach, is all. Was anyone landing at their runway
that you saw (any planes parked)?
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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Quote: Originally posted by David K | Great... of course being on the race course on race day may have been not the best plan. Glad all ended well. The Punta Bufeo motel looked pretty cozy
when I checked it a year ago. Your photos show it pretty well. Too bad the rooms are so far from the beach, is all. Was anyone landing at their runway
that you saw (any planes parked)? |
Yes there was a Banaza V Tail and a larger Cessna. We planned to not be on the race course, but the Trophy Trucks showed up a couple of hours before
we thought they would. Its a great story now, but not in that moment.
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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Definitely will plan San Felipe for Day 1 next trip.
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ehall
Super Nomad
Posts: 1906
Registered: 3-29-2014
Location: Buckeye, Az
Member Is Offline
Mood: It's 5 o'clock somewhere
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Sucks about losing the beer.
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chippy
Super Nomad
Posts: 1722
Registered: 2-2-2010
Member Is Offline
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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I was peeed lol
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6346
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
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Mood: TEQUILA!
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What a great trip! Thanks for sharing!!
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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Day 3 San Francisquito To Mulege
So after the fun filled day of Trophy Trucks and the Baja 1000, we woke up to the beautiful bay of San Francisquito. I wish I had more time to spend
there. The grounds were spotless and the beach was pretty badass! We walked out onto the dock, looking down at the sea floor and saw hundreds of
little stingrays. The owner, cant remember his name for the life of me, was awesome. He was super helpful and spoke great English. We all overslept,
waking up at 9:30 and frantically started getting ready. There were bees everywhere, and that beer that we spilled the day before was attracting them
like crazy. Being super careful, we finished loading and took off. Fallowed the Baja 1000 course out, which turned out to be beautiful and a lot of
fun. Broken down race cars and parts were everywhere. At one point it looked like somebody got nerfed by a trophy truck because there was fiberglass,
lights and a number plate all within 50 yards of each other laying on the road. Me doing my duties to clean up Baja I scored 2 Baja Design Pods and a
Rigid Led Light Bar!!!! Super score haha!! Every 30 miles or so we would stop and link up with the truck, grab some water, some salami, and a coke and
then take off again. The terrain was a lot of fun on the bikes, and it was cool to see class 11 bugs putt by. We finally made it to El Arco and got
super turned around. There are a ton of little roads running all over the place. I stuck to my GPS and continued on the race course. Bad idea!! The
course went from a road to massive silt whoops really quick. I knew my truck wouldn't make it so I made the call to turn around and find a better road
out. As soon as I turned around I saw a flash on the ground like a mirror, and stopped to see what is was. Another Baja Design Pod! It was like
Christmas. In one day I found $1200 worth of lights. I through it in my back pack and continued back towards El Arco. I got half way back to the Road
when I found my truck buried to the frame in silt. We busted out the shovels and my knock off Maxx Traxx and went to work. Surprisingly we got out in
15 minutes. The traxx were worth there wait in gold and I recommend them to everyone!! We finally made it back to El Arco and followed the graded road
out to the highway. That was the worst part of the day. 15 miles of strait 3 inch tall washboard. We hit the highway and I literally couldn't feel my
hands. The rest of the days ride was all pavement to Mulege and that was ok with me. It had been a long couple days so far. We rode through Viscaino,
San Ignacio, and stopped for gas in Santa Rosalia. Santa Rosalia was an interesting stop. Lots of Asian influence for sure. We finally made it to
Mulege, found our hotel, unloaded our gear and popped a couple tops. We found a killer restaurant right across the street and had plenty of
margaritas, steak, shrimp and potatoes. Food Coma had set in and we all went to bed. Another badass day in Baja.
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wyatthurley55
Junior Nomad
Posts: 58
Registered: 9-18-2017
Location: Alpine Ca
Member Is Offline
Mood: Craving Pacifico
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Day 3
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64852
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Thank's for this next installment of your trip report!
At Puerto San Francisquito:
"The owner, cant remember his name for the life of me, was awesome. He was super helpful and spoke great English."
Beto
Beto's son joined Nomad as Bajaboi and welcomed us in this post: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=85177
[Edited on 3-8-2018 by David K]
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