Trip Report 1000 Miles in Baja - Trip Report

[Coco]

First off I will start by saying this was one heck of an adventure! I would do this trip again in a heartbeat.

We left the valley during a good snow storm, so the trucks, trailers, and SXS's were caked in salt and road grime. We saw temps on the drive down anywhere from -15° to 65° in California. Sprayed off the trucks, trailers, and machines in Brawley, California at our overnight halt, then pressed through to San Felipe the next day.

After the carwash in Brawley, and stopped for the night


We got to San Felipe around 10 AM, unloaded, got some lunch, and hit the road. We worked our way down the coast toward Gonzaga Bay. Rode some beach, pavement, trail, and race course. One of the guys noticed some fluid leaking on one of the RZRs, and found his transmission was cracked. They got it cleaned up and patched. Topped off the fluid, and off we went. Made it to our overnight stop at Alfonsinas. My suspension was sagging pretty good (go figure, load lots of crap into it, and it will lol), so while my dad and I were working on turning up the springs, they were working on our rooms. They said they had lost our reservations, so we were getting prepared for a night stay on the beach. They were able to get it figured out however. It took some time to get dinner, but it was still an enjoyable place. It was right in the bay, and there were two fishing Sea Shepherd (seashepherd.org - was on the side of the vessels) boats anchored up in the bay.

 

[Coco]

From Gonzaga we headed towards Bahia of LA. On the way we got to stop and meet Coco. It was a meeting of the Coco's they say. I almost made the mistake of signing the wrong book. He asked if we would sign his book, I walked in, saw a book, and went to start signing. That was not the right book. He said no senor, not that book. I felt embarrassed, but glad I didn't sign it. No harm no foul and I put it away for him while he went in the back to grab the correct book. He asked if my wife and mom wanted to leave their panties lol. After this, we ran up the road to Coco's original place. There is nothing really there of the old place, just some beer cans, the old beer can Cocos Corner sign, a jar of pickles?, and some fencing. From there we headed down and into rose water horse piss canyon, and lots of race course. Was pretty neat to be running down some of the race course, though the INSANELY big whoops we could have done without, or at least have no weight in the machines so we could stay on top of them. We were all just laughing and having a good time as we made our way down the course. It is apparently illegal to remove old SCORE race markers from the course, which I mean, makes sense during the race.








Lunch was hot dogs on the cookers, we also got some beans, and one of the other guys did tacos with some shredded meat. My wife thought she would try something different for her hot dog:

 

[Coco]

Earlier in the day one of the guys needed to replace his belt, didn't take too long, and we were on our way. We made it to Costa Del Sol, our overnight halt for the night. We pulled in, and they came right up to us, got our dinner orders, and started cooking while we got settled into our rooms, and did some adjustments on the machines. Victoria the owner and her family were extremely nice and welcoming. The rooms and food were top notch, and I would stay there again, hopefully next year.

 

[Coco]

A lot of shrimp cocktails were eaten this week, and they were all fantastic.


This is Scooby Dos - Victoria's original Scooby passed away.


Off to Guerrero Negro. We hit more race course, as well as pavement and other dirt roads. We visited the Mission of San Francisco, which was pretty cool to see. The guy that gave us the tour was original to the area, and his family/ancestors worked on the building and the original.




We ran into these guys the night before at Alfonsinas, and this guy went down on the rocky road. He thought he broke his elbow, and possibly a rib. We got him up to the Mission, as one if his buddies went back for a truck. The rest waited at the Mission.

 

[Coco]

We worked our way over to the coast, and worked our way down on the beach. My machine hit 85, being fully loaded and on 35s I will take it. As we neared the end of the beach, we came upon a dead whale. The birds were picking at it, and it was kind of sad to see, but that's life I suppose. We made it to Casa Laguna BNB, which is a nice bed and breakfast, and was all whale themed.

 

[Coco]

Found some soft sand on the way into town - I didn't want to launch over it, and well, my limo didn't have quite enough on the first try.




The next morning we headed out to see the whales. Probably one of the coolest things we have done, these are some BIG mammals! At one point we had 6 around our little boat, and they would bump the boat and such as well. After we finished the whale tour, we headed for Catavina.



(videos wont post )

I think this lil guy gets free fish scraps. He would just hang out and chill with us while we waited for the bus back.


This was our longest day at 200 miles, and with the late start, we were coming into town at night. The Baja Designs pods were definitely nice for this section of the trip. We got into Catavina, and bought gas from a couple on the side of the road. My machine got really good gas mileage, probably the best of all the machines. After that, we drove across the street to the Mission Catavina. We had an earlier gas stop in El Rosarito where we bought from random containers (pine sol, bleach, and any other type of container for putting gas in), this was definitely a memorable gas buying experience. Only thing was there was a closed PEMEX station right by this place.

 

[Coco]

The day before, Roy in the red Honda Talon developed a clicking sound. They noticed it really bad when they made a turn off of the main road and onto the dirt. After looking over the machine, they noticed a U-joint cap had come off the driveline. After a while of trying to figure out a solution, they just decided to cut a hole in his brand new SSS skidplate, then just cut the driveshaft off. Not how I personally would have went about it, but we were up against the clock so didn't really have much of a choice.

Kevin holding the proud kill, Russ laughing and cheering him on:


As a result, he had to do the rest of the long trip in 2WD. Derek (Roy's Codawg) was driving on the way out, and I am not sure why they thought they could get over this downed palm tree, but they tried lol. As a result, we strung out the Honda Tool as he calls it (the winch or strap, which ever is free at the time) and got him off the tree.

 

[Coco]

Off to El Rosario. Did some more exploring and seeing more of the country.





We met a farmer, and he said he had a couple cabins up the road that he rents out. Said we were welcome to go check them out if we wanted to use them the next time we were there. The road dead ends at his cabins, and they were pretty nice really.





This was the flooring for the second level.




He had a couple old trucks sitting outside, the old suburban was cool.

 

[Coco]

It was crazy coming from the middle of the valley, and coming down into Rosario and feeling the 20° temperature difference, and seeing more farming landscapes.

Made it down to a fishing village, and we filled up some gas from them.



We did some beach running, and playing on the rocks as the water was rushing in here and there, just a good time.




One of the guys on the ride talked to a couple of the fishermen, and they were nice enough to give us 4 fish that we had Mama Espinoza's prepare for us when we got into town.



My dad and I took a ton of stickers down, and we would hand out stickers to all the kids. They would light up like we were handing them $20 bills. It was like we were celebrities or racers running through all the towns, the kids would just line up to watch us run through town. People would pull over, honk and wave, wants us to spin our tires, they loved it. We were definitely humbled by the people of all these places, and their hospitality and willingness to help us.



When we got into town and over to Mama Espinoza's, he came out and was like 'We made a nice soup with the fish, it's very good. If you don't like it, don't eat it.' He had a good sense of humor. Turns out it was fish head soup, my bowl had a couple eyeballs in it, but the broth was good. The fish body they fried and brought out with some fresh tartar sauce, and lemons and limes. Very tasty.



This was a view from our room at Baja Cactus, and I was surprised to see the fog roll in, but I guess it is a lot closer to the ocean than some of the other places we stayed.

 

[Coco]

San Quintin was the next destination. As we got going, one of the RZRs had a stuck weight on his clutch (for the non-familiar - basically it causes the clutch to stick, and you can only go so fast, and when you slow down to stop, it will cause the engine to die). It picked a great place to do this. The smiles still say it all, but Scott really really REALLY hates wet feet.



We found a welding shop in town, and being a welder by trade (albeit not with a really old ARC welder) he got it welded, and smoothed back out.




Once we got it repaired, we headed down more race course, and more beach/coastline. A couple areas were right up next to the cliffs/rocks, so got some low speed crawling in over some ocean slick rocks and tides.






Damn rock came up from the rear tire, and nailed my mirror...

 

[Coco]

We visited 'Mexican Seaworld' as they called it, and it is this little cove that the sealions come into. They built a viewing/seating platform, and was a nice little place. On the way there, the road was washed out pretty good. It was washed out in the middle, and people had been going left or right. Staying out of the dust, I could tell my dad went right, so I did as well. I could just make out his SXS rocking and a rolling, but didn't think too much of it. I just kept rolling. I got about halfway up, and about the time I hit the washout, I hear my dad over the radio "Stay left Colton!" to which I replied "Too late!" It was a bit too washed out to come out of, and ground was eroding away if I moved too much. We decided to pull it out with the winch.





This is the outside of the cove




The cove entrance

 

[Coco]

This is what I think seals look like



Had a nice sunset on the beach, then headed up the beach to the Mission Santa Maria, which is the sister hotel to the Mission Catavina. Both these hotels were built by the government to increase tourism.

 

[Coco]

We started the morning playing more in the valley, went over and got some lunch at Molino Viejo in San Quintin, then worked our way up in the mountains. We started up another rocky section of race course, and about halfway up, my dad's KRX overheated. after filling it with coolant, we let it run for a bit and he was worried one of the lines got pinched. Turns out it is a known issue that the cooling fans on these don't always kick on when needed, and he knew this. He actually wired it into a switch to turn on, but he forgot to turn it on. Turns out it just had an air bubble in it from the initial overheating. It was getting a big late at this point, and we were nearing the top. Got to the top, and found out it is a new chunk of farming private property, and the owner gated it. Wouldn't let us through, so we had to turn around and go all the way back into town. We called our night accommodations and let them know we were coming and that our original route was blocked. They let us know that wouldn't be a problem, and that they would have dinner ready for us when we arrived. From there we ran up the paved road up the canyon to the top. After what felt like forever, we made it to Rancho Meling. On the way up, the RZR had its clutch stick again, luckily they had a welder. After a nice dinner, we headed to bed.







Our machine hit 1000 miles




The dog at the farmers property was happy to have some of the jerky my dad had in the SXS. The cat at the Baja Cactus got into it, so he saved it for the stray dogs to enjoy. We bought dog treats are were giving those to all the pups around Mexico as well, but they definitely preferred his jerky haha.



Late night picture my wife got on her phone of the church they have on the property at Meling

 

[Coco]

Talking with some dirtbikers that were staying at Meling as well, they said the same thing about the farmers property. The guy that was putting it on, said he was there a couple months earlier for one of the races, and that area was open. He took his group down the same course he ran for the race, and said the farmers gate was new. Said he would let them through this time, but said don't ever come through here again. IDK how SCORE does it, my guess would be $$$ offered to the families that have private property during the races.






We were all smiles to start, but that changed as we got going....

 

[Coco]

We woke up to rain, and while Scott fixed his clutch again, we were debating what our next move should be. We were guessing the clutch could maybe make it back to the trucks, but it also may only make it 5 miles. Around breakfast we discussed some options. The smart move would be to hit the pavement back to San Felipe, and just cut the trip 1 day short, then if our hotel in San Felipe (Stella Del Mar) didn't have any rooms, we would load up and head for Brawley. Scott felt bad about doing that to everyone, but we all unanimously said we have had an awesome trip, and there will always be more to do next year. The original plan was to see more of the mountains and trails, and go to the observatory, then stay at El Coyote that night. We stopped to pay the remainder of our stay rate at Coyote, and headed for San Felipe.

Let's just say, this was the worst day of the trip. Every 500 feet we had to get out to wipe all the mud off the windshield and just keep going. It took probably 2-3 hours to get off the mountain as we were going at a very slow pace, and it rained pretty much nonstop. The straw that broke the camels back was another group was coming down a section of road that I was starting up. The first two passed me no problem, the 3rd in the group slid into me. After he backed up and just sat there for a minute, I pointed off the road and said "Go the f*** over there!!" then I scooted even more over as the rest of their group went by. He didn't speak English, but I think he knew I was pissed. There was no need for it, the road was plenty wide, or if they knew we had the right of way they should have stopped. Luckily minimal damage occurred.

We stopped at Mikes Sky Ranch for a break, and they cooked us lunch. Roy talked with them, and we will likely stay a night at their place next year as well. Super nice family.






My wife was less than pleased, I won't lie, it sucked in the moment for sure. Now, we can laugh about it.



I am definitely a dog lover, this lil guys name was Junior, we became great friends.




As we got ready to head out, the other group that was scheduled to come in were arriving. Luckily we were ending our trip, these guys were just starting! They were nice enough to get a group photo of all of us though before we took off.

 

[Coco]

Once off the mountain, Scotts clutch got stuck again. We stopped and he just pushed them back into somewhat place. After some dry lakebed blitzing, and a little more pavement, we made it back into San Felipe. We were able to get our rooms switched over. We loaded up the machines, and walked down to the same place for one last dinner in Mexico.






The next morning, we headed for home. These two birds were sunning themselves and getting warm. Sat there for probably 30 mins at least.



A little tip, it took 2-1/2 hours to get through the border. If you even think you have to pee, do it before hitting the border.

Good ol California diesel, probably worse now!



It took 3 hours to clean the mud off the machine, and I HATE mud! Worst stuff ever.



Overall, this was an awesome trip, we had a blast and have already been talking about going back next year.

Total miles on the SXS's was 1010 miles, trucks were 1562.

 

[jeeper]

Here’s your award for most reserved posts ever 🏆. 🤣

I thought I was going to get two pages of reading in. Looking forward to the rest!

 

[BlackSheep]

Sounds like a great adventure! Looking forward to reading the rest!

 

[Coco]

All done, thanks everyone for being good sports with this report!

 

[kmboren]

Such a cool trip. Very Jealous.