- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
The week of Thanksgiving my wife and I loaded up the JKU and with a couple friends (Uli & Cindy... Uli is a local moto riding buddy) in their Toyota FJ Cruiser, we hit the road Southbound heading to Baja!
We crossed the border in the morning, headed for San Felipe and a lunch of fish & shrimp taco's! The Baja 1000 was running the day before we crossed the border, so we were hoping that it woulnd't be too crazy in town... the race route had come right up the highway towards San Felipe!
As usual, we were swarmed with street vendors selling their wares. After hanging out in town for awhile we topped off our bellies, then the gas tanks and continued on our way South, destination was Bahia de los Angles for the night. On the way down we were passed by a trophy truck headed North, driver in full race gear! We figured the truck must have broke down during the race, then repaired and they were headed back to the trailer, as the race was over. We passed Gonzaga Bay and the Federale check point on the way, then Coco's Corner... the attendant at the Pemex in Gonzaga Bay was MIA, so there was no gas available... good thing we topped off in San Felipe! It wasn't long before we got to the end of the paved road, which was in the same spot that it was 12 months ago! The construction has entered the the hills and they're working on bridges and culverts before than can continue with the paving. The road got rough and I stopped to air down, was running 45 PSI and dropped it to 20 for a much better ride. We also saw Coco, checking on his stop sign as the Baja 1000 had ran up his road the day before.
We ended up chasing the sun, then as it got dark we ran across an older gentleman in a Honda Pilot who seemed to be changing a tire. He had passed us earlier, hauling ass! The road around Coco's Corner is rocky and rough and there are tires strewn around that valiantly gave their lives on the rocks. We stopped to help the guy as he was traveling solo and it was, well.... interesting. He introduced himself as 'Torrence' was BLASTING classical music with all his luggage strewn around the vehicle, so he could get to the spare. Torrence was telling us to get the guy at the llantera (tire store) to come help him, but it looked like something we could help with. Uli and I jumped into action, got my bottle jack out and we had his spare swapped on in a few minutes. In the mean time, Torrence broke out a bottle of wine and was passing it around, insisting that we all take a swig... all with classical music blasting as loud as the Honda's stereo could manage!
Torrence lived further South and told us he ran a fishing charter business and told us to come by anytime for a free fishing adventure! The scene was surreal... only in Baja! We got him back on the road and packed away, then caught the pavement and continued on.
It got dark early and I wasn't digging driving in Baja in the dark, but we dealt with it. We ran across some cows standing on the side of the road and I decided we'd better slow down quite a bit... a short time later we ran across a few deer and some coyote's off the road. The Rigid Dually D2's in my bumper were earning their keep, but I was wishing I had even more light going down range. We dropped back to the coast and down into Bahia de los Angeles, heading for a little place that Uli had stayed at on a motorcycle ride a few years earlier called Costa Del Sol for dinner and a couple rooms. In the morning I snuck out to get some pics of the sunrise over the bay... I love Bahia de los Angeles! Eventually everyone was up, so we sat down for an amazing breakfast and discussed our plans for the day. Their big great dane 'Scooby' came out and tried to make breakfast out of Uli, but he wanted to keep his fingers. There was another rider at the hotel on a KTM 1190 Adventure with CA plates and street tires... both Uli and I ride KTM LC8's, he's on a 950 Super Enduro and I ride a 990 Adventure, so we were understandably excited and jealous to see someone like-minded in Baja on a big adventure bike.
We crossed the border in the morning, headed for San Felipe and a lunch of fish & shrimp taco's! The Baja 1000 was running the day before we crossed the border, so we were hoping that it woulnd't be too crazy in town... the race route had come right up the highway towards San Felipe!
As usual, we were swarmed with street vendors selling their wares. After hanging out in town for awhile we topped off our bellies, then the gas tanks and continued on our way South, destination was Bahia de los Angles for the night. On the way down we were passed by a trophy truck headed North, driver in full race gear! We figured the truck must have broke down during the race, then repaired and they were headed back to the trailer, as the race was over. We passed Gonzaga Bay and the Federale check point on the way, then Coco's Corner... the attendant at the Pemex in Gonzaga Bay was MIA, so there was no gas available... good thing we topped off in San Felipe! It wasn't long before we got to the end of the paved road, which was in the same spot that it was 12 months ago! The construction has entered the the hills and they're working on bridges and culverts before than can continue with the paving. The road got rough and I stopped to air down, was running 45 PSI and dropped it to 20 for a much better ride. We also saw Coco, checking on his stop sign as the Baja 1000 had ran up his road the day before.
We ended up chasing the sun, then as it got dark we ran across an older gentleman in a Honda Pilot who seemed to be changing a tire. He had passed us earlier, hauling ass! The road around Coco's Corner is rocky and rough and there are tires strewn around that valiantly gave their lives on the rocks. We stopped to help the guy as he was traveling solo and it was, well.... interesting. He introduced himself as 'Torrence' was BLASTING classical music with all his luggage strewn around the vehicle, so he could get to the spare. Torrence was telling us to get the guy at the llantera (tire store) to come help him, but it looked like something we could help with. Uli and I jumped into action, got my bottle jack out and we had his spare swapped on in a few minutes. In the mean time, Torrence broke out a bottle of wine and was passing it around, insisting that we all take a swig... all with classical music blasting as loud as the Honda's stereo could manage!
Torrence lived further South and told us he ran a fishing charter business and told us to come by anytime for a free fishing adventure! The scene was surreal... only in Baja! We got him back on the road and packed away, then caught the pavement and continued on.
It got dark early and I wasn't digging driving in Baja in the dark, but we dealt with it. We ran across some cows standing on the side of the road and I decided we'd better slow down quite a bit... a short time later we ran across a few deer and some coyote's off the road. The Rigid Dually D2's in my bumper were earning their keep, but I was wishing I had even more light going down range. We dropped back to the coast and down into Bahia de los Angeles, heading for a little place that Uli had stayed at on a motorcycle ride a few years earlier called Costa Del Sol for dinner and a couple rooms. In the morning I snuck out to get some pics of the sunrise over the bay... I love Bahia de los Angeles! Eventually everyone was up, so we sat down for an amazing breakfast and discussed our plans for the day. Their big great dane 'Scooby' came out and tried to make breakfast out of Uli, but he wanted to keep his fingers. There was another rider at the hotel on a KTM 1190 Adventure with CA plates and street tires... both Uli and I ride KTM LC8's, he's on a 950 Super Enduro and I ride a 990 Adventure, so we were understandably excited and jealous to see someone like-minded in Baja on a big adventure bike.
