Thursday, April 5, 2007

A quick Baja run before ... a Baja run.


Northern Baja pine forest.

Was planning on heading down to Baja for a week or so & working out of an office south of the border ... opportunity came up to do a quick overnighter with a buddy of mine.



Jason's an excellent rider ... good thing as the loosely planned route involved some decently challenging terrain.







This ride began with a very loose plan ... essentially we knew we wanted to head south.

Worked out great - ended up meeting people here & there on the trail and traded routes. Jason & I got separated at one point & he was pretty sure another group of riders had taken a turn we didn't - a trail I hadn't ridden in the past - so we went exploring. Later we met a group of guys that didn't know of the fuel stop in the forest, so we guided at that point.


Impromptu tour group getting fuel.
From there we followed the route down the "goat path" directly into Valle de Trinidad and up to Mike's Sky Ranch. Had a few mechanicals to take care of ... nothing major. I lost another blinker to the shaking of the trail and we both were in dire need of some air filter cleaning.

Next morning it was out the back way & over toward the racecourse...


View from the trail out - Mike's visible in the background.
...and straight to flat #1.



Which was right by a big tree & a water crossing...



Flat taken care of ... we were off.



...that is, until flat #2 happened a short time later (I also had a bit of a mechanical ... involving a cliff - but no photos of that :)



Jason's always smiling...



...even when his engine bolts are falling out :)



As we were making sure the motor would stay ... installed ... these guys came rolling in on another form of Baja transportation...



Mexican beer sticker on a Russian motorcycle...



Rolled out of there & made a quick stop at a friend of mine's office.



Then proceeded to make a quicker repair of flat #3.



Changing it was not really the best option as daylight was waning, we still had at least 50 or 60 miles to go, and both realized neither of our headlights were working... CO2 limped us to the border where the fix-a-flat goop was pumped into the tube for the last blast back to the truck.

One of the many rules of Baja ... a "little" trip is almost never a "little" adventure.