Dangerous Baja
What does it take to explore Baja? Thousands "ride Baja" but most never venture off the highway and miss places only the quick and the dead have seen. Can you ride your fully loaded RTW "adventure bike" two up into deeper Baja? Or even one up? The short answer is no. Those that make such claims have never seen the real "Out Back" Baja.

I've ridden Baja many times, mostly following the 1000 race course and never saw stuff like on this last ride. The difference? We had a AA level rider as our guide who has done Baja every year for the last 15 years. Many new trails have been discovered in the last 10 years but very few casual riders would ever discover them. We rode just a few of them and they kicked my out of riding shape butt.

Baja has several easy dirt roads doable on a Vstrom, GS, Africa Twin, DR650, or other single but be careful where you choose to go if you're unsure about the route. Delve deeper and you'll find tracks with deep sand that goes for miles and miles... no I mean DEEP sand. No GS will pass on this type of deep sand. Rock trails to challenge David Knight and even hill climbs that are challenging, strewn with bowling ball sized rocks all the way up the mile long climb.

This past trip taught me a few things. I still suck in deep sand and that I'm getting old and losing confidence in myself. I'm out of shape and overweight.
None of this helps at all. Riding a bit drunk is actually a GOOD thing in some situations (for me!) bucking up your courage to stay on the throttle!
Sounds asinine but it worked pretty good for me

I was also on the wrong bike. My great little XR250 is sprung too softly and lacks torque, making it harder than it should have been to ride in deep sand
and tough in the rocks (too soft).
A few test rides on my buddies WR450 and another's CRF250X quickly confirmed this and corrected all my problems. So I'm not a total squid but my conditioning should have been better. On the WR I did OK in Sand and floated over the rocks with much more confidence.

We started at a friends house south of San Felipe, BC.

We rode north and took the dump road out of San Felipe and onto the dry lake bed below the Picacho del Diablo (nose of the Devil) mountain. An easy ride from there climbing up to famous Mike's Sky Ranch at about 6000 ft.

Mike's is no bargain these days at $60 per person (NOT per room) This does include two good meals but still is an out rage for Mexico. About 90% of the motel guests are with organized tours, like Chris Haines Tours, where riders pay $2000 for a three day all inclusive ride. (bike, meals, guides, 3 meals a day, hotel, extra bikes and mechanic, help in tough sections, airport transport et al and even a seat in the break down van for injured riders. Helicopter service too.

Welcome to Disneyland Baja!




More later

Patrick

__________________
Patrick passed Dec 2018. RIP Patrick!