Baja for New Year's ...

Hi all,

We're off! But first: pain and suffering ...



I know Nemo Brinker and Termagant are heading down to Baja for the holidays ... any other BARF Adventure Riders we should keep an eye out for?

We're hoping the hit Guadalupe Canyon Oasis for Christmas and Bay of LA for New Year's Eve ...

The plan is to leave today and ride the bikes to Santa Cruz to visit a friend, and then on south (and out of the rain?) tomorrow ...

We'll see what the rain makes of my plans ... hate riding in the rain ...

Will try to update this with pics while we're on the road ... got a newerish phone camera, so maybe my bad snap-shots will be a little less bad ...

see you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

Here's a rough map of our route south ...



Google says it's 1029 miles and 21 hours of riding to Bahia de los Angeles ...



And here's a pic to help me get motivated to climb on the bike in the rain ...

see you on the road,
-- SFMCjohn

Following seavoyage's lead, here's a bit of logistical info ...

We got Mexican Auto Insurance from http://www.bajabound.com/

We got $50K of liability, legal assistance and bail bond, with $0 coverage for our KLRs for $55 each ... You need to have a paper hard-copy of your auto insurance policy, so those are packed ...

We got a family re-repatriation/medical evacuation insurance policy from MedjetAssist ...

That 15 day policy was $235 and included some small financial assistance to get a motorcycle back to the states ...

I was in Baja a few years ago with Kalle who had a get-off and had to be evacuated by airplane from Guerro Negro ... $26,000! Ouch. We had to scramble to pay FIRST, too ... double ouch. Anyway, MedjetAssist ... Kalle was ultimatley covered under his sterling health care insurance, but had to wait to be reimbursed ...

We're bringing our passports to get back into the states ...

Copies of the passport, driver's licenses and contents of wallets to be kept apart from the wallets ...

Lots of cash and pesos ... ha.

see you at the ATM,
-- SFMCjohn

you need tourist

visa (FMT) if your going to Bahia de Los Angeles. You need one if your going south of Maneadero. Enjoy NYE there. They have a great party. Camp at Archelon and have dinner with Tony and his wife. They throw a great potluck for all the campers.

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dravnx said:

visa (FMT) if your going to Bahia de Los Angeles. You need one if your going south of Maneadero. Enjoy NYE there. They have a great party. Camp at Archelon and have dinner with Tony and his wife. They throw a great potluck for all the campers.

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Hi dravnx,

You are right about the visa (FMT), of course ... I edited my previous post to remove that bit of wrong info ... and thanks for the tips about Archelon! We'll certainly check it out and say merry x-mas to Tony and his wife ...

ThumperX said:

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Yay, ThumperX! Thanks for reading ...



Well, turns out we both have colds, that came on yesterday, so we just could not bring ourselves to saddle up ... but we did get the bikes packed, so after sleeping 12 hours, we're going to give it another try. Rain, patches of blue sky, and sun out our window right now ... talk of I-5 being closed up around Oregon and of being under chain control when it does open back up, so it could be much worse for us ... we'll try to get down to Taft today ...

OK, see you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

Good luck and good riding! Hope to run into you guys down there. Hope you ride between the raindrops and into the sunshine.

Nemo Brinker said:

Good luck and good riding! Hope to run into you guys down there. Hope you ride between the raindrops and into the sunshine.

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Hey NB!
Hope to see you and Termagant, too ... we managed to dodge most of the raindrops today ...
See you around the campfire!
-- SFMCjohn

Taft, CA

Well, in the event, we didn't suffer too much ... The weather got better the more we procrastinated and by the time we got our rain-gear on we bombed across a dry Bay Bridge in sunshine ... We lane split past stopped cars on a packed I-5 in and out of rain showers to Coalinga where we jumped on Rt 33 and finally covered 300 miles to Taft ...


Water proofing my leather boots ...


On Rt 33 south of Coalinga ...

We chased the sunset through the storm clouds past the Pyramid Hills and the oil derricks, glowing in the hills in their work lights, with the Christmas lights of Taft in the far distance ...


We're staying at the Topper Motel in Taft, hard by good food at the Salsa Mexican Restaurant ... yum.

Lots of unhappy people in cars on I-5 today ... god bless lane splitting!

It's another 300 miles from Taft to Tecate ... Planning on cutting through the Antelope Valley to I-15 to Rt 79 through Julian and on to Tecate ... Stay at Campo Ojai or Casa Santa Veronica and on to Guadalupe Canyon on Christmas Eve ...

SFMCjohn said:

Lots of unhappy people in cars on I-5 today ... god bless lane splitting!

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We were in my FJ with all those other unhappy folks on I-5. I actually bailed onto 33 to bypass some of the traffic. It was brutal. I didn't see you guys though.

Glad you ended up getting out the door. Have a great trip.

ThumperX said:

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Cabrito said:

We were in my FJ with all those other unhappy folks on I-5. I actually bailed onto 33 to bypass some of the traffic. It was brutal. I didn't see you guys though.

Glad you ended up getting out the door. Have a great trip.

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Hi Cabrito,
Out the door, yay! Would have been neat if you'd seen us ... Rt 33 was empty ...
Thanks for the good wishes, and happy holidays!
see you on the road,
-- SFMCjohn

Julian ...



We only made it to Julian today, about 260 miles from Taft ... Didn't have to put rain gear on, but the high desert of the Antelope Valley was cold and windy, as were the snowy San Bernardino Mountains ... The weather got much better as we plunged down the Cajon Pass and into Riverside County, and the ride into Julian is justly famous as a motorcycle road ... We'd not seen many other motorcycles, but there were a bunch on Rt 76, and they all waived at us, happy to be out riding on a beautiful afternoon, I think ...

We stopped in Julian for the night, which may have
been a grave tactical error ...

It's 37 degrees here at 9 pm, forecast low is 28 ... We may be sorry tomorrow morning that we didn't press on to get lower ... We do love Julian, though, all decked out for the holidays, and it is a traditional stop for us on the way to Baja, though we've never spent the night before ...

No pics today, just never stopped ... I'm sick as a dog, ha. Chest cold ... maybe that's why it took us all day to cover 260 miles ...

Oh well, on to Baja tomorrow, if it does not snow up here ... Snow on the bikes is always a fun pic ... Oh yes, 30 % chance of rain ...

The upside is the weather makes for dramatic scenery up in the mountains east of San Diego ...

Julian is awesome at Christmas. Have a slice of Pie and be happy!
Bon Voyage!

Papi said:

Julian is awesome at Christmas. Have a slice of Pie and be happy!
Bon Voyage!

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Hey Papi!
Julian has the best pie ever ... We may have to stay another night so we can sample more ... so far the apple a la mode is winning ...
see you in the village bakery,
-- SFMCjohn

You should look up Godsdarling (DarDar) in Ramona. You're close.

The bikes look forlorn this morning out in the rain ... We're warm and dry, and ready for more of Julian's famous pie!

We'll either stay another night so I can nurse my cold, or we'll saddle up in the next hour and hit the road ... The rain is supposed to taper off after 10 am, and the radar looks good ...

see you in the rain,
-- SFMCjohn

ThumperX said:

You should look up Godsdarling (DarDar) in Ramona. You're close.

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Godsdarling here on BARF? I'll have to go read her posts!
Any friend of ThumperX is a friend of mine!

Thanks for thinking of us!
-- SFMCjohn

We lived in Ramona back in the late '80's. great area for trials; had Barona Oaks for MX; use to run a XR100 in Adams kart track; and strafe Palomar on my FZR400RR-SP race bike (Built by Steve Biganski and campaigned by Nick Ienatsch). The apple pie in Julian... highly recommended


John, quit dicking around and get south of the border. This Bay Area rain is driving me nuts! I might get a wild hair; and be in Ensenada within 48-hrs. on a GasGas EC300