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HadesOmega's BARF Baja 2016 Ride Report

So before I get too far ahead I kept on telling myself man there's a section here with a ton of sand. Like dune sand type sand because I remember it was after the section we took a break at and regrouped. I even kept telling Ian there's gonna be HELLA sand. Then it turned out to not really be that bad. So I looked at my 2015 video of that section and sure enough it was HELLA sandy. So it looks as if some kinda plow came by and graded a road. I thought it was kinda cool how the route didn't really change but the conditions sure changed. Sure was a lot easier to ride through that last year haha. :ride

So this is the section right after I passed those cows and rancho.

BARF BAJA 2015 vs 2016 Hella Sandy Comparison
https://youtu.be/eOXGdOiPs3U
 
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Moving right along getting some good speed while I'm at it I'm trying to see if there is any sign of where the cave paintings that eluded us from last year. I knew I shoulda put the coordinates in my GPS =( A lotta climbing going on here.
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There it is our goal is in sight! El Arco in the distance!
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Heading toward El Arco at a good speed. I think I hit like 70 at some point.
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El Arco up ahead!
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GOAL!
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Come on Merlin! I'm jonesing for more baja footage!!! And the next day is our ride to the mission ruins!!!! Woot!!!
 
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Merlin come on buddy..... Don't let this thread get off the front page! Bajahahahahahaha!!
 
Haha sorry I disappeared for awhile because of the stonybarf, I'm trying to finish that Japan ride report its very close to finish then its all Baja after that =) I'll give you a little something soon HIGHSPEED GRAVEL back to the pavement! But if you've been keeping up on the movies you've already watched it.
 
Sorry I fallen seriously behind on this ride report but I'm ready to start back up. I can't believe the videos have surpassed the ride report for some time and I totally forgot.

So continuing on I'm on the homestretch to El Arco right now. I'm pretty much going as fast as I can. When I get to the last section I tell myself in the video 63MPH at one point then I back off.

Up over some hills
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El Arco in the distance
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63MPH!?
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And SAFE! I have arrive at El Arco.
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Ok so I'm at El Arco right now it's about 1030ish and I think we left around 7 or 8 so it took about 2 or 3 hours to get here. So I'm asking myself where is everyone? I'm WAY ahead of everyone else. I just took off cause I was having so much fun but it was the last section anyway. So I do a quick debrief on how the bike is doing, it's in the video! But I'm totally satisfied with how me and the bike are performing thus far.

So here I am stopped at the El Arco intersection
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Then it's time for brunch!
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I take a quick brunch break and probably half an hour after I arrived Ian pulls up.
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Then not too far behind is Eric. We all take a break in the shade and wait for the rest of the group to catch up and figure out where we will be going next. Because we'll either take the gravel road out to the highway or take the super sandy route that kicked my ass last year. So we are waiting for Scott, Daniel and Josh to showup. So I take a tour of El Arco...
 
Merlin..... when you get to Mulege and notice none of us are there..... its because we left there 6 months ago! :rofl :twofinger

Love the photos even if they are a bit behind schedule. :teeth
 
Here's some pictures of El Arco.
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Cactus Defense Wall!
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Entrance
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Responsibility, enthusiasm, efficiency, and honor.
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Barracks
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What it looks like looking out of the guard shack.
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DFAC and some kinda guest house
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Basketball court, the backboards reminds me of the signal corp flags
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Principals of the Mexican Military
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I think this is the command post or officers quarters
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Horsies
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Barracks Bay
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Insignia
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Why look at this. Looks like a 7.62x51 NATO shell.
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Ok Scott, Daniel, and Josh have finally rolled and we decide we are going to take the not so sandy route back to the highway. The road going to the highway is a long gravel road that you can ride pretty fast on!
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And off we go its a race to the slab!
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I'm behind Josh and EricB, further up ahead is norcalslowpoke
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Passing GreenHornet
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Catching up to EricB
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Passing EricB
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Clear sailing ahead until I catch up to norcalslowpoke. Moving right along at 60mph!
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You can see norcalslowpoke up ahead he's haulin ass.
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Hovering around the 60mph speed with norcalslowpoke about 300 meters in front of me.
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Slowdown a bit for this slight S section
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Back on the pipe
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These Cactus are trying to attack me!
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Thumbs up we are just flying on this road!
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Now several road hazards pop up
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Pickup truck
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Missing road
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Almost 70mph in this pic!
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More missing road
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Danger peligro!
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And that's it we've hit the slab!
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Catch up with norcalslowpoke
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No we are waiting for quite some time. We totally smoked everyone!
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Picture of GreenHornet going the wrong way.
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To El Arco II and Beyond! This movie covers the last dirt section before El Arco all the way up to when we hit pavement! Highspeed action!


https://youtu.be/3lRgdmlP4ng
 
The gravel road looks a lot worse than the last time I saw it in 2015. Soon it wont be there. Thats a great high speed road.
 
Now several road hazards pop up
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Pickup truck
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Missing road
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Almost 70mph in this pic!
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More missing road
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Danger peligro!
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And that's it we've hit the slab!
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Catch up with norcalslowpoke
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No we are waiting for quite some time. We totally smoked everyone!
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Picture of GreenHornet going the wrong way.
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Merlin, Thanks again for all the pics and captions!

Norcalslowpoke is a misnomer. Scott is far from slow.

I've not been on the road from El Arco to the slab, but it looks like it is disappearing on the right side. The missing portions of road are very dangerous, and only one of the reason we do not ride at night.
 
I'm gonna skip the video for this section it's all slab. So after everyone regroups at the slab. We split off in groups of twos and I air up because I know its going to be a long slab ride. This is way longer slab ride than last year because I took the super sand route last year.
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Getting ready to set off I've aired up and attached my windscreen, I'm riding with Eric doing about 55.
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Caught up to Eric
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Endless desert and cactus
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So I'm following my tracks from last year and it shows this is where we came out on the slab when we bailed out of the super sand route.
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Movin right along
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So the next town we roll up (I think it Guerero Negro) on I stop at the gas station because I know for sure they don't have premium in San Ignacio.
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Eric gasses up also
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And I take el banjo break
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Rollin through town
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It's like a motorcycle club or quads I guess since they have pictures of quads
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Back on the road
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Hard to tell in this picture but there's a bus burried under that berm
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Roads just going out into the desert
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You can see a sand twister in the distance
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Getting close to San Ignacio
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Finally some turns
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Back to this straight stuff
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On the horizon you can see 3 large mesas!
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More lovely desert
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Cactus forests
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A large gorge coming up
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Peligroso curva coming up!
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Almost at San Ignacio. I didn't get any picture of the military checkpoint but it's not too far back from here, they don't want you take video or pictures.
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We have arrived at our favorite Rice and Beans!
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Finally made it looks like the party already started, the 250 doesn't go very fast on slab =/
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Here we are resting and taking a break at Rice and Beans before its time to head to Mulege for the BIG LONG slab ride there.
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Chips and beer
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These little guys were so friendly
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Mmm yummy just what I need after a long day of riding
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I think I might've been super hungry because I ate these tacos also
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Some picture of Rice and Beans, lots of cool racing stuffs here.
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It's time to hop back on the bikes and head to Mulege, the rest of the way we were just going to follow my tracks from last year too easy.
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Hasta la vista Rice and Beans
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A couple more before we hit the road
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As you can see San Ignacio is full of palm trees
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So it's a LOOONG slab ride to Mulege. The good thing is that we get to ride it in the daytime unlike last year. So I get to enjoy the scenery. The bad thing is I have a ton of vidcaps =P

Starting out from San Ignacio
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Take the 1 to the sea!
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Here we are looking at those lovely palm trees before we take off from San Ignacio. So once again it is just me and EricB riding together. Everyone else has taken off and is going to meet us in Mulege.
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Heading through town a bit
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Hey cool look at that it's a whale skeleton!
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Endless cactus forest roads
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Beautiful mountains in the background
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Riding with our backs to the sun
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Fairly common to see these bridges throughout the highway
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Lots of these cattle signs, thats one reason why you shouldn't ride in Baja at night =/
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More lovely scenery
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Look at that one cow just chillin at the bottom of the gorge there
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Indeed it is true there are cows on this road
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Wave to the camera
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Eric out front now look at those mountains
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Looks like we're riding through a cutout through a mountain
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See these increasing speed bumps they even have these in Japan they have them in Mexico too. It means there's a sharp one up ahead.
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Riding through the canyons
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I never saw this view last year as it was total darkness it's quite spectacular view coming around the corner of the mountain.
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More carving
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Gettin closer to the bottom
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Hey what's that in the distance? It's a solar farm out in the middle of a cactus forest. Makes sense right!?
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It's also some kind of park
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More beautiful mountain ranges
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You can paint a picture of this landascape
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Ocean is up ahead!
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Before we get to the ocean we need to descend to sea level
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And we've made it to the Gulf of California and Santa Rosalia!
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