2017 Baja Barf - its on and its happening... now!

[1962siia]

Awesome pics! Hope I get to do the window rock trail at some point.

 

[HadesOmega]

Awesome pics! Hope I get to do the window rock trail at some point.

I think you'd like it it was awesome but I would not do it on the DR650 again at least in the configuration it is in right now. I have heard people ride DR650 on this trail but I'm sure it's a lighter setup. You want something small and narrow I had trouble squeezing the bike through certain sections. I'm glad I raised the bike also it helped a lot on this trail. It was without a doubt the most challenging riding I did during the trip, everything was cake after that ride haha. It was similar to the singletrack we did in Moab. Also after I felt that the weight of the DR was adequate to ride in certain places, I definitely did not build the Cactus Puncher to do that type of riding, it's really only designed for slower more mellow dirt riding. I definitely pushed the envelope that day.

 

[HadesOmega]

DAY 01 PHOTOBOMB! - BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES TO PUNTA SAN FRANCISQUITO

The whole group has arrived and we ride out to PSF, I try to play moto action photographer blasting out in front of some of the groups and capturing their photos, in most cases I was not fast enough. The DR650 sure rips through stuff like this! I was able to maintain about a 50mph pace.

Was barely able to get a shot of Dmitry, Rebecca, Hank, and Ian as they rode by.

Pictures at San Rafael a sea turtle sanctuary and campground.

 

[HadesOmega]

It was kind of a good day to take pictures of the birds because of the extreme winds the birds were just gliding around.

 

[HadesOmega]

One of my favorite sections and views of the road to PSF is this twisty hillclimb section. At the top there is a great view of the Cactus forest you just rode through. I got some pictures of EricB and Hilary as they climbed it.

 

[HadesOmega]

The last section to PSF. It was a lot less sandier than I remember.

 

[HadesOmega]

PARADISE AT LAST!

BONUS! So Norcalslowpoke was kind of enough to lend me the Beta and take it out for a spin at Punta San Francisquito. If you know PSF it's got tons of sand so I got to see how this Italian dualsport does in the sandy stuff. This is actually not the first Beta I've ridden though the first one I crashed pretty bad luckily I kept this one standing up. It's quite an amazing bike with ample power and suspension. Its not the most comfortable bike but it rips. Riding it through the sand was effortless. I can see why the big pig wears me out so fast. With it's $10,000 price tag though it is unobtanium to me.
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Hilary also let me take her DRZ400E out for a spin. Not as powerful as the DR650 or Beta but it was mucho easy to ride and lightweight!
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[HadesOmega]

DAY 2 PHOTOBOMB - PUNTA SAN FRANCISQUITO TO MULEGE
So today I would ride a new road that I'd never rode before. I was excited and not so excited at the same time because after 3 days of riding I was starting to feel tired and I didn't know what the conditions of the road we were taking were. This route was a road that goes south before you get to el arco. It turned out to be not so bad it was pretty sandy but nothing the Cactus Puncher couldn't handle except on VERY deep and choppy sand section that was tough to get through but I barely managed to get out it with little drama. It was fun and I really need to practice speed control in the sand because it was very easy to blow through a corner I needed to slow down before blind turns in the sand. After we made it to the highway more shenanigans ensued when BicyclePhil and Krongsak were having a little dirt race on the dirt road that was paralleling the highway and I got a first row seat. After that we had awesome fish tacos at a fish taco stand and from there on it was all slab to Mulege. Along the way to Mulege I tried and I tried to get cash from every banco along the way but my bank had screwed me again and was unable to get pesos. Other than that it was a great day!

Sunrise at PSF

 

[HadesOmega]

Getting ready to roll out, this is also the only time I rode with the super dirt A rank riders also.

These are the accomodations if you didn't camp. It wasn't too bad, if I could ditch the camping gear and just stay in hotels and little cabins like this would be great. Not the oldschool McDonald's window curtains.

This is the rancho we checked out before hitting the unexplored route.

This route was sandy but it was fun sand, nothing the Cactus Puncher couldn't handle.

This is at the main graded dirt road after the fun section. This was a fun section too. We took off in pairs to minimize the dust clouds and blasted down the road of speed up to 65MPH.

We had some bomb fish and shrimp tacos at this little stand in Vizcaino. Thanks to EricB who spotted me on some tacos as I had exhausted my cash supply and couldn't fix it yet. The taco stand dude just cranked out tacos at an amazing pace!

 

[HadesOmega]

Super delicious fast service seafood tacos!

This is a famous bakery in Santa Rosalia we went to check out. No cash no bread =( But Windsor shared some of his bread with me, it was good it was like a giant cookie. Honestly I'm not a big fan of the Mexican bread after eating so much Taiwanese bread. Riding through Santa Rosalia was interesting and kind of annoying. Lots of traffic and crowded. It reminded me or San Francisco with it's one way roads, horrible condition roads, and by the bay atmosphere. Maybe if you put Monterey and SF together this is what it'd be like. You can also take the ferry to the mainland from here.

SFMCJohn and Kalle rolled up no too long after we were at the bakery.

Made it to Mulege without much incident. I was able to fix my financial problems, the wifi phone is your friend! 1-800 numbers don't work on mexican phones I learned. So there is a travelling tip. If you have problems with your ATM card, find some wifi and use a wifi phone app like Hangouts Dialer and call your bank and give them an earful. Luckily the wifi was barely good enough to talk to the bank long enough to get everything squared away. From there on no more problems with getting money! Next time I travel abroad I will take what I need in advance at a travelex. Thanks to the bank of Anytwowilldo, Norcalslowpoke, and EricB for keeping me afloat while I fixed my bank situation.

 

[HadesOmega]

DAY 3 - BAHIA DE CONCEPCION

Today was a bonus rest day. So I spent it riding to Bahia de Concepcion. We rode there 2 years ago on the Dmitry Expedition. This year we road to San Sebastian and totally got lost but totally had fun getting lost. San Sebastion had a little cove and there were very nice houses you could supposedly rent. Looks like a great place to stay an alternative to staying in Mulege. I guess the problem could be getting food it's kind of remote. Unfortunately we had a rider go down Impish9090 broke his leg on the last stretch of road out of Bahia de Concepcion. After waiting about 20 minutes at the road I headed back and Norcalslowpoke gave me the news of what happened. I met up with the rest of the group and and told them what had happened and we devised a plan to get out downed rider help for him and his bike. The plan was to have a group arrange transportation from someone at one of the beaches and the other group would keep him company and report on his condition. Myself and Hilary went back to look for Impish9090 and keep him company and assist him in anyway. The 690 Enduro looked ok except for the rear brake was twisted up over the footpeg. There was no way to ride it like that so I attempted to bend it back and it cracked. There was no way around it, that lever was done. I rode it down the road a bit and it was good to ride minus the brake lever. I think I was the only person in the group that had the inReach device and was able to send a message to Cabrito to send help. Luckily we didn't have to use the SOS function and I got the word out. After several messages later the BARF rescue crew deployed and met us at the bar where the other group was able to arrange transportation for him. Then the BARF medvac got Impish9090 to Loreto where they had a hospital. Then anytwowilldo rode Impish9090's 690 Enduro back to Mulege minus the rear brake lever. It sucks about Impish9090 I thought he was riding really well today also.

I'd also like to add I rode the DR650 in the lightest configuration today. Without the backpack and it totally rips through that terrain. Didn't have to fear bottoming out as much because the suspension would soak it right up. It's ok though I can ride it fully loaded too just have to be more careful and that sand is a pain starting off with all that weight. I still feel the suspension is too soft but the extra travel makes up for it.

Mulege in the morning from La Terrazas

That's a lotta bikes

Saw these hummingbirds outside the restaurant.

Yummy Jugo de Naranja and coffee!

Some airfilter maintenance pulled the filter skin off to reveal a clean filter =)

 

[Eric B]

Great pics, Merlin!

 

[SFMCjohn]

Great pics, Merlin!

+1 ... HO Photo Bomb is the BOMB! arty

 

[Eric B]

Osprey, I think. San Juanico area.

 

[Eric B]

Osprey nests. Lots of these along the road going north to San Juanico.
Pallet attached to a pole was the foundation.

 

[HadesOmega]

Riding on the first beach section

There were some pretty challenging hillclimbs. Last time we rode here was all beach stuff this time we went up over the mountains.

Hilary and some strange structures out here.

Made it to a little beach

Found this huge conch shell with a hole in it.

 

[HadesOmega]

I take a peak around that igloo thing and I see San Sebastian in the distance. A nice little cove.

So there it is we made it to San Sebastian!

We met this couple that had sailed in that boat from New Zealand. They were having a great time as was everyone else.

 

[HadesOmega]

So as the sun starts to come down we decide to ride the beach like 2 years ago for 10 minutes. I was the lead and I rode the DR650 as hard as I could for 10 minutes so we could cover some ground. Haha I rode it a little too hard and almost went off this. I had a choice turn around and take the road or clear this ledge and possibly get trapped down there. I chose the first option.

So after the 10 minutes were up we were going to head back to the slab. Before that I took some pictures. The goal was to reach one of the beaches and take a group photo at the beach and have some tacos. That never happened unfortunately.

So here I am waiting here at the end of the dirt road to the slab. The ride out was as I remembered it 2 years ago, it was easy and fast. The greatest danger however was that there was cattle and horses roaming about. You could easily see the animals but there was thick brush on the sides of the road and if an animal decided to pop out into the road your would hit it. I hit speeds of up to 50+mph on this road, being very vigilant to look out for cattle towards the end I slowed down a bit to look for cattle.

So after I was waiting for about 20 minutes I figured something was wrong and I made my way back slowly and I ran into norcalslowpoke and he told me what had happened to Impish9090. Norcalslowpoke went to look around the ranch we passed by and see if he could get help. My task was to round up the rest of our riders who took a different route, the route we had taken in. I simply had to ride down the slab to the entrance we went in and told them what was up. You should have seen the look on their faces when I told them what had happened.

 

[HadesOmega]

Impish9090 extracted from the crash site and was getting ready to be BARF medevac'd to Loreto.

All the bikes made it safely in the dark to Buena Vista taco shack.

Picture of Butch here on the right the good samaritan who came to help us pick up Impish9090 and his steed. He refused any sort of reward what guy. The dude on the left was the guy working at the taco bar he was a pretty interesting fella.

 

[Lunch Box]

Great pics, HO. Keep 'em coming! Your posts always remind me how crappy I am at stopping and taking pics.