AYU Spring 2008 Baja Trip
Other than my fear of farting, the AYU Spring Baja went well. There were nine of us. Kay Vetter, a very experienced Baja rider and three riding buddies, Martin Gastanaga, Andy Monroe and Roberto Gulizia came from Reno to Hacienda Santa Veronica, a bull fighting school turned into a Mexican resort where we met up on Saturday morning. Bob Stokstad and Patrick Moriarty left from Torsten J's house and met up with Kay and his group at Mike's Sky Rancho. I was to meet Richard Sacks and Paul Goodacre at Hacienda Santa Veronica as well. Kay and his group set out for Mike's in the morning and I would wait for Richard and Paul. After having some mechanical repairs done on Paul's bike at a shop in Lakeside, CA and an extensive tour of Tecate's hiways and byways we hooked up too late to go to Mike's that night. The next morning the three of us set out for Valle de Trinidad, after Richard got Malcolm Smith to spend about 45 minutes repairing his broken boot strap. Our plan was to meet the group that night at the Cueva de Pirata a hotel on the coast in Camalu. However we lucked out and met the group at the Pemex station In Valle d Trinidad. After some killer tacos and beer the nine of us set out for San Vicente and to the west coast for a ride on the bluffs above the beach. Everybody but Paul and I rode on the beach and in the dunes. We all hooked up again at the Pirate's Cove and had a good dinner set up by Roberto after which we had a slumber party since there were quadruple bunk beds in the rooms and a bed was added for Bob.
On the third day, Paul and Richard decided Baja wasn't their cup of tea and headed north to Death Valley. It turned out to be a pretty hard day for the rest of us. We had to ride through miles of rocks to get to the "difficult" rocky hill climb (from the notes in Bob's Baja Almanac from a previous run through this section). Difficult is an understatement. Bob endoed his bike, suffering no injuries, I dropped mine twice and was exhausted, while Patrick had his difficulties as well. We had lunch at the top of the climb and it was beautiful. There probably wasn't a human within 50 miles of us. We descended down a rough road to a really fun sandy two-track that took us through forests of boojum and came out on Hiway 1. We stopped at Randy Bradescu's memorial before heading into Catavina for the night. We splurged and stayed at the La Pinta. On the way, Andy's 450 Honda blew its top end and had to be towed to Catavina by Kay. Martin's Yamaha was not running very well either. Andy and Martin were able to hitch a ride all the way back to Hacienda Santa Veronica and met up with us several days later in San Felipe.
Now we were five. We took the hiway to Bahia de Los Angeles except for a trip around and across Laguna Chapala and a short dirt loop from El Crucero to the road into Bay of LA, which I skipped. We took a day off in BoLA, which was great for me, since that was the beginning of my intestinal difficulties. We met a M/C off-road racer named Jim, who had extensive knowledge of all the trails within a couple hundred mile radius of BoLA. He splits his time between BoLA and Kamloops, BC. I asked him about a house I saw coming into town and he told me it belonged to an Italian ex-patriot from Rome who was setting it up as a B&B and restaurant. We paid him a visit in the afternoon. He has built a very nice house with great views of BoLA. Roberto is from Milan and he and Mauro hit it off. Funny how those Milano - Roma rivalries disappear in Baja. We paid him a visit leaving town after visiting the turtle sanctuary. He treated us to some killer coffee spiked with Sambuca, perfect for the long hiway out of town. Everybody but me did Calamajue canyon and met up at Alfonsia's in Gonzaga Bay. I hadn't spent the night there in ten years and had forgotten how awesome that Bay is.
We rode to San Felipe the next day and met up with Martin and Andy at the El Capitan Hotel. We had a great dinner that night at the El Nido, Filet Mignon avec guacamole and baked potato. Patrick and Bob returned to Torsten's; Kay, Roberto, Martin and Andy headed north back to Reno. I took the high road and rode by Laguna Hansen. It was the first time I had seen it with water in it. Back to Hacienda Santa Veronica and the long drive home.
Chas Rundberg