I just got back from a 1,230 mile off-road motorcycle trip from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas. It was a training run to prepare for the Baja 1000. Here’s part three of the story…

DAY #3

This was going to be our 2nd longest day, around 250 miles, so we got up particularly early to get a head start. Things started to go wrong immediately. We had two rear flats that needed to be changed before we even got out of the parking lot, delaying us by about an hour.

We finally got off around 7:45 or so, wearing jackets as it was a cold, damp morning. The first section were rocky dirt roads through rolling green hills, shrouded in mist. You could run at decent speeds, but had to be on the lookout for rogue boulders. The bikes didn’t have steering dampners so when you hit something big, the front fork would completely twist and if you were sitting down, you’d get thrown into the front of the bike, possibly going down. This often resulted in a superman, both legs completely off the pegs, outstretched behind you. It’s a little unnerving at first, but you learn to hang on and regain your composure. Gotta keep moving.

We then hit a rocky technical section that criss-crossed craggy mountains. This was my first technical section and it took a while to get used to the punishing terrain. When in doubt, get the bike in first gear, stand on both pegs and find the cleanest path. When you’re riding through what amounts to a field of boulders, that can be tricky, but it does work. I dropped the bike a few times during this section and lost my SPOT Satellite Messenger. The drill in Baja is to conserve your equipment and energy, so dropping the bike a few times early in the day can really wreak havoc towards the end of that day.

 

We came out of the technical section and hit my favorite part of the whole trip – a fast winding, dirt road that dissected a cactus forest. First of all, I’ve never heard of anything like that before, but it’s exactly what it sounds like. Around 50 miles of 20 ft tall cacti. It’s hard to describe just how beautiful that is…

Since the road was decent, that meant traffic. Nothing like coming around a corner at 60mph and staring at the front of a pick-up truck. Happened a few times on this section, so you tried to stay on the right, but you really needed the whole road. You have to stay alert at all times. I ran across a cowboy on a horse around this same time. He signaled for me to slow down. I stopped and he pulled a rattlesnake out of his bag – just wanted to show me. It would be crazy if that type of thing wasn’t so common in Baja. In retrospect, I almost hit every imaginable animal in Baja. On this particular stretch, I kept having to dodge 5 foot long, jet black snakes that would wind across the road. You have to be careful because you don’t want to go over them and accidentally throw them up onto you. Surreal stuff.

After a quick lunch, we rode a punishing 10 mile stretch and got to a famous stop called Coco’s Corner.

Coco’s corner is a free campground and favorite destination of racers. It’s run by a colorful gentleman named Coco (see below). He gets by selling soda, water, t-shirts and hats. He moved out years back after he lost a leg to diabetes. When I was there, he seemed particularly animated. He said it was because he was trying to keep his mind off of the next day. What’s happening tomorrow? “They are taking my other leg”. Man, that is really tough. I hope he’s OK. If anyone has been there recently, I’d appreciate a report back on his condition.

Everyone that comes to Coco’s is asked to sign his guest book. It’s filled with travelers from all over the world. He asks for your name, hometown and type of vehicle you’re riding. Coco’s then decorates the pages with photos from magazines or draws illustrations. The books are beautiful in a Baja way.

After fixing another flat, we road some rough winding gravel roads that criss crossed mountains. This eventually gave way to a long section of rutted, dried out dirt ‘roads’ that felt more like chutes. It felt like driving in some type of medieval pinball machine. We were about 220 miles into the day and I’ve never been more tired. I was leaning up against the front of the bike as I was riding, trying to rest a bit. All the result of a rough morning. I was cooking along at around 30mph, came around a corner and launched off a 6 foot drop. The front end of my bike completely bottomed out, giving me a real shock (and scare), but I never left the bike – just one near miss of a 1,000 over the course of the week.

Towards the end of this section, we were told we’d hit the most famous whoops in Baja. If you don’t know, a whoop is like a mogul or speed bump. There are sections that have serious whoops for 40 miles straight. You have to stand and timing is everything. It is exhausting work. The section was only a mile or two long, but the whoops were about 5 feet tall and were very deep sand. You have to stand, lean back and hammer the throttle to keep momentum. You don’t have a lot of control in these situations, you just point the bike and hope for the best. I made it through about a mile of this section, falling a few more times. Lifting a 300lb bike repeatedly in sand kills you. It got to the point where I knew I wouldn’t be able to lift the bike again if I fell and it would be swallowed whole. I had nothing left in my tank. Absolutely nothing. I had no choice but to pull off into the desert and find another way through the cacti. Another Baja lesson – you don’t have to stay on the course, you just need to get through it. Find ways around problems. Save your equipment. Save your strength. Keep moving.

We finally made it to blacktop and had 30 miles to get into Bahia De Los Angeles. At this point, it’s getting dark and very few of us had tail lights or headlights. We ended up driving in packs, bikes closely gathered around whichever bikes had a small functional light. We almost hit a pack of donkeys going 50mph on a blind curve – man oh man. Must keep alert. We finally pulled into out hotel in pitch black darkness. We sat around drinking Pacifico, talking about one of the craziest days I’ve ever had in my life. Little did I know it was just the beginning. After the best fish taco I’ve ever had, sleep came hard and it came fast. The view below is from my room the next morning at 6AM – the Sea of Cortez. Read Part Four

Read Part Four