Baja Trip Report
Wow, Baja is a really great place to ride. Terrain varies from desert with cacti and thorny bushes to Ponderosa Pine forests. Had to ride on a few paved roads as connectors now and then, but even that was a trip – and could look around a bit then and sightsee. Single track trails were very tight and so windy you couldn’t look around the corner because of the brush. Got way better at riding in deep sand washes, picking my way through gullies and rocks rocks rocks. Have to be on a constant lookout for cattle and horses crossing our paths, plus general vehicle traffic on the roads, no matter how small they seemed to me. Had a horse chase ME at one point when we took a trail through his pasture and he decided I was a threat to his harem of one… good thing I could go faster than him! :-)
We went with Baja Bound Adventures, Tim & Jennifer Morton (www.bajaboundmoto.com) on their “Hooters on Scooters” annual women’s ride, s/o’s welcome.
Met up with Tim and Jen at their house Wednesday about noon, added our bikes to their flatbed trailers, climbed into the van and were off to Ensenada, Mexico. Spent the night in a nice hotel. The next morning came down for breakfast in our riding gear, got the skinny from Tim on group dynamics and other instructions, and got back in the vans for a short trip to our starting point in Santo Tomas. Tim said our mileage that day would be in the 120 range, which I just ignored since it couldn’t be true. Most I’ve ever done is 45 miles. Set out on dirt roads – road is used loosely here, lots of deeeep rain ruts, rocks and other debris – did some single track, got onto the Baja 500 race course, followed Tim all over the place. Was beautiful, cacti were blooming, got over to the Pacific Ocean coast and rode the bluffs above.
Got to our lunch stop a bit late as we had a couple gals fairly new to riding and couldn’t go as fast as hoped. But talk about troupers! They went through stuff I don’t think I could have done even last year, totally amazing performances. And every one of us improved a lot over the course of the trip. Were 14 riders total including the 4 helpers – 8 women in all, did a leapfrog type stop and signal to the following rider whenever we came to an intersection, kept us moving and nobody got lost. So here we are at Maria y Ricardo’s B n B in the middle of nowhere, eating fabulous food, 80 some miles done, and Tim says we’ve still got 40 or so miles to go… if anyone wants to load up in the truck (which had met up with us by then) now’s the time! Two gals did, the rest of us rode on, couldn’t believe it – we’d actually done 124 miles when we reached our hotel at The Old Mill! I was tired but not exhausted, our hosts had beer and snacks waiting. Showers, dinner, sleep.
Next day rode out again after breakfast, nice loop along the coast, back to Ricardo’s for a wonderful lunch. Struck inland for Mike’s Sky Rancho. Stapled my business card up on the wall with about a thousand others from all over the world. Tim broke us into 2 groups every now and then with harder or easier options so everyone had as much challenge as they wanted. Did 102 miles.
Third day is a repeat, still on much of the Baja 500 course, am getting used to going much faster than my normal pace, eating and drinking regularly so never got too tired. My bike worked just great. We’d put a smaller rear sprocket on for the higher speeds, kept adjusting my suspension softer til I could do the whoops and stay level instead of having the rear tire hit with no compression to speak of and send my nose down in the dirt. Finished up at The Horsepower Ranch outside of Ensenada. 120 miles. More great food and drink.
Last day we headed north towards Tecate, went through some beautiful Ponderose Pine forests, fast smooth sand roads, magic carpet stuff. Ended up at a KOA with nice showers, 110 miles for the day. Everyone cleaned up, packed up and were trucked back into the States and our various ways home.
Rocky Roads was there with her husband, he took a bunch of digital pictures and will send us a link when they’re up for viewing.
Bike did fabulous, we put a filterskin on top of the filter for day one, took off the skin for day two, put in a new oiled at home filter and skin for day 3 and took off the skin for day 4. Bike needed about 3/16” on the dipstick of oil added each day to keep it at the top mark. Put a new divot in my bottom skid plate on a big rock somewheres, otherwise just some scratches on the plastics. Wore my new vented Moose “Sahara” pants and vented jersey, very comfy. Only change I plan to do is put on some IMS Pro Series footpegs, bottoms of my feet were sore from standing all the time on the narrower stock pegs.
What a wonderful trip! Was over way too fast.
SusanP.
CRF250x
Wow, Baja is a really great place to ride. Terrain varies from desert with cacti and thorny bushes to Ponderosa Pine forests. Had to ride on a few paved roads as connectors now and then, but even that was a trip – and could look around a bit then and sightsee. Single track trails were very tight and so windy you couldn’t look around the corner because of the brush. Got way better at riding in deep sand washes, picking my way through gullies and rocks rocks rocks. Have to be on a constant lookout for cattle and horses crossing our paths, plus general vehicle traffic on the roads, no matter how small they seemed to me. Had a horse chase ME at one point when we took a trail through his pasture and he decided I was a threat to his harem of one… good thing I could go faster than him! :-)
We went with Baja Bound Adventures, Tim & Jennifer Morton (www.bajaboundmoto.com) on their “Hooters on Scooters” annual women’s ride, s/o’s welcome.
Met up with Tim and Jen at their house Wednesday about noon, added our bikes to their flatbed trailers, climbed into the van and were off to Ensenada, Mexico. Spent the night in a nice hotel. The next morning came down for breakfast in our riding gear, got the skinny from Tim on group dynamics and other instructions, and got back in the vans for a short trip to our starting point in Santo Tomas. Tim said our mileage that day would be in the 120 range, which I just ignored since it couldn’t be true. Most I’ve ever done is 45 miles. Set out on dirt roads – road is used loosely here, lots of deeeep rain ruts, rocks and other debris – did some single track, got onto the Baja 500 race course, followed Tim all over the place. Was beautiful, cacti were blooming, got over to the Pacific Ocean coast and rode the bluffs above.
Got to our lunch stop a bit late as we had a couple gals fairly new to riding and couldn’t go as fast as hoped. But talk about troupers! They went through stuff I don’t think I could have done even last year, totally amazing performances. And every one of us improved a lot over the course of the trip. Were 14 riders total including the 4 helpers – 8 women in all, did a leapfrog type stop and signal to the following rider whenever we came to an intersection, kept us moving and nobody got lost. So here we are at Maria y Ricardo’s B n B in the middle of nowhere, eating fabulous food, 80 some miles done, and Tim says we’ve still got 40 or so miles to go… if anyone wants to load up in the truck (which had met up with us by then) now’s the time! Two gals did, the rest of us rode on, couldn’t believe it – we’d actually done 124 miles when we reached our hotel at The Old Mill! I was tired but not exhausted, our hosts had beer and snacks waiting. Showers, dinner, sleep.
Next day rode out again after breakfast, nice loop along the coast, back to Ricardo’s for a wonderful lunch. Struck inland for Mike’s Sky Rancho. Stapled my business card up on the wall with about a thousand others from all over the world. Tim broke us into 2 groups every now and then with harder or easier options so everyone had as much challenge as they wanted. Did 102 miles.
Third day is a repeat, still on much of the Baja 500 course, am getting used to going much faster than my normal pace, eating and drinking regularly so never got too tired. My bike worked just great. We’d put a smaller rear sprocket on for the higher speeds, kept adjusting my suspension softer til I could do the whoops and stay level instead of having the rear tire hit with no compression to speak of and send my nose down in the dirt. Finished up at The Horsepower Ranch outside of Ensenada. 120 miles. More great food and drink.
Last day we headed north towards Tecate, went through some beautiful Ponderose Pine forests, fast smooth sand roads, magic carpet stuff. Ended up at a KOA with nice showers, 110 miles for the day. Everyone cleaned up, packed up and were trucked back into the States and our various ways home.
Rocky Roads was there with her husband, he took a bunch of digital pictures and will send us a link when they’re up for viewing.
Bike did fabulous, we put a filterskin on top of the filter for day one, took off the skin for day two, put in a new oiled at home filter and skin for day 3 and took off the skin for day 4. Bike needed about 3/16” on the dipstick of oil added each day to keep it at the top mark. Put a new divot in my bottom skid plate on a big rock somewheres, otherwise just some scratches on the plastics. Wore my new vented Moose “Sahara” pants and vented jersey, very comfy. Only change I plan to do is put on some IMS Pro Series footpegs, bottoms of my feet were sore from standing all the time on the narrower stock pegs.
What a wonderful trip! Was over way too fast.
SusanP.
CRF250x
