Nowhere Near Ramona

So there we were, just riding along, heading for a little place called Agua Verde, which is kind of out of the way of most things, and we came around a corner and saw this bus parked at the side of the road. The road got a little bad after this, so we could only imagine that all the happy passengers had to walk the remaining 10 miles to the beach.





We saw their campsite quite a lot later on the beach just to the right of the little hill in the middle of this picture.








When we got to the bottom of the hill there was a little village between the beach and the road. We stopped at this palapa and a little old lady came out to see who was making all the noise. I speak a little bit of spanish, and Rollergirl speaks a different little bit of spanish. Between the 3 of us we had the following conversation:
"Hello. Is this a restaurant?"
"Good afternoon. Nope.
"Is there anywhere that we can eat?"
"You can eat here. I will make you something."
"Thank you very much! Is there anybody here that sells gas?"
"Nope. But I will ask around. How many litres do you need?"
" 2 would be good. Thanks"

Then we sat down and entertained ourselves and the local kids while we waited.





This cute and happy little girl was in a wheel chair. She has a concrete pad about 15 feet by 25 feet, and then the rest of her world is sand. She had such a positive attitude and told us about her school and then helped us with a vocabulary lesson.




After our simple meal of eggs, beans and tortillas, with a glass of Coke, we paid the little old lady and Rollergirl gave Ellena a little gift.

You two are the Coolest...

Cool!

peter, i enjoy your RR. there's so much about baja makes it alluring. the raw beauty and uncertainty are just a couple of them.

good to see RG is rolling along with you....

thanks and keep them coming.

joel

As we got up to leave, an elderly gentleman arrived with a 2 litre soda bottle full of gas. I thanked him and asked how much.
"Nada. Nothing!"
I tried to pay him anyway, but he shook his head and walked away.
The little village that we are at is about 40 miles from asphalt, and about 80 miles from a gas station or supermarket.
The people that live here have a long way to go to get supplies. I was very happy to pay, with tip, for our little lunch. I felt that it was only fair to pay for the gas too. I went back to the little old lady and gave her enough Pesos to cover 4 litres at a gas station, and asked her to give it to the old guy. This far from a gas station, I am happy to pay double for the ability to go further.

I ride a beat up 2005 KTM 450 that doesn't get anywhere near enough mechanical attention. I change the oil sometimes, and have no idea how many miles or hours the poor thing has done. This bike is awesome to ride and has never left me at the side of the trail. If I am putting along, I get about 120 miles out of my 3.4 gallon tank.

Rollergirl has a 2.3ish gallon tank and we found on this vacation that she gets about 70 miles before going on to reserve if she is taking it easy. Usually when we are riding together, I try to be back at the truck, or at a gas station, before she runs out of gas. On this ride, I spent a lot of helmet time doing fuzzy math regarding miles/gallon and miles /tank and how far we were from where I hoped there was barrel gas for sale. I carry a spare gallon in 2 pepsi bottles, and had figured that we probably were going to run out of gas quite a long way from the nearest barrel. The 2 litres extra meant that we could keep going all the way to Agua Verde, and make it to where the hope-barrel gas should be.

So we went further!





Sometimes when Rollergirl follows me, I tend to beat her up a little. Sorry baby! She is an amazing woman, and only stays pissed-off for a short time. This is Agua Verde. Turn around point. This means we should have used 50% of available energy to get here. RG makes up for being past the 50% mark by being stubborn, competitive, and incredibly resilient. I haven't told her about the fuzzy math or the hope-gas.









Heading to hope-gas.





Hooray for wild horses. Seeing them helped with our energy levels.







Oh yeah, Hooray for hope-gas too. It was there in a big barrel, just where I had hoped.
This ride helped me to break through my need for control as far as gas is concerned. I now feel that I can be a lot more comfortable riding past the point of no return and finding hope-gas.

Badass!

Isn't whynwthen a wonderfully sappy husband.
I can't figure out why he only puts pictures of me looking at horses, putting along in a gentle stream and walking down horrible rocky sections of the trail. He doesn't put in the death defying sections where there is serious question as to whether or not I am going to make it..........but I love him and thank him for taking me to the edge time and time again, to the point where I don't know where my edge is but I am having a blast finding it.

Not knowing where your edge is, is a fun place to be. Finding it and flirting with it is the ultimate. I believe your husband is not taking pictures during those edge moments because he is intent on making sure you don't go over your edge....
Its great to see you still searching for it.

His job is not an easy one but what you are doing is (pardon the over used word) AWESOME

Great read! Thanks for sharing the experience.

A lot of Baja ride reports have pictures of dusty bikes in hotel rooms. We don't have any of those.
This is where we stayed. This is where our bikes stayed.





This made us feel safe from any thieving Canadian tourists.



The happy cop that drives this car lives about 4 doors down.



We didn't meet any other people from the gun-toting capital of the world, but we did meet a lot of very nice Canadians. They apparently hadn't been told how dangerous Mexico is. We were treated as part of the family by a few groups of these uninformed folks.

Canadian joke time!
"How do you get 30 Canadians out of a swimming pool at exactly the same time?"















Ask nicely, "Everybody out of the pool please."

Hey, here is a pic of me!
On our way to the Commondus - Two little towns west of Loreto.





We rode over the mountains and dropped into a beautiful canyon.





Obligatory pic of bike in front of cool old mission building. According to the sign, the original mission was dynamited to provide building material for a wealthy home-builder. This building was merely an additional structure near the mission.





Some very well dressed vacationing locals invited us for lunch. Unfortunately we had to decline as we had many more miles to go in our loop and neither of our lights work. The road between the 2 villages weaves down this canyon filled with wonderful palm trees.





This section was quite a bit easier. Wishing I was on my 990 super couch. Little bike seat and many miles were starting to cause a little tenderness.





Watch out for cows!

Next day, shorts and t-shirt ride to the 'ClamShack'.
They are only open during the day, as they don't have electricity on their beach!





A few years back, when Rollergirl was just getting into riding, I dragged her down to the west coast of baja for a few days. She was on her trusty XT350, decked out in my finest lender-gear and a road helmet. We stopped at a store at the end of a long day and parked our bikes at the side of the road. I got off my bike, walked past Rollergirl, gave her a kiss through her helmet, and walked into the store. The two Mexican ladies in the store were giggling and having a good time at what appeared to be my expense. I asked them what they were laughing at, and they answered "We think you kiss a man."

I assured them that it was my 'esposa', not my 'esposo'.

After returning home, the next day I came home after work with a big bag of new stuff for Rollergirl. Pink pants, pink shirt, pink helmet and pink goggles. She hated it and made me return it all to the store. I did manage to convince her to keep the pink goggles, so that everybody would be able to tell that I was not trying to kiss a man.





The warm-up rides, and gradual increase in difficulty, combined with long long hours on the bike were definitely paying off for Rollergirl. I upped the ante a little and she smiled most of the next ride.











Turn around point.

I see a line!:eek1

So do I...

Lets go back and try it. It is a bit of a drive, but worth it! We can take your truck, it is faster than my green tank.

Viva La Vida!!

Would not mind living where you are!! Keep the rides rolling!! s

My apologies to the six of you that follow this thread. I have been a little busy with work. I will try to get this RR wrapped up ASAP. It has been so long that I am going to start forgetting things. We have done a few little rides since the Loreto trip. Rollergirl really stepped things up on the last trip to N. Baja. She followed me and Ted on a very gnarly single track. I told her to take it slow, let her low gearing and trials tire handle the traction. All she had to do was keep smiling. Having Ted along was almost like having another woman with us - Rollergirl could feel competetive with Ted and not get angry at me for taking her on an awesome trail. I felt so proud.

Oh yeah, then last weekend I sprained my ankle really badly. Crossing the street in flip-flops. No, I wasn't drunk. Thought I broke it for sure, but the young doctor at the ER said that the grapefruit sized swelling was only from a sprain. So now I have it taped up and will take it easy on this weekend's ride to Valle de Guadelupe. This will be our 5 year anniversary of moving in together. Hooray for love!

Ok, back to Loreto.

I met a very cool Canadian guy that keeps an XR400 in Loreto. He rides really well and doesn't need to say much about it. He knew an ex-USA guy, that now lives in Loreto, that rides a completely hammered YZ 426. This guy needs to talk a lot about his riding! We agreed to meet for a "man's" ride the next day. Looking at my rear tire, and being too lazy to change it, I decided to take a "girl's" bike. I mean, I asked Rollergirl if she would mind if I borrowed her bike, seeing as it had a good trials tire on the rear. I hadn't really ridden her bike much before.

Anyway, the "men" met up in town the next day. Yamaha-guy took off out of town super fast, followed by Canadian Jeff. Then me on my wife's bike. I don't ride very fast, and rairly ride with guys that are throwing huge roosts and drifting every corner. I thought that I was going to have a hard time keeping up. Hopefully they would wait for me.




But then I realised that Rollergirl's 250 xcf-w is a freakin' amazing bike. It is very light, has super low gearing but can also go really fast because the engine can scream. So, as soon as we got off the fire roads and onto a rougher surface, the girl's bike was suddenly in the lead. Loose, rocky, steep? More please!





Beer for lunch.





Awesome ride. Thanks Jeff and Rick!







Thanks Baja!





And thank you Rollergirl, for the best vacation ever. Thank you for being such a positive, loving, giving, and capable partner. Thank you for the wonderful memories. And thanks for letting me ride your bike - my love for my 450 is now ruined.

Then we had a 2 day drive home

And then,




We had the worst experience of the whole trip.





Waiting at the border for hours to get back into the USA.

I spend a lot of time thinking about motorbikes. Probably too much time. I have been threatening to sell my 990 for over a year now, then I ride it and think that I could never sell it. My riding friends and I spend loads of time discussing what bikes we should own, rather than the ones we have. We must be quite spoiled to have such a dilemma.

I have thought for the last few years that I actually owned the perfect quiver of bikes. A 450 and a 990. But then I rode Rollergirl's bike. :huh
Now, when I sit on the 450, it feels like a fat pig, and the 990 feels even more like a boat. More discussion between riding buddies. OK, I will sell them both and buy 2 smaller bikes. Or, I will sell the 990 and buy a 250 and keep the 450. Or, I will sell them both and buy something bigger for Rollergirl to take on longer trips, and something smaller for me to use on technical trails. Or, maybe I should get a Trials bike.
But what if I want to go for a longer ride? What if I want to take my daughter for a ride? What if I got a XR 650 R, or a Husky TE 610/630, or a KTM 690 or 530, or a Husaberg 570, or one of those amazing newer 300 two strokes? Aaaaaaargh!
How many miles can these bikes go on a gallon? How big of an after-market tank could I get? How reliable would they be? How few dollars could I spend that I don't have? How far can a 2-stroke go?

Picture this going on for months. I can imagine that I might not be the only one dealing with this psychosis.

If I can get the perfect bike, or bikes, then maybe I would ride more?

Nope! I would merely own different bikes and still have the same amount of time available for riding. Different bikes would not lead to more saddle time!

Wisely, Rollergirl pointed out that if I needed a smaller bike for really hard trails, then I could use her bike, as she probably wouldn't want to be on those trails anyway. So, maybe I do own the perfect quiver, a 250, a 450, and a 990.

Rollergirl is going to ride the 450 and I will ride the 990 this next weekend. Then we can both spend all of next week trying once again to decide what perfect combination of bikes would magically give us more riding time.

Welcome to the nonsense that goes on in my head