Baja Team 6 - The Incursion

Hey Guys,

Glad to see you all making another Baja run.

I guess I'm due for another.

Don't you guys on the 250's know you can't go anywhere on those little bikes

Hope you see you all again someday.

BigDog

I wish now that I would have stuck with you guys when you went to see the gal with the tee shirt playing the trick guitar with the stratigicly place handle. She looks and plays good. I should have insisted on "right of edit" before you posted the photo of me appearing to just woke up. Maybe I was experiencing disbelief of some ones BS. As ride reports go, I've read afew but none better. Do you plan on covering the medical procedure done at Coco's? Be a shame not to share that with the gringos that may never meet Coco. I just talked to the guys wife that we found along the road South of Gonzaga Bay. Andy ( the crashed guy) is in Phoenix Hospital, getting better but not ready to go home to WA yet. Good luck Andy.

That crash was on the 3rd, and it sounds like he got the "long way round" to get to the Phoenix hospital. Glad to hear he's getting better.

I have not seem Gregg for years, he is a real character and a good musician! we used to jam out on San Juanico.
Mike

Funny you should run into my friend Gregg, I haven't seen him since I spent 5 days with him at San Juanico for his 50th birthday.

Yeah, we met him.

Burt is in the square in San Ignacio with his camera, he says "I don't know why I'm taking a picture of this mission, I've only got about 100 pics of the same thing", as he adds another one to his library!! (I've known Burt since 1962, we go a ways back)

Brad is a fast tire repair guy!! He has lots of experience, has fixed Burt's & mine on other trips to Baja.



Just another ugly sunrise in Punta Abredios.

Hey Mark thanks for dropping by. Took your advice and swapped out my fuel pump (before the trip) at 16K.

If you find yourself in North Idaho next summer stop in...

Burt and I both had 17" front and rear (Supermotard version WR250X). Seemed fine to me but Burt has much more experience in the sand and he thought the 17"x 4.6" worked better on the sand than the taller tires. Stayed on top of the sand better. It is a much wider tire though. Maybe the other guys have more experience with different size tires....

No 'right of edit' here! Take what you get! And it probably was more a look of some BS disbelief! The medical procedure is forthcoming. Glad that Andy is getting better. And glad you like the report....

All I have to compare the Montana 600 against is my seven year old Streetpilot 2820.

Things I miss that are not on the 600:
Bluetooth. Can use bluetooth dongle or wired headset on 600.
Music Player. Photo viewer, but no music player on 600.
Multiple Trip Odometers. Only 1 on the 600.
Being able to pick a POI 'along my route' instead of all POI's in all directions being listed as on 600.
Being able to zoom screen with gloves on. 600's zoom buttons are pretty small.

You would think 7 or 8 year newer GPS would include these 'older' features, unless I just haven't discovered them on the 600 yet.

Things I like:
Large screen
Easy to see in sunlight
Portable (battery operated or power supply), a little big for your pocket though.
Lots of memory, I think up to 64 gig.
Multiple profiles.

and a lot of functions I haven't figured out yet.

>"Just another ugly sunrise in Punta Abredios."

Sunrise or sunset ???

It was a sunrise!!! (Early!!)

Thanks,

LeeU

You should see him when he is drunk , if he wasn't then, looks like his ford truck in the back ground.

Dia Cinco

Today our goal is to find the SPOT and get back to San Felipe. This sets us up for an easy ride back to Yuma tomorrow. We have breakfast next door to the hotel. I never noticed the graphics on the HOTEL sign until I looked at this photo. HHHmmmm, I wonder if we missed something?

IMGP1853 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr


IMGP1854 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

What’s with divorced eggs? Saw them on all the menus??

IMGP1855 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

Walked around the corner and this huge rottweiler was laying there. Size of a small pony. He was unimpressed and just laid there (luckily).


IMGP1857 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr


We spot the German family (with tooth this morning). Their ATM card doesn’t work at either ATM in town and they are out of money until they resolve that issue.


IMGP1858 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

It’s a run up the highway to Chapala and then hit the dirt and gravel road toward Coco’s.


IMGP1860 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr


IMGP1862 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

We arrive at the coordinates Burt’s SPOT last broadcast from (N29.46800 W114.33049) and spend some time looking for it. Lee goes straight on to Coco’s to wait ( I think he knows something the other guys don’t?). The SPOT should be pretty visible being bright orange. If it was on the road I imagine somebody saw it and picked it up, although no one ever hit any of the buttons. If it went over the creek side it would have disappeared in one of the many crevices in the rocks never to be found. After about 15 minutes I think the search team started to dehydrate and took off for Coco’s at full speed. No photos of the search, got caught up in the excitement of it all. (I never saw money exchange hands, not sure how it ended)

See a couple riders going two up and give a wave just outside of Coco’s. They are headed in the opposite direction.. When we got to Coco’s someone asked how the girls ass looked (I know, what kind of chauvinist question is that?!). Coco responded that it didn’t look good at all. Not that it wasn’t dainty, but that it had some illness! He demonstrated the problem by pinching his arm and motioning that green stuff was coming out, yikes. We figured out that she had some kind of boil or abscess in her, how can I say this, ‘rear end booty cavity’ I guess would explain it. She could only ride with one cheek hanging off the saddle and let me tell you, this was not a smooth road. Then Coco explained the treatment he provided for her. You see, Coco has a little garden which he pointed out to me and indicated to go look at the plant. I think he only had two kinds of plants in his garden and one of them was castor bean (think ricin poison).

Well, the remedy consisted of a castor bean and some Vaseline. Here is a photo of one of his castor beans.


IMGP1868 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

I can only assume that he removed the pointy parts(!) before ‘insertion’. Coco kept making faces while describing this somewhat barbarian technique. And it was unclear who was in charge of the actual ‘insertion’ itself. I took some photos of the husband and wife's entries in Coco’s log book.


IMGP1870 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr


IMGP1871 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

Not sure if it clears up the matter, but they were thankful for the hospitality. I did a little research on Castor bean folk remedies, I did a little Google research looking for a stock photo of an ass boil or abscess that I could post to to clarify things. DON"T DO WHAT I DID, oh the humanity. Lord have mercy on her soul (and her ass).

Here is Mike chilling with Coco. I think they are reflecting on the castor bean drama.


IMGP1864 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

I snapped this shot of the motorcycles and Coco went off ‘What's with all you guys, you love your motorcycles or what, everybody takes pictures of their motorcycles, get over it!’


IMGP1865 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

We also ask Coco if he had seen David Letterhead as he was going to go in this direction. All Coco had to say about David Letterhead was that ‘he talked a lot but didn’t say anything’! Maybe David Letterhead was trying out some of his new material he gleaned from us at the hotel in GN?

Off we go until we get about half way to Gonzaga Bay.


IMGP1872 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

There is Mike chatting with some guy in riding gear, no motorcycles, just a couple of big suitcases in the road.. A couple of us stop and wait for Mike for a couple minutes, but he is deep in conversation so we take off for the Pemex station 10 miles down the road. When Mike does show up, he explains that there was another guy laying in the brush that had been injured in a bike crash.


100_1114 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

The guys buddy had put a cooler and propped up a jacket on a stick to help protect him from the wind and sun.

The third guy in their party had ridden back to Gonzaga Bay and returned with their van to get the hurt guy, but he was in too much pain to move so they took out some suitcases and loaded the bikes in the van. The van then went back to town to try and find help. We never saw the van? Mike was able to contact the consulate in Tijuana by using the phone in the market at the airstrip. (Mike was experienced with this as in a past trip of his there was an unfortunate fatality. But the local guy he knew with all the contacts was back in the states).


IMGP1873 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr


IMGP1875 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

Eventually it was determined that a police car would be dispatched from San Felipe, not sure what good that was, and it was a long ways away. The injured guy wanted a helicopter and had search and rescue insurance, but it was not to be. An American guy in a red pickup truck pulls up and had heard about the accident. He was a retired EMT that lived in Gonzaga Bay and was heading out to assist the rider. As the situation seemed to be under control we fueled up and took off. Wanted to get to San Felipe before dark.

We took a little dirt and then jumped on the unopened but new highway.


IMGP1876 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

If you see some rocks on the road be wary, could mean that the bridge deck is not in place yet! A little detour around the unfinished bridge and back on the road. Next stop was Cowpatty Bar for some hydration.


IMGP1877 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

I didn’t see it, but I guess the guys saw a south bound ambulance (from S.F.) that must have been headed out to get the guy. This means he would have been laying there for a long time. It took us 6-1/2 hours to get from Coco’s to S.F. So a round trip ambulance would be at least 13 hours plus the guy was down for a few hours before ambulance was dispatched. I would guess it took him at least 20 hours to get to whatever kind of hospital they have in S.F. It must have been a hell ride on that rough road in the ambulance, hopefully they were liberal with the morphine.


Follow up to injured rider: Got this information in an email from Mike after we got home - “...found out today from the guys wife that got hurt in Baja that he is in Hospital in Phoenix, stable and expected to survive. Fractured back, ruptured spleen, broken ribs, punctured lung and all. She didn't know a lot yet but headed down from WA tomorrow for a week to see what she can do. She didn't know any details but had via a voice mail on her phone (this morning) that he was hauled to Mexican hospital, transferred to a military hospital (Burt thinks maybe Ensenada) then transferred to Phoenix. The guy is diabetic and recently was getting chemo so some of the meds he was getting weren't working well with his underlying conditions and their trauma treatment people didn't know about his other stuff. His wife was mostly in the dark right now.” The accident happened on December 3rd. As of December 17 he is still in hospital in Phoenix.

I add the fuel from my Rotopax about 15 miles outside of town.


IMGP1879 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr


IMGP1884 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr


IMGP1886 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

We finally make it to S.F. at one beer past dark, about 12 hours after we had left G.N. from breakfast. Burt and Mike head to town for tacos pollo and Brad, Tim, and myself want to go to a restaurant and treat ourselves to a nice dinner. Right as we are walking into the restaurant the power goes out. Here is what San Felipe looks like when the power goes out.


IMGP1887 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

And if you add flash it looks like its snowing. Its actually just dust on my lens, not nuclear winter.


IMGP1888 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

I mean the whole town and as far as you can see up and down the coast is black. This sucks! We ride around town looking for a place. I run out of gas and we get seperated but eventually find each other, but we can not find any place to eat. Then Brad tactically heads for the Tecate store and spots Burt and Mike eating at a taco place with an outdoor grill (right next to the Tecate store). There are candles on the table and we feel like we are interpreting a private moment, but hunger takes over.


IMGP1890 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

The guy has a big piece of beef fat burning on the grill that casts a nice glow about the place.


IMGP1893 by DDMcGinnis, on Flickr

Have some good tacos and laughs and go back to camp. Lights finally come back on after two or three hours and we sack out. Tomorrow we cross back to USA.

That's what i was thinking

Are we having fun yet?

Must have been laughing gas in the cervezas!!!

As Doug said, the road from Punta Abreojos to Bahia Asuncion was about 35 miles of pipeline road, shells, gravel, tidal flatlands-- and yes a few miles of sand at the end. (Some fairly deep, with a couple of sandy hills and corners-- made for the usual need from RPM enhancement).





Had to drive around a while to find a restaurant that was open on Sunday.