In January 2002 I signed up for an excellent 3-day guided trip around the northern Baja peninsula
with Trailboss Tours, a friendly San Diego-based husband-and-wife
team who have been organising off-road trips to Baja for novices and experts alike for years.
I found them via a search engine on the Internet.
The routes Trailboss use in Baja follow a lot of the Baja 500/1000 race routes (used during the races by big 4WD buggies
and trucks as well as bikes), but also a lot of wide fast dirt roads ( unsurfaced public roads with little or no
traffic on them), some singletrack and a small amount of tarmac. I rented an XR400, but they also have brand new Suzuki DR-Z400s as well as all the other recent XR models (650,600,250).
Hover your mouse over the picture to read the caption: click on any pic to see it full-size
The first day took us from Tecate (near the US border) down via the scenic woods of the Parque Nacional Constitución to the legendary Mike's Sky Rancho in the Sierra San Pedro Mártir.
I was feeling a bit hung-over thanks to Ian's generosity with rounds of Don Julio (arriba, abajo, al centro, y ..por dentro!) the night before, and what with being spat off my bike on a fast sandy corner half-way through the morning (it took me a while to get
used to the XR400's notorious quick-steering front-end), it took me until mid-afternoon before I felt OK again.
The last five or so miles of the ride
up to Mike's was particularly fun: a twisty rocky dirt road with steep drops on one side. Mike's is not your average
ranch-hotel: you park your bike by the poolside, and the bar-room is covered walls and ceiling with off-road memorabilia
signed by the famous names of the last 30 years of Baja racing. I diplomatically avoided mentioning Johnny Campbell's performances
in real desert races like the Dakar ;-)
The second day took us down from Mike's past Rancho Meling to the beautiful Pacific coast. Tim S had
brought a helmet cam and was shooting video as he passed us and then would stop and film us catching up.
That night we stayed at the top-of-the-range Estero Beach Resort hotel.
As we relaxed in the hot-tub by the side of the heated pool with some young and attractive
Californian girls (OK the aunt wasn't much of a girl anymore but it wasn't for lack of trying..)
I thought to myself, "It doesn't get much better than this". And just then it did: Nancy and Tim appeared with some cold
Coronitas, tortilla chips, and freshly-chopped carrot and celery dips..
On the third day Tim S took three of us who had ridden quite a bit before up through Hell's Canyon,
a particularly arduous part of the Baja race route. This was probably the best morning's off-roading I have ever
done: a tough rocky whooped and bermed track which wound its way up and down over the hills and through sand washes:
great fun and very hard work on your legs and arms. I managed to shear off my gearshift lever (probably by landing
on it off a jump :-( and our hearts sank as we realized we were about 30 miles from the support truck via some
very rough trails. However after a quick check of the fender packs which are on all bikes and contain a spare front inner
tube and a spare clutch or brake lever, we luckily found a spare shift lever, which the other Tim (who was driving
the support truck and doing the maintenance on the bikes each evening) had fortunately packed.
After rejoining the others we set off back to Rancho Tecate. The last bit of adventure occurred late that efternoon,
when Nancy, Tim and I got separated from the rest of the group, in Nancy's case because some dodgy-looking types on
horseback galloped out in front of her, forcing her to stop and told her to turn back as it was their land.
All in all, a great trip with a great bunch of people: I just wish it could have lasted longer..
