alfalfa

Got away with the FOGs of BMWCOSC to Death Valley.  Nice temps in the 90s during the day, 60s a nite.

Titus Canyon - fun dirt road, 33 miles long.  Finishes into Death Valley thru narrow, winding section with steep walls

 

 

 

hydrating by the pool in Furnace Creek

Road thru Gateway is a Butler Maps Gold Route - some fine, fine tarmac!   I think each time thru there we've been "cautioned" by the locals on our speed

 

Have you ever taken that dirt road cutoff along the Dolores River?  Comes out near Bedrock

11 hours ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

What’s the baby mean then?

No whining? Dont be a cry baby? No children were harmed in the making of this trip?

No cry babies, yep.   We  arent allowed near children....

11 hours ago, XTreme said:

That sand looks hard work Rick!

oh, yes.  and coming after 3 hrs on the road, already, made it even more fun.   Well, the next day it seemed like we had had fun

6 hours ago, skyrider said:

what's that between the gloves his brain hasn't popped out has it  ?

Cow pie.  or, his brain.  same thing, really 

Day 6 - the big one!

 

We had basically reached the end of paved roads along the east coast, when we got to Bahia.  The next stretch was all dirt, 160 miles worth, and no one had been on it in quite some time.  Dennis had done it years ago, but things change in Baja.

We knew that the rode south along the coast connected several little fishing villages, so we figured the road wouldnt be all that bad.  Definitely not like the sand the day before.  And, we were right.  The start of it was some good gravel, a little thin sand in places, and awesome desert scenery.

a Baja superhighway

 

Mandatory FOG pee stop.

 

 

 

2nd FOG pee break

 

 

 

A couple of hours of easy gravel and we reached the southerly end of the dirt stretch, near the village of San Francisquito.

 

And, then......

 

SAND!

 

The thinner stuff

 

 

Resting after the 3rd drop.

 

 

The sand lasted about 6 miles or so, then back to good gravel.  oh, wait!  with hidden sand sections mixed in for when you were just getting comfortable again! 

 

We eventually reached pavement and at least one guy was relieved.

So, let's see where was I?

 

Oh, yes.  We all made it to Bahia de Los Angeles, and found accommodations.  I'll start off with a lodging picture, just to make you jelly.

The hotel had 2 bed, 3 bed and 4 bed rooms available, so we spent about 15 mins doing Common Core Math in order to figure out the room combination that worked.  I had it worked out, cause I is college edumacated.  It fell apart because 15 type A personalities, you know.

Given there was only one other room taken, we commandeered all the facilities and proceeded to cook dinner.  (actually, the gracious host gave us his truck keys and said go shopping in town and you can use the outdoor kitchen (left in picture above).

 

We ate well.

 

 

with full bellies and beat riders, what was left to do?  well, sitting around the fire, drinking and telling each other how great we were and how much the others sucked that day! You have to have really thick skins to ride with these idjits.  Just keep in mind, however, they have your back.  You will just hear about it afterwards 

 

 

 

Did i mention drinking was involved?

Nothing better than arm wrassling on beat up wood tables.

 

Plans were made for an early fishing trip, with our own boat fleet.

 

Plans were made, but plans werent followed.  Drinking late into the night and waking up after fighting sand and gravel the day before makes one revisit ambitious, drunk-induced activities.   No one got up early enough to catch the boats.

So, we headed off for a good gring-style breakfast, mixed with Mexican entrees.  Then, we took a little ride around the village, ending up back at the hotel where more sitting and more drinking was called for.  The trip itinerary had two days in this general area, so had no great need to head further south.   The comfort of the beds, convenience of the cooking facilities, proximity of stores, etc, made us abandon the goal to camp along the beach.   I wasnt that upset.

 

 

Mexican covid masking.

 

Dennis had heard enough "suggestions" so he hit up a little village swap meet and bought this for his bike.   Guesses on what it means?

 

 

 

 

4 star eatery.   Well, for Baja it is

 

 

 

On 27/03/2021 at 08:20, Earache said:

Welp, we expected that this might happen.....

 

Canceling our trip in April due to too much snow on the ground and more expected soon. Might do a smaller trip a little later...like late May.

Even the southern route is out?  May is a good month, normally, its before school gets out and the parks and roads get crowded.

59 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Ah well yes agreed, going slowly is fatal and on both of those occasions I was going very slowly but there was no choice there was a lot of traffic and you had to crawl forward with the occasional blat if you could push open a space. I know it’s hard to imagine a very long off road traffic jam but that’s kinda what it was

luckily, our only traffic jams are self-imposed.  We tend to go away from crowds.  However, the proliferation of side by sides out here in the west is making it harder and harder to get away.

57 minutes ago, Bruce said:

I know, big balls. But it's handy to remember the GS wont throw you any further than if you were on a 600 single.

 

Of course the GS itself wont bounce as nicely as a 600 single but then it was your decision to take it there.

The big girls do have a tendency to look for a soft landing, tho.  Usually a human body.  Our buddy Rob went over the side in Colorado a couple of years ago.  Nothing happened to him until his loving steed caught up.  Broken foot on that one!

4 hours ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

The sand on those loaded up bikes

Bet the others were pretty pleased with themselves taking the paved road

Funny thing is that we were relieved, but felt less manly 

3 hours ago, Pedro said:

Were you camping later on? I ask because that looks like way too much luggage each bike is carrying.

Amazing stuff, just great. Did the red bike crack the valve cover?

 

There is a track I am going to try on the GSA in Morocco that must have some soft sand, I'm pretty intimidated by the thought of it to be honest.

We were to start camping on Day 4, but given the delayed starts every day, we didnt make it to our camping spot, stopping in Bahia de Los Angeles, instead.   The most fun we have on a trip is bagging on the one with the most luggage.

Bruce is right above, speed is your friend in sand.  However, you will have to overcome your sphincter, which is constantly telling you to slow down!   The red bike wasnt damaged much, cause sand is soft    The valve cover work shown previously was due to some other tip over earlier in the trip.

We had several great riders on this trip, with Matt (KTM rider) and Dennis probably being the top dogs.  In the videos posted you an hear Dennis saying he went down 3 times.  Matt never did go down.    Bastard.

I need to figure out how to embed the videos again.  but, in the meantime a quick video summary my brother put together...

(Paste in the link you get from the SHARE button)

 

Day 4 continued:

 

(sorry for the delay, but the sand section from this day was pretty entertaining, afterwards, and i've been trying to collect pics from the others who attempted it.  in the meantime .....)

So, while the saner riders of the group were busy finding that nights accommodations, the true AGALOS guys were taking a "shortcut" to the highway into Bahia de Los Angeles, located on the east coast of Baja.  Small fishing village, as well as a ferry terminus.  Being a shortcut, they showed up in stages, with the last to arrive only an hour or two later than the pavement peeps. 

some iPhone videos:

 

 

 

First to arrive were the Louisiana boys on the small bikes.  I'm guessing they only have swamps in Louisiana, and not much sand!

 

Second up were Fernando and Chris.  They had made it a few miles deeper into the shortcut before bailing back to the main road. 

 

Fernando was sporting a bandaid under his eye, and had decorated his jacket with red stuff that appeared to look just like blood.

All due to getting up close and personal to a cactus!

I guess you could call this truly  a face plant?

He was escorted out of the mess by Chris.

 

The last 4 to show looked a little wiped out, but were still laughing.  They had busted all the way thru the sand, but it wasnt easy.

 

Especially for Gary:

(Facebook banned this pic for being too graphic!   They must have thought that was Gary's brain between his gloves.  It was a cow pattie, much smarter than Gary)

Our favorite prick .........and his cactus:

 

 

 

Sand shit show!!

Gary's little helper

 

 

 

 

16 hours ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

What was the temperature?

Temps werent too bad, but it was really cool at night and first thing in the a.m.

27 minutes ago, JBEAN said:

I sure missed a great trip. Good RR Giroux! 

You took ANOTHER knee, Bean?

10 hours ago, Bruce said:

Seriously? Did you not see fatso ATGAT with triple lining? Looking like a beanbag past it's prime? 

Lockdown keeping you from getting your meds?  They cant mail them to you? 

14 hours ago, Bruce said:

Jus cos yer fuglee and fat and cant get a leg over no more doesn't mean you have personality. I dont see no lovely señorita doing the bump and grind straddling yer paunch and twisting your moobs while you sip on a sangria.  

ditto

 

13 hours ago, Bruce said:

Coco's. Cold drink and beer in the desert was all it took for the ladies to shed their knickers?

 

 

HEAR THAT MUCHO!! You're in the wrong business mate!

You know what sailors use for birth control?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their personalities

 

 

 

Day 4

With Fernando now on board, the BNB group headed south to Gonzaga Bay to meet up with the Alfonsina's boys.  Turns out they had a little fun with Gary's bike.  

Little on the road valve job, in the most cleanest of clean room conditions....

Some pics from the ride down - me and  Chris

 

 

 

At Alfonsilas, with the bikes packed, it was now time to pick the day's route (of course, that could have been done earlier so we would have more riding time.  But....)  The loose plan was to head south along the coast and find a little village to camp for the first time of the trip.  Things changed.  

We HAD to go past Coco's Corner, a mainstay for the Baja 1000.  Coco's Corner is one of the most infamous crossroads in Northern Baja (stolen from the interwebby).  Coco lives in a little hut and sells beer and cokes to passersby.  The hut is papered with panties from fans who have stopped in. (chicks are cool!)

 

When we went by in 2016, the road past Coco's was the only way south and back to pavement.  Since that time, the government has finished the paved highway, but has unfortunately cut Coco off from all the travel.  There is a sign on the hwy calling it out, but fewer people seem to go by now.   Fortunately, friends and volunteers are building him a new place closer to the pavement, keeping the tradition going.

(someone in the group has a great group shot of us all with Coco that i will track down and add.  In his 90s now, he has been in a wheelchair for years having had his legs removed below the knees due to diabetes)

There was talk of dirt from Cocos to Bahia de Los Angeles, but Coco scared us off with talk of 13 miles of sand!   Instead, we headed south out of Cocos, rather than return immediately to the pavement.   There was a point further south on Hwy 1, where the dirt route came close to pavement.  Our thought was to possibly head off there, cutting the corner down to Bahia.

 

The area:

Google Maps hasnt updated theirs in some time, so this shows the hwy still running by Coco's

 Bing Maps is a little more updated:

(I've circled Coco's Corner.  As you can see, they have left the poor guy way off the new highway.

 

A blow up of his abode:

 

We made it back to pavement on Hwy 5, then on to Hwy 1.   Heading south, we reached the point where the original dirt track was close to pavement and half the group decided to chance it.  Others figured a nice pavement ride down to the coast would be smarter and easier.  Guess which choice was the best?

 

Some pics from the pavement pussies, i mean smart guys

 

28 minutes ago, Bruce said:

Look at the fucking state of you! You need the big beemer to cart that shit around!

liners will do that to you

 

45 minutes ago, Tym said:

Amazing pic @alfalfa gunna be real hard to beat. 

The two following it are pretty damned good!  

Proof of life from Baja, Sea of Cortez side.  I wasnt on Flames, so i hope @Bruce isnt too sad.

5 hours ago, XTreme said:

Is this the poor bastard you all left on the ground Rick? 

The one and only.  A very experienced rider, but new to dirt.  So, we did our best to vet him.  If he comes back after being left in the dirt, then we know he is a keeper. 

 

Truth be told, Allen had been doing phenomenal all day, including 30 miles of El Compadre Trail, and all but 6 miles of the road into Mike's.  He finally succumbed to sphincteritis sandus maximus.  That is the tendency to soil oneself and let off the throttle at the sight of the smallish dirt particles known as sand.

 

On 27/03/2021 at 07:18, Mawsley said:

I don’t do anything unless there’s extra sodomising.

you must hang around @Bruce a lot.....