2023 Tour de Baja Divide Continued (Page2)
Day nine—La Ley to campsite on the river—42 miles
The first twenty miles of the day were flat and boring though we did meet our first fellow bike packer. Ely was biking solo north to south and had a fairly ordinary bike with tires even narrower than Larry’s. He gave us some beta on the difficult sections ahead of us.
Then a little later the two dirt bikers from Utah we saw on day five rolled up behind us having gone all the way to Cabo San Lucas and now on their way back.
The terrain became more scenic rolling up and down through spectacular canyons. Beautiful but more difficult.
When the lights went out at 6 pm we were still short of the Mission San Javier but we had to find a campsite.
Day ten—Near San Javier to Comondú—44 miles
Twenty miles into the day’s ride we dropped into a spectacular canyon and the mission town of San Javier—an attractive town popular with gringos. We had a huge breakfast in front of the restored mission and found a tienda where we were able to stock up on food and water.
Down the road we met an Italian couple bike packing north to south, Roberto Marzucchi and Alessia Candeli. They told us of a hotel where they had stayed the previous night in San Michael that was three kilometers from Comondú.
Comondú was down another spectacular canyon. It was late as we approached and we were racing against the setting sun. It was a very attractive town with an impressive mission but we had no time to linger. I asked some elderly ladies if there were a hotel but they said no, we would have to go to San Michael three kilometers down the road. Well it turned out that this town was off the course. The course turned to the right, climbing out of the canyon, while San Michael was straight ahead. We knew that we had been had when our Garmin’s indicated that we had gone further than three kilometers. As darkness set in we had to turn onto a primitive road and set up our tents for the night.
Day 11—Comondú to San Juanico—72 miles
November 23rd
After some reports from southbound bikers of rough terrain in the mountains west of Mulegé along with our pack system travails we decided to cut that section of the course by biking to San Juanico on the Pacific Ocean side.
Around mid-day as we approached San Isidro we met southbound bike packers Christa and Cannon from Leadville and chatted with them for bit. They were using the bus system to do segments of the course including the Cabo Loop.
Before leaving the course at San Isidro we stopped for lunch. When I inquired after a restaurant we were pointed to what just looked like a tienda. When I asked there about breakfast the man quickly cleared a table outside, roused his wife from their living area, and she made us breakfast.
We continued on to La Purisima where we did a little sightseeing at a pavilion and church. After La Purisma the map showed a shortcut gravel road to San Juanico. While trying to find it I asked a couple local guys and got a bunch of words that were very wrong. I asked three times if the road I was pointing at was the shortcut and they insisted that yes it was. That road went 200 meters and reconnected with the paved road. It was not the shortcut. Without looking at the map we decided just to keep going because we knew we could also get there on the paved roads. Later when we looked at the map we saw just how many extra miles we had done. Probably at least 30. Ouch.
We arrived in San Juanico on Thanksgiving Day just as it was getting dark, finding the Casitas San Juanico for that night’s lodging. We had a little trouble finding the office in the dark. There was a kitchen filled with Americans having a party. I barged in asking where the office was. The owner was there and came out to give us a large room with three beds. Turned out that they were having a Thanksgiving party with the local American expats.
Something had been bothering Larry. In the mornings as we each tore down our tents and packed up our gear Larry was always ready to go ten or fifteen minutes before me. My system with extra dry bags that attached to my handlebar and seat packs was more complicated than Larry’s panniers, where all he had to do was throw his stuff in the panniers. Additionally, it took me extra time to put in my contacts in bad light while balancing a tiny mirror on my knee. That evening he confronted me, having actually added up all of that extra time that we could have been riding. I blew him off saying that he should just relax, we weren’t in a race and that he could read his Kindle while I finished getting my gear assembled. He didn’t like that, saying that he liked to get an early start in the mornings. I replied that I also liked to get an early start but it took me a little longer. I also pointed out that when he had his electrolyte shutdown that I didn’t tell him that we were going too slow and that he needed to hurry up. With that, he said he was hungry and rushed out to a restaurant by himself. When he returned he had had some time to think about our little argument and decided that he was wrong and was sorry. He said he could still eat something so we both went to dinner together.
I told Larry that if he thought I wasn’t going fast enough that we could split up and he could race to San Diego while I went at my own pace. He said he wasn’t that impressed with Mexico and that if we didn’t go together that he would just quit. I said that also was an option for him when we got to San Ignacio in a few days where there was a bus station.
If there weren’t some tension on a trip of this duration it would be unusual. Larry is a good friend and though we would have more differences along the way it is a tribute to our friendship that we worked through them.
Day 12—San Juanico to El Datil—40 miles
That morning we walked around San Juanico, got a good look at the ocean, ate a hearty breakfast, stocked up on water and extra food, and headed out of town around 11 am. So much for early starts.
We had a long, rolling, partially sandy road for the first 20 miles, interrupted by a small settlement at La Ballena, where we also rejoined the Baja Divide route.
Five miles further on we turned left onto a rougher road leading to the strange town of El Datil. We arrived around 4 pm and finally found a tienda almost on the other side of town. We saw some dozen vehicles with gringo license plates. It’s a fishing town.
While we were filling our water bottles a kid came up and asked if we wanted dinner, pointing to a pink house—his mother would make us a shrimp dinner. Okay. Another solo bike packer named John from San Francisco was just finishing dinner and said it was excellent. And it indeed was. I talked Larry into violating his vegan diet for the shrimp. He gave in, realizing that continuing to stick to the vegan diet in Mexico was just not realistic.
All through dinner the father kept asking if we wanted to camp there. No, not really. I was thinking too noisy! Then he offered his camper and showed us two beds inside. Okay. But then it turned out that he had already promised a bed to John. I pointed out that there were three people but two beds to which he answered that one could sleep on the floor. No. Just no. We booked out of town as the sun set and found a quiet camp spot in the dunes.
Day 13—El Datil to desert campsite—51 miles
After oatmeal and coffee, we left our campsite in the sand dunes just before 7 am. Looking at the map it appeared that there was a more direct road than the tour indicated so we tried it. Mistake. John, the bike packer in El Datil, had told us the route just had occasional spots of sand. The more direct route had terrible sand, though we were able to ride most of it. Later when the divide route intersected our sandy route, we stuck with the divide route, which followed the dry lake beds and had no sand.
About 18 miles from El Datil we met solo bike packer Richard from Los Angeles. He was cruising pretty fast being three weeks into the ride from San Diego and having covered all the course, skipping nothing. He talked about previous bike packing trips to Rwanda and Kyrgyzstan. Fascinating.
30 miles from El Datil we thought we saw the town of Laguna de San Ignacio way across the dry lake bed so we ignored the navigation and just aimed for the village. What we found was a very strange village.
I asked someone for a tienda but they said there was no tienda. This strained credulity because this town was apparently 30 miles or more from any other town. I asked a lady who was out hanging laundry and she pointed to a house where she said we could get juice but no water.
We went up to the house where a lady behind a caged window said she had water and gave us three liters. When I asked for juice she brought out a Gatorade. No, I said, juice--peach juice, apple juice, orange juice... When she brought out a can of peach juice I asked for four cans, knowing that Larry and I would drink them right down. We sat at her table in the shade and drank the juice while we filled our bottles with the water.
As we prepared to leave this peculiar town we looked at the map on Komoot and realized that we had missed the actual town which was over a mile away.
When we got to the real town, we asked for a tienda or a restaurant. A kid walked beside our bikes for a good six blocks to show us a house with a table outside. The owner came out and asked what we wanted to eat. We got a nice meal of shrimp, beans and salad. 
Late into the day as we started thinking about a campsite a car loaded with South Korean tourists slowed down beside us. They were very excited to see us and an older man brought out a big camera taking our photos and probably video. He said he was a journalist. After taking a bunch of photos including selfies with everyone’s iPhone he took our emails and said that he’d like to interview us later. When he found out we were planning to stay at the bike hostel in San Ignacio he got excited because they were also staying there and he could interview us the next day. The next day we decided not to stay at the bike hostel and never saw them again.
Day 14—Desert Campsite to San Ignacio—20 miles
We left our campsite by 7 am, reaching San Ignacio around 9 am. Today would be a rest day. When we stopped at the first tienda to buy some snacks, Larry was already being solicited to go to a hotel. We wanted to look around first. We dropped down a few blocks to the attractive town center, featuring a plaza with huge banyan trees framed by an 18th century mission church and restaurants and shops. We pedaled down a street before stopping to get our bearings when a man came up and asked us what we needed. I said breakfast and a hotel. He pointed us to a restaurant and said that they served excellent food for a fair price. When we sat down for the meal it turned out that the man was both the owner as well as our waiter. He may have been cooking our meal too.
Our next task was finding a bicycle shop (there was none) and a so-called bike hostel called “La Casa de Bicicleta”. We got several vague directions and went back and forth and all around the town until a man drew a little map in the dirt that led us right to it. La Casa de Bicicleta wasn’t what we were looking for as it only had camping and nonfunctional WiFi. No bicycle repair or anything related to bikes.
We backtracked to the town center where we found an excellent hotel--“La Huerta” or The Garden in English. We even got the hotel receptionist to take our laundry to her home, bringing it back to us that evening.
We enjoyed an excellent mid-afternoon lunch of seafood in the hotel restaurant then walked back to the plaza to check out the mission and shops.
Day 15—San Ignacio to Vizcaíno—50 miles
We found breakfast in the town plaza and left San Ignacio around 7:40 am.
The Baja Divide route takes dirt roads that more or less parallel Highway One, but due to reports of their being sandy we just stayed on the highway all the way to Vizcaíno getting there around noon. Along the way we met SOBO bike packers Martín from Spain and Terry and Ely from British Columbia, Canada. Ely had started from his home in BC on September 5th. They had met along the way. 
As we approached Vizcaíno we stopped at a tienda for snacks and juice and to check our phones for messages.
First order of business was to find Ian’s Bike Shop. After pedaling around trying to locate the shop with Google maps we finally found it. The mechanic competently bent the cogs on my cassette making it so I could successfully access all the gears once again. For the last several days I had to skip the middle gears. He also cleaned up Larry’s gear box eliminating a noise. We were well pleased! I also bought a couple plastic bottles to replace ones that had rattled off the cages somewhere along the road.
We pedaled around town for a while looking for a restaurant then we decided we weren’t really hungry. Larry wanted to keep going out of town but I said why? We only had three hours of daylight left and we’d just have to camp in the desert whereas here we had several hotels. I was trying to slow it down and not just cycle all day long. I like a little time to relax. More simmering tension between our ideas of what we each wanted from the journey. Larry thriving on constant motion, moving forward. I wanting to stop and smell some flowers along the way…
Day 16—Vizcaíno to Rancho Piedra Blanca—71 miles
After breakfast at the Oasis in Vizcaíno we were riding by 7 am. To avoid ten miles of sandy road we rode Highway One for 28 miles, then turned right on what we thought would be a paved road based on the National Geographic map but instead it was washboard gravel for 26 miles. 54 miles to avoid 10 miles of maybe sand—later we learned that the sand in that section wasn’t that bad. Live and learn…
At the sleepy mining town of El Arco we rejoined the Baja Divide route, but didn’t stop since we had enough water and snacks.
The segment from El Arco to Rancho Piedra Blanca had some sandy parts but was mostly rolling, easy riding.
At Rancho Piedra Blanca we were greeted warmly, got a cabin and had a nice dinner.
