2023 Tour de Baja Divide Continued (Page 3)

Day 17—Rancho Piedra Blanca to San Rafael—46 miles

Wednesday, November 29

Following an early breakfast we were back on the bikes and riding by 6:30. After crossing to the northern half of the peninsula, we were now on Pacific time with sunrise around 6 am and sunset at 5 pm.

Another day of sand. The day started with a four-hour slog to cover 20 miles to get to Rancho Escondido--a mile and a half off route but definitely worth the diversion.

“Oscar”, who was either the owner or the boss, gave us a warm welcome. We enjoyed our second breakfast of the day consisting of juevos and papas (eggs and potatoes) and we topped off our water bottles. The rancho is impressive. Looks like it would be a great place to stay.

The next 24 or so miles to the beach at San Rafael had quite a few stretches of sand, much to Larry’s chagrin with his 2.4” tires, while I mostly floated with my 3” tires. We got to practice our German when we met a couple with their amazing desert vehicle, built to go just about anywhere.

Fishermen were bringing their boats in to anchor as we pulled up. I asked who among them lived there and met Orlando, the famous solitary resident of San Rafael. I respectfully asked if we could camp there to which he replied, “Por Supuesto!” (of course.)

One of the fishermen was a big Denver Broncos fan and was talking up Larry. When he walked by me on his way up to the house he said comida (dinner) would be ready later and did I like scallops? I took it as an invitation.

So, Larry and I walked up to the house and I asked a guy sitting by a tree if there was dinner. No, he said. I went up to the house and asked a woman inside if there were dinner. She looked confused but a little later she brought out a “cup of soup “. No, I said. We had some already. Meanwhile the guy by the tree offered me a cup of coffee and said that his brother was coming in a bit and maybe he would be making fish dinner. We waited a little while but ultimately decided to just go back to our tents and for our own “cup of noodles” and tortillas with refried beans.

Later a fisherman came up and started setting up a campsite with grill next to Larry’s tent and tried to offer us some fish dinner. More fishermen showed up and it was practically a party. It was too cold for me though and I went back to my tent, but Larry was stuck because they had set up right next to him.

Day 18—San Rafael to Bahía de Los Angeles—46 miles

Thursday, November 30th

Because 4 o’clock is the new 5 o’clock with the switch to Pacific time I awoke shortly after 4 am. By 6:30 am We had packed up our stuff, eaten breakfast and were riding.

Not too much sand on this day but the course was torn up pretty badly by the Baja 1000 running through just two weeks prior. My left eye was watering so painfully that I thought I had a contact was stuck in there. Larry tried to see if he could see it up in the eyelid a couple times to no avail.

When we crested a hill and could finally see the Bahía way off in the distance we still had 12 miles to go to the town.

In town, we met a SOBO bike packer from Scotland named Ally and traded advice with him. Taking his advice, we got a cheap hotel (500 pesos), shabby but right on the beach, with lukewarm showers from a sufficient trickle of water.

Day 19—Bahía de Los Angeles to a campsite in the desert off Highway One—57 miles

Friday, December 1st 2023

So far, we had 8 nights in hotels and 11 nights camping

We slept in a little this morning because we knew we’d have to wait for the stores and restaurants to open. The first store actually opened at 6 am where we picked up some staples. Then we found a restaurant for breakfast and a little internet which we had lacked in the hotel. When Larry accidentally got a bunch of meat in addition to his hotcakes and potatoes we fed it to the local dogs who were attentively hanging around. One more stop at the excellent mercado across the street and we were finally riding around 8:40.

The paved road out of BLA was uphill for miles but didn’t have a lot of traffic, though we had to fight a pretty strong headwind of about 15 mph. Around 30 miles we met SOBO solo bike packer Eddie from Quebec. Eddie, a relaxed carefree guy recently retired at 60, had some good beta for us on the road ahead.

Another ten miles and we reached the intersection with Highway One where we topped off our water at a restaurant. We had left the Baja Divide course a few miles earlier to avoid the 120-mile section along the Pacific Coast with no water. By then it was 2:30 pm so after pedaling for another couple hours we found a beautiful setting amongst the cactus to camp for the night.

Dinner was “cup of soups” and tortillas with peanut butter for Larry and Nutella for me. We were getting a little sick of refried beans.

Day 20—Highway One Campsite to Highway 5 Campsite along the coast of the Sea of Cortez—80 miles

Saturday, December 2nd

We awoke to wet tents from the morning dew and the coldest morning so far. Quickly packing up and cooking up some oatmeal we were riding at 6:20 am--our earliest start of the journey.

We reached the restaurant next to Lagua de Chapala, after 17 miles. It was 8 o’clock. We noticed the bikes of two bike packers outside--when we entered the restaurant they invited us to their table. Barry from England and Brian from Edmonton were on their way to Argentina—they would take the ferry from La Paz to the mainland city of Mazatlán. Brian had started his journey on September 8th, biking all the way from his home in Edmonton. He had rendezvoused with Barry in Tijuana after Barry had flown with his bike from England.

When we asked them about their ride thus far we were a bit confused because the road they described was not on our National Geographic map. It turned out that there was a new Highway 5 that started just a couple hundred meters further up the road going all the way to the east coast and continuing north along the Sea of Cortez. We decided to take that instead of continuing on Highway One.

This decision, with the exception of the last day in Mexico from Los Ojos Negros to the border, turned out to essentially be the end of the Baja Divide for us. We would follow paved highway for the next 250 miles avoiding many miles of dirt and gravel. I was resigned at this point and like Larry, just wanted to get it over with. I could come back again another time by myself or with a partner more willing to linger along the trail, taking days off, appreciating the culture, and soaking in the ambience.

Highway 5 had a good shoulder and was smooth riding to the coast and the Bahía San Luiz Gonzalez, where we stopped at a tienda for snacks and to top off our water.

As the evening approached, I was about done when Garmin said we had a 2.7-mile climb ahead. We got to the top and then had a long steep descent but it didn’t take us close enough to get to the beach so we stopped and set up camp with a view of the sea. Our longest mileage day thus far—80 miles.

Day 21—Campsite on the Sea of Cortez to San Felipe—65 miles

Sunday, December 3rd

9 nights in hotels and 12 nights camping

We got our earliest start at just before 6 am and before the sunrise, but after a mile Larry thought he’d forgotten his wallet. While he backtracked back to the campsite I climbed a pile of rocks to see if I could get a good photo of the sunrise.

After 14 miles, we reached Puertecitos and filled up on orange juice and fruit at a tienda. We decided we didn’t need to find a restaurant for breakfast.

Around mid-day we started picking up some cell service and received some texts. Larry got some spotty messages that his wife, Roswitha was having medical issues but couldn’t get enough reception to have a phone conversation. This just created more urgency to just get the trip completed. We pressed on to finish the journey as fast as we could.

We got to San Felipe around 2 pm and found “Hotel Las Palmas” --the manager talked up their restaurant featuring hand-made fresh pasta--we were sold. We showered and had an early gourmet dinner with the works: appetizers, main course and desert. With the hotel WiFi Larry was able to coordinate medical attention for Roswitha.

Later we walked to the Cali-max supermarket and loaded up on provisions to last us a few days. Looking at the map we estimated that we had about six days to San Diego. It turned out to only take us four days.

Day 22—San Felipe to campsite on Highway 3—64 miles

Monday, December 4th

We slept in a little to 5 am since we planned on getting breakfast in town. Our initial attempt at finding breakfast failed because one place claimed she couldn’t cook us eggs without having it mixed with bacon. Made no sense but she wouldn’t be dissuaded. Another place only had tacos with meat. Finally, the last chance opened at seven so we retreated to the hotel. By the time we had finished packing up it was just about seven so we went back to the last place where we both had huevos rancheros and Larry had an extra order of hotcakes. Leaving town, we had to ask directions twice to find out just where Highway 5 left town. It was just past 8 am when we finally rolled out of town.

We rode 32 miles into a headwind until just past a military checkpoint we turned left, heading west on Highway 3. Happily, we now enjoyed a tailwind. My left eye was watering and hurting so badly I had to ride with only one eye open. I was suffering.

Highway 3 was mostly flat for the next 20 miles and though the traffic was a lot less, there was no shoulder. We started to climb gradually at first leading to a good strong climb to 3,000’ elevation, our highest point of the trip.

We finally stopped and made our campsite at 4:40 pm, just before it went dark at 5 pm.

Day 23—Campsite on Highway 3 to campsite just beyond Los Ojos Negros—77 miles

Tuesday, December 5th

We left our campsite close to 6 am using our lights for the first half hour. After about fifteen miles we came to a tienda where we got some snacks.

We had a good long climb that took us over 4,000’ before we lost it all in a long descent. Larry got way ahead of me. I finally caught up to him at the turn off to Ojos Negros, where we stopped for lunch. Bart, a bike packer from Belgium joined us. Bart had started from Los Angeles a month ago. He planned on riding to La Paz where he would take the ferry to Mazatlán and continue on the Trans-Mexico route.

Rather than staying in Ojos Negros we just kept riding after lunch and got another 11 miles before we stopped to camp at the top of a hill. We had enough reception up there to send texts.

Day 24—Los Ojos Negros to Tecate—68 miles

Wednesday, December 6th

10 nights in hotels 14 nights camping for the trip

Another early start--we were pedaling by 6 am again.

Early on we crossed the creek Bart had mentioned the day before--it looked like a great campsite. A little later we met a couple southbound bike packers. I neglected to write down their names. It looked like they were trying to pack too much on their bikes, particularly the large box perched on the man’s back rack didn’t look like it would hold up for long.

A long steady climb topped out at 4640’ for the high point of the entire trip. Beautiful country with actual trees at this elevation. Also, greater prosperity was evident with obviously successful farms and nicer homes.

We had another big climb followed by a long downhill before joining Highway 3 for the final six miles into Tecate. The route guided us onto a single track and then into neighborhoods--pretty dumb because we could have just stayed on the highway.

Once in town we puzzled over finding a hotel. The first prospect gave us a bad vibe so we kept looking as the sun set. The second hotel, Hotel Tecate was cheaper and more agreeable. We had a satisfying dinner a couple doors down from the hotel followed by ice cream.

Day 25—Tecate to San Diego—54 miles

Thursday, December 7th

We got out the door around 5:45 am.

While following the course we kept our eyes open for breakfast. We found a tienda where I got burritos and Larry got some fruit.

At the border the pedestrian line for customs went back for several blocks. The line for cars was also long. We got in the line for motorcycles but an official came up and told us that we had to go to the civilian line because the motorcycles line was only for motorcycles.

Instead of going to the back of the long line we went to the front and started a conversation with the official there and he let us cut the line.

In California we rode down highway 94 for miles. It was downhill and we were going over 30 mph, but the morning traffic was screaming by us. We called it the highway of death. After about ten miles we left the highway for a short steep dirt road where an immigration vehicle closely shadowed Larry. I walked my bike up much of it. We decided to skip the climb up Munt Otay when we saw that by continuing another four miles on Highway 94 we could rejoin the route after the peak at Otay Lakes.

The route followed a scenic single-track trail around the lakes, after which easy road and bike paths took us to Chula Vista, where we turned north following bike paths to San Diego.

In San Diego we were graciously invited to the home of John and Vickie Sengelman for dinner and overnight accommodation.

Day 26—San Diego to Colorado Springs in under 24 hours with rental SUV

I had reserved an SUV the previous day for transporting our bikes back to Colorado Springs. Though I reserved it for three days, despite driving into a snowstorm in Colorado, we managed to bring it home under 24 hours by trading off driving all the way.