What a cool adventure! Great to see the pics and vids.
Baja 2018 Fotografía
- Thread starter Markuson
- Start date
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Day 2:
- Woke up nice and early to the sound of trucks struggling in large round, smooth beach stones, and in time to see the first few fisherman hit the ocean.
- We all packed up and headed to Guerro Negro, a fairly long travel day roughly 270 miles.
- Came into a very nice campspot with no one else around, in the process of finding the best spot, we all kinda split off and and went down trails all around the area to try and find a spot with less wind. Markuson decided to take a fairly narrow trail and ended up sliding off just enough to pucker. In came the crew to stand around, drink Johnny Walker, and watch. Winch lines were run, Maxtrax laid, and then... well he just drove out without issue, no rescue needed.
- The evening campfire waswnice but the wind was still a solid 20mph...
- I think everyone woke up with the same thought - escape the wind. "Windy" proved to be a great little App. Wind speed, direction, along with tide information. Need an internet connection however.
- Bahia Concepcion showed a large blue area (basically the whole bay) with little wind, after some debate we agreed that we would head south to Mulege. Best... Decision... Ever.
- After a decent little lunch at local Taco shop we headed the remaining 20 or miles south. Cole evidently took a selfie with his bro, the seal.
- We had time so we scoped out a ton of places before we settled on our spot, which we'd end up staying at for 2 nights which was nice after a couple longer days of travel.
- 245 total miles, we'd pass some broken down Jeeps, and of course... that poor Rover that could only be saved by tow truck.
- Beach, fishing, lots of locals selling us stuff: rugs, shirts, hats, and of course, pineapple pie.
- The day was relaxing and uneventful for most of us. @Markuson did not want to lose a single lure so he spent some time snorkeling, and cutting his finger while we all sat on the beach wondering why he kept getting in and out of the water.
- Drone fishing: so we had seen this on the interwebs and just had to try. Rigged up something with a single paper clip and soon enough we were dropping lines hundreds of yards away. Tony hooked a big one!! Well so he thought... Or three little ones all at the same time that felt like one big one?
- Lots of laughter that night... I think some of us tied one on. Even politics were talked? Yikes!?! Good thing this was a great group, differing opinions for sure, but nothing that could put a wrench in our fun.
- 0 miles traveled
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- Thread starter
- #65
At what point do we get to the spot where we piss off a mile of beachgoers digging foot deep ruts in their beach?
Ya, that really stank... Good thing we all didn't get STUCK there--which was a serious possibility.
(To those reading along, we were looking for a camping spot on the beach...not realizing how incredibly soft the small pebbles were. We were lucky we didn't ALL get bogged right there. The problem was...we didn't see that there was a dry dirt road to access the far end of the beach...and we made serious ruts into the otherwise perty beach pebbles. Also turns out that area might have been submerged only a few hours later. So ya, the locals weren't thrilled, and we felt bad as it was an honest mistake.
No stopping for pho-tows for that one.
Day 5:
- Time to pack up and start the trek North. Part of the fun part of this day for me personally was that once Cole said "we got a plan" I didnt inquire any further, it wasnt until about half way through the day I found out where we were going, there's something about not knowing (or maybe not caring) where we were headed that I found nice and relaxing
- Service Station E03865 - not your typical Pemex. This one had vendors, Mr. Ceviche (evidently locals come from all over to get this guys ceviche before he runs out - we are talking seviche out of the back of a van, very very bueno). Also picked up 1kg of fresh 6 to 8 count shrimp for 300 pesos from another local selling seafood out of a cooler.
- We drove for what seemed like a couole hours until we got to the trailhead leading to Mision San Francisco de Borja Adac. Cole said this was supposed to take us a couple hours, but not surprisingly we were there in a fun hour of single track desert driving.
- We werewegreated by Carlos and his son who we are just going to call Hermando or Armando, having trouble confirming but this is what he told us. He was 27, and a great ambassador to the Mission, that's the important part. He's also 8th generation, and his family has been taking care of the Mision, and does not receive help from the government. They own 11,000 acres, including wind caves w/ cave paintings from his ancestors of the Cochimi tribe.
- After taking us on a walking tour of the Mision he stopped by to check out our drones, he wanted some new footage for his "PowerPoint presentation" that he uses to teach others about the history of the Mision. Contact info exchanged, and in discussion he offers to take us to see the wind caves/paintings the next morning before we depart.
- Dinner was those amazing shrimp on the skottle with some grilled onions, peppers, and salsa.
- Packed up, grabbed Hermando, and off we went.
- The wind caves and cave paintings were cool, plus we had dedicated 200 series Land Cruiser parking. Flew the drones, took a hike and scampered along the rocks to photograph every little nook and cranny.
- Next up, the short trek to Bahia de Los Angeles
- Where to camp? Daggets? La Gringa? The first place we checked out was full so off to La Gringa (ie the spot we pissed off all the locals, tore up their pretty beach, and then exited the same direction we came). Luckily we found a spot for the night at Daggets.
Day 6 Continued:
- On this day there were a couple "hey Tony can you check my truck out, something doesn't feel right" scenarios. First up was @TRD Burglar who was having trouble turning and felt lethargic through the turns. After giving the rig a once over, Tony took it for a spin and came back, problem solved! Just unlock the front diff and voila! Oops.
- I was up next, hit something so hard on the trail out from Mission that my steering wheel cocked right. Got underneath and I could spin the passenger side cam adjustment bolt with my finger. The driver side was loose too. A quick "eye alignement", torque to 207lb-ft, and back on the road.
- By this point Cole was in contact with our long lost 6th compadre, @Mark Mehalic who was set on driving from Tuscon and meeting us at Bahia de Los Angeles. After coming off the trailhead from the Mission he found us at the next Pemex station. He's back! He also showed up missing the nut on his passenger side UCA through bolt. Yikes. Luckily Cole was thinking ahead and had purchased a whole bag of nuts n bolts and happened to have the one he needed. Thanks again to Tony for getting everything to torque spec.
- Alright so after the debaucle at La Gringa, we made our way back to Daggets to hopefully hide from the locals. Found some spots for the night and we all settled in. Our first night as a group of 6. And our last! Yup, come tomorrow morning, @Mark Mehalic would decide to head back north, maybe Kofa, or some other spot he was eyeing between Baja and home. I think it was us, bad company I suppose haha...
- "Got up, got outta bed, dragged a comb across my head..." Also caught an early morning shower which was grrrrreat.
- As we headed north things got busier and busier. We spoke with a couple groups in passing that were headed South, and wondering why we were headed North, "San Felipe was the busiest they'd ever seen it". We kept this in mind as we settled on our next camping spot which turned out to be just south of San Felipe on the "Bay of Christine".
- At this point, we had a couple thousand pesos left, and there was a bar/restaurant that the owners of the camp spot managed. Went in just to pay for our camping spot and didn't end up leaving until we were peso-less. A few Margaritas each... Some good home cooked food, a few games of darts, and it was closing time. Time to head back to the beach and settle in for the night.
- Well... If you know @Markuson he just can't sit still. So off we went, hunting in the low tides of the night, in which the infamous "seadick" was discovered and brought back to camp for the everyone else to play with. I'll end that story here and keep PC...
- This ended up being departure day for all of us. Cole and Brad hit the road super early. The Tony pulls up and says "I can get to Vegas in 11hrs, see ya!" Off he went.
- Down to the San Diego boys, we headed north, the road North of San Felipe was paved just fine, but it was also high speed and had massive hard whoops that at one point got all 4 tires off the ground. Scary considering we passed a recently flipped over truck that prob met it's fate in those same whoops.
- Getting too the border took no time. Maybe 3 hrs from south of San Felipe. Getting across the border took almost 2hrs however. NOTE: Don't go in Sentri lane unless you are able to, @TRD Burglar was threatened with a $5k fine.
- Crossing was uneventful, so was getting home. Except that gas in Cali was $4.25/gal that day which is insane and made the MX Pemex gas seem cheap.
Surprised so many of you had loose bolts! I don't want to jinx myself, but I've never had that happen in about 20 years of wheeling. Was it super intense washboard stuff or just random? Also did you bring along a torque wrench or impact? 207 lb ft is no joke!
I also lost a bolt on my swaybar relocation kit. My swaybar was dangling from one bolt on the driver's bracket. Forgot to mention that but only noticed after I got back. Also had a skidplate bolt about to fall out.
Just s***ty roads and fast driving on dirt roads I guess.
I brought torque wrenches. Yeah, 207 is even worse with no room laying on your back.
Just s***ty roads and fast driving on dirt roads I guess.
I brought torque wrenches. Yeah, 207 is even worse with no room laying on your back.
No kidding! Good thing you're strong! haha It's a good reminder for everyone to check torque before a long trip - I usually only check the lugs with regularity, but I need to add more to that list. Is there a good list of torque specs everyone uses? I'm typically just looking up things one at a time but a quick reference sheet would be great.
These are the values for the Tundra. I'd imagine these are pretty close to what we need on the LC as well. I keep this on my phone as a favorite.
I usually keep the Tundra Haynes manual in the tool drawer. its good for about 80% of what we need.
Cole made up some sweet reference cards, I was going to send him some of these, think these would be key to have at fingertips. Plus, order in a way we should check torques prior to a trip (vs just doing a general walk-around).
I wouldn't say a lot of washboard, but a few wanna be desert racers putting these trucks through their paces. At one point @Markuson and I sat for 5 minutes while the group ahead paced. Then we booked it hard for a solid 10 minsmbefore catching up. It was during this time I jittered loose.
- Thread starter
- #78
hehe... I did a ton of those runs like that since I was in back, but for shorter durations. I'd stop for maybe 2 minutes....FLY for 3-5 minutes.
Probably did that 10- 12 times & was hitting serious speeds--to the point where my front bumper and skids are scraped from landings. Yet strangely, I did not loosen any bolts.There was a practical reason to do it too--with so much dust as the tail gunner--but man that was a hoot! The most fun part for me was where pin stripes were partially avoided by sliding the rear end in turns specifically to weave around cactus scrapes where it was tight.
My only regret is that on one extra aggressive run, where we drove through "trees"(?) that nearly covered the road on one stretch, I thought I was recording video the whole time only to find I'd missed the button.
I left once again amazed at how well everything hung together over bumps, dips and airborne moments that still ended well.
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Great photos and a great place to chill on the bay. All the right tools amongst all of you guys too.
Speaking of, let's talk about the stuff we brought, but didn't use. For me it was two things, and one of them I blame Tony, he just didn't catch a big enough fish. Grabbed one of these when they were at $30 (it's bigger than you think, which is great, but overkill if you just need to cut veggies). Cabela's Tailgate Fillet Table : Cabela's
The other thing for me was my portable shower pump thing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IFHFJXI/?tag=ihco-20
To Tony's point he made before the trip, the thought of an ambient temperature shower never sounded better than just being dirty. There were a few spots where we had access to hot showers (even of only at a trickle) and just often enough I never needed mine.
And there were certainly some gear experts in the group (not me!) and it was great to see what everyone was using. Curious to hear others' reflections on their camping setups?
The other thing for me was my portable shower pump thing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IFHFJXI/?tag=ihco-20
To Tony's point he made before the trip, the thought of an ambient temperature shower never sounded better than just being dirty. There were a few spots where we had access to hot showers (even of only at a trickle) and just often enough I never needed mine.
And there were certainly some gear experts in the group (not me!) and it was great to see what everyone was using. Curious to hear others' reflections on their camping setups?