[Paddlewise] Baja Trip report and photos

Photo links are at the end of the trip report

Baja Journey

We departed Oregon on December 26 at 6 am driving straight through to San
Diego for 30 hours of grueling driving. Not something I would recommend.
We picked up our tourist cards, purchased auto insurance and headed across
the border.  A member of our group had a 3-inch buck knife confiscated by
customs.  If you enter a federal facility single knife blades must be 2.5
inches or less.  You can drive over the border with a knife but walking
across the border and entering a Federal building with a 3-inch single blade
knife is not permitted.  Multi-tool knives longer than 3 inches were ok, but
not single blades... go figure!

 We drove down to Mulege, about two thirds of the way down the Baja
peninsula, it took 2 days of driving.  Generally it is not advisable to
drive at night on Mexico 1.  The road was in good shape; it has been
improved since the pothole days of the mid-1990s.  There are still federal
checkpoints along the route, but the soldiers were friendly and we generally
passed on through without a search.  We averaged about 60 mph all the way
down.  Mulege is a pleasant town on the Sea of Cortez there is a water
purification plant where we purchased pure water for our trip.

We started our journey at Ecomundo on the Bahia Concepcion just south of
Mulege.
http://home.earthlink.net/~rcmathews/
Ecomundo is an environmentally sensitive resort owned by a North American.
They rent sea kayaks and have nice camping facilities (palapas) on the
beach.  We left our cars at Ecomundo for the duration of the trip and had no
thefts or break-ins.
We advanced our watches 2 hours, we called it Baja time.  This encouraged us
to rise well before dawn so we would ready to paddle as soon as we saw a
glimmer in the eastern sky.  We rose at 5 Baja time (3 am MST) swallowed
some oatmeal packed our kayaks and headed out.  We often started before
sunrise our strobe lights winking in the darkness. We managed to get in some
good paddling before the wind started blowing from the northeast.  Traveling
north up the Baja Concepcion we fought the head winds and finally stopped
around noon.  There were plenty of white caps and wind waves but they were
small only about 12 to 18 inches.
On December 31 we headed out to the Sea of Cortez the sea-changed character
as we left the protection of the bay.  The swells started at about 2 feet
and gradually increased to about 3 feet.  No breaking waves just gentle
rollers.  We generally tried to be off the water by 12 to 1230 (10 to 1030
MST) By midday we had strong north winds, beam seas with breaking wind waves
and swells of about 4 to 5 feet.

On New Years we were treated to a celestial event.  We had a full moon,
which rose as a huge brilliant orange orb.  The Sea of Cortez was calm and
filled with liquid gold.  The Conquistadors would have jealously coveted
this gold filled sea!  On New Years day I was the lead boat we caught a
slight tail wind so we were cruising along at about 4 mph, the small rollers
lifting our boats.  I watched the first glint of red then a burst of light
across the water; the sky was a gradient of red, orange, then gold and azure
blue.  The gorgeous sunrise was the perfect celestial event to celebrate the
New Year.  We ended the paddle a bit early as the white caps increased.
Sometimes the sea seems like a living breathing entity a wild and hostile
place in our little boats.   This was the first time I had my CD GTS heavily
loaded and it responded beautifully; I was finally able to edge it without a
hard lean, it felt very stable
On shore we hiked into the wild rugged Baja interior enjoyed the cactus and
did some spear fishing.  We managed to catch some sea bass, perch, trigger
fish and a skate.  Surprisingly the skate was our favorite fish for eating.
The humming birds danced around our camp.
We had one day of fairly rough water swells of about 4 feet with wind waves.
We rounded Pt Santa Rosa and the swells were quite steep and breaking.   I
would paddle always watching for oncoming breaking waves.  I was happy when
the paddling ended the constant concentration was tiring.  I hiked out to
the point and by mid afternoon the wind had increased and the swells were
about 5 feet with breaking wind waves.

We had a couple days of gentle paddling the skin of the sea settled from a
wrinkled appearance to a soft oily look.  We paddle leisurely about 3 mph
and a pod of dolphins paid us a visit.  They swam leisurely around us then
spy hopped vertically to check us out. They suddenly made a sudden burst of
speed leaping 4 to 5 feet in the air.  It was an astonishing aerial ballet,
4-5 Dolphins leaping simultaneously.  We watched flying fish skitter across
the surface and the manta rays burst out of the water as they were feeding
on plankton.  The frigate birds soared overhead motionless, as if they were
suspended on a kite string. I stopped and listened to squawking of gulls
hiss of the surf and soft chatter of voices.

It is best to round the points early in the morning before the wind picks up
the reefs can have dangerous breaking waves.  We tried to camp just before a
point and round it early in the morning.

We arrived in St Nicholas, as the afternoon winds arrived we had to make a
careful entry from the breaking surf.  We stopped in town to replenish our
water.   A man by the name of Chico has a lovely home and garden.  We
entered his compound, ruby red bougainvillea tumbling down his casitas.  He
is very friendly to kayakers; NOLS uses him as a re-supply point.  He has a
lovely garden and a good well.  Chico gave us a tour of his garden, and we
picked fresh oranges and grapefruits from his orchard.  There is no
electricity except for a few batteries and solar electric panels.  He is
completely self–sufficient with his garden, goats and chickens.  Chico is a
retired schoolteacher and is very proud of his garden. He is a reliable for
water, but plan to spend time admiring his garden. He is in the main part of
town at the end of the road, everyone knows him so his place is easy to
find. He told us of the big typhoon they had this fall, and his well is
still slightly briny, but the water is pure.

The next 2 days the wind came up very early and the seas were rough.  We
needed good calm seas to round Pt. Pulpito.  This area has sea cliffs with
very few places to land in rough seas.  An Outward Bound group ran into
serious trouble here a few years ago.  We were running behind schedule so we
opted to end the trip in St Nicholas.  As it turned out it was a good
decisions because the folks at Ecomundo had been worried about us because
strong Santa Anna types winds had been forecasted for a couple days.  Some
of the locals drove us to Ecomundo and we reluctantly departed.

I had a VHS radio, channel 16 is monitored in Mexico, also channel 23 is
often monitored by NOLS.

We drove back slowly stopping at some small towns and interesting locations.
We stopped for some hiking in Catavina area, then made a dash for the
border.

Gear report:
 I used a Trekkers tarp on the trip.  It held up very well in the strong
Baja winds, it never blew down.  It handles 4 to 5 people sitting under it
and will easily accommodate 3 folks sleeping under it.  I used golf ball
retrievers for poles (I removed the baskets), which worked very well.  It
gave me total flexibility on pole length, and the poles never collapsed (don
’t buy the cheapie ones). We pitched it in several different configurations
including pitching it low on one pole to break the wind. I would give it 4
stars out of 4.

We used a Seal Line Smart Track rudder system on the tandem Necky kayak.
The tandem paddlers felt the rudder was not large enough to give them good
steering control.  The trip leader will be discussing the system with Seal
Line (he is a dealer). 2 stars for the tandem system worked fine in my
single.  It is a joy to have solid foot pegs and a rudder that lowers
effortlessly.

I opted to bring a tent North Face Canyonlands; it packed small…  about the
same size as my ¾ length deluxe thermarest pad.  It is not free standing but
it also withstood the Baja winds very well.  4 stars.

GSI Hard Anodized cookware worked superb!  It is a pleasure to use this
cookware, no scorching and minimal clean up!  The 7-piece set worked well
for 5 people. 4 stars!

Coleman Excursion lantern is good and very packable, but Coleman need to
improve the lantern.  After about 3-4 uses it tend to fall off the metal
ring. Bring lots of mantles if you use this lantern.   2-3 stars

Freshette urine system worked!  I was able to pee in my boat, some of the
other women did not like it as well, but I thought it was a good system. 3-4
stars

Nikon Cool Pix 990 worked well.  It does great macro shots.  I used an Ewa
Marine cover for it and was able to take pictures, but it was a little
awkward to operate controls.  I wish Ewa had centered the glass over the
Cool Pix lens a bit better, but it did protect the camera.  3 stars for Ewa,
4 stars for Cool Pix.

I have GPS way points for all camps so if you need any let me know!

Photos are up and here is the link:
Baja!
http://community.webshots.com/album/29072132eoUsqktUVI

Baja 2
http://community.webshots.com/album/29076035YFAltswcEK

Baja 3
http://community.webshots.com/album/29078646vehMNvnxQY






visit my website: http://www.mzuschlag.com



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