If you ride Baja on a motorcycle, like our GPSKEVIN riding group just did, please note that a Mexican local, driving a truck or car in your direction, that quickly flashes his/her lights at you, can mean one of several things; police ahead; welcome to Baja; or even that they like motorcycles. Most of us eventually gave up on trying to figure it out and went with the flow. Another baja oddity is the left side then, right side turn signal phenomena of a car up ahead resulting in a 50/50 chance as to which direction the driver will eventually turn; the moment they see you start to pass. I’ve guessed that one right twice.
The Baja 1000 is just two days from today. Its also the World Series of the off road racing world and we’re now leaving. Unfortunately, that sweet smelling barn effect is now starting to take hold as we near the US/Mexico border. It’s only natural for us to experience that heightened sense of anticipation of getting home after riding Baja for nearly nine days.
Baja Day 6 was possibly the longest repair day for Yoda Gregg. In the span of less than three minutes per bike he JB Welded a hole in an engine oil pan on Roberto’s Honda 500x bike; fixed two flat tires, diagnosed, removed and replaced a battery on a BMW GS 1200; all before a live audience that scurried for tools. The Greg show should become a Mexican novella of sorts whereby the rest of us offer up continuous laughter or witty comments, similar to television.
All days are great riding day for Tyedie Keith, why heck, he’s just happy to still be alive!
And so, on this final day of Baja riding (Day 7) as Tyedie Keith is fulfilling his destiny of riding his ride; it finally becomes a complete catastrophe for him as the KTM now self destructs from within, suffering a major coronary of the most destructive degree. If you listened to the baja winds now blowing outside, you could almost hear him in the far off desert distance with a cry of “help me”, “help me”, Yoda GPSKEVIN; I don’t want to be on the “red” route anymore!
Tyedie Keith could not have been more further from help on that “red” part of the road that is so aptly described as the roughest dirt road that traverses a large mountain and is very rocky and rough. GPSKEVIN unlike Mr. Wizard that had a great way of providing rescue to Tyedie Keith, could easily offer up his incantation of “Treezle, trazle, trozle, trome, time for this one to come home.” And now that brings me to the beautiful Mexican baja people that call this peninsula their home.
I don’t believe that anyone of us could find people with more giving hearts. Countless Baja strangers have stepped in to assist our riders on numerous occasions and ways. Like for example when Joe took a fall on his DCT Honda Africa Twin. One of the riders shared a video of several cowboy hat wearing hombres stepping out of a perfectly good pickup truck to help right the fallen bike.
Day 7 Keith finally arrives. His broken KTM is on the back of a Mexican pickup, just in time for dinner at the chuckwagon cook house. It took two locals in two separate trucks hundreds of kilometers of driving and in unfamiliar roads to deposit him here, back to his Baja Lucky Explorer group of GPSKEVIN riders.
And on our final night we stay at Rancho Meling, an actual working cattle ranch that provides us with lodging and meals. We are literally in the middle of no where; another 50 km of road and you end up at a Mexican observatory. The night sky is so pure that the entire galaxy unfolds before your very eyes. The last stop before ascending into the mountains to the National Park and the observatory at the 10,000 foot summit. The nighttime temperatures fall to the high 40’s and there is no power after 9:00 p.m., heat or hot water. Earlier, we enjoyed the most perfect meals of anything from lasagna to rib eye to smoked salmon. We are now less than a three hour drive from Ensenada once we get off this mountain.
“As every new mile unfolds before us, peace and beauty keep finding us at every stop. I don’t think we have ever come across people with more giving hearts than those who call the Baja home.”
Trawlercat
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