Baja Adventure Ride

Day 2 - Jardines to San Ignacio (356 miles)

Baja route map This was a long day of riding at 356 miles, covering some of the most desolate terrain of the trip. The nights destination was the Desert Inn at San Ignacio, about 90 miles south of the crossing into Southern Baja. For some there was also a concern about gas, given limited facilities between El Rosario and Guerrero Negro.

After an early rise, we decided to hit the road first, and eat breakfast later at the infamous Baja restaurant Mama Espinoza's in the small town of El Rosario. A good breakfast and well worth the stop.

Lots of open highway for the days ride. The biggest hazard in this situation are the rather large potholes that are quite numerous. They are enough to give you a pinch flat, so it is important to stay on your toes to dodge them, or a well timed bounce of your front wheel if you don't have the time.

The only off-road portion that I explored was with Stu on his KTM 1190. The dirt trail was about 60 miles further south. Looking at the map and the start of the trail, it looked harmless enough, roughly paralleling the highway a few miles to the east. But after about a mile, the trail became quite rocky, sandy, and disappearing in one place that required us to cut through the back of a rancher's property for an improvised route. On one particularly steep rocky climb I ended up going side-ways and crashing. This happened while trying to keep up the speed to maintain momentum over some big rocks, with one of the larger ones deflecting my front wheel to the side (see one of the photos below). After picking the bike up and moving a few rocks out of the way to get a better running start, I was able to continue on this trail, and ultimately back to the black-top. Even then, this little excursion added about an hour to the ride, putting some of us a bit behind schedule.

For the mid-day gas stop, we took advantage of some local entreprenuers selling gas out of jeep cans, using a funnel to fill your bike. We would encounter this type of situation at other points along this trip as well, and typically follow the dual sport motto: If you see gas, fill-up!.

We stopped for a late lunch was at Guerrero Negro, meeting many of the other riders at a small taco shack. This town is not much to look at in terms of attractiveness, but it is on the edge of lagoon with the Pacific, and a quite popular location for whale watching. If you have the time, I hear the locals will take you out on a boat and allow you to see and even touch the whales, that apparently are sufficiently docile and curious for this type of human interaction. Environmental standards here are very different from what you will find in the states.

For the final 100 mile segment from Guerrero Negro to San Ignacio, the route is all pavement and relatively barren and flat. But given the time, half of this riding was after sunset, arriving at the hotel in the dark, so no love was lost in covering this ground quickly. Thinking back how I wished to be on a smaller dual sport during that earlier rocky off-road section, I was now happy to be on my F800GS cruising down the highway for this final portion.

Images (click to select the larger view at bottom)

Intro Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Conclusion

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