http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/~petrie/travel/travel-0209.html
Pictures are available from the linked dates below. See also the excellent pictures from Lee Damico and Robert Kennedy. (There are also pictures on Facebook by Neal Strickberger and Tammy Goodall but I don't yet have the public urls for those.)
WED 11 Feb
Odometer: 55169 mil.
Rode to Ventura with Lee.
THU 12 Feb
Ride to San Diego.
Odometer 55707 mi. Knobbies installed at San Diego
BMW
FRI 13 Feb
Meet up with Tammy and Tom.
Travel
San Felipe, MX.
Took 94 to Tecate and then east on Mex 2. Lunch at El Hongo. The wise
man there said I was crazy to do that dirt road in its condition
and everyone else agreed.
I took the dirt to Mex 3 while everyone else went east to Mexicali
and then down the coast. The track I took is the same as this mountain bike trip except that at the south end,
instead of turning east towards Ojos Negros, I took a track west to
Mex 3, which is the normal way to get to San Felipe from
Ensenada.
Panorama: high desert road.
I hit pavement around sunset and rode with the trucks and coyotes in the dark. Thank goodness for the lone gas station and attendent in Valle de La Trinidad. It took me a long time to find the hotel Baja Palms because it is actually 8 km before San Felipe. Then dinner with everyone in San Felipe to celebrate Linda's birthday.
SAT 14 Feb
We hang out at the vacation
house near the hotel, disprove the myth that there is packed sand on
the beach, and have a fantastic dinner back in San Felipe further
celebrating Linda's birthday.
SUN 15 Feb
The road south from San Felipe is not paved past Puertecitos: rough
and beautiful.
We ride to Bahia de San Luis Gonzaga where we discover a gas station and stay at Alfonsina's.
Panorama: Alfonsina's Beach
MON 16 Feb
The dirt to the pavement is much better and we stop at Cocco's
Corner.
Then we ride to San Ignacio, stopping only to strap Linda's broken bag
mount,and stay at
Rice and Beans. We watch whales on
Tuesday the 17th.
Short video of a typical moment in whale watching.
In the evening, we wandered around the very nice town
of San Ignacio.
WED 18 - THU 19 Feb
Ride to El Rosario on
the 18th. Note: there is no official gas between Guerro Negro and El
Rosorio, which is 224 miles. There is unofficial gas at Chapala and
Catavina. Lee's alternator rotor fails (diagnosed by Neal and Robert
in the dark.) On the 19th, we lunch in Ensenada and ride through
Tijuana back to Escondito to the BMW shop there so Lee doesn't have to
ride all the way home depending upon the car battery we bought and
fully charged in El Rosario.
FRI 20 - SAT 21 Feb
Easy ride to San Luis Obispo. The next day was
a nice vacation ride up 1 back to Mountain View.
A major stop was to see the Elephant Seals at Point Piedras Biancas just north of
San Simeon. Video
of seal pups playing.
Odometer: 57525 mi. Total trip: 2,356 mi.