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Day 0, Thursday, December 19 Seattle, WA to Redding, CA Shortly after returning from the Alaska trip Eric decided it was time to upgrade from the Paris/Dakar to an R11GS. Good money for the trade in and cheap financing, it was hard to say no. Some people may argue that the R11 is actually an upgrade but at least the driveshaft is more bulletproof. The R11 was such an economic setback that the saddle bag option was a bit too much to spend. REI drybags will have to suffice for the mean time. The R80G/S was already setup and ready to go. We packed things up the day before departure. We packed fairly lightly carrying only essential items this time due to the limited saddlebag space. We left Seattle shortly after rush hour traffic in the morning. It was in the low 40š's (F) and clear skies. We stopped at the rest stop just south of Olympia to drain the bladders and make sure everything was working properly. As we were trying to warm up in the parking lot we met Gerhart. Gerhart was an old German from British Columbia and was heading down to Baja too! He said he used to race BMWs back in Germany and told us a funny story, in his younger days, of disarming a Highway Patrolman after the Patrolman started threatening him with his gun. Man, times have changed! We continued south, trying to stay warm in the cold morning. As we came into Eugene, it suddenly was warm. It was really nice weather like a nice summer day. This is December, right? We stopped at High Street Cafe for lunch and to enjoy the nice weather. As we were getting into the Grants Pass area we realized a problem with travel in the middle of winter: the daylight hours are limited. It got dark fast and cooled off quickly. As we neared Ashland we decided to call it a day and find the Youth Hostel in town. We found the Hostel, got a room, and proceeded out to find something to eat and hopefully some good beer. We found the location of the original Rogue Pub down by the river and sat down for refreshments. We were the only ones in the place. There was a 60's musical playing on the television. We kind of went into a trance watching this goofy musical and sipping some fine beer. After a while some more people came in and the place filled up quite fast. Because of the fact we were not the only ones in the place anymore the publican asked us to turn the sound off on the TV. Fine, that goofy movie was getting silly too. We changed the channel to the weather channel and waited for the forecasts. The radar images showed a frontal system with lots of rain heading straight at us. It had been following us all day long! If that rain hit the Siskiyou range that night it would be in the form of snow for sure and highway 199 from Grants Pass down to Crescent city was closed due to a landslide. After quickly evaluating our limited options, we decided to hit the road and fast! We went back to the Hostel and asked if we could get our money back for the room. "No Problem." the kid at the night desk said. We packed up our stuff and headed out into the cold night to get over the Siskiyou Summit. This was at around 10:30PM. We got into Redding, CA at around12:30AM. Pulled into the EconoLodge after the first exit into Redding and got a cheap room. That room was freezing! Eric was really cold, but I was doing OK thanks to the electric jacket liner and gloves. Cranked the heat in the room and promptly fell asleep. Eric woke up in the middle of the night to turn down the heat; it was like a sauna in there after leaving the heat on high to warm the place up...and it sure did!. Total mileage 620 miles Day 1, Friday, December 20 Redding to San Francisco We woke up to thick fog, but at least it wasn't raining yet. We walked across the street to get some breakfast at the local greasy spoon. Good food but bad coffee. It was going too be an easy day today. We just had to get the R11GS to the BMW dealer in Mountain View (Cal BMW) for it's 6,000 mile service. It was a cold morning with the fog. We rode down I-5 until Eric got cold enough that we had to stop and warm up and get an early lunch. Stopped at a strange restaurant that had bingo going on the TV's, although we didn't actually see anyone playing - maybe they were sitting in the bar. We continued on to San Francisco down I-5 to highway 505 and then highway 80 through quite a bit of fog. Boring riding but it got us into town fast. We got into Mountain View about 1:00 PM. Nice Shop with many interesting parts that you normally don't see in dealerships in the US. They stocked System III parts, big Acerbis tanks (7 gallon tank for the F650) and a great selection of shock absorbers. It's the only place I have seen with a big stock of Ohlins. I bought new set of Avon Gripsters for the R80G/S. The set that was on it was the same tires I used in Alaska. It was definitely time for a change. While those were being changed, we had a chance to visit with Kari Prager and look through their photo scrap books. Nice pictures from the Hot Springs Ride. ;-) Cal BMW has loaner bikes for people who need them. Great idea since it is always hard to coordinate rides when you bring a bike in for service. The loaner bike got loaded up with the necessities for the night and we headed into Palo Alto for a bite to eat. In downtown we looked for the Gordon Biersch Brewery as recommended by Kari. We found the place eventually and locked the bikes up and walked in. Being Friday night the place was packed with no place to sit down, let alone set our gear down. We walked back to the bikes only to see a nice looking Pub down the street. The Empress Tap Room and Grill had a place to sit down and they had Anderson Valley Ale on tap. This was going to be the place to relax. We ordered some food, albeit small portions but the excellent beer made up for it. Eric gave a call to David Gluss to see if anyone was home. He e-mailed David prior to the trip to see if there was bedroll space at his place, and he was nice enough to offer a spare room. Eric took down directions off the phone from Patti Gluss and we were on our way to find their place. The Gluss's live up in the hills near Skyline Drive, less than a mile from Alice's Restaurant. Cool place that seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere. The Gluss's 4 children seem to be quite the handful. So much energy. The two boys just wanted to wrestle Eric all the time. That night we sat down and talked while some heavy rains moved into the area. Total mileage 272 miles Day 2, Saturday, December 21 San Francisco to San Diego In the morning we walked up, the heavy rain, to Alice's Restaurant for breakfast. We took a short cut through the woods that normally is a trail but that morning it was a small river. The food at Alice's was nothing special but it filled us up. There was only one woman on a sport bike up there that morning, despite it being a Saturday. No doubt due to the weather. Too bad it wasn't nice out, it would have been nice to see some more bikes up there. We took a picture of the place with no bike out in front of it in the rain. We walked back to the Gluss's household and packed our things up and got out the rain gear. It was still raining hard when we left their house at about 12:30PM. We hope David travels up to Seattle some time so we can offer him some of the same hospitality. We rode back to Cal BMW to drop the loaner bike off and picked up the R11GS. It was still raining hard when we left the dealership. We picked up highway 101 south and took the turn-off at Gilroy to pick up I-5 again. Once on I-5 the rain stopped and the traffic was moving fast. There were a couple of places on the highway where the traffic was stopped and we had to do some lane splitting for a few miles. We were making good time when we came into Los Angeles and we decided to continue on to San Diego that night. The LA traffic was not bad. Last time Eric went through LA on highway 101 it took him 4 hours. I think this time was just a little over an hour, but it is hard to tell where the city ends. We arrived in San Diego about 11:00PM and found Butch (an IBMWR regular) and Ester Hays house easily thanks to his great directions. We first knocked on the door and no one answered. We figured they were out on the town doing something since it was a Saturday night. We waited a while and got bored and tried knocking on the door again. It turned out that they were home after all since Ester came to the door thinking it was one of their kids who had forgotten their keys. Luckily neither Butch or Ester were upset that we woke them up. Total mileage 525 miles Day 3, Sunday, December 22 Hanging out in San Diego Went to breakfast at Mr. G's where the San Diego BMW club meets on Sunday mornings. We met many nice people including John Hermann (motorcycle journeys through the ALPS, Whitehorse Press) among others. Later in the day we went to a good brew pub and had a big lunch. We were going to meet some other riders there who had ventured south of the border many times. We hung out and talked for awhile there and then headed back to the Hays household. The rain had caught up to us again. We did some laundry, worked on the bikes and watched the weather on TV. Butch said it only rains a couple times a year in San Diego. It must be tough having to deal with so much sunshine... Total mileage 25 miles Day 4, Monday, December 23 Into Mexico we go! We left the Hays house at 10:00AM. We had two tasks to complete before crossing the border. We needed motor oil and insurance. Butch led us through the back streets of San Diego. We first went to AAA to get insurance for Mexico, since US insurance is not recognized in Mexico. AAA sold us insurance through Grupo Nacional Provincial S.A. in Mexico. We heard that you can get by without insurance, but if you get in an accident, US travelers typically get the short end of the stick and may end up in jail until the Police figures out who was at fault. Many people told us that if you are in an accident, the best thing to do is to leave the scene immediately. $50 insurance through AAA seemed like the safe thing to do. Next stop was Fun Bike Center to get a couple of quarts of motor oil. The R11GS was still in the break-in stage and was using some oil. Last time Eric was in Mexico he had to turn back because he couldn't find quality oil on the Baja Peninsula. Butch being the moto-nut he is, wanted to go down the road with us to Mexico instead of going home after getting insurance and oil. We went down to a couple of miles north of the border and stopped to top off the tanks and get a bite to eat at a burrito stand. We parted ways and left for the border crossing. The weird thing on the freeway close to the border are these warning signs for people (presumably illegal immegrants) running accross the road. Luckily we didn't see any.We stopped in San Ysidro to get some pesos at a bank. This town was a real madhouse. We knew we had to expect more of this once we crossed into Tijuana. Crossing into Tijuana was uneventful. We pulled over once in Mexico to look for the immigration office to get our tourist cards stamped. It was such a chaotic scene there at the crossing with so much pedestrian traffic we that jumped back on the bikes to head for Ensenada instead. After a few off ramps, we were headed west to the Pacific ocean. This route skirted the edge of Tijuana and quickly got us onto the toll road to Ensenada. The first toll gate appeared about 5 miles after crossing the border. There would be two more toll gates before we arrived in Ensenada and we had to pay toll at each one. Unfortunatly they charged the same amount for each bike as they charge for a car, but it still worth it since we didn't have to deal to much with the traffic in Tijuana. The road was pretty fast and we were in Ensenada in a little over and hour. The immigration office was on the north side of town, so we stopped to get the tourist cards stamped. Good thing we decided to stop here instead of Tijuana. They were not very busy and filled out the paper work, stamped our passports in just a couple of minutes. Off into the city we went to find highway 1 going south. It was a busy town and there were several occasions where ALTO (stop) signs surprised us. They are almost hidden on the side of the road and with so many distractions they are easy to miss. Stopping for gas in San Vicente we got some of the Mexican gas stop hospitality. The attendant refused to give us our change after filling up. I guess the rich gringos don't need cambio (change). We learned it is pretty common for gas station attendands to pretend that they do not have change after fill-ups. We also learned how to ask for change after that and didn't really have any problems. We descended down onto what the AAA guide book describes as a "flat, nearly featureless coastal plain" south of Camalu. It was starting to get dark and panic was setting in after hearing so many warnings about not riding after dark in Mexico. We rode off the road into the "featureless plain" looking for a place to set up our tent. It was wide open, and a mile off the road we could still see the highway quite clearly. We rode back to the highway and took another road off the highway to one of the numerous Playas (beaches) along the main highway. It was getting dark fast. We didn't make it all the way down to the beach but stopped in a clearing about half way down there. We quickly set the tent up, had a cliffbar for dinner and fell asleep by 7:30PM. This was the begining of a routine to deal with the short days. Go to bed a little after the sun sets and get up at the first sign of light on the horizon. It was a long first day. In the middle of the night we could hear what sounded like laughing hyenas close by. We speculated that they were coyotes having a good time. Total mileage 235 miles Day 5, Tuesday, December 24 "Flat, nearly featureless costal plains" to Santa Rosalia We packed our things up in the morning and headed into Valle De San Quintin for breakfast. We found a hotel/resturant on the south end of town and got a couple plates of huevos rancheros-yum. Arriving in El Rosario we topped off our gas tanks and bumped into some other BMW riders in town. They were picking up a six pack of beer to celebrate their victory in a wrestling competition with a flat tire.
The road south of El Rosario wound into the hills with landscape consisting of cactus forests and large boulders. Very cool landscape!. We found a campsite/RV park on the south side of town. We set the tent up, locked the R11GS up, and rode the R80G/S into town for dinner. Santa Rosalia is one of the few towns along the way with paved roads in the town. It was at one time a company town for a French owned copper mining industry and people seemed much better off here than further north. The church in town is a pre-fab church designed by Alexandre Eiffel and was shipped, around Cape Horn, to Santa Rosalia from France. Nice iron work with punched out galvanized panels for siding. After dinner we went back to camp with a Pacifico beer, took a shower, talked to a couple bicyclist from Ashland, Oregon, watched stars in the clear sky, and later went to sleep. Unfortunatly we were too tired to go back into town for midnight mass and partying. About 2:00AM the owner of the campground came back from town and cranked up his stereo to play Mexican music until sunrise. I guess this is a tradition on Christmas morning... Total mileage 405 miles Day 6, Wednesday, December 25 Santa Rosalia to La Paz We left Santa Rosalia early and rode to Mulege to see if we could find some place open to get breakfast. This was Christmas day after all and most people were still sleeping in from last nights partying activities so we didn't see much activity. Hotel Las Casitas was open and looked as if it might serve food so we parked the bikes. Unfortunatly, the Hotel wasn't serving breakfast that morning, since the cook hadn't shown up, but would make some coffee for us. A couple, who were also drinking coffee in the hotel resturant, walked over and asked were we were riding from. They were from Munich and ride a BMW motorcycle back in Germany. We had a nice conversation about motorcycles and computers and told them about our planned next stop in La Paz.
After a nice visit with Jake and his neighbors, we left to head south towards La Paz. We stopped in Loreto to get some lunch and found a Taco Stand close to the center of town. Eric had trouble communicating that we wanted food but somehow ordered two cheese quesadillas and two Coca-Colas. It took a long time to get the food. As we where waiting a Yamaha GTS1000 pulled up and stopped. The rider and the pillion got off and came in to say hi. It was Mike Coan from Portland, Oregon. They were also headed south to La Paz but were staying in Loreto for the day. After lunch we rode up over the mountain pass south of Loreto. This was a very nice ride on a great roed except for a two mile stretch of gravel near the top of the pass. What more could you ask for on Christmas Day: a nice twisty mountain road with warm weather too! After the pass the road straightened out and we had about 175 mile to go before we would get to La Paz. Through the towns of Ciudad Insurgentes, Ciudad Constitucion and south of there the road was as straight as an arrow. Flat land and lots of agriculture is predominate in this region. Pretty boring riding but also fast. Almost like riding through North Dakota. The last 50 miles before La Paz we went over one more pass with numerous cows on the road so we had to keep our speed down and mostly stayed behind a car. Once again it was getting dark as we arrived at our destination. Jake had given us directions to Hotel Yeneka (Calle Madero 1520, phone# 5-46-88) in La Paz, which led us straight there. We parked the bikes out front and checked into a room. There was a small tail-less kitten running around the check-in area. The manager told us that its mother had been killed just days before. We were concerned that the poor thing might get steeped on. During the process of checking in, Eric had his riding gloves stolen. Not a big deal because they were pretty much worn out anyways. We met a Swiss rider on an Afrika Twin who was also staying there. He had his bike parked in the court yard of the hotel. In the court yard there is also a monkey on a chain in one of the large trees. Went to dinner at the Bismark II Resturant. The guy behind the counter at the Hotel recommended it and gave us straight forward directions to the resturant. As we walked there in the dark it seemed like we were walking into a residental area of town and we couldn't find the resurant. We asked a porter of another hotel on the corner and instead of trying to describe how to get there, he told us to follow him and walked us, about 2 blocks, to the Bismark II. We thanked him and gave him a tip for his efforts. We would have walked around lost without his help; the directions were not as straight forward as they sounded.
Total mileage 345 miles Day 7, Thursday, December 26 La Paz to Cabo Pulmo
When we were loading up the bikes in the morning, we were surprised by the two Germans we had met in Mulege. We later learned their names (Jörg and Yvonne) through e-mail correspondence. They had also driven in night before and took our recommendation on Hotel Yeneka. We were waiting for the Hotel resturant to open since the food is supposedly very We had a nice breakfast and talk with the Germans. The Yvonne works for BMW and said her friend works in Personnel and would help Eric get a job there. She said they were looking for people with Eric's skills. Who knows, in a year we may be living in Munich... They also said that their next stop was to go to Topolobampo and see Copper Canyon. If we had the time we would have liked to do the same thing. Those lucky Germans - so much vacation time. After breakfast we decided to try to find the only Motorcycle Shop in town to find some gloves for Eric. We found the shop and all they had were expensive, gaudy, lightweight motocross gloves. Oh well, there wasn't much of a choice.
Total mileage 191 miles Day 8, Friday, December 27 Cabo Pulmo to Playa Coyote
Total mileage 345 miles Day 9, Saturday, December 28 Playa Coyote to Scammon's Lagoon We woke up to a beautiful sunrise over Coyote Bay. Eric had to figure out why the headlight wasn't working on the R80 and repair a toggle switch that disintegrated on the washboard bumps down in Cabo. We packed things up, said goodbye to Jake and finally left around 10:00AM. I'm sure we will see him again somewhere on the road. A quick ride up to Santa Rosalia to have lunch of fish stew at a resturant on the beach. Slightly overcooked but still good.
As were were riding out of the canyon that goes north from Santa Rosalia and we saw a semi trailer truck that had run off the road in a corner down a very steep cliff. Strange to see such a large vehicle laying on it's side part of the way down a cliff. We stopped in San Ignacio to see the Mission. San Ignacio is like an oasis in the middle of a desert. Date palm trees fill the city and a large mission sits in the middle of town. After looking at the mission, we rode up to Guerrero Negro and took the turn-off 5 miles before the town to ride out to Scammon's Lagoon to see if we could see some whales. Later after watching whales for quite a while, we decided we had better make some dinner before it got dark. It was really windy here which made it difficult to make dinner. Sand wanted to get into everything. It was kind of annoying. This was one of the most desolate and empty places I have ever camped at. Nobody would have any reason to come here if it wasn't for the whale watching. Total mileage 195 miles Day 10, Sunday, December 29 Scammon's Lagoon to Rancho Grande We got up early again. Climbing into the sleeping bags at 7:00PM every night makes getting up before sunrise really easy. We rode back out on the salty road and got back onto highway 1. We hit some heavy fog in the morning just north out of Villa Jesus Maria. It was cold, wet, and very poor visability for a while. The only bad weather we hit while in Mexico. A black BMW R100GSPD had passed us just after the "Paralelo 28 Monument". We stopped in Rosarito when we saw the same bike parked at Restaurant Mauricio. We figured it was a good time to stop for breakfast and possibly meet another BMW rider. The rider turned out to be Dave McQueeny who has ridden a ton of miles on BMW bikes, and whom Eric knew of from BMWRA ramblings.
We rode back to Rancho Chapala and took the turn-off to Rancho Grande. The road was quite washboarded and filled with various sized rocks strewn all over it's surface. When we thought we were in the middle of nowhere, we came upon Coco's Corner.
After sunset we rode the R80 down to the resturant for dinner. We bought a couple of margaritas and ordered some seafood. The food was so-so, but huge quanities. We paid for the meal and the waiter had a good laugh because we tried to pay with a 20 peso note he had seen three times before. The guy at the gas station on the main road had given Eric the 20 peso note with one corner torn off as change. According to the waiter, bills like that are worthless, so when we got back to camp Eric rode the R80 back to the gas station to get his money back. The attendant at the gas station took the note back and gave Eric a 10 peso note, a 5 peso coin and a U.S. quarter hoping that he would not notice. Eric pointed out the quarter and told him he was sneaky. He smiled and replied "Si Sneaky" and took back the quarter and replaced it with a 5 peso coin. You have to watch yourself when you get change. Eric got back to camp and we sat down to watch the stars again for a while before calling it a night. We heard some animals that sounded like laughing hyenas again. Eric jumped on the R80 and tore down the road next to the beach to see if he could catch up with them to see what they were. They sounded really close to us. However, all he could see was reflections from their eyes as they ran into the bush. Total mileage 320 miles Day 11, Monday, December 30 Rancho Grande to San Deigo
Stopped for lunch at San Felipe and sampled the fish tacos at Tony's Fish Taco on Chetumal. Pretty tasty and filling. San Felipe is another over developed, commercial hell hole. We didn't want to stay there very long.
Total mileage 487 miles Day 12, Tuesday, December 31 San Deigo to Chico Everything went well the first day of riding after leaving San Diego. The weather was actually pretty good all the way to Sacramento, so we just kept on going up I-5. It started raining pretty hard and got windy as we got north of Sacramento, so we decided to stop in Chico for the night. Why Chico? Because they have a really good brewery, Sierra Nevada, and we figured we deserved some good beer and dinner at their brewery for New Years Eve. After dinner we found a Motel and the motel's hot tub. We soaked in the hot tub and watched the storm move in. Little did we know how bad the storm really was at that point... Total mileage 643 miles Day 13, Wednesday, January 1 Chico to Redding
Total mileage 195 miles Day 14, Thursday, January 2 Redding to Arcata Thursday morning it still didn't sound like I-5 was going to open for a while, so we decided to get out to the coast on Rt. 299 which had now opened to limited traffic, hoping that 101 would be open by the time we got out there. With our regular luck, 101 was still closed once we got there, and we found out that I-5 had now opened to some traffic. We evaluated the situation, and decided that the best thing would be to head back to Redding again. As we were leaving Arcata and heading back towards I-5, we were going maybe 55-60 up a hill when I somehow hit a slick spot on one of those tar strips they put on the road. My rear end slid out under me, and I lost control and went down. Luckily, I just slid down the road until I stopped, and the only damage was some torn raingear, and a big scrape on my helmet (it will now be replaced). Eric was behind me and said that while I was just sliding down the road, the bike flipped over and went all over the place. It all happened so fast, that I'm not sure if there was any way it could have been avoided. IT wasn't even on a corner, but in a straight area of the road, so I think it was just a freak thing. It was definitely pretty scary, and I got pretty shook up. Some people that stopped to help insisted on calling for help, although I think I would have been OK without it. As a result, they came with an ambulance and strapped me down to a board just in case I had some spinal damage (since i got up right away after it happened and everything felt fine, I was pretty sure I didn't, but I figure they were right that it was better to be safe than sorry). At the hospital, they gave me some x-rays, and checked me out for any other damage. Luckily there was nothing other than a few sore muscles and a couple of bruises. I wasn't quite ready to get back on the bike again after this, so we stayed in Arcata over night. The bike, by the way, got pretty trashed but was still running OK considering. Both mirrors broke off, there are a couple of small dents in the tank where the handlebars it it (the steering stop on the frame was broken off), the crashbars on boths sides are toast, one saddle bag was scraped up pretty good, the foglight was broken off. Amazingly, Eric was able to just pick it up and ride it back into town, and I was able to ride it all the way back to Seattle the followimg day. It is definitely going to need some major attention now.... Total mileage 175 miles |
Day 15, Friday, January 3
Arcata to Seattle
Finally, the weather had cleared up a bit, 101 north had opened, and we were able to do a long days ride
back to Seattle without any problems, and hardly any rain. It was definitely nice to get back home!
Total mileage 640 miles