Just got back home from the Baja 1000. A buddy on his GS 1150 and me on my '06 Tiger rode from Texas to Ensenada, then hooked up with our respective race teams, rode the race, then hit the road back home. We tried to stay off the interstate, cutting up through the middle of New Mexico and Arizona then down to Tecate to cross, and on the way back we stayed in northen Mexico until crossing the border below Deming, NM. 2600 road miles plus the race sections - a great trip. I'll try to post some pics later (have a great one of my buddy dropping his GS in the dunes at Glamis), but need to reacquaint myself with the family first. BTW, I looked for Fano, but since I only know him as the owner of a green Girly which he didn't ride down there, I didn't really know how to find him. Some day.
Here's one shot of mine at the dunes.
[/img](http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008059.jpg)
Sorry I missed you. We just made it home few hours ago. You were right, Ensenada was little too busy to just bump in to you and I didn't see any Tiger along the way. Looking forward to your rr.
:worthless
:new_popcornsmiley
Dang, busted! I could make excuses about getting busy, the holidays, etc., but you're right. Need to put something together. The biggest problem is that my buddy lost his camera so 90% of my shots are of the arse-end of a GS1150, and who wants to see that on a Tiger forum? But I do have some scenic shots, maybe a few obligatory food shots... OK, I promise to get it done! :oops:
Let's see - like I said, my buddy Dave and I were both racing the Baja 1000 on two different teams. We sent our gear bags ahead with others in our group who were driving to make the trip manageable. We agreed to meet at 11 am on Sunday morning and ride to Cloudcroft, NM where I've got a little cabin. It was cold but clear, about 25 degrees when I pulled out.
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Met up with Dave at a local fast food place, and surveyed the bikes one last time before heading west.
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I really had more storage than I needed between the Hepco cases, a Wolfman duffle and a Wolfman tank bag, but who knew how much tequila I'd be bringing back home? 8)
Lots of flat land between Lubbock and Cloudcroft. About 200 miles of nothing before climbing into the mountains.
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Finally starting to see some hills west of Artesia, NM
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Once we got into the Lincoln National Forest, we dove off the highway and cut across on some great forest roads - here, Russia Canyon Road, about ten miles of perfection!
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(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008014.jpg)
If you've never ridden in this part of the world, I highly recommend it. 9000 feet, hundreds of miles of trail, countless miles of forest roads, perfection for dirt or dual sport riding. The Harley guys love it because of the gentle sweeping turns on nice paved highways, which are the nut on a Tiger, too, but I'm really partial to the trails and two-track. Would be a great location for a Tiger group ride!
After a huge meal in town and a couple of more beers than necessary, we woke early the next morning hoping to put some real miles between us and home. It was 15 degrees according to my cabin's thermometer, so we layered up. I was sporting a new electric vest which, unfortunately, wasn't very reliable. It'd work great, then just quit. Did this the entire trip, so I was a bit chillier than Dave, who had full electrics, but not anything I couldn't live with. We were on an adventure, anyway!
We descended to about 4000 feet and the mountains started to disappear.
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Started to see more vegetation as we neared Arizona. Our goal was to stay off the major roads, no interstates or 4-lanes, and hit every national park or other scenic byway we could.
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Stopped to get our bearings in Reserve, AZ, and the road from there was a hoot!
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008026.jpg)
Didn't read the fine print on this monument, but it was unique to say the least.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008027.jpg)
Nice overlook view from my cockpit
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Twisty mountain roads, with snow lining the roadside periodically.
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We pulled into Prescott, AZ just after dark. About 500 miles that day, not bad for a leisurely ride. The Hampton Inn we went to had just opened that day - we were the first customers. They let us park under the front awning and promised to watch our stuff. :lol: Don't know that I've ever stayed in a hotel that no one else had soiled - I highly recommend it! Here's what it looked like when we started off on Tuesday morning.
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Today, we would cross into Mexico.
Nice!
Let see some Mexicooo :hat10
Teaser shot:
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008080.jpg)
:shock:
More to come.
Back to the ride. We left Prescott and headed south towards Wilholt. For 30 miles or so, I felt like we were on The Dragon - the most amazing twisties, mile after mile, all with a slight descent toward the desert. No pics, simply because I couldn't let go of the bars for a second! I'd love to go back and ride that part of Arizona again, great stuff.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008042.jpg)
We kept south, mostly flat, straight rodes for awhile.
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Pulled over to check our route at this canal ...
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008047.jpg)
which was next to a 4-way intersection in the middle of freakin' nowhere...
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But shortly thereafter, the sand appeared. Glamis!
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Dave eyeballed a place we could ride down into the dunes ...
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008050.jpg)
But his beemer got scared and bucked him off.
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I finally had to stop laughing and taking pics, or we'd still be there today. Helped pick up the sleeping cow and we were moving again.
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The Tiger felt more at home on the sand, obviously.
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It was getting hot and late in the day by this point, so we headed back to the road and kicked it up a notch. Eventually, we neared the border crossing at Tecate, and once again, some great twisties and scenery poppoed up unexpectedly, which I failed to document. Nice train trestle just before crossing...
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008065.jpg)
Hit the border, was waived through by some federales who could have cared less, and that was that. No pics again as we hightailed it toward Ensenada, our goal for the night. Got there just about dusk, found our respective groups, and I parked the Tiger in our host's garage for a few days. The city was crazy, and I didn't want to ride it downtown and leave it unattended for fear of losing the bike itself or any accessories. I've never had a bad incident in Baja, but when you add an extra couple hundred thousand to an already busy city, why chance it, especially when it's your ride home?
I'd love to show you photos of what went on for the next eight hours or so, as my fellow team members decided we should go into town for a taco or three and ended up at the local clubs until dawn. I didn't pack a camera, and most of what we saw would probably violate the boundaries of good taste for this site - let's just say a good time was had by all. :shock: That is, until we were rousted out of bed to go pre-ride the next morning. :(
More to come...
Nice pics and report, looks like you had a great ride to Baja :D
We had a blast, Hockley. I think the ride over and back equalled the race on the fun factor.
I found some pics from Dave's camera before it went missing. These cover pretty much the same ground as the ones I've already posted, but there's a Tiger in the picture, and this is a Tiger forum, so it had to be done.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Daves%20baja%202008/Baja2008-Davespics001.jpg)
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Daves%20baja%202008/Baja2008-Davespics004.jpg)
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My garage in Cloudcroft. Best part of the place, we've crammed twenty bikes in there before!
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And me in the garage, getting ready to head out early Monday morning.
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Either (a) riding with no hands; (b) making gestures about the size of anatomical features; or (c) no friggin' idea.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Daves%20baja%202008/Baja2008-Davespics023.jpg)
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Daves%20baja%202008/Baja2008-Davespics028.jpg)
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Daves%20baja%202008/Baja2008-Davespics037.jpg)
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(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Daves%20baja%202008/Baja2008-Davespics042.jpg)
On the road between Tecate and Ensenada ...
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Daves%20baja%202008/Baja2008-Davespics046.jpg)
Some horny girls ...
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Daves%20baja%202008/Baja2008-Davespics057.jpg)
That's pretty much all from his camera.
Back to my photos, boring pre-race stuff with no Tiger.
My teammates having breakfast at la hacienda.
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We split up on Wednesday morning to go pre-ride parts of our respective sections. In '07 we rode the race without riding or seeing any of the 1296-mile course and did great. This year, not so much. Maybe back to the no pre-ride philosophy next year. Our team captain used the race bike for his pre-ride and discovered that we had a lighting problem. So, next morning, which was tech inspection day, we started trying to figure out why we had not lights. Here's the huddle:
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and here's the culprit - a bad stator.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008073.jpg)
We had a spare, but it had issues too. In the end, we pulled one from our '07 bike and it worked fine. For the time being. More about that later.
A little Sprinter clean-up before heading into town for tech.
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Contingency Row, lined with vendors and wall-to-wall people.
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For you Triumph fans, here's a nice triple - the Mexican National Female Threesome team.
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We did manage to eat over there in between riding and drinking.
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There were two sidecars entered in this year's event. Crazy!
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Friday morning, we were up at 4 am and on our way to respective exchange points. Our first rider apparently had a major getoff within the first 100 miles and knocked himself loopy. We were literally two hours off the pace before our first rider exchange. Oh well, it's about the ride, not the finish. Sitting out in the middle of the desert, waiting for something or someone to come by, I hear a noise overhead. If this is up there, that means that Team Honda should be by in about ten seconds ...
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008090.jpg)
... but I wasn't quick enough to get the camera pointed in the right direction. The dust cloud under the chopper was one of the Honda boys, doing about 100 mph.
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To make a long story short, which is easier without pictures as I had to put the camera away to ride, we made it 60 miles from the finish and the stator toasted again. Lights quit, then the engine died. Luckily for me, I was able to ride both of my legs, one in the daylight and then about 100 miles at night up to Mike's Sky Ranch and back down to the west coast. The night run was exciting to say the least, as the trophy trucks had caught up to us by this point due to our earlier problems. Nothing like an 800-HP truck with more lights than a football field coming up behind you in the middle of a pitch black night on a windy mountain road! :shock: But in the end, I had no incidents and handed the bike off to our last rider in one piece, then settled down in our chase truck with a cold cerveza. An hour or so later, he called on the satellite phone to give us the bad news, and we spent several hours trying to get to him and then get the bike running again. At 5 am, we called it quits and loaded up for Ensenada. Bummer, but still the ultimate adventure - and besides, I still had 1300 miles of Mexican road to cover on the Tiger! :lol:
:hello2
Quote from: "frosty5555"Nothing like an 800-HP truck with more lights than a football field coming up behind you in the middle of a pitch black night on a windy mountain road! :shock:
:lol:
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n223/fano1/Baja%201000%20-%2008/th_MVI_7855.jpg) (http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n223/fano1/Baja%201000%20-%2008/?action=view¤t=MVI_7855.flv)
and they are fun during the daylight too
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n223/fano1/Baja%201000%20-%2008/th_MVI_0464.jpg) (http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n223/fano1/Baja%201000%20-%2008/?action=view¤t=MVI_0464.flv)
Great Report Frosty! Fab pics too, I reckon the odd photo of you with your no hand riding is actually you caught getting your camera out and shielding your eyes from the lovely view! :lol:
Thanks for the audio/video assistance there, Fano! But I'm not sure any picture or clip can really capture the power of those monsters. One day I'd like to hitch a ride on one...
And thanks, John - you may be right about what I was trying to do in that picture. Some gorgeous views, for sure.
A couple of more race pics before we start back home - one of Team Curvas Peligrosas, before we got the bike dirty.
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Another Tecate girl shot -
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And even though we didn't quite make the finish line this year, I'll throw in a couple from last year just for effect -
Me and part of the team at the finish line in Cabo. Notice the number of Tecate cans hanging on the bike, those Tecate girls really do serve more than one function!
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Us and Sal Fish, promoter extraordinairre -
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202007/baja10002007151.jpg)
A slightly toasted Sal Fish at one of the after-parties at Squid Row -
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Showing off my war wounds. Under the knife once I got back to the States.
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Just another day on the beach in Cabo -
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Here's your sign -
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Killer report!!! You wouldn't happen to have any waypoints posted of your trip would you or maybe even a Mapquest of it or something? This sounds like a trip I'd be interested in taking some time.
Thanks for sharing the pics! :occasion14
Happy, I'm not sure if I cleared my GPS after we got back or not - need to look. But honestly, the route was mostly trial and error, trying to keep a westerly course north of the interstate and then angling south when we got closer to Tecate. We stopped every night and pulled out the maps to make sure we were still close and adjusted on the fly. I could surely recreate most of the roads and towns if it would help. We rode several hundred miles further than the straight shot, but it was worth it to avoid the big roads and see some of the less traveled two-lane highways. Now the route home was more of a challenge, as we stayed on the Mexico side until almost El Paso. The "highways" over there can be a little deceptive, but I'd surely do it again.
That's the kind of route I try to always take. Adds time and miles but I'm in it for the ride not the easy route and the finish line. Your description of your trip is totally my style which is why I asked the question. Honestly, I'd take any info you've got on it to get me close and I could take it from there. Thanks! 8)
Swwwwwwoooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeet ride report! Thanks! :D :D :D
Back to the report. After returning to the house early Saturday morning with a dead bike and bad attitudes, we slept for a couple of hours then decided to try to locate and retrieve our SPOT tracker which had somehow disappeared from the bike. We logged onto a computer, found the coordinates for the last location it had transmitted from, and popped them into my GPS. We then loaded up the truck with a cooler of Dos Equis and took off for an area of the race course about an hour away. We figured it was a wild goose chase, and it was, but we ended up driving over about 50 miles of the course on the western coast, drank all the beer, saw some beautiful beaches, and even got passed by a couple of the VW bugs that were still in the race - hats off to them, they work harder than any other class. Got back to the house late afternoon and decided to go into Ensenada for a couple of after-parties, but ended up being so tired that we couldn't stay enthused long enough for the parties to get going. Instead, we walked around the city and decided to do a little shopping - tequila shopping.
Ensenada has a liquor store on every block, along with a pharmacia. Never a shortage of alcohol or Viagra if you live in Ensenada. Unlike Cabo, where they have tequila tasting rooms and you can freely sample a couple-dozen varieties before making a selection, Ensenada just has liquor stores. Small stores with one worker behind the counter, but pretty good selections of local tequila. We quickly found that if you tell the attendant that you want some of their best tequila but are unsure of which one, they will take you to the back room and pour shots of as many as you'd like to sample, all the while giving you their take on the attributes of that particular agave juice. We visited four or five stores, as each had some different brands that we didn't dare miss out on, and before long the race was forgotten. We made our purchases and stumbled home for bed.
Sunday morning, everyone started to pack up and head back to the States. I repacked the Tiger, gave everything a once-over, and waited for Dave to show up. By ten o'clock we were on our way, headed east toward Tecate.
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Here's the two-lane crossing at Tecate. A very low-key place to cross in or out, especially for motorcycles.
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We tried to take care of our tourist visas that we had neglected to do upon arriving, but since it was Sunday and the banks were closed, all we could do was fill out the forms and try to find a bank later along the trip. Or not, as it turned out, we just kept riding and no one ever asked to see the visas. Even at the more than a dozen military checkpoints we went through and the eventual border crossing we chose, no one cared. Your mileage may vary.
About an hour east of Tecate we hit Rumarosa. This is a mountainous area that descends about 4000 feet in a matter of miles, all switchbacks carved out of solid rock with the potential for multiple "oh shite!" moments if you aren't careful. The race course came this way and did a nonpaved version of the descent which I understand was a challenge for the bikes, and even more so for the 4-wheel vehicles.
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Curvas Peligrosas! ("Dangerous Curves", our team name)
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Made it to the bottom safely, things flattened out for awhile from here.
Nice pics. Thanks for letting us in on this ride. I'm very intrigued.
Back at sea level, the terrain started to look like this:
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(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008131.jpg)
Somebody built a nice little fence along the highway, must have followed it for ten miles or so.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008132.jpg)
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008134.jpg)
Wish I could think of the name of the town, but we found a crappy little hotel around dusk and squeezed our bikes in next to the door.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008136.jpg)
Started getting into some hilly country the next day, turned into some great switchbacks.
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(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008139.jpg)
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc11/frosty105x/Baja%202008/Baja2008141.jpg)
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As usual, my picture-taking slowed down the closer we got to home. We continued westward until coming to the fork in the road for the border crossing into Las Cruces, NM or El Paso, TX. It was almost dark, and given the size of the El Paso crossing and the amount of traffic, we opted to shoot north to Cruces. About two miles from the border, we were met by a Mexican police truck who immediately hung a u-turn and started in behind us at a high rate of speed. Coincidentally, we were travelling at a higher rate of speed and opted not to slow down. I figure we were safe enough, far away from the locations where bandits pose as cops and shake tourists down, but why chance it? The crossing was in sight, we were already busted, no use in slowing down to look innocent, so we kept it pinned. Oddly enough, the truck pulled over, did another u-turn, and headed south. We pulled into the crossing station, got little more than a nod, and were back in the States. We slabbed it into Las Cruces, found a hotel and headed for a nearby sports bar to celebrate. Next morning we rode the 90 miles to Cloudcroft and were back on the same track we started out on ten days before. Another 175 miles or so and we crossed into Texas -
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It felt good, but bittersweet. 2590 total miles (not counting the race), it would be hard to adjust back to normal life. Thankfully, we hit home two days before Thanksgiving, which allowed us time to decompress before heading back to work. Would I do it again? In a hearbeat. Wouldn't change a thing.
Thanks for reading and all the comments. Next trip I will do a better job of documentation, and hopefully there will be more Tiger shots as well. Happy, I'll dig back into my notes and post a more complete route shortly. In the meantime, if you or anyone has any specific questions, fire away!
Dude, If you were in Cruces, you should have PM'd me. I'd have shown you the best bar (or bars) in town.
Geof
Don't think it didn't cross my mind, Geof. But trust me, we didn't need the "best" bar, just any bar. Plus, we got there late and left early, would have been rude to impose on you. We'll have to meet in Cloudcroft soon.
Thanks Frosty. Awesome report. Last Baja 1000 was my first time down there and I fell in love with the place. I am afraid I will have to go down there this year again.
Awesome report Frosty! :wav
You've peaked my interest in a future trip.
Fano, maybe we should consider a "Team Tiger" sometime in the future? :eusa_dance
It is a great place for motorcyclists - dirt, dual sport, or street. If you only got as far south as San Felipe this year, you owe it to yourself to venture further. The terrain changes and coastline views are incredible.
Happy, like Ferris Bueller said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it". Go For It!