Baja: Day 1

Here’s our travel itinerary for the Baja trip, folks!    We’re planning on 5 days in Baja, with a pre-meeting the night before we leave.   I’m going to post one day at a time, so here we go.    Before we do that, though, let me remind you that you’ll need Mexican motorcycle insurance, and Baja Bound is ready to process your policy.

The insurance will be about $10 to $14 per day (depending on the level of coverage you select.   Here’s the link to do so, and you’ll want to take care of this sooner rather than waiting to the last minute…

www.bajabound.com/buy

So, let’s talk about Tuesday and Wednesday.

Pre-Day 1 (28 April)

On the Tuesday night before we leave, we’ll have a company dinner at a local restaurant in Azusa (it will be at Spaghetti Eddie’s in Glendora; they have a private room we can use).   Steve’s going to spring for that dinner, and I’ll go over the safety requirements, our riding approach, and the trip itinerary.   It will be a good chance to get acquainted.

Day 1 (29 April)

We’ll depart on Wednesday morning at 04:30.   That means you need to be at the plant before 4:30 a.m., because we’re pulling out on time.   When you arrive at the plant, have a full tank of fuel.   FYI, I run 87 octane (regular unleaded) in the RX3.

We’ll take the California freeways all the way down to the border (the 210 to the 605 to the 5), and we’ll take it slow.  Although we’re authorized to ride in the carpool lane, the early morning commuters in So Cal are stupid and aggressive (they view the carpool lane as the fast lane).

We should miss most of the traffic in LA, Anaheim, and San Diego leaving at our early hour, and that’s a good thing.   We’ll stick to the slow lane and vary our speeds a bit to help with the bikes’ break-in period.  With the ebb and flow of traffic it will be a good break-in run.

From the plant, it’s about 130 miles to the border.    We’ll stop somewhere around Irvine for a rest break (that will be about an hour into our run).    That will be our routine for most of the trip…we’ll stop roughly every hour to take a break.  We’ll stop again just north of the border to top off the fuel tanks (about another hour later), and to pick up one or two riders from San Diego who are joining us.

We’ll cross the border where Interstate 5 ends and head into Tijuana.    I’ll be the first one across and I’ll slow down quite a bit when doing so.   Things happen very quickly when you roll across that border, and it’s important that we stay together.  We’ll roll through TJ’s northern edge at a leisurely pace.   We don’t want to ride too close together for motorcycle safety reasons, but we don’t want to get separated, either.  We’ve got a couple of turns to make in TJ to get on the toll road down to Ensenada.

We’re going to stick to the right…you can see that sign that says Rosarito-Ensenada, and that’s what we want.

Once we get on the toll road, we’ll be rolling at about 60 to 65 mph.   There are three toll booths along this 80-mile stretch, and the way we usually work this is one guy in front (that would be me) will pay for all the bikes.   It speeds up getting through the toll booths.   Even with me doing this, though, we’ll have to go through the toll booths one bike at a time, as the Mexican toll dude has to raise and lower the barrier for each bike.    You guys can pay me back at the end of the day.

After that run down the Cuota (the toll road) we’ll be on Ensenada’s northern edge, and it’s stop and go for a little bit.   We’re headed to Velero’s for breakfast (that meal is on our good buddies at Baja Bound).  It is a breakfast fit for a king, and it’s where the Ensenada shakers and movers hang out.   Great food, and a three course breakfast (pastries, your choice of empanada, and the main course).   Folks, we are going to eat well on this adventure.

Right after breakfast, we’ll stop at La Migracion in Ensenada to pick up our tourist visas.   They’re free.  At that point, it’s follow me to get through Ensenada, we’ll stop for gas again, and then it’s into the wine country and agricultural district.   We’ll have about 200 miles under our belts when we leave Enseneda heading south.

It’s an easy and relaxed roll through the little ag towns, and depending on what the group wants to do, when can divert to an abandoned mission or two, or maybe take a dirt road for a few miles to see the Isla Del Carmen shipwreck.   You guys tell me what you want, and that’s what we’ll do.

After about 80 miles or so of the ag district, we’ll hit the coastal plains, climb into the hills at the northern edge of the Vizcaino Desert, and roll into El Rosario.   That’s where we’ll call it a day.   We’ll have dinner at Mama Espinoza’s (the lobster burritos are on Steve), we’ll top off at the Pemex station, and we’ll head south the next day.

Our destination on Day 1 is El Rosario.   It’s going to be about a 350-mile day.  We’ll stay at the hotel at Mama Espinosa’s.    It’s inexpensive (I’ll post prices in a subsequent post), and it’s even less expensive if you double up.  Primitive, but we’re not doing this ride to bask in the luxury of overpriced hotels.

For those of you who are using this run to break in your bikes, you can change your oil our first night in El Rosario.   You’ll need to bring your tools, a filter, and 2 quarts of oil if you wish to do so, as well as a tin foil pan to catch the oil.    I’ll be there to help you if you need help.  I will have already changed my oil before I leave on this trip, but I’m going to bring a quart so I can top off if I need to.

That’s it for now…I’ll post Day 2 in the next day or so…