Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Back in the States (boo): the last week or so...
So we all made it back I assume...Dan ended up taking some weird sounding bus that usually transports folks from the phillipines from LAX to San Diego to get his car and the last we saw of andy and suzanna they were getting on a red eye flight back to knoxville. I missed my direct flight to Nashville b/c LA traffic and had to be re routed through KC, MO to Nashville...I believe that emily and chris should be in chicago at this point.
So that all sounds like a disaster, but the bad part is that the trip is over...we are back in the states and have to get back to the daily grind after being in a great place for 3 weeks.
The last part of the trip was just as great if not better than the first. Leaving Guerro Negro we rode a 95 mile day to San Ignacio and hung out in the town sqare and checked out the old Mission the next morning. Then it was on to the Sea of Cortez and Santa Rosalia, Mulege, Conception Bay, Loreto, then the big haul down to La Paz. After taking a day off on Conception Bay and Kayaking most of the group decided they would rather hang out on the beach and take it easy for a few more days before La Paz instead of riding the 300 additional miles. Jes and I decided to complete the route and grinded out the 300 miles including the biggest pass of the trip in 3.5 days in order to get to La Paz by that Friday...it all worked out and everyone was very happy when we all finally reconviened at the house we rented in La Paz. We hung out for the weekend at the house in, lived it up, and packed up/constructed boxes for the flight home. Here are the pictures.
So that all sounds like a disaster, but the bad part is that the trip is over...we are back in the states and have to get back to the daily grind after being in a great place for 3 weeks.
The last part of the trip was just as great if not better than the first. Leaving Guerro Negro we rode a 95 mile day to San Ignacio and hung out in the town sqare and checked out the old Mission the next morning. Then it was on to the Sea of Cortez and Santa Rosalia, Mulege, Conception Bay, Loreto, then the big haul down to La Paz. After taking a day off on Conception Bay and Kayaking most of the group decided they would rather hang out on the beach and take it easy for a few more days before La Paz instead of riding the 300 additional miles. Jes and I decided to complete the route and grinded out the 300 miles including the biggest pass of the trip in 3.5 days in order to get to La Paz by that Friday...it all worked out and everyone was very happy when we all finally reconviened at the house we rented in La Paz. We hung out for the weekend at the house in, lived it up, and packed up/constructed boxes for the flight home. Here are the pictures.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Out of the desert: and we even saw some whales
Total so far: 400 miles (644 km)
We have made it out of the desert and all the way to Guerro Negro. We were in the desert for about 5 days dealing with high headwinds and the sun and some pretty big climbs. It was a goodtime regardless, but we were really happy to be in a place to get some beer and to work on our taco count. It had been slacking for a few days due to the lack of anything in the desert, so yesterday we ate 48 tacos. Today we are taking the day off and some of us went whale watching, which actually turned out to be pretty cool. Here are some pictures. Sorry for the blandness of the updates, we will update the writing for this journal when we get back. Hope everyone is doing well, things in Mexico are great.
Tomorrow we are going to start biking to the Sea of Cortez side of the Peninsula...so we will try to update from there.
We have made it out of the desert and all the way to Guerro Negro. We were in the desert for about 5 days dealing with high headwinds and the sun and some pretty big climbs. It was a goodtime regardless, but we were really happy to be in a place to get some beer and to work on our taco count. It had been slacking for a few days due to the lack of anything in the desert, so yesterday we ate 48 tacos. Today we are taking the day off and some of us went whale watching, which actually turned out to be pretty cool. Here are some pictures. Sorry for the blandness of the updates, we will update the writing for this journal when we get back. Hope everyone is doing well, things in Mexico are great.
Tomorrow we are going to start biking to the Sea of Cortez side of the Peninsula...so we will try to update from there.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
We are here and we have even done some pedaling
Total so far : 116 miles (187 km)
Due to time I am not doing a full report on the trip. But here are some pictures for the first few days. Everything has worked out great so far and people have been super generous. We were able to get to Ensenada via the bus from Tijuana ín order to cut out the traffic. We have spent $5 per person for lodging thus far and our taco count is 67. The next update will probably be in 5 days or so because we are about to do our first desert stretch south of San Quentin.
Due to time I am not doing a full report on the trip. But here are some pictures for the first few days. Everything has worked out great so far and people have been super generous. We were able to get to Ensenada via the bus from Tijuana ín order to cut out the traffic. We have spent $5 per person for lodging thus far and our taco count is 67. The next update will probably be in 5 days or so because we are about to do our first desert stretch south of San Quentin.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Are We Insane?: Why How What Who
So our good friend Dan moved to La Cruces New Mexico about a year ago for a job. We had talked about doing a bike tour up in the Gila National Forest, but that kept getting pushed back due to the extreme heat in the summer and my lack of vacation at work. Dan and I had also been talking about how we would like to check out the Baja Peninsula. These ideas came together somehow and we ended up with this grand idea of riding bikes down the Peninsula instead of through New Mexico.
It seems every older person we talk that with thinks this is a horrible idea. We are going to get our heads chopped off in Tijuana or we are going to shrivel up in the desert. Our friends of similar age think its going to be great. It can't be that bad...there has even been a book written on the subject "Bicycling Baja" by Bonnie Wong (which I purchased on amazon for $.05, something tells me its not terribly valid in this day and age, but we will find out).
To those of us going on the trip the idea sounds great: camping on the beach, eating seafood, camping in the desert, escaping the winter for a few weeks and of course riding bikes.
To get back on subject, Dan and I started pitching this idea to some friends and after the holidays we had a party of 7 confirmed: Emily and Chris who are living in Chicago, Jes who lives in Kansas City, Andy and Suzanna who are living in Knoxville, Dan the New Mexico Man, and Me, living in Nashville. The plan is to meet up in San Diego on February the 21st and cross the border either that evening or first thing in the morning. The big debate at this point is whether we should take a bus down to Ensenada or just ride bikes. We are thinking its going to be difficult to get 7 bikes and gear under a bus, but we may be mistaken, there may be more room than we know what to do with. The ride from Tijuana to Ensenada seems to be a little bit unpleasant from what we have researched on this site...but it is only one day out of 21, so we can put up with it if we need to.
At this point the only other definite plan of the trip is we have to be in La Paz on March 15th to fly back to the states.
The hope is that this journal will be updated a few times on the trip and will serve as a good way for our friends to check out what we are doing and can be used as a resource for those who may want to do a trip of similar fashion.
see you in Mexico.
It seems every older person we talk that with thinks this is a horrible idea. We are going to get our heads chopped off in Tijuana or we are going to shrivel up in the desert. Our friends of similar age think its going to be great. It can't be that bad...there has even been a book written on the subject "Bicycling Baja" by Bonnie Wong (which I purchased on amazon for $.05, something tells me its not terribly valid in this day and age, but we will find out).
To those of us going on the trip the idea sounds great: camping on the beach, eating seafood, camping in the desert, escaping the winter for a few weeks and of course riding bikes.
To get back on subject, Dan and I started pitching this idea to some friends and after the holidays we had a party of 7 confirmed: Emily and Chris who are living in Chicago, Jes who lives in Kansas City, Andy and Suzanna who are living in Knoxville, Dan the New Mexico Man, and Me, living in Nashville. The plan is to meet up in San Diego on February the 21st and cross the border either that evening or first thing in the morning. The big debate at this point is whether we should take a bus down to Ensenada or just ride bikes. We are thinking its going to be difficult to get 7 bikes and gear under a bus, but we may be mistaken, there may be more room than we know what to do with. The ride from Tijuana to Ensenada seems to be a little bit unpleasant from what we have researched on this site...but it is only one day out of 21, so we can put up with it if we need to.
At this point the only other definite plan of the trip is we have to be in La Paz on March 15th to fly back to the states.
The hope is that this journal will be updated a few times on the trip and will serve as a good way for our friends to check out what we are doing and can be used as a resource for those who may want to do a trip of similar fashion.
see you in Mexico.
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