Baja 2015 “New Trails Traveled”
So last year we decided to take the UTV’s down to Baja. We have done many trips in Baja with buggy’s, but never with the UTV’s. The 2014 trip was a success so we thought we would do it again. If you have not read last year’s trip click here. http://www.utvunderground.com/exploring-baja-in-a-utv-20178.html
This past year there have been several UTV Baja trips documented and told, which is great. Even Mad Media did a video docu-mercial trip for Polaris, and while they were all fun to see and read, ours are different. What makes ours different from some of the others you might have read about is we are 100% on our own. We don’t have any crews or chase truck support; we don’t trailer our UTV’s from location to location. We unload and for 3-4 days we are 100% dependent on our UTV’s & buggy’s. We need to carry what we think we will need on the trail, as we will not have a truck or crew on the Highway carrying spares.
Day 1; Once again we made Tecate our border crossing point and Rancho Santa Veronica in Tecate our starting point. We crossed the border on a Friday morning at 6:30am and were on the trail by 9am. Rancho Veronica is a safe place to keep the trucks & trailers.
Rancho Santa Veronica
Leaving Rancho Santa Veronica we took the Compadre Trail which is just outside of the Ranch. The Compadre Trail takes you up through the pines and works its way towards Hwy 3, which was about 50 miles way. A few miles before the Compadre Trail ends at the black top Hwy 3, we turned South on a trail heading towards Santa Catarina.
Compadre Trail
On the trail to Santa Catarina we came across several gates, some gates were marked No Entry “Prohibida la Entrada”. It’s a shame as in the past you were welcome to open and close a gate, and continue on. But over the last few years we are seeing more locked gates & signs. We’ve been told it’s because the land owners no longer have a good relationship with the owners of Score International off-road series and some of the off-roaders. They have felt betrayed, as they have not been paid or given what was promised to them. So for this reason we are encountering more fences and marked gates. We have been told by some locals that if you open and close the gates and respect the owners land, they will still let you pass. We went through some gates, but we did not feel comfortable ignoring the signs that said “Prohibida la Entrada”. So because of this we had to turn back a few times and find alternate trails. Eventually we ended up taking a trail to the Hwy. We ran a few miles down the Hwy before we turned back into the dirt and found our way to Santa Catarina and eventually the Famous “Goat Trail”.
Small cactus along the road will destroy a tire.
Santa Catarina Church.
Part of the Score race course.
Starting to head down the Goat Trail. The valley you see below is Valle De Trinidad.
Once down the Goat Trail we took the Black Top Hwy to Valle De Trinidad. This was a 125 miles traveled so far. We gassed up in Vella De Trinidad which only has Regular gas (Magna) no Premium. In town we stopped by a small school to donate some pencils and ate our lunch in the shade along the main drag. To most pencils, coloring books or stickers are no big deal, but in Mexico the children and parents are very grateful.
This is why the Ranchers get upset when their gates are left open.
Gassing up in Valle T.
Behind the fence is the small elementary school.
From Valle T we took what is known as the Grape Vine crossover road which is 30 miles through the mountain side to Hwy 1. Once we reached Hwy 1 we had to run down the Hwy a few miles before we could turn off and run along the coast to Colonet. Once in Colonet we took another dirt road right down to the beach and headed South. When running the beaches in Baja you encounter all sorts of terrain, not just beach sand. You run on sand stone, cobble rock, red clay dirt and even silt. We put the GMZ Cutthroat tires through allot and they performed great. They were a huge improvement over last year’s tires.
Entering a small silt bed. There were several of these along the trail
Our next break was in Punta San Jacinto and the Shipwreck. From here we planned on running the beach and coastal trails until we got to San Quintin. Once again we have encountered more new fences, which we had to navigate around and at times had to drive inland to find our way around a new fence or farm. Due to this and a few other small detours during the day we were running a little behind schedule and the tide was coming in. We decided to not chance being on the last section of beach below the cliffs and possibly getting trapped by high tide. Plus we prefer to be at the hotel before the sun goes down and we were going to be cutting it close. So we headed inland toward Hwy 1 and took the Hwy for the last 10-12 miles into San Quintin.
A fisherman & his family’s home right on the beach.
Markings for future fences.
Sun is starting to go down.
We pulled into the Old Mill Hotel just before 7pm, and before the sun went down, perfect timing! Once again Javier who runs the Old Mill greeted us with Cold Victoria Beer (Modelo brand) as we checked in. Total mileage for Day 1 was 246 miles.
When originally putting this trip together we planned day 2 to head South from San Quintin towards El Rosario and Mama Espinoza’s place, and then make a loop back to San Quintin. But in Baja you have to expect those plans to change. In this case the change was a great one! We were talking to Tony who runs Don Eddie’s next door to the Old Mill. (Tony is Don’s son and he has been running the place since his father Don passed away a few years ago.) Tony suggested we go see the peninsula side of the San Quintin Bay. None of us had ever gone over there and after talking about it after dinner at the Old Mill’s Molino Viejo restaurant; we decided this is where we would spend day 2.
