UK Visit - July 2011

My last trip back to the UK, in July of 2012, was primarily to visit my mother and to help celebrate my last remaining uncle’s 90th birthday. A nice stay with, for the most part, lovely weather and a Test Match win over India to boot.

For a long time my mother and I had been threatening to visit the seaside for some time now, but we had always found some reason not to. This time, however, we persevered and made it to Whitby – a one-time beautiful seaside town on the east coast of Yorkshire. I have fond memories of Whitby from my younger days, and while the town itself is still quite beautiful, when it is full of holidaymakers and tourists it doesn’t quite have the same appeal. The crowded quay area was particularly unpleasant being thronged with people eating fish and chips, hot dogs, smelly shellfish (cockles, whelks, muscles), or ice cream. Litter was abundant and the whole place was just not that inviting. It had none of its charm of older times.

We did however consume the best fish and chips that I have ever had at a rather upscale fish and chip shop – Trenchers. While this is perhaps not typical of English Fish and Chips (even the cooks wear chef’s hats) it is perhaps some of the best battered fish you can buy.

This was perhaps more typical, a coffee shop catering to the English palette with the usual range of coffee drinks and for the non-caffeine lovers, Horlicks!

We escaped out of Whitby and went a little further up the coast to Runswick Bay – a beautiful and picturesque spot if ever I saw one. We had afternoon tea in the garden of the Hotel overlooking the bay – very pleasant indeed.

On my last Sunday there, I met up with my friends Steve and Yvonne for lunch. Since Steve and Yvonne live in Cumbria and I was in Derbyshire, we met half-way in between – in the little village of Hudswell, near Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales. The village of Hudswell has a rather fine Community Pub, The George and Dragon. We had a nice lunch there. The whole idea of a Community Pub is that the residents of the village, town or whatever buy shares in the ownership of the pub and run it for the benefit of the community. They usually exist where a commercially operated pub has failed to survive and they attempt to be more than just a commercial operation, they try and preserve some of the architecture and historical significance of the public house. This is a very good thing as far as I can see. In Hudswell, there was also a Community Shop adjacent to the pub. Again there to provide a service to the village community when the local shops were no longer commercially viable after the Morrisons or Tesco move into the area.

Finally a quick mention of the birthday party for my Uncle Geoff’s 90th birthday. It was a surprise party and he took it very well - you have to be careful with surprise for a 90 year old man. Here’s a picture of him with my mother.

 
And here we all are - cousins, grand-children, the lot.

More pictures of everything are here.

Nevada Off Road - June 2011

Last week I had the opportunity to go on an off-roading trip to Nevada. It was kind of a continuation of the previous weekend’s trip to Barney Riley Hot Springs and many of the same folks were there.

My friend Alvaro and I drove up from Sacramento on the Wednesday. We picked up the three frenchmen (Guillame, Jean-Phillipe and Thierry) in Minden (their borrowed truck had broken down the previous day) and we took them over to meet up with the rest of the group in the middle of Nevada (just north of Tonopah in Belmont).

The drive through Nevada is always interesting. From Minden we headed over to Hawthorne and then down Highway 95 to Tonopah. The town of Hawthorne itself is surrounded by obscure military bases (what are they storing in those hundreds of buildings) and there is evidence of those military connections everywhere. On the north side of town is the attractive and colorful array of bombs lined up alongside the road. To the south, the road is divided into sections dedicated to the wars that the US has been involved in – all the way from the First World War, to World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and now “The Global War on Terror” – it’s nice to keep these things current and they have plenty of miles of road left for future conflicts. Near Mina there is the Boat converted into a restaurant, and Lobster Crossing where someone started a lobster farm, then there is the garishly pink and exceedingly sleazy roadside brothel in the middle of nowhere. There is not a lot out in that part of the world but where there is something then it is usually pretty interesting.

Outside the town of Hawthorne, Nevada

A late dinner at the Burger King in Tonopah (it was Jean-Philippe’s first American hamburger – not the best of starts for him), and we headed north to the campsite in Belmont where we me up with the remainder of the group.

The next morning we set off south east from Belmont – I think we went along the Salisbury Wash but I am not sure. Then a bit of backtracking and we headed north into the Toiyabe National Forest. I can’t quite be sure of the route but all I know is that we were in some beautiful country. All day we came across charcoal kilns. These were apparently quite a common feature of the mining landscape. Wherever there were trees near a mining area, they would build kilns to produce charcoal that was then shipped to the mines to be used in the smelting of the ore. In their semi-ruined state, these are now quite beautiful additions to the landscape.

Charcoal Kilns

We explored the old mining town of Tybo where there was quite a lot of old mining equipment and decaying buildings. It is always interesting to look at this stuff and imagine how on earth they got it to such a remote place in the first place. This is not light or compact equipment and the locations are quite remote.

Mine shaft and headgear Tybo

That evening we found a beautiful campsite by a stream and we were treated to many delicacies from pate de foie, fine cheeses, smoked salmon, top shelf Margaritas from Dan and Venezuelan Empanadas prepared by Alvaro. However, one of the finest things that evening was the unlimited supply of hot water heated by Tom’s Land Cruiser, that provided us with showers to wash off the dust of the day.

Late Spring Flowers

The next day was more wonderful scenery, wide open spaces, overgrown trails, the volcanic craters of Armchair and Lunar Crater, and of course the usual charcoal kilns. We camped that night near the White Pine Mountains not too far from Hamilton. Another evening of very fine food – home-made sausages, crab cakes, lamb chops, and peach cobbler – if only I ate so well back home.

On Saturday we did a little more exploring around the White Pine Mountains and the town of Hamilton, then we headed out to Highway 50 and civilization. It was mid-afternoon when we reached Eureka on Highway 50 so we decided to keep going and get home to Sacramento that night. An early evening stop at Cabelas in Reno to show the French guys what an extravagance of outdoor gear it is and then it was over the hill to Sacramento and home.

The entire group in Middleton

Here is a link to some more photos of the trip.

Barney Riley Hot Springs - June 2011

The East Fork of the Carson River near Barney Riley

A couple of weekends ago I did a short weekend trip in the Land Cruiser to Barney Riley Hot Springs. Barney Riley is on the east fork of the Carson River near Markleville. There is a camp site there and a really nice hot spring. It was the site of my trip earlier in the year, back in January. This time the conditions were much different - not so much snow, but a lot of water from snow melt in the river. This time we entered from Monitor Pass rather than from Highway 395 south of Gardnerville which we used last time.

I haven’t figured out who Barney Riley is or was and how this area was named – perhaps he was an old miner…. who knows?

There was quite a group of us this time – Alvaro, Andy, his son Jeff and myself from Sacramento, Tom from Marin, and three Frenchmen (Guillame, Jean-Phillipe, and Thierry).

We headed in on the trail mid-afternoon on Saturday, just about the right time to set up camp before nightfall. The trail from Monitor Pass is a nice one – not too challenging, but interesting enough and simply wonderful country.

We arrived at the Carson River late afternoon, and found it to be running quite fast. It has been quite warm recently and the snow melt from a heavy and late snow season meant the river was very high. Crossing the river to get to the other side, where the best hot springs are, was just not an option. So we settled in for the night on the east bank of the river alongside several groups of rafters who were rafting the river from Markleville to Gardnerville (a nice rafting run, and perhaps a more exciting one at these water levels – at least a relatively quick run).

Later that evening we were joined in camp by Bill from Sacramento in another of his beat up Toyota’s.

Next morning, Sunday, we decided to go to a crossing further downstream and see what the conditions were like there (the river is wider there and it might be crossable). Though only a short distance downstream it necessitated a circuitous route of several miles around the impassable river bank.
When we reached the river again the flows still looked way too high even in this wider section of river.

We had pretty much decided not to cross the river when Bill took off and surprised us all by driving over to the other side. A bit of a risky proposition, but well executed and he reached the other side to the amazement and cheers of everyone around. This then spurred on a young couple, not a part of our group, to drive across in their big Ford F-350. They too made it safely across.

The rest of us remained on our side of the river, thinking that things were just too risky to venture across. Certainly myself, being relatively inexperienced, I was not about to follow any of these folks into the water.

Then it seems to have dawned on everyone, including Bill, that coming back might be more of a problem that the initial crossing. That crossing had been on a diagonal moving downstream with the flow of the river. The return would be a similar diagonal crossing but this time moving upstream against the flow of the river. That’s a whole different kettle of fish as we soon found out.

Bill S. and his submerged vehicle

So how do we get Bill and his truck back to this side of the river? We made an attempt to get a length of tow strap across to the other side with the aid of a passing kayaker. We tried, the kayaker tried even harder, but that attempt failed. Bill, rather cavalierly, then set off to return unaided by the same route as he crossed earlier. This went well until he was midstream and the force of water pushed him around, into deeper water where he floated, and then sailed downstream. That was not a good situation but fortunately the vehicle stayed upright. Had it flipped over with him inside then the consequences could have been quite serious.

The door pulled off in the rescue attempt

Now the recovery started in earnest – Bill was on top of the truck in the middle of the river. What to do? We managed to throw a thin line to him which we then attached to tow straps which he pulled across to the marooned truck. Alas, the flow was so high that all he could attach the end of the strap to was the roof of the cab of the truck – nothing substantial like the bumper or the frame. A kayaker then helped out by giving Bill a life vest, and towing him behind his kayak to shore (to the wrong side of the river but at least he was on dry land). That left us with the job of pulling the strap attached to the truck with the hope of pulling everything out of the water. This went well for a few seconds and there was some movement of the truck but eventually the force on the top of the cab was too much and we just pulled the top off the truck, leaving the truck cartwheel downstream a ways. Not a great outcome, but at least the truck landed right side up – but this time it was definitely out of reach and the end of our rescue efforts.

We were getting ready to leave when the Ford F-350 decided to return across. We anxiously gathered to watch the results. Again all went well for a while and I thought he had made it, until the engine cut out, and the river took over and pushed him downstream. So now there are two vehicles in the river. There is also a guy and his now quite upset girlfriend on one of them and they need to be rescued. Not a good situation, the water is flowing very fast, the water is very cold, and they don’t have life vests or anything.

And now there were two

A kayaker again comes to the rescue – he reaches the truck, gives the girl his lifevest, gets a line to shore, kayaks to shore and then takes charge of getting both people off the truck (using a pendulum action with a rope to swing each person into shore downstream of the truck).

Quite the eventful day! Not a good outcome though – there were two vehicles in a relatively pristine river that really should not have been there. Everyone was safe, but things could have gone horribly wrong in so many ways. Those kinds of risks should not be taken.

Postscript: The next day the guy returned to recover his F-350 with a backhoe of all things. Somehow he managed to pull it out of the river. Bill returned too and after failing on Monday, managed to get his truck out on Tuesday. The truck was surprisingly intact, though I am sure all it is good for is parts.

The recovered vehicle

Here is a link to some more photos of the weekend on my SmugMug site.

A week in Stinson Beach

Yours Truly, Yvonne, Steve, Colin, Mel

Last week I got to spend a week by the ocean. My college friends Steve and Colin with their wives Yvonne and Mel were over from the UK and we rented a house down on Stinson Beach for the week. Stinson Beach is a little beach community on Highway 1 just north of San Francisco. Our house was right on the beach at the end of the sand spit that runs out between the Pacific Ocean and the Bolinas Lagoon – a perfect location for a relaxing week. The weather cooperated too - it can often be foggy on the coast but we had great weather all week.

View of Stinson Beach from the back of the house

While Stinson is just a few short miles as the crow flies from San Francisco – you can see it quite clearly and it lights up the sky at night time – it is a long and winding route to anywhere by road. So we didn’t stray too far from that part of the world. We did the usual things – Bolinas, Muir Woods, Mt Tamalpais, Point Reyes, Tomales Bay, Mill Valley but we didn’t get over to the busier areas of Marin or to San Francisco save for a run to Costco in Novato for supplies.

This is a beautiful part of the world and it is hard to imagine that you are just a stone's throw away from a major city like San Francisco. One of the highlights for me was driving Bolinas Ridge Road - it has to be one of the most stunning pieces of road in California – not to be missed, though I had missed it for 35 years.

View of Stinson Beach and Bolinas from the Bolinas Ridge Road

Steve, Col and I all studied Geology together at University in London (yes I did actually study it once upon a time) and we are all 60 this year. That was the main reason for the get together. And what better place for a group of geologists to meet but on the exact intersection of the San Andreas Fault with the spit of land sticking out into the Bolinas Lagoon. If the earthquake didn't get us the Tsunami surely would have.

Here are all the photos from the trip.

Death Valley - April 2011

In April, Alvaro Rodriguez and I took our Land Cruisers down to Death Valley to explore some of the remoter regions of the park. This was to be the first real long trip with my new ‘old’ Land Cruiser. There were six of us on the trip – John Griffing, Andre Hediger, Catherine Moulton, Alvaro, his wife Monica and myself.

Andre, Alvaro, Monica, Catherine, John

It was an early morning departure from Sacramento up to South Lake Tahoe, over the hill to the East Side of the Sierras, and down Highway 395 (my favorite part of California). Lunch in Bishop at Schat’s Bakery then down to Big Pine where we turned into the hills and the northerly entrance to Death Valley (via Eureka Valley to the Saline Valley).

Near Warm Springs

Our first night stop was at Warm Springs in the Saline Valley. A small oasis in the middle of the valley floor with warm springs (and unfortunately people with a predilection towards parading around the springs without any clothes – these people should be covered up, it’s not a pretty sight).

Saline Valley

We camped nearby the springs in a pretty exposed camp site – at this time of year, it was very pleasant except for the wind but I could only imagine how hot and intolerable it might be further into the summer.

The next day we had a dip in the springs – very nice, just the right temperature, and very clean. Then we were off down the Saline Valley, up Lippincott Pass and down to the Racetrack Playa.  Lippincott was a nice climb out of the valley floor – nothing too challenging. The Racetrack Playa was fascinating – it is a salt flat playa which by itself is amazing, but then there are these rocks on the playa with trails behind them – they are called Sailing Stones. These are quite big rocks and the theory is that they are moved by the wind – quite remarkable. I guess the playa is really slick when it rains so the wind can actually push these large rocks across the floor.

Sailing Stones on Racetrack Playa

Further down the valley we came to Tea Kettle Junction where folks have gone crazy with tea kettles.

Tea Kettle Junction

From Tea Kettle it was over to Ubehebe Crater – another geological wonder in the valley. Ubehebe is the native Indian word for “big basket in the rock” – very descriptive.

Ubehebe Crater

At this point it was time to fuel up so we headed over to Beatty, Nevada. I had stayed in Beatty a few years back and was somewhat familiar with it. It is not the most inviting of towns. As the “Gateway to Death Valley” it has cheap hotels, gas and the basic food items. Alas its only industry – the Barrick Gold Mine – looks like it closed in the late 90’s.

After refueling we set off in search of a camping spot for the night. We had thoughts of finding something near Rhyolite, a ghost town adjacent to Beatty, but there was nothing suitable. We then set of through Titus Canyon thinking there would be a good spot somewhere along the way. Alas this wasn’t the case either, but by then it was getting dark so we were forced to camp alongside the road – a no-no in a National Park but there was not likely to be any other traffic at that time of day. Apart from the wind which was howling while we were cooking dinner it was not a bad spot. Dinner was John’s barbeque ribs that were flown in from Memphis the previous week for our enjoyment.

We made an early start the next day to break our “illegal” camp and get on the road. We followed along down Titus Canyon to the remnants of the town of Leadfield where we stopped to cook breakfast and enjoy the sights. Traveling through the lower part of the Canyon was just beautiful - it is a spectacular canyon, well worth the trip, either motorized or on foot.  I ran all the way through it on the Death Valley Marathon back in 2008.

Titus Canyon

After exiting Titus Canyon, we went through Death Valley proper (very well maintained roads) through Stovepipe Wells and on towards Panamint Springs to the West. Before Panamint Springs we took the cut off towards Emigrant Pass and then on to the town of Ballarat. Ballarat is an interesting place indeed – named after the Australian gold mining town of the same name, it is almost a ghost town, but still has a few living residents - strange living residents. The Manson Family hung out nearby in the 60’s, a scene from Easy Rider (where Peter Fonda threw his watch away at the start of his motorcycle trip) was shot here, and we bought drinks from the store (that’s all they sell) while we tried not to get too familiar with any of the locals.

From Ballarat, we took the road up to South Park Canyon. This was the more challenging bit of trail. Rover Death Hill (as in Land Rover Death) and Chicken Corner (where one shouldn’t be afraid of cutting it close to the edge – “the edge is your friend” as Alvaro says). On our return I heard that the BLM closed this road shortly after our visit. Apparently more than one person has come to grief on Chicken Rock and they figured it just wasn't worth risking others getting into trouble.

We had a look around the Brigg's Cabins. A couple of relatively primitive cabins up South Park Canyon that are equipped with most things you will need. Available free of charge on a first come first served basis, these were a wonderful discovery. They are maintained by a local group and the BLM allow them to be used provided everyone has access. You just hoist the US flag to show you are in occupancy and then leave everything clean and replace what you use. I would like to come back and stay here a day or two.


We pushed on higher up to an area called Middle Park where we camped close to a jaw-dropping view of the valleys below. A fairly high camp ground with a nip in the air the next morning.

Onwards the next day, we went back down Pleasant Valley Canyon to Ballarat. There were some interesting mining relics down the valley.  It is lots of fun to explore these old sites.

On towards Panamint Springs to gas up (thirsty vehicles these Land Cruisers) and then off in search of a camp spot for the last night on the road. We were lucky enough to stumble across a road up Telescope Hill (from where you can see the highest spot, Mt Whitney, and the lowest spot, Badwater in the lower 48). On the way up there were 10 charcoal kilns in almost perfect condition – the Wildrose Charcoal Kilns. The local forests were harvested to provide wood which was converted to charcoal to be used in the smelting operations in the local mines.

Wildrose Charcoal Kilns

That night we camped at Mahogany Flat. At around 8300ft this was our highest camp, almost at snow level. A fine Cottage Pie for dinner from Alvaro – a traditional English recipe with a Venezuelan accent provided by Alvaro.

Sunday was the return home. A long drive up 395, over the Kingsbury Grade into the Tahoe basin and down the hill to Sacramento – total miles this trip 1135. Alas we used 107 gallons of gasoline for a very economical 10.6 mpg. Not quite a Prius, but we did some rough roads and some high speed driving there and back.

Here is a link to my Smugmug photos.

Rio de Janeiro, Brasil - April 2011

In April of 2011 I made a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil - a business trip to give some software training to one of our customers down there.  Rio is one of the most beautiful cities in the world (IMHO) and I really didn't think twice about going down there, even though training is not something I usually do.

Our clients, Odebrecht, put me up in a nice hotel in Niteroi - just across the bay from Rio. I was initially expecting to work in their office but there were rumors that one of their rigs was in port. When I walked out the back of my hotel I was very surprised to see the rig sitting a few hundred yards offshore. The rig was new, having just been built in Abu Dhabi and it was undergoing final fitting out before going to work offshore Brasil.

The Norbe VI Rig as seen from my Hotel

The Rig at Night - Corcavado in background

I had not visited a rig in years - it has become so difficult these days to get on board a rig without having all the required safety training and certifications - so this was a real treat.   On the first morning I was taken by boat out to the rig and then I was winched up onto the rig in a basket on the end of a crane. The basket device is actually something called a 'Billy Pugh Transfer Net' - named after its inventor.  It's biggest claim to fame outside the oil industry was when it was used to pluck various Apollo astronauts out of the ocean after completing their mission.  It was certainly an interesting and exciting way to go to work, particularly with the view of Sugar Loaf, Corcovado and downtown Rio in the background.

Hoisting aboard the Rig

The actual work was fine though it morphed from a training session to a software redesign session. I came back with a long list of things that they needed adding or changing.  More work for us which is a good thing I suppose.

The Norbe VI

After my stint on the rig, I did get to check out a few tourist type things.  I was staying in Niteroi.  Niteroi is just across the bay from Rio and it is linked to Rio by ferries and by a bridge. It is not as affluent as Rio and it is the more industrial port area. Nevertheless it is a nice area, with great views across the bay towards big city.

Street scene in Niteroi

On one of my morning runs (actually my only morning run), I stumbled across this wonderful building - more like a space ship than a building. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and houses a contemporary art museum. By all accounts the building is much more impressive than its contents.

Contemporary Art Museum - Niteroi

Niemeyer's Contemporary Art Museum

Something I wanted to do while I was here was visit one of the favelas in Rio so I signed up for a tour on the Saturday afternoon.  Just wandering around the favela as a tourist is not quite what you want to do as a tourist - it might not be too safe to say the least.

It was an interesting look at a different side of life in Rio. I was worried about it being a little too voyeuristic but these tours are becoming fairly common now and they are promoted as being run by Favela residents and allegedly they do give some money back to the community. Whether that is true or not I don't know.

The Rocinha Favelea

I was picked up in front of the Copacabana Palace Hotel (one of the best hotels in Rio and a striking contrast to where we were actually going) and whisked off up the hill to Rocinha where the housing changes from super expensive to extremely poor in the matter of a few meters.

Typical multi level construction

According to the guides, the slum areas are governed by a mafia-like organization of drug dealers and crooks and even the police don't venture inside. They said that these mafia types at least organized things in the community and got a few things done, while the local government did precious little for the residents. The houses are a chaotic jumble climbing up the hillsides. Hardly anyone has a proper address as the streets and buildings are somewhat free-form, electricity is just stolen by tapping into the power lines, and when you need a new house or a room, you just build it on top of an existing one (4 or 5 levels high sometimes).

If you need electricity, just take it!

That being said there were parts of the Favela that were quite attractive - very colorful, some quite modern, and some with great views of Rio and the Ocean.  Obviously some money is being put into their development.

A more colorful and modern section

Everyone was quite friendly and I didn't sense any hostility or lack of safety.  As can be seen by the photo to follow with a bunch of kids and families.

Yours Truly and some kids in Rocinha

On the following day, Sunday, I did the more standard tourist things - the downtown area, Corcovado, Sugar Loaf, Copacabana, etc. It was a nice day out with lots of wonderful sights. I took lots of pictures. Then on my return to the hotel prior to going out to the airport, I was taking a taxi and I realized that I needed some more money to pay for the ride. I asked the driver to stop at an ATM, and then foolishly got out of the taxi, leaving my day pack in the cab. When I completed my transaction and turned around from the ATM, the taxi had disappeared along with my pack. I guess he figured that whatever was in the backpack it was more valuable than his $20 fare. He was right - 2 cameras, an iPhone, lots of miscellaneous bits and pieces. I am up to over $2,000 on the insurance claim.

That made for a sour end to the trip and a lack of photos of from that day. I can't believe I was so stupid as to do that, usually I am very careful, but I had been getting along fine with the taxi driver and I trusted him. Oh well - there's a lesson learned there. And it could have been a lot worse - I did not lose my passport or my credit cards so I was still able to fly home.

The Land Cruiser Purchase

Well, as you may well know, I have fallen in with a bad crowd - the Land Cruiser Off-Road crowd. Both of the last two years I have taken a trip as a passenger with my friend Alvaro to Southern Utah to do some off-highway traveling. I have thoroughly enjoyed these trips and so I figured it was about time that I got my own vehicle.

The choice of vehicle was not a question - everyone in this "group" drives a Toyota Land Cruiser. Specifically an 80 Series Land Cruiser which was produced between the years of 1995 and 1997 in the US. There was no point in buying something different when there was so much expertise around to fix this type of vehicle. Had I bought something else, I would have been on my own for repairs and advice. Not a good place to be.

So I have been looking for a vehicle for some time now on Craigslist and other car sites. Nothing quite caught my eye until I found a Lexus LX50 (the same as an 80 Series with plusher interior) in Reno. My friend Dan who lives in Reno did a quick check of the vehicle and then one Saturday Alvaro and I drove over the hill to Reno to inspect it.

Alas the vehicle did not live up to expectations and we were getting ready to come back to Sacramento when Dan said that his friend Jack had been trying to sell his Land Cruiser. A quick call and yes it was still available. We drove to the house and behold - a relatively good condition Land Cruiser equipped with every piece of off road equipment that I could ever need - 4" lift, Skid Plates, Front and Rear Bumpers, Sliders, Winch, Air Compressor, Second Battery, Second Fuel Tank, Auxilliary Fan, PIAA Headlights, 2 Meter Radio. Fully loaded. Alas 186,000 miles on the clock - a little high but you can't have everything.

So without much hesitation I closed the deal and became the proud owner of a fine Land Cruiser. Here are some pictures.




If you want the details of the vehicle - here they are:

1996 Toyota Landcruiser

Factory Lockers
Factory Toyota Hand Throttle

Upgrades:

Full Slee 4 inch Lift Kit:
Slee 4 inch springs (HD rear springs)
OME L shocks
Castor Plates
Stainless Brake Lines
Weld-In adjusters for upper rear control arms and both Panhards
OME bushings in Upper rear control arms
OME steering stabilizer
Bump stop extensions
Sway bar drop down brackets
Tacoma rear DC shaft re-tubed and installed in the front
Slee Washer Bottle relocation bracket to allow for second battery tray
4.88 gears (solid spacer on front third).
Nitto Terra Grapplers, 315/75R16’s (approximately 60% tread)
Mark’s Speedometer correction box
Slee Step Sliders
Slee AC dryer skid plate (attached to ARB bumper).
Iron Pig Offroad Full Skid plate/crossmember.
Landtank performance MAF with new Toyota sensor
Safari Snorkel
Air-Lift air bags in rear springs.
ARB front bumper
Winch
York Air Compressor with air lines to Front and Read Bumpers
2M Radio
PIAA 525 (Dual Beam) lights are wired with an on/off switch that allows the headlight switch to actually turn them on or not. The low-beam activates the "Fog" lights and the highbeam position activates the "Spot" lights in the PIAA’s.
Auxiliary Fan (90’s 4runner) wired so that it can be turned on full-time or the AC will activate it via the pressure switch.
4X4 Labs Rear bumper Kit, dual swing arms, with my uppers (spare tire, fuel/water can mount, Hi-lift mount). Toyota 4runner License Plate mount with light wired into factory wiring.
Man-A-Fre/Long Ranger 24 gallon Auxiliary Fuel Tank (mounts in place of stock spare) with Dual Filler neck (Unleaded restricted for smog reasons) pump and fuel transfer switch/gauge combination.
Dual batteries with brand new Sears Platinum Gel batteries
National Luna Dual Battery controller/charge system.
2 "always hot" 12v outlets in center console
1 "always hot" 12v outlet in rear compartment area
Auxiliary wiring for extras is wired separate from the main electrical system on it own fuse blocks and relays to keep everything as reliable as possible
GT Covers seat covers (stock seats are not ripped or torn)
LED in Dome light
Door lights replaced with LED’s also (rear hatch/tailgate can stay open without draining the battery).
Kenwood Ipod controlling head unit
Pioneer replacement speakers in the doors
Viper Alarm with Remote Start feature

Baja Motorcycle Trip - December 2010

The week before Christmas I set off on a motorcycle trip to Baja. It was supposed to be the final ride on the motorcycle before I sold it. I haven’t been riding the motorcycle much this year and it seemed like a bit of a luxury to keep it around. Not to mention the fact that if you don’t ride frequently then your skills get rusty – and that’s not a good thing on a big motorcycle - on any motorcycle.

At the tip of Baja California with the BMW

A ride from Sacramento to Cabo San Lucas, on the tip of Baja, seemed like a good destination and the timing was right, so I packed my bags and set off south on Saturday 11th December.

Day 1 - Sacramento to San Juan Capistrano
Interstate 5 south to LA is not a particularly inspiring ride on any mode of transport. On a motorcycle it is similarly uninspiring but it has smells – a lot of nasty smells (the worst of which is the Harris Feeding Company’s lot near Coalinga – so many cattle they are visible on Google) and the smell is just disgusting. Riding through LA is always fun - heavy traffic, high speeds, very scary indeed.

I made it to San Juan Capistrano by late evening of the first day and did my final preparation for crossing the border. This included buying motorcycle insurance, arranging cell phone coverage and an e-mail data plan while I am there – all of which can be done very quickly from a web browser these days - how spoiled we are.

Day 2 - San Juan Capistrano to Vicente Guerrero
The next morning, Sunday, I headed for San Diego and the border.  Going across the border into Mexico at the Tijuana crossing was not a big deal. I made it more of one by actively seeking out the purchase of a travel permit, which all the books say you need, though no one actually checked it while I was in Mexico. The permit involved queuing several times, filling out a form, paying over some money and dealing with a surly Immigration Man.

One wrong turn after the border led me into the chaos of downtown Tijuana. Not what I wanted to do before I got my foreign driving skills honed but I soon backtracked and got on the Toll Road that runs down the coast from Tijuana to Ensenada. That road was a much easier introduction to the traffic and roads of Mexico, though it is not very typical and you could still be in Southern California except not so much traffic.

The Pacific Coast south of Tijuana

After lunch in Ensenada, I headed south on Highway 1 or the Trans-Peninsular as they call it. By this time I had figured out a few things about driving in Mexico, namely:

• watch out for the speed bumps or topes as they call them – they are large and they should not be taken at speed.
• be extra careful to watch out for these speed bumps as you leave town as well as when you enter town – they are there too and just when you think you are in the clear they have one last one to surprise you.
• keep a sharp eye out for the Stop signs - “ALTA” – they are not always conspicuous, they are not consistently placed on the left or right or even close to the road, and they don’t always need to be located at an intersection.
• all the gas stations are PEMEX and only PEMEX and they don’t take credit cards. It is cash only.
• outside of the towns themselves you don’t appear to have to worry about the speed limit. Everyone speeds, often quite excessively. Rule of thumb - use the same number MPH as the posted KPH and add 10 or 20 MPH.

The road south was in pretty good condition. Much better than I expected. But that first afternoon there were a lot of rough sections of dirt where the road was being rebuilt. On a motorcycle that meant the ingestion of a lot of dust.

I had planned to be in a hotel long before dark, but nothing looked good until, well after dark, I pulled into Vicente Guerrero and found a nice motel with a courtyard. I figured with a motorcycle, the last thing I wanted to do was to leave the bike unattended on the street at night so my choice of motel was usually dictated by the security of the overnight parking.

Day 3 - Vicente Guerrero to Mulege
The road south on Monday morning led just inland of the coast through a lot of industrial scale farms. I was quite surprised at the scale of the farming operations but I suppose it makes sense – a good climate, proximity to market, cheap labor, apparently good soil and availability of water. It looks like they grow a lot of berries for the US market here.

Cirios

After passing through El Rosario, the road traverses inland across a sparsely populated desert landscape. The Saguaro cacti are spectacular but what is really amazing are the Cirios. These strange plants are only found here in Baja and in a small area of the Sonoran desert and they are the weirdest things as you can see. The English name is the boojum (named after a Lewis Carrol character in the Hunting of the Snark).

This section of road was the longest section between gas stations - 196 miles by my clock. That’s pretty convenient as I was averaging about 200 miles per tank. I was running on empty when I came into the gas station in Villa Jesus Maria. Of course I had bottles of gasoline in my bags so I had a little extra gas for a few more miles but still 196 miles is a long way.

The next major town was Guerrero Negro where I had a late lunch. Guerrero Negro is the jumping off point for whale watching tours in the Bay. No whales quite yet, and anyway, in the town itself you are a long way from the ocean so I don’t think you can see much without going out on a boat trip.

One of many roadside shrines/memorials

From Guerrero Negro the road crossed to the other side of the peninsula, and dropped down into Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez. Santa Rosalia is an interesting and atypical town - an industrial copper mining and smelting town. Built by the European Boleo Mining Company (a Rothschild company), it’s architecture is more European than Mexican and it is a lot more industrial. It has an interesting church manufactured by Gustav Eiffel for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris and later shipped over to Mexico in the late 1800’s. Of course the mine and the associated smelting is long gone now so the town is a shadow of its former self, but it still has a nice atmosphere despite all the crumbling industrial sites around it.

Gustav Eiffel's Church in Santa Rosalia

I pushed on that evening into Mulege reaching there just after dark. The Hotel Mulege was in the center of town with a nice protected area for the bike so that was my home for the night. In the next room to mine were Ernie and Jerry - two contractors from the Bay Area driving to their coastal plot of land with a load of lumber and tools to continue construction of their vacation home. We had a nice evening sipping peach and vodka cocktails outside the hotel, followed by beer and tequila at the restaurant across the road from the hotel. Thankfully the tequila shots didn’t get too out of hand.

Day 4 - Mulege to Cabo San Lucas
The next day was an early start on the final leg down to Cabo San Lucas. Some nice riding across the peninsula to Ciudad Insurgentes. Such a long straight road - a chance to get the motorcycle up to speed. No one seems to worry about speed limits - they are so ridiculously low that just about all the time you are speeding - often significantly.

Somewhere south of Mulege

From Insurgentes it was a short hop down to Ciudad Constitucion where legend has it the police shake down tourists for on the spot fines for missing stop signs or the slightest of speed infractions (check out the last paragraph in the Wikipedia entry). I was especially careful and had no trouble. Actually a gringo in the local coffee shop said that the Mayor had been aware of his town’s reputation and had told to police to lay off - the dismal state of the tourism in Baja means that they can’t afford to annoy any brave tourists that do venture that way. One thing about the tourists - there just didn’t seem to be many of them. All the bad press about the crime and drug related violence near the border means that no one is coming here and all the locals are suffering from lack of business - lots of empty restaurants, bars, hotels, campsites and the like.

From Constitucion it was over to the Baja side of the peninsula to La Paz. La Paz is a nice town but I had visited it before on my kayaking trip in 2002 so I just filled up with gas and continued south. I took the dual carriageway down the westerly route to Todos Santos - a very nice and very underutilized road.

Todos Santos was a nice place too, but again it seemed to be suffering from a lack of tourists - and the town did not seem to have much else going on except tourism. I made the obligatory stop outside the Hotel California - rumoured to be the inspiration for The Eagles song of the same name (alas its just a rumour) and took the obligatory photograph of the motorbike parked outside.

Hotel California in Todos Santos

From there it was a short hop over to Cabo San Lucas on the most southerly tip of the peninsula. I wasn’t impressed by the Cabo - arriving late to the chaos of rush hour traffic didn’t put me in a good frame of mind and the town has just made too many concessions to the tourist industry and to the particularly bad side of the tourist industry - the Spring Break crowd and the Cruise Ship crowd.

Day 5 - Cabo San Lucas to Mulege
On the road by sun rise the next day, a quick look around the now quieter streets of Cabo before heading east towards San Jose del Cabo.

San Jose is altogether a nicer town than its neighbouring Cabo San Lucas - a lot quieter, a bit more artsy with a nice old town area. I liked the town. I didn’t stick around too long and from San Jose, it was back north again to La Paz. There was some nice countryside north from San Jose on the east side of the Peninsula. Much more attractive than the westerly road I came down the day before. Again no stopping in La Paz, a short coffee break in Ciudad Constitucion, and then on to Loreto where I took a break and looked around town. A nice seaside town with an interesting old town area and a wonderful mission. I pressed on tthe last 80 or so miles to Mulege, arriving just before nightfall.

Day 6 - Mulege to El Rosario

Another early start and I was on the road north to have breakfast in Santa Rosalia. This is the Boleo Mining town, and I had heard of a French bakery there that was supposed to be quite good. The Panaderia El Boleo was now more a Mexican-French bakery since all the French miners left, but it was still well worthy of a stop. I took time to wander around the mining company artifacts scattered around Santa Rosalia. Lots of old steam locomotives, old smelting plants, office buildings from the late 1800’s. Definitely one of the more interesting spots on the peninsula.

The Mission in San Ignacio

Next stop was San Ignacio. A delighthful oasis in the middle of the peninsula with a beautiful mission.

Guerrero Negro was next where I spent time chatting to 3 cyclists (on human powered bicycles that is) who were riding from San Diego to Panama. That is a tough road through Baja at least and I have a lot of respect for those guys. 60 miles or so a day, stopping by the side of the road and camping when it was nightfall. The 186 miles between gas stations, for me a 2-1/2 hour ride, would be 3 days of gruelling riding for them. Hats off to them.

Fish Tacos for lunch in Jesus Maria and then on with a full tank of gas to El Rosario where I spent the night at the Baja Cactus Motel - a fine place - cheap and surprisingly good quality.

Day 7 - El Rosario to Mission Viejo
The last day in Mexico. I had been told that the border in Tecate was an easier one to cross than the one in Tijuana where the backup of traffic can take 3 or 4 hours to get through, so I took the scenic rout from Ensenada through the wine country to Tecate. Tecate was a typical unattractive border town, and the line of cars waiting to cross the border was relatively short - probably less than an hour if you were in a car. That being said, on the motorcycle I just passed everyone and went to the front of the queue, so perhaps Tijuana would have been fine too.

The border crossing was straightforward, no baggage searches, just a scan of the passport and I was in. For the next 10 or so miles north of the border there was an amazing amount of law enforcement traffic of all kinds - Sherrif’s officers, Highway Patrol, Customs Patrol. That’s probably par for the course around our Mexican border these days.

Now I was back in California again, all I had to do was get home. Straightforward you would think - alas no - the rain started just north of San Diego. Not being dressed for the wet weather, I stopped at a hotel thinking the shower would pass quickly. When I checked the weather channel, this turned out to be quite a serious storm and the next break was forecast for some 6 days later. That’s too long to wait in a Motel 6, so I suited up with rain gear and continued on. I spent the night with my old friend Lynn in Mission Viejo.

Day 8 - Mission Viejo to Sacramento

The last leg home was nothing but a wet slog up I-5 to Sacramento. It was a major storm system and traffic through LA was mess - lots of accidents, lots of stop and go. I tagged on to a bunch of riders from the Sons of El Shaddai Motorcycle Ministry going through LA up to the Grapevine. There was me on my BMW purring along and there they were roaring along on their Harleys looking as mean as could be. What an unusual pairing - but the weather was fowl and we were fellow motorcyclists - you have to respect that.

Here is a link to the photos from the trip.