(Written 4 days ago)
Tonight, we’re at Papa Fernandez camp ground, about 50 miles south of Puertecitos on the Baja Mexico 5 highway. As I sit here, its dark. Its pitch black except for my computer light and little lantern that I have on. Tobin has already retired to the tent.
I’ve observed many stars and skies at night in different areas, but I was struck tonight by how bright the stars were here. They WERE extremely bright until about 15 minutes ago when the moon began to show. I was sitting here, on the beach, facing the Sea of Cortez, and what looked like the sun began to slowly come up over the water. It took me a second to realize what it was. I’ve never seen the moon come up slowly, and so bright, as if it were the sun. In the last 15 minutes, the moon is now back to its “regular” white, and I can barely see the stars.
We’re on this beach all alone with the water about 20 feet in front of me. I hope the temperature stays relatively warm tonight. We’re still thawing out from last night! In last night’s camp ground decision we knew we were taking a chance since its January, but we decided to take it anyway……..I’ll back up -
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| And we thought we had a full load.... |
We crossed the border in to Baja yesterday morning a little later than we planned. (Last minute errands always take longer than expected) But, we crossed from CA in to Baja through Tacate, and the actual crossing was a complete breeze. We first parked the truck on the US side, walked to the border crossing to deal with our passports and exchange money, then went back in to the US, got our truck and headed back in to lline with other vehicles. We had about a ten second wait. They stopped us, pet the dog, briefly glanced in our trailer and bed of truck and waved us through. We headed in to Tacate, Mexico and looked at each other like, “That was it?” We’ve both been in to Baja before, but through Tijuana and it was a longer process. Anyway, we were making good time, went through Ensanada, headed East on the 3 until we got to the turn off for Mike’s Sky Ranch (where we stayed last night). This is a very well known place with people involved in the Baja 1000 race. The dirt road to get there is nearly 20 miles long, and a bit rough in parts. Its out there. With enough ground clearance, you don’t need 4 wheel drive, but we engaged it in parts since we’re towing a little trailer. We arrived there just before sunset. There were two men staying there that came in on motor bikes, us, and that was it. There are about 30 rooms that we could see, a nice big, open restaurant and a large swimming pool that the ranch’s dogs use as their personal water bowl.
Mike’s Sky Ranch has a large area to camp in down below from the rooms and retaurant. That’s where we went. We were glad to be in our first spot in Baja. We knew it would get a bit chilly, but we didn’t think below freezing! We woke up this morning and it was 23 degrees. We slept in our clothes and had five blankets, but it wasn’t enough. We had to head out. Surprisingly, one of the ranch’s big dogs took a liking to B dog, played and hung out with her all night, and then slept outside right next to the side of the truck that she sleeps on. We decided he had a crush on her. Yet one more broken heart that B Dog has left behind……..
So, since it was 23 degrees last night and we spent the night shivering, we decided we should head for the Sea of Cortez and get in to some warmer weather. There is a light breeze now and the temperature has dropped, but as long as it stays at least in the 40’s, we’re happy with that!
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| Road in to Mike's Sky Ranch (smooth in beginning!) |
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| View from Mike's |
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| Horses near Sky Ranch |
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| B Dog's new boyfriend *For more pictures and commentary, visit Tobin's site at www.velomountain.com |
