Our next adventure

Lori and I have a list of future adventures far longer than our life expectancy so choosing our next journey is often subject to our current whims and may change without notice.  For instance, last summer's PCT hike was originally going to be on the Continental Divide Trail.  January's trip to Baja started as a mountain biking trip to Copper Canyon.  The current plan for Summer '09 is to bicycle from Vancouver BC to Los Angeles (approx. 2000 miles) along the west coast.  We plan to start around the first of July and take about three months.  Take that with a grain of salt...

Since we moved from my dad's house on a rural seven acres to the heart of downtown Tucson, our driving has dropped off immensely and we now bicycle almost everywhere.  In 2007, I rode over 3000 miles.  In 2008, I rode 1600 miles (in addition to the 1600 miles we hiked).  So the transition from long-distance hiking to long-distance biking should be natural.  Most of the gear is the same (except for the bike, obviously).  Because the bicycle is such an integral and necessary part of our plan, we need good, sturdy, and comfortable bikes.  For Xmas, Lori received a gift certificate for a La Suprema bike.  La Supremas are hand-built here in Tucson by Ed Foster.  Lori's bike is #39 - the 39th frame made by Ed.  Since Ed is booked out for months, I secured Lori's place in line last September.

Today we finally went to Ed's shop to get Lori fit for her very first custom bike.  The tubing, tube lengths, angles, etc. will all be designed around her body.  Next, Ed will draw up blueprints and order parts.  We will be documenting the progress of #39 with video posts.  Look for the first one here in a few days.  I hope to continue filming #39 from birth through the end of our west coast journey.  Hope you enjoy!

Through the mesh

It has been two weeks since we have returned from our Baja aventura and I have finally composed some final thoughts...

"Here I am, safely returned over those peaks froma journey far more beautiful and strange than anything I had hoped for or imagined.  How is it that this safe return brings such regret?" - Peter Matthiessen

Map of our Mexican journey

Click to enlarge.

A-OK in LA Bay!

Hola amigos! We are safe and sound in Bahia de los Angeles (known to local gringos as LA Bay). We are still having an amazing Mexican adventure. After leaving San Felipe, we drove south to Puertocitos passing many small beach developments along the Sea of Cortez. The pavement ends south of Puertocitos and the road turns bad! The 50 miles to Bahia Gonzaga took over five hours to drive - I don´t think we broke 10mph the whole way. Luckily, the scenery was stunning. The land is far more arid than Tucson (about 4in of rain per year) yet it borders on one of the most diverse marine ecosystems on the planet. We camped at several small, desolate beaches along the way to Bahia Gonzaga (Gonzaga Bay). Even in the more populated towns, we generally occupy the only palapa out of many. For their supposed high season, we are seeing very few tourists. Luckily the scary headlines out of Tijuana are scaring off the gringos!

After two more kidney-punishing hours on the rocky, wash-boarded road, we came back to the Transpeninsular highway. We headed straight for LA Bay where we have again been lounging at the only occupied palapa in our campo. The weather has been phenomenal except for the occasional viento loco (crazy wind) which apparently is common this time of year. Also, the water temp is still too low for comfortable swimming. When we decide to leave here, we will probably start heading back up north along the Transpeninsular and along the Pacific side of Baja.

Once again, this computer is not playing nice with my photos so my words will have to do for now.

Greetings from Baja California!

We are in San Felipe on the fifth day of our trip. We have been having a great time traveling the Colorado River delta area of Mexico. We started our trip by crossing la frontera at Lukeville /Sonoyta. We headed towards Puerto Penasco but turned off into the Pinacate Biosphere Reserve. This is an interesting area of volcanic activity with lots of craters to explore. We saw very few people and it was incredibly quiet. After two nights in the Pinacate, we drove to Puerto Penasco to gas up and get more supplies. Then we headed off into the Gran Desierto on our way to El Golfo de Santa Clara. This road (Hwy 003) has just recently been completed in the last few months. It is unfortunate that the Mexican government decided to build this road (as it cuts through an amazingly pristine wasteland of salt flats and marshes) just to bring more Southern California tourons to Rocky Point. Anyway, we were glad to be able to drive this stretch which was previously only available to the most hardy four-wheelers. We camped on a bluff on Mesa Arenosa about 15 miles from El Golfo overlooking the northern most tip of the Sea of Cortez. We enjoyed a fantastic sunset and sunrise and Lori went for a lonely run along the desolate beach.

We spent the next morning exploring the tiny fishing village of El Golfo - definitely lacks the glitz and glam of Rocky Point or San Felipe, although the development is probably just around the corner with the completion of the new highway. From El Golfo, we drove north to cross the Colorado river in the dusty agriclutural town of Luis B. Chavez. This was also the border between the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California Norte.

At Highway 5, we turned south towards San Felipe but stopped short to camp in the wilds of the Sierra El Mayor. While I was on a short stroll, Lori got acquainted with the Mexican military. Long story short, they were nice but are not used to americanos camping in the wild. "No es normal." They assume that we all want to be safe and secure in our RV parks. After they left, we had the place to ourselves and enjoyed a mellow evening and morning in the stunningly beautiful and arid sierra. This morning we drove the final 80 miles to San Felipe where we will once again stock up on supplies for the journey further south into the hinterlands of Baja California.

PS This computer won't let me upload photos for some reason. Too bad 'cuz I've got some good ones!

Quote of the Day

Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink, for thirst is a dangerous thing. -Jerome Klapka Jerome

Fall Colors in Aravaipa

Lori and I spent the last few days hiking through Aravaipa Canyon, one of Southern Arizona's premier riparian areas.  We had not been there in December before and the combination of shorter days, low sun angle, and hiking in the water made for chilly days.  The pay off (besides solitude and silence) was the beautiful fall colors.  This was also my first hike since coming off the Pacific Crest Trail over three months ago and the lack of wild in my life was starting to take its toll both physically and emotionally.  Hopefully this trip was the start of more regular ventures into Nature.