Day 55: First wild camp!
Decided against a rest day. So I packed up, had coffee with the motel owners and was off.
Leaving Santa Tomos there were many sandy switchback hills which of course I walked. Not so many cars here, maybe one every 10 mins but each car would throw up dust that I would need to cycle through for the next minute.
There is an off-road motorsport race in Baja called the Baja 1000. This race starts next Friday. I have been warned many times by many people to not be within 100 meters of any road that these vehicles will drive on. It would be suicide to cycle a bike on these roads during that race. So those will be a couple of rest days. But even now there are many race trucks, buggies, dirt bikes etc “pre running” sections of the race. So I have to pull over often enough to let these guys pass. Any I have talked to have been super sound tho. I always wave at them, they wave back, and then I am eating their dust for the next minute! But the entire Baja peninsula definitely seems like some kind of thrill seekers paradise.
For the last few days I have been seeing these 4-5 other bike tracks. Was useful to follow the tracks rather than the GPS. Especially as the tracks show how others have navigated the cuts and crevices and sand of the road. But I didn’t see any tracks this morning… So skipping a few kms and starting early put me ahead of my guides. They caught up pretty quick though. Meaning I met 2 Mexicans, a USA guy, a German and a guy from NZ. So I rode with this gang for a while and even when not riding together would run into each other naturally. Was nice to cycle (and walk) with some company for a change.
Got a puncture towards the end of the day. First time with a puncture in the tubeless setup. Makes sense tho giving how much I am putting the bike and tires through out here. The puncture was small so I was surprised that the sealant didn’t fix it. So check how much was left with the “poke a cable tie through the valve” method and there wasn’t much so add my last bottle of sealant and pray. Wasn’t sure what to do if that didn’t work but it worked. This tire is only in tubeless mode for 4 days so must have gotten quite the few punctures in 4 days for all of the sealant to be used up.
Aside from the puncture which is a mostly understandable problem for me, I have had the feeling of gritty gears with a knocking sound. Feels bad to cycle with this so I had to clean the chain multiple times today. I think the lube I am using on the chain is just attracting the sand making it worse. Some of the other tourers recommended a wax based lube but would not get access to this until the next bike shop.
Puncture fixed, I rode to the next town and met with the bike crew from earlier, had a quick dinner, grabbed a singular beer, then we cycled out of town to find a wild camp spot. Was my first wild camp so I was glad I was with people to see the process. Nothing to it. Was a beautiful camp on the ocean at sunset.
Was cool seeing the setup of other people doing the Baja Divide. I definitely feel overpacked compared to these guys. One guy mentions he drinks 1.5 liters of water. I carry 7 plus liters on a normal day out here. Another guy doesn’t have a tent or tarp or anything. He just rolls out his sleeping mat and sleeping bag anywhere and just sleeps ther. Crazy, but kind of jealous of this setup too. Tents seem like not needed when it is so reliably warm, which it is after the first few days.
The Mexicans in the group speak very little Spanish so it was interesting to try to practice a little. They ride some bike rides across Mexico from the USA border to the Guatemala border.
