Escape from the (North) Northwest II

Catman · Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:13 pm Post subject:

Ron and Anne, I just tuned in to your great, big, wonderful adventure. Oh boy! I get to enjoy another motion picture biography scripted by C-Brat correspondents now free from quotidian submission. You go, team!

I'll be in the stands cheering as you take slow laps around the continent, learning vicariously as you go. Have a marvelous time, Anne and Ron, and thanks for sharing your adventures.
Thumbs Up

Ron on Meander · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:01 pm Post subject:

Wow I can't believe how long its been since my last post! Over a month. Its been bit of a challenge to get internet connections for us that have a fast enough speed to post. We've been in Mexico since the beginning of march. Finally made it. After we left Lake Mojave we travelled through Death Valley and made our way towards San Diego . (El Cajon). From San Diego to Tecate Mexico. Crossing was no problem and for the most part no problems on the drive down to Puerto Escondido near Loreto. This is a great cruising area. Lots of islands beaches and great fishing. I can't vouch personally for the fishing but I sure see lots of people with fish! Soon I hope to start doing it first hand. Weather had been great and the people terrific. None of the border problems seem to have penatrated this far south. At least not that we have experienced. Apparently there are fewer tourists here than in the past but there are still enough foreigners for us to feel comfortable. We are leaving tomorrow for a 10 or so day cruise from Loreto to Bahia Conception. Should be great fun. I will try to post pictures when we get back in. Hopefully we'll have some good fish pictures to share.
Cheers
Ron

El and Bill · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:08 pm Post subject:

Bon voyage, Ron - that's some beautiful water, we cruised 25 years ago - I'm sure lots has changed and we look forward to hearing about your cruise. Lots of us are sharing this adventure with you - thanks for posting.

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:26 pm Post subject:

Ron and Anne - GREAT to read your post! Keep it coming as you are able to. Pictures would be great too. We'll hoist one to you guys in Nanaimo (July 31 - August 2, should finally be warm weather here)!

Ron on Meander · Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 11:42 am Post subject:

Boy oh Boy! I'm getting worse and worse at posting frequent messages and updates on our trip. It must be this retired thing! I can't seem to find the time. Actually its mostly that while in Mexico our internet connection was just too slow for doing much other than checking email.

Well, we arrived back in the land of plenty on May 7th. We crossed out of Mexico at the Tecate border crossing after two great months in the Baja. We had a great time and excellent adventures that I will elaborate on (including pictures) in future posts. We had no problems, breakdowns, banditos, swine flu, traffic accidents or anything of that nature. Just a challenging drive on Mex 1 down to Puerto Escondito. Man, that highway is narrow. Only 9 ft lanes in many places with no shoulder. Meander is 8ft 8 inches wide fender to fender. We spent two months at Puerto Escondito in a RV park and on Meander on the water. We traveled about 100 nm in each direction from the port. As far south as Lapaz and north to the Bahia Conception. Its a great cruising area with islands to visit, beaches and bays. The anchorages are less protected than what I'm used to in the Gulf or San Juan islands but the weather sure makes up for that. We kept hearing about snow fall in the Northwest while we were sitting on the restaurant deck, sipping a cerveza and watching the boats at anchor in the bay.
As the weather in the Baja started to get a bit warm for me we packed up and headed north. It was two long days drive from Puerto Escondito to Yuma AZ. And it was much hotter in Yuma. Over 100 degrees. Much too hot for me. We had to run for the hills around Prescott to find weather I can handle. From Prescott we travelled to Sedona for Anne to get another dose of the "red rocks" and hikes in this area. This morning we are packing up the camper, hooking up Meander and should be at Lake Powell by this evening. We are looking forward to 2- 3 weeks on Lake Powell depending on the weather and water conditions.
I'll try and get the pictures posted when we get in another RV park or marina with a good wireless signal.
Cheers
Ron & Anne

Pat Anderson · Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 3:38 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the update, Ron - hope you enjoy Powell, it is sort of our new favorite place, at least in the fall (never been there in the spring). Probably no internet connectivity most of the time due to the canyons - you have to be in sight of Navajo Mountain to get cell phones to work. Check out blogspot.com, you might like that to make your posts. I sort of just discovered blogging and blogging software (ecto is good for the Mac). Anyway, we are all anxious for any news from your Great Adventure!

El and Bill · Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 3:59 pm Post subject:

Hi folks -
We leave next week to put in on Powell, probably Thursday or Friday of next week. We'll be looking for you guys, and look forward to seeing you and hearing the adventures from Mexico in person.

Pat Anderson · Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 7:40 pm Post subject:

Lucky dogs!

Ron on Meander · Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 12:28 am Post subject:

We are sitting at the Stateline Campsite at Wawheap, Lake Powell. We'll launch tomorrow and head up the lake for at least two weeks of sun and scenery! Laughing

I posted a few pictures of the Mexico portion of our trip in the Meander album. I have tons more to post but we'll need a faster connection.
Just to tease you a little Pat here's one of a nice little anchorage.

toyman · Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 9:43 am Post subject:

Ron, although we haven't met I have formed an opinion - YOU MUST BE SICK ! Shame on you for posting a picture like that as a tease. Looks inviting.

Ron on Meander · Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:09 pm Post subject:

We are now in Elmira NY after a pleasant if quite long 4 driving day trip from Flagstaff AZ to here. We are visiting Anne's cousin for a few days so I have good internet access for a change. A little fill in on the past few months goes something like this.
February: After cruising on Lake Mojave with a bunch of great C-Brats we decided we were so close to Death Valley and we'd never been there so of course we had to meander through. Boy do you get some weird looks when you pull in to a view point in Death Valley with a 25' foot boat! Shocked

But it does lead to meeting great people. We had pulled into a view point parking lot and we walking up the hill to see the sight of Death Valley spread out below when we noticed a couple angling their way down hill towards us. They walked up to us and said something like "You're a bit far from the nearest boating water aren't you?" I said "darn I must of read the map wrong. Isn't there a big lake in this valley" It turned out they were very familiar with C-Dorys and had cruised with last years September C-brat cruise on Lake Powell. The have a 26 ft Harbour Craft welded aluminium. Their names are Mike and Kati Kaufman and live somewhere (can't remember the town) in the greater San Francisco bay area. With a bit more conversation it turned out they were good friends with Steve on Sea Spray who is a C-Brat member we met in Desolation sound in 05. Mike and Kati were also in Desolation sound at the same time on a chartered 36 ft trawler. Small world. We told them we were heading for the Baja for a couple of months and planned to be back in the US on Lake Powell sometime in May. Turns out they had plans to do some Powell cruising in May as well and offered to introduce us to the lake and show us a few of the sights. We had a wonderful 4 days with them on Lake Powell before they headed home. They were even good enough to lend us their second anchor after they left which certainly made us feel much more secure that the sand spike we were using. Absolutely great people and so incredible that we were introduced to them by Meander! Aren't these boats amazing? More on Lake Powell in a bit.

After Meandering through Death Valley we headed to the San Diego area to pick up some mail and add a Xantrex inverter/charger to the camper. On about the 26 of Feb or so we crossed the Mex border at Tecate. If you haven't crossed into Mexico before or if you haven't done it while driving a large pickup towing a 25 foot boat....well lets just say the first time its a learning experience. Or as an experienced Mexican traveller from Michigan told Anne as she was waiting in a bank line to pay for our visitor permit. "if you want to be comfortable stay home. If you want an adventure come on down to Mexico". Actually as first time crossings go it was pretty easy. We just were waved across the border and about an hour after we crossed we had all the paperwork done and were on our way to Ensenada. Next time it will be much easier in that at least we'll know what to expect.
The roads seemed pretty narrow between Tecate and Ensenada but as it turns out they were wide as far as Mexican roads in the Baja go. Our first night we spent at a Campo #7 a few miles south of Ensenada.

Yep a little primitive but it did have a great view. We spent a 2nd night here while we got provisions at the Costco in Ensenada. Our third night in Mexico we spent at San Quitin. Its on the Pacific coast and has miles of incredible beaches.

Next day we headed out and started across the Baja towards the Sea of Cortez. Our night stop was about the middle of the peninsula at a tiny village called Catavina.

The photo shows some of the scenery in this area. We met a couple at the campground from Oregon who have spent part of the winters for the last 15 or so years in the Baja near Loreto. They gave us a bunch of info that made us decide that we'd only drive that far and use Loreto/Porteau Escondido as our Baja base to cruise from. Well it was their info and getting tired of the very narrow roads.

The picture above was actually on a fairly good stretch. I wouldn't dare stop for pictures on the really interesting parts.

The roads are going to be one of my memories of Mexico that stick with me for a long while. I must admit, on the way back up out of Mexico they didn't seem anywhere near as challenging as they did on the way down. I guess you just get used to it.

We arrived in the Loreto/Porteau Escondito area the first week of March and stayed at a RV park for the next two months. The camper stayed at the RV park and Meander went cruising 100 miles north to the Bahia Conception area and 100 miles south to the La Paz area. The Porteau Escondito area is a great base to see the Sea of Cortez, at least part of it, because it is close to the center of the national park islands, has a great boat launch with secure storage, a yacht club made up of dozens of people from the US and Canada that either live there full time or for much of the year. We met some great people and had an excellent time cruising and getting to know the area.

Agua Verde is an anchorage about 25 miles from Porteau Escondito.

A spontaneous pot luck that broke out one evening at San Janico an anchorage about 45 miles north on our way to the Bahia Conception.

Yep the sunsets can be great here too!

I found the pelicans absolutely fascinating!

And if you are going to have brunch on the beach...well at least pick one you can have all to yourselves... and thats not too hard at all.

Our two months in the Baja went by too fast. Anne could have stayed for a lot longer. I wanted to get on to Lake Powell and the Baja weather was getting warm for me. Getting close to 100 some days. So about the 1st week of may we started north. Two days later we crossed the border, again at Tecate. No problems, just a bit of a closer look than going south. Man the roads sure seemed wide. Laughing

Jazzmanic · Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:33 pm Post subject:

Wow Ron and Anne, great travelogue. Hmmmm, let's see, how long until retirement...

Thanks for sharing your wonderful experience in the southwest and south of the border. I've told Caryn many times that my life and perspective on life completely changed when we bought C-Dancer and joined this site. Now so many more things seem possible.

Good luck and stay safe on your trip back to the Great PNW!!!

El and Bill · Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:36 pm Post subject:

Looks like we missed you on Powell. We left Wahweap a few days ago and are now briefly in CO, then head to Flagstaff for a week of caving, archeo looking, and hiking. Then off to the Pac NW. Your tales were of Mexico were great - thanks for posting them.

Ron on Meander · Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:43 pm Post subject:

One of our key destinations on our trip was Lake Powell. We even considered stopping in January on our way south but common sense and snow storms kept us going in a more southerly direction. After we crossed the back in to the US in early May our mission was to get to Powell. However true to our Meandering nature we couldn't just go directly, we had to head to Yuma first. Well its sorta on the route but you know what, 105 degrees is too hot for this boy from Canada! Crook

We headed for the hills literally! The mountains around Prescott AZ are great. Lots of Ponderosa pine trees, a really nice National Forest campground just outside of Prescott was our home for three days. We had arranged to me good friends in one of Anne's favourite places. Sedona. So off we went to the Rancho Sedona campground right on the river in Sedona. A really nice spot as far a commercial campgrounds go. About $44 a night with all services.

Anne got us up early for a hike to the Cathedral in Sedona.

After 3 days in Sedona it was on through Flagstaff to Page and Wahweap to launch on Lake Powell. I can't think of any other cruising destination other than possibly Alaska that has received as much attention on the C-brats site as Lake Powell. It is an absolutely unique, fascinating, spectacular area. Words and pictures can barely begin to describe this amazing area! Soaring cliffs, winding canyon that go for miles, narrow slot canyon, beaches, swimming, fishing (again I didn't catch anything) hiking, desert critters, incredible starlit nights, beach campfires, thunderstorms, rain, (yes rain and waterfalls from cliffs) cruising friends and solitude if you want it. Absolutely magnificent! Our only regret was that we didn't meet El and Bill on the lake. I should have made much more of an effort to get in touch with you before we launched. Once on the lake finding someone even using a VHF comes down to just luck. We called every day but no luck. We did see one other C-dory a grey 22 but no luck raising them as well. Maybe next time.

Keeping cool with our new friends Mike and Kati in Oak Canyon during our first four days on the lake.

Hiking up to Cookie Jar Butte in Padre Bay

Base of Cookie Jar Butte. What a view!

The kind of anchoring spot we looked for. We spent four nights here. The lake was coming up about 6 inches a day, so we moved further in each night. It rained off and on for about two days while we were here and watched a waterfall develop across the main channel from us. Amazing! I didn't get a good picture but Jody posted one in the Lake Powell 09 thread.

I don't remember which canyon this was, but the narrow slots are incredible. Jeez I seem to say incredible a lot when describing Lake Powell.

I don't think I have to tell anyone where this is. It has to be the most photographed spot in Lake Powell.

Betcha you didn't know Lake Powell had beavers did you? Well maybe El, Bill and you knew there were beavers in the canyons around LP but I sure didn't expect to find them. This one sure wasn't afraid of us or our dogs. In fact I think he was daring the dogs to get in the water with him!

I think Lake Powell has become one of my and Annes "special places". Thanks for sharing it with us and thanks to the many C-brats that introduced us to Lake Powell through this site. Once again Anne didn't want to leave after 14 days but as everyone knows summer doesn't linger long in Canada and if you want to spend time touring Canada summer has to be the time to do it. So off the lake we go, back into Flagstaff for three days to have a step made to make getting into the camper easier when the boat is hooked up and to provision up at Walmart and Safeway. (You know I really don't know if Walmart is such a great stop for provisions. We rarely get out of there without dropping a couple of hundred dollars! I though they were supposed to be the "cheap place". Of course our cart is usually filled too full with stuff by the time we leave. We'd probably go broke if we used it as a camping stop when travelling)

True to our Meandering nature even when we are trying to put on the miles and get from Flagstaff to upstate NY we can't seem to stay on the interstates. We ended up taking highway 36 for most of the way through the less populated areas. Pretty well stayed on 36 from eastern Colorado to Indianapolis. But once that far east the towns and slow sections became too numerous so it was interstates for us most of the way after Indianapolis. I didn't think we'd find the drive east of Colorado all that interesting. But even though Kansas doesn't have spectacular scenery it sure has interesting farming towns and very friendly people. New York has been a big surprise to us as well. I never expected it to have as many trees, lakes and small towns. Somehow I thought New York city was the way the whole state would be. Go figure! The things you learn when you leave home and actually go and get to know an area.
So I guess we're up to date now. We'll be heading back in to Canada at Niagara falls this week end. We are heading for the Trent Severn Canal system as our destination and we'll see what develops from there.
Cheers
Ron and Anne
Meandering through New York.

sportner · Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:02 am Post subject:

Ron & Anne,
Great to finally hear from you and your travelogue was super. We look forward to seeing you at the SBS or sooner to get more details about your travels.