Ron on Meander
New member
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! :shock: 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. :lol:
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! :shock: 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. :lol:
