1. Ancient cave art. On the Baja peninsula, cave art rangesfrom 4,000 to 10,000 years old. Kind of looks like modern graffiti.
2. The paintings were located along this stream.
3. The Jesuit Mission road from Loreto to San Xavier climbsthe Sierra Giganta. Now, it paved almost to the top of the Mountain.
Yes, I am happy.
4. This was such a great shot we had to do it twice.BTW, Ray did not run in this race.
5. The taco goes to church ar San Javier Mission. This was the second mission in the Californias (Lorato being the first). It is described as the best example of a 17th century Spanish mission. Loreto has a population of about 150 people. I think little has changed around the mission.
6. God is present at San Javier.
7. The bells in the Mission date back to the mid 1700s and are still used.
8. According to Stephen at the Coco Cabanas, Trader Joesbuys organic onions from San Javier. The travel book says the
canyon below San Javier produces 400,000 tons of onions per year.
9. Joel gets high on purple Bourganvilla.
10. On our attempt to reach San Miguel Comondu,we find the road rough in almost every arroyo.
11. The “taco” chickens out just west of Palo Chino,a one house ranch where they probably said,
“these guys will be back in 5 minutes”. He didn't
figure the time to turn the truck around.
12. A look at the road to San Miguel and San Jose Comondu.
13. Ray with the “taco” on our retreat from the Mesa. We spent the better part of 1 hour turning the truck around on the mesa. Technically, we never were stuck since we could run in reverse. However, there were several times we were only on three wheels. On the turnaround, we got hung up and had to build a road with rocks so the truck could go forward.
14. After our retreat, Ray does a damage assessment.
15. “Where is the steering linkage?”
16. A look at the road that defeated the “taco”.
17. Back in Juncalito, Ray swims in the cove.
18. Sunset behind the Sierra Giganta.Happy Birthday Max.
Today’s objective was to climb west over the Sierra Giganta and see the Spanish missions at San Javier and San Miguel/San Jose Comondu. The later is best accessed from the paved road north of Ciudad Insurgentes. We passed this on the southbound portion of our trip because we were cold.
San Javier is the second mission in the Californias (Baja and Alta – the US California). It is considered to be one of the best examples of a 17th century Spanish mission since so little modification has been made to the building and agricultural systems. We climbed out of Loreto on the old mission road (now paved almost to the top) to about 1700 ft. Along the way, we looked for an ancient fig tree that Stephen (of the Coca Cabana) recommended without success. We also stop to see the prehistoric cave paintings that were clearly signed where the road crossed a flowing river.
Once we crested the Sierra Giganta, we followed a west flowing river for 15-20 miles descending several hundred feet into Jan Javier. The mission was impressive. The town was neat with a cobblestone main street. From the log book, San Javier had 10 visitors today. There was a lot of activity along the road as the government is running electricity out to San Javier. It was odd. Many buildings are already using electricity – from solar charged battery packs.
We backtracked about 10 miles to where the road to San Miguel Comondu and San Jose Comondu joined the main road. (This next part is a report for Stephen back at the Coco Cabanas on the road conditions). The road went to single track when we turned off the Loreto – San Javier Road. The road was in good condition except where we crossed arroyos. At any of these, we had to pick our way through the best track. Several were unsuitable for a passenger car. None was a problem for the Tacoma.
We drove toward Comondu about 11 miles from the Loreto-San Javier road which took about 40 minutes. The first mesa we crossed had some ruts and bumps on the west side. Just west of Palo Chino, we began to climb a very large mesa. We figured at this point we were about halfway from the fork to Comondu . As we climbed the mesa, the road deteriorated quickly. Visually, you could see that the road was the drainage for storm runoff. We went up on 3 wheels several times. Technically, we never got stuck since we could reverse out of our position. However, several times, we could not go forward.
After walking the road, we decided that it was best to abandon our goal of reaching San Miguel and turn around. Our main concern was for the tires sidewalls which showed a lot of new scuffing. If we had better tires and if the truck were not loaded with our gear and if we felt there was some chance of passing traffic bailing us out (we saw none once we left the Loreto-San Javier road), we would have tried to crest the mesa and then return via the paved road to Ciudad Insurgentes.
It took us a better part of an hour to turn the truck around from our location on the road. We had to fill in the ruts in the road in order to keep all four wheels of the truck on the ground and/or to keep the truck from bottoming out (which we did twice).
The return to Loreto was with out event. We made one more attempt to find the ancient fig tree. We found many of the landmarks on Stephen’s map. However, there were many roads once we got into the arroyo and I lost my correlation to his map. We gave up for a second time on the fig tree.
We drove south to the public beach at El Juncalito to camp for the night. We have some loose plans to explore the beaches at Ligui and points further south tomorrow. Camping here at El Juncalito gives us a good jumping off point for tomorrow.
Notes on finding a good campsite: If you turn at the sign saying “El Juncalito”, you will wind up down on a ejido with some permanent trailers and houses. From this sign, go south on Hwy 1 about 100 meters. When you see the km 97 sign post, go another 25 meters. This is the track that goes to the beach that is own by the Loreto Municipal government. Stay on the heaviest track until you reach the beach.
Right about the time we were getting ready to cook, the winds suddenly kicked up. It went from dead calm to 30 MPH sustained in about 10 minutes right about when it was time to cook. The sand was blowing across the beach. It was too windy to light the stove. Tonight’s menu was tequila, dorritos, canned trout w/ saltines and a banana. Still sinking but better than airline food.
We have about three hours of moonlight tonight. The beach here is beutiful.
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