General

Paddlers on the trip were Anne Kang, Doug Hamilton, Andrea Wolf, and Herb Howe.

Refer to this map for our route and campsites. Each campsite is labelled with the dates of the nights we camped there.

Sun-Mon, October 21-22

Anne, Doug and Herb met at Doug's house, packed gear and boats into Doug's truck and drove to San Diego to meet Andrea who was already there for a previous engagement. The fires were just getting going north of LA where we passed by flames and impressive towering clouds of black smoke just off I5 near Santa Clarita. Smoke was thick in the San Diego area. We cruised right through the border without stopping. No tourist cards this time since we weren't going to cross from Baja norte to Baja sur. This crossing is much easier now that you stay in the right hand lanes to get to the toll road that heads directly to Rosarito. We continued to a hotel in Ensenada where we stayed at the same hotel we used on the last trip, the Del Valle Hotel on Avenida Riveroll. Great location with easily walking distance to town plus a secure inner courtyard. Then we went to everyone's favorite carne asada taco stand/restaurant next to the Gigante supermarket. We found out this taco stand is open 24 hours a day.. We then did some last minute vegetable and grocery shopping for our trip as well as get pesos from their indoor ATM machines.

On Monday we drove to LA Bay, arriving at Turtle Camp at dusk. High winds across the central ridge around Catavina made driving difficult. We passed several vehicles overturned by the wind. We took a full house instead of a palapa to escape the wind and for room to spread everything out and organize. The table, chairs and kitchen made for a comfortable transition to camping.

Tues, October 23

We spent the day organizing gear and food, filling water bags and gathering sundry in town. We went to visit the wonderful Museum of Anthropology again and an internet cafe to do the email thing. Antonio invited us for wine and animated discussion in the evening. He was a little worried about two kayakers from Colorado who started south from Gonzaga a week ago. We dined on great fish tacos at a small stand in town.

Wed, October 24

After the lengthy initial boat packing, we launched into calm conditions at about 10AM and headed north. The north wind came up at around 11AM. Paddling slowly against the wind, we arrived at La Gringa around noon and decided to call it quits for the day. We camped in a good pocket beach out of the wind at the tip of Punta La Gringa.

Shortly after we landed, the two Colorado kayakers paddled up after being winded in by the Norther for four days about eight miles north of Punta Remedios. The kayakers, Brian and Greg, documented our visit for their trip writeup. Herb recalled reading Greg's website about the extensive preparation he made a couple of years ago to paddle the entire coast of the Sea of Cortez side of Baja. His trip ended at Punta Final just south of Gonzaga when he became uncomfortable paddling alone for the first time. A writeup of the San Felipe to Sonora segment of the trip appears in the December 2007 issue of Sea Kayaker magazine. Herb was amazed at the coincidence of meeting them here and glad to learn that Greg finally completed this segment of his voyage. See their web site.

Addendum: Greg has posted three photos of our group on his BajaTrekker web site.

Shown in the photo to the right are Anne, Greg, Brian, Herb and Doug.

Thurs, October 25

Launching into calm conditions, we paddled with the incoming tide to Isla Alcatraz, arriving at noon. To take advantage of the calm and the turning of the tide in early afternoon, we decided to make the crossing to La Guarda. We first called Mike Higgins on the satellite phone to obtain a favorable weather forecast, ie, the Norther was apparently over and calm conditions were predicted until the return of the usual afternoon winds on Sunday/Monday. High tide was at 2PM so we expected a relatively rip-free crossing around slack.

The photo to the right shows us starting the crossing in very calm conditons. In the background are Punta Remedios to the left and the north end of Isla Angel de la Guarda to the right.

Many noisy sea lions provided a backgound to the crossing which went well until we hit a head current near the shore. We had to paddle hard against the ebbing current for the last two hours to reach shore at 6PM. We landed near low tide on a rocky beach. It was very tiring to carry all the gear and water and then the boats across the slippery boulders to above the high tide line. After setting up camp and a quick dinner in the dark, we all collapsed into bed. It was a long hard day but we were glad to have the crossing behind us. Lesson learned: to avoid being caught by the changing tide, don't dawdle when crossing wide channels near slack.

Fri, October 26

Recovered after a good night's sleep, we caught a favorable tidal flow north along the island, reaching camp in mid-afternoon where we camped a bit early. Doug and Anne stopped along the way to examine a large wrecked fishing boat. We camped in a nice pocket beach. An odd hot wind blew down the canyon. As Doug was pumping his daily supply of fresh water, his desalination pump broke. The plastic housing supporting the handle cracked irrepairably. This changed our plan to spend a full ten days out because Doug had brought only ten liters of water and, mainly, we were depending on the pump for backup in case of being winded in by another Norther.

Sat, October 27

Anne was worried about water (we had about 25 gallons on hand) and Mike's prediction of increased winds and didn't want to continue north. Doug stayed with Anne in camp while Herb and Andrea paddled to the north end of the island so that we could at least see the area. It was somewhat slow going north even though the tide was rising - correlating tidal heights with tidal currents is a bit tricky in the Canal de Ballenas. Herb lost his map case on the way. We explored the beautiful bay for a couple of hours while we waited for the tide to turn.

These few hours were just a teaser and it would definitely be worthwhile to return on a future trip and camp and explore. There are several islands, great bays, interesting bird life, noisy sea lions on an island, and amazing colors in the rocks.

Unique islands, one (Roca el Angel) artistically jagged...

and the other (Isla Granito) white granite, adorned the bay.

The shoreline consisted of a stunning variety of rock formations and colors. We paddled up and then back down a nice tidal spillover. The wind was dead calm, a perfect paddling day.

We caught the retreating tide and returned to camp at about five mph, improably collecting the lost floating map case on the way. The lower afternoon sun beautifully lit the high dramatic painted mountain range that runs the length of the island. Doug and Anne joined us as we passed the campsite around 4PM and we continued south to a sandy campsite at the north end of a big wash. Then dinner and to bed pleasantly exhausted after 20 miles of paddling (for Herb and Andrea).

Sunday, October 28

We planned to cross the main channel in the afternoon to take advantage of the slack and then the ebb tide. However, a light N wind in the morning increased to 15 knots and collided with the incoming tidal flow to enhance some nasty looking rips. So we took a rest day with naps, short hikes and organizing. The heat was made tolerable by the constant cooling wind.

Photo: Anne and Doug resting.

Monday, October 29

To avoid the afternoon wind, we arose at 5AM and launched at 6:30AM for an easy three hour crossing to Punta Remedios in calm conditons. With most of the day ahead of us, we then paddled slowly around the large Bahia Guadalupe to camp in white sand dunes near Isla Alcatraz, exploring along the way. The bay is interesting with nice long beaches, interesting coves and cliffs and no development. This would be a good place for a relaxing trip of hiking and exploring after paddling up from LA Bay.

Photo: start of return crossing at dawn.

Heermann's Gulls on the shoreline of Bahia Guadalupe. These gulls are unique to the Sea of Cortez.

Tuesday, October 30

We had noted coyotes around our campsite and had secured everything in our boats. In the morning, there were lots of coyote tracks but the only damage was a severed rudder line on Herb's boat. We launched at 7AM to catch the outgoing tide back to LA Bay. We saw several fin whales at the north end of Isla Coronado, one quite close. The wind came up from the north giving us a nice push back to Turtle Camp. To celebrate our return, we drove out to the new tourist resort called Los Vientos and talked to the chef at the restaurant. He told us there would be several drivers from the Baja 1000 dining there tonight and that we would also be welcome. Plus the first margarita would be free. It was an excellent meal with margaritas, baby clams, and garlic shrimp.

Photo: view of Isla Alcatraz from dune campsite.

Wednesday, October 31

This was a rest and catch up day. We obtained permits to camp on the islands in LA Bay ($4 per person per night, a worthy donation). Andrea and Herb drove to Camp Gecko to see the changes. Now called Camp Ghetto by the locals, the place has been cut up into small leased lots which are full of various trailers and associated constructions. The shoreline palapas were removed when the government came through enforcing the federal setback laws. We visited Micheal and Virginia who bought and greatly expanded Florin's place next to Camp Gecko. In the evening with an invite from Virginia, we socialized with the locals at a Halloween party in a house just up the beach from Turtle Camp. Back in camp, we met two tourists from Napa, one from the Napa Land Trust. Betsy and Sarah who we met before our paddle to La Guarda had also arrived, having paddled as far as San Francisquito and then catching a ride back with the tourists who just happened to be driving by. Some people live right.

Thursday, November 1

With extra days available after our early return from La Guarda, we set off on a relaxed trip to tour the islands in the bay. We paddled to and around Isla Ventana which we'd never visited on our previous four visits to LA Bay. The outer side is very rugged and scenic. We continued the island tour paddling around Bota and through the channel between Bota and Pata. Passing Calavera on the way, we crossed to the southern tip of Coronado. We met a panga with a diver collecting small colorful fish for aquariums. Seems an odd activity in a biosphere reserve. We camped on a good gravel beach with a great view.

Photo: the arch on Isla Ventana that gives the island its name (Ventana is Window in English).

Friday, November 2

Calm conditions continued as we paddled up to and around the north end of Coronado. We stopped to look at the lagoon on the way. We had planned to camp at the base of Volcan Coronado and climb the volcano on Saturday but didn't like the steepness of the trail or the bleak campsite. So we continued on to a good gravel site which offered some protection from the N wind that came up in the afternoon. On the way, a gringo fisherman gave us three Bonita which we cleaned and had for dinner (and breakfast and lunch the next day).

Saturday, November 3

This was a planned rest day. Doug and Anne decided to head back to Turtle Camp and left early, stopping along the way to take in a pair of fin whales. We did a short paddle around Isla Mitlan in the early stiff wind and hiked up a nearby hill in the afternoon for some nice views. At dusk, Herb paddled out for a line of sight to town and got the weather forecast by VHF from Doug. The web forecast was for decreasing wind while Antonio thought another Norther was building. Surf crashing on the beach rose in the afternoon. A relaxing day.

Sunday, November 4

Dead calm at dawn. To avoid any increasing winds, Andrea has us paddle back to Turtle Camp before breakfast, launching at dawn. The entire day turned out totally calm with no afternoon wind. So the web won on the weather forecast. We visited Dan and Nancy (who we met at the Halloween party) at Daggett's in the afternoon to learn all about leasing a small lot for an RV. In the evening, we met the gated-community folks at their weekly gathering at the taco stand for dinner.

Monday, November 5

Doug and Anne had left for home the previous morning, driving straight through. Herb and Andrea packed and drove to San Borja to visit the mission. Good dirt road, took about two hours. The mission was somewhat interesting but less than expected.

We continued on out to Hwy 1 through a beautiful thick cactus forest with great vistas, table top mountains, and volcanoes. We visited Santa Rosalilitta to view the Pacific terminus of the trans-peninsular project. There we found major building construction with the new jettied launch bay already filling in with sand. Then we hit the road north, arriving at Momma Espinoza's place in El Rosario at dusk. Mama's was filled with some of the Baja 1000 racers but they weren't too loud. We had a very tasty meal of chicken enchiladas and excellent margaritas. This is a very cozy restaurant and the rooms in back are clean and reasonable.

Tuesday, November 6

We drove through Ensenada and through the Guadalupe Valley where we stopped for wine tasting at the L.A. Cetto Winery. This is the biggest winery in Mexico and has excellent wines. We spent the night in Tecate at the Rosita Resort Inn with dinner at the La Mision on Avenida Juarez, a fancy but reasonably priced restrarant, transportation provided by the hotel.

Wednesday, November 7

Waiting in line at the border for one hour, we should have realized there would be a backup as workers head into the US in the morning for work. Should have crossed the previous evening. Then we were detained while the border patrol confiscated a coral fan we had found on the beach while paddling. One more border check about 10 miles inland and we were finally on our way up I5 and then 101 back to Doug's place.

Postscript

The subtle beauty of the sea and sky of Baja will soon draw us back for another expedition.