Grab some popcorn, and a soda... it's a long one!

Rueben and I unloaded at KOA in Tecate… and began to prep our bikes and equipment. We were a little late… and ended up leaving KOA about 9:15 or so in the morning. Usually we’d leave about 8:15… I wasn’t too worried as with only two of us we can make up the time. Just before we headed out… a guy named Eddy rode up and talked to us about where we were headed. He said his friends didn’t show up… so he asked to hang with us for about 20 miles. No problem… just keep up. We headed out. The weather was perfect… not a cloud in the sky. Rueben had even asked if we should wear our jackets. I said “hell ya”… I always wear mine… no matter what. Once we dropped off Eddy… and picked up the speed… it was a killer ride. Running into some traffic as it was Easter weekend … but we made the most of it. We arrived at Laguna Hanson (where we stop and get fuel and a beer high up in the mountains) about 65 miles from the truck. While we relaxed … Rueben heard a loud thump! Another motorcycle rider coming down the road… had hit a truck going the opposite direction! A dirt biker hit a SUV that was coming around a blind corner. And from what we heard the locals say… he may have broken his leg. They were just too far away for us to see exactly… and they had plenty of people helping. So we gassed up and headed out, being even more careful of the traffic as it could be anywhere on the roads and trails. (Remember.. .these road are dirt… and very rough. It’s not odd to see a car on the road… trying to get from point A to B.)

We traveled about 100 miles so far when I decided to take a ‘fun’ route. It’s not as fast as the ‘main’ route… but it’s so much more fun and a tad more technical… and less traveled by the locals. So it’s actually les dangerous too. We took this to a point where we found a farmer had been putting in a new fence. He had abandoned the old fence… and was installing the new. However… his fence was crossing our road. So we were able to squeeze past his new and old fencing. But to do this… I had to ride my quad over some big bushes, trying to miss cactus and large branches. I guess I didn’t miss them… as I soon found out that I punctured my tire. It was now flat. I continued to ride it a bit to see just how far we could make it down the road. Where we were stopped once again as the fence now crossed the road, and it wasn’t passable. Instead of me cutting the fence (as I'd never do that - even though we were only 2 miles from the road I needed to connect with), we decided to go back around and see if I could find a way to make it back to the main route. Obviously… now time mattered. And we’d have to haul some butt. But before that, I had to fix my flat. So I took out my tools and patch kit… plugged the tire… aired up… and headed out once again. Down time was about a half hour. Plus the re-route time. We were WAAAAY behind schedule now! We ended up having to go back up North… the opposite way we were supposed to go. And about 100+ miles out of our way. But we managed to get back on the main route… and head South once again. Now I think we were about 1.5 to 2 hours out of our scheduled timeframe.

Another 30 miles… and we started to see clouds. Some of them dark. But no worries… we were cruising pretty good and I’ve been here before when it sprinkled. It makes it nice as it helps remove the element of dust. And makes the ride more enjoyable. We came to an area where it was now a tad bit more wet… and it was now sprinkling. So lightly I was surprised the ground was so moist. And there was no standing water or puddles. Ahhh… nice and cool… and no dust now!! That all changed… really quick!

We now came to an area that had standing water. All over the place. Wow… it must have really rained in this area. And me riding the quad… I was trying to stay dry and out of the rain puddles. It wasn’t working too well… and not any better when Rueben rode by me and splashed me (laughing through his helmet as I could barely hear). NOW I was wet. Only on the surface as my gear is pretty rain resistant. Not too bad… and pretty fun. It came to a point where I couldn’t ride in the road anylonger… it was beginning to be a river. And the water was traveling down the road… at times faster than we were riding!! I began to think… “Uh oh, this could be bad”. But still was trying to have fun with it. And now I was more wet than before as I couldn’t avoid any water. And the quad pushes/splashes water out the front of the bike… which I run into. Kind of hard to miss. With the ground turning to mud, and below a couple inches of water… Rueben was having a hard time staying straight… and I was hydroplaning at times nearly completely sideways and not being able to steer at anything over a fast run. It was hard for me to stay straight and get traction… Kind of comical if you sit back and watch it. Here’s where it began to get reeeeaally interesting – We came to some spots on the side of the road where we had to ‘find’ a place to cross the small streams. These streams were water that was perpendicular to our path. We had to cross them or go around them. And the more we looked… the worse they were all getting!! Deeper… and faster! We found our way around a couple… with me having to get off the quad and move it as I almost went through a stream that I couldn’t see bottom. The reason I couldn’t see bottom was because there was HAIL … Large hail floating on the surface. And the water was way too muddy. When I tried to move my quad… I slipped in the mud and fell down a few times. It was sooo slippery. We found ourselves now concerned with how we were to get around this water… and began looking for paths to higher ground. Rueben and I looked at a crossing… gauged the trees and bushes in the stream to figure out how deep it may be. And went for it. Both of us at the same time, straight in. “WHOA!!!” The quad (and Rueben’s bike) went completely UNDER WATER!!! Rueben’s bike died… mine ran for a bit with the muffler and lights under water… then I shut it off to keep as much water from being sucked into the motor. We were screwed! Panic set in … as thoughts raced through my head. Rueben yelled to me over the sound of the rain and stream (and thunder)…. “Who’s bike are we gonna remove first??”, “Your’s” I said! I quickly jumped off my quad and stood in FREEZING cold water up to my belly. Now my boots, pants, enduro jacket...etc were full of water… and I was completely soaked head to toe and to the skin. I moved over to where Rube’s bike was… slipping in the mud and barely able to get ‘upstream’ to him. We contemplated how to get the bike out… and just decided to move as quick as possible before hypothermia set in. We got his bike out… but it wasn’t easy. We pushed, pulled and fell all over the place as the mud was like trying to get traction on ice. Once out, we looked at the quad. Still somewhat in a state of shock and panic… Rueben said, “We’re never gonna be able to get out the quad… look at that thing… it’s buried in the water… and it’s too heavy…” Well, being positive and trying to keep up our spirits… we got back in the water and pushed and pulled. Thank GOD for the flotation of the tires… it helped us tremendously!!! We were able to get the quad out… but again… it was very close to not getting it. I was prepared to leave it. And Rueben was now talking about ‘survival’… what would burn, how much food we had…. Etc. To top this all off… we were about out of gas from the previous “Fence” issue and having to ride so far out of our way. However we were only 10 miles from the highway (so panic wasn't too much of an issue with me). We thought about just how much water was in the motors of these bikes… and decided what we were to do to help get it out. We stood my quad on end (and what a chore that is when your hands are frozen, the quad weighs a ton… and the mud is like ice. Oh, and it’s now raining, hard!!) the back end. Hoping any water that entered… would leave. All the while, there was more hail and bushes stuck in any crevice or nook on my quad. It was a mess. It looked like it may have been abandoned as it was already so muddy and now cluttered with stuff. We tilted it back down and I went to turn it over (It’s electric start… with no kick starter) and nothing! UH OH!! No battery?!?! Maybe it’s a fuse or something I thought. Hmmm… Let’s think. Panic is now again apparent. However I calmly thought what it could be… and wha-la! I remember I had to pull in the clutch or be in neutral for it to turn over (start). I put it into neutral and it began to crank. I opened the throttle wide open… and it started!! It was burbling from the water and gas being mixed… but it quickly came to life and ran perfectly!!! *PHEW*!!!! I couldn’t believe it! But just think, if my battery was dead we couldn’t ‘kick it’ as it didn’t have a kick starter. We can’t push start it… it’s too muddy and slippery. So thank goodness it started (and how would you ever prepare for this kinda thing before leaving the house?!?!). Now we had to work on Rueben’s bike. After draining his carburetor of water and lifting his bike up to drain the rest of the water… He hit the ‘start’ button to have it turn over a couple times… then stop. It had so much water in it… that it hydrolocked (this is when the cylinder won’t compress as the water has no place to escape thus stopping the piston from compressing or ‘going up’ inside the cylinder itself). We have to remove the spark plug… and to do this he had to remove his seat, and gas tank. Now remember… it’s raining, and we’re muddy. Everything was muddy and wet. (Where was my camera?!?! Nobody can comprehend how scary and ‘eye opening’ this is… until you’re in the situation… trust me on this one). We squirted out the water (by cranking it over and over) once the plug was out… and poured some gas into the cylinder. Then squirted it out as well. Put a new plug in… and put the tank and seat back on. With fingers crossed he kicked it over… and within a few tries, it started!!! Another huge **PHEW*!!! We now had to running bikes once again, but with little gas.

We headed to scout better places to cross these mini rivers. Upstream seemed to be the best places. But I couldn’t travel too far off the roads as they were lined with bushes, trees and cactus. Rueben would scout as I waited. We crossed many streams and got to where the road went into a large valley. Now there was a lake. A huuuge lake. We found a way around it… and just as I thought we were home free… we came to another raging rapid crossing. But this one was not passable. I waded out into it… to see just how deep it was. And… it was deep. Once again… standing in water with all my gear on was not too fun as it was up to my chest in spots. But necessary. Better me, then the bikes. We waited and contemplated… thinking of just how and what we’re to do. We looked for better places to cross… other routes to take. All the while we could faintly hear a vehicle off in the distance. But figured he too was stuck or having troubles and we couldn’t see him. This went on for about an hour. We came back to the river where we had to cross… and it had reseeded about 8”. Still not enough for us to cross. And it was moving waaaay too fast. But then, I saw the truck. He too was trying to get to where we were, but from the opposite side of this ‘river’. Hmm… maybe there is a way. Well, Rueben and I decided at this point we were cold, wet, out of gas, and thinking we might stay in a local town if we can get out. And to get out… we thought we could go back the way we came hoping we had enough gas to get to a local town I knew about. So we headed out in that direction. We came back the way we had come… and saw the areas where we were crossing. But now, the small rivers were gone… dried up. The water was now standing in the spots where it wasn’t too bad. And where we sank our bikes. Hope was now restored (as it was also getting sunny, and the clouds were breaking free). We came to a ranch… where we also saw the Truck that was trying to cross!! This means.. where he came from, we can go! I asked them if they’d sell us gas… and ‘no’ was the answer… but gas was “Diez Minutos” (ten minutes) away the rancher said. He and the truck driver explained to me (in Spanish) that there was a road behind his ranch on higher ground… that would take us where we wanted to go. AWESOME! And we headed in that direction… going easy as gas is still an issue.

We got to the highway… and I realized just how close we were to the town and the gas we needed. So we picked up the pace, and headed to gas (at Valle De Trinidad). Once at the station (which is brand new), I used their water to wash my gloves and goggles of the mud that caked up on them. We fueled… and decided we’d head for San Felipe on the highway. A total of 85 or so miles on pavement. Add to that it’s Easter weekend… and the drunks who drive that road… we had to be careful. Mind you it’s about dark… and Rueben’s light was nothing to brag about (stock KTM headlight, but with my '3' HIDs to clear the night). It turned out okay… we pulled into San Felipe about 10pm (remember… we left Tecate just after 9am) and decided to eat before heading to ‘camp’ 30 minutes out of town. After we ate our Carne Asada tacos… and a couple Cokes… reminiscing of our ride, we headed to Santa Maria where our friends were camped on the beach.

We came to the beach after about 25 minutes of pavement and my ‘shortcuts’… Only to find Rueben stuck in the salty muddy muck that is left when the tide rolls out. We were looking for a road to cross this muck when Rube was up to his axle on his bike. I guess the quad rolls right over it without burying. But not the two wheeler. It sank! It took both of us pulling and about 20 minutes to get his bike out. The muck had a suction that was just incredible. And the more we pulled, the more it seemed to sink. But once we got it out… we headed over to camp. Only a couple friends were awake… and they had shined a light to give me a heads up to where camp way as they had heard us and saw my bright HIDs on my quad. Also as there were no lights on anywhere… and it’s pitch black dark out on the coast of Mexico. All but our headlights and a few small ‘camp’ lights. After parking the bikes… and telling war stories for a bit.. .we woke up Scott (as it’s now 11:30pm or so) who was allowing us to sleep in his trailer. We unpacked our clothes which were soaked… and slept in whatever we had that was as clean or dry. Boy were we glad to be there at that time!!!! What a ride!!

After all that, we decided to ‘not’ ride home… we rode home with my friend Scott and his wife (in their luxurious 32’ motorhome) with another friend bringing our bikes home on Monday, since his trailer had the spare room.

And aren’t we so glad to have friends like that!!!!!!

Until next time… and our next adventure!!!

 

just realized i live a very boring life[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

 

so all and all you had a good trip[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Wow, that is long! No popcorn here, but I got through it anyway. Makes my riding "war stories" seem pretty ordinary...

 

LOL! Ya, and I woulda' rode home ... but my buddy had a sore butt!! Me too... but it's just such an awesome ride. Especially on a quad. Loooong sweeping corners. Fun jumps... River crossings..... all kinds of good stuff on four wheels. -And thats coming from a guy who rides two wheelers mostly!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]