Laguna Salada/Canon de Guadalupe

Well the best laid plans of mice and men. I zoomed through the border no worries. Plan A turn right down calle 2 turn blast down the desert to the Canon Guadelupe. No problems (except I got lost in Mexicali and yes I used my GPS successfully), get to the desert and off we go no worries! the old racing mind set kicks in, gotta go fast, when will I learn, apparently not in this life time. Maybe 20 K in I am zooming along at 60 to 80K/hr thinking this is easy, Ewan Mc and Charlie B are whimps when I get a funny feeling. Stopping I do an inventory, my stove pumps gone ???? This is a deal breaker. No stove no food I think. Not actually true as I learned from my new Mexican friends (more on that later I spent three nights with these guys who burnt nothing but fire wood scrounged for free) Anyway, lesson one pack very securely, I think it fell of the back but I don't really know for sure. Back to Mexicali, it was dark by the time I got back and I checked into the worst (looked OK from the outside) motel in the world, so run down and stinky. (I latter learned there is a slaughter house down the road and the smell is foul and just permeates everything like sleeping bag, pillow etc) So I think I'll put up with it tonight, tomorrow pick up a stove first thing and get the H$%#^$# outa here. Well I can tell you there is not a camping stove in Mexicali, in hind sight I should have gone back to Calexico USA but I didn't.

                                Entrance To Laguna Salada

 

 ?donde puedo comprar la estufa para campo por favor? answer every time Wal Mart Wal Mart Wal Mart! ahhhh. I finally found a single burner comparatively huge compared to  my gas camping stove (1ft x 1ft) butane estufa at a hunting store, good enough. By the time I got back I was so tired I stayed for another night in the scumbag motel that I honestly vowed not to. Oh well it's just a bad memory now. Back to the the Laguna Salada, this time I have three tie down straps not two and I drive much slower, "it's not a race, nice and easy, be careful, enjoy and  be in the moment, wow look at those mountains", etc etc. As I'm not zooming along I realize this is a real desert. I stop to do an inventory all is good. Driving up to the Canon de Guadelupe is fricking nuts, steep, rocky, deep sand, water crossing, really really challenging riding, all my riding experience is required including down hill mountain biking and motorcycle road racing it was crazy, way past the fun  factor. But what I didn't know was the Canon de Guadelupe is an real oasis, literally you are in desert surroundings you go around a corner and there are palm trees, bushes, birds, just amazing and a water crossing about a foot or two deep with a deep sandy "landing" after you cross including a sharp right hand corner so after making it across my front tire disappears into the deep sand (feels just like a front end wash out road racing) and I land flat on my bum. I try to lift about I dunno 600 700 pounds maybe, no way I cant lift it. I removed everything I could including the pannier bag that's buried in sand, (that's a story unto itself) and with a herculean heave which I almost gave up on as my feet slipped in the deep sand managed to get it up. I arrived successfully in oasis paradise. Things are looking up. My camp has a palapa (palm leef roofed protection, picnic table, sink with hot water tap from the hot springs, incredible view over the lake bed of the Laguna Salada, a rock to sit on and I think wow, but the piece de resistance is my  own personal hot springs hot tub which I basically lived in for a day. Later that night 4 Mexicans in a jeep arrive, they have no sense of privacy thank goodness and invade my very private camp, inviting me to their camp for tacos. Their camp has an assada going BBQ with wood burning and they feed me delicious carne rancho tacos, fantastically delicious, all of a sudden my crazy cleanliness, hand washing soap sanitizer etc is out the window. There cervesa goes down really well and there food is fantastic, this is the start of a very exciting next few days with my new amigos, "Arturo Guerrero, Francisco Lopez, Jose Carmen, and el cocinero extraordinaire Victor Maria. That's it for now, will try to catch up later. I'll give it try putting some photos on this blog again now. Success.

I'm going in!!!

 The view from my rock

Changing the gearing to much lower, high gearing sucks, this is not a race.

Home sweat home at Canon de Gaudelupe