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1-15 #15

Tuesday 4/14/98

45 miles from start. Major water crossing.

Another bike is ferried across. Bob and Doug made somewhere between 12 and 15 crossings. I lost count after eight.

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1-16 #16

Tuesday 4/14/98.

45 miles from start. Major water crossing.

Good shot of standard technique for getting back across the river.

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1-18 #18

Tuesday 4/14/98

45 miles from start. Major water crossing.

View from the far side. The biggest challenge was balancing yourself against the current and simultaneously avoiding the rocks.

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1-19 #19

Tuesday 4/14/98.

45 miles from start. Major water crossing.

Once you got the bike to the far side, it was everything you could do to push it up the bank, even with four guys.

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1-19 #19

Tuesday 4/14/98.

Soon after the river, we ran into some snow on the ground.

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1-24 #24

Tuesday 4/14/98.

More Baja 1000 course. Newfound respect for those racers, especially of the big trucks. The course winds through a pine forest in this section. I can’t see how they get full size trucks through here, especially at 80mph.

2-4 #28

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Breakfast at the Old Mill Inn. We meet Russell. Malcolm stops by to say hello. L-R: Russell Ogilvie, Malcolm Smith and Bob Mueller.

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2-5 #29

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Bikes parked in the courtyard of the Old Mill Inn at San Quintin.

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2-6 #30

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Local family fishing off the dock at the Old Mill Inn at San Quintin. They didn’t have poles, they used old liter soda bottles with line wrapped around them.

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2-7 #31

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Old Mill Inn at San Quintin. Old wagon and old mill steam cylinder and drive wheel.

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2-8 #32

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Seal Caves. Spectacular views from here. I saw my first whales in the ocean from this point.

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2-10 #34

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Shot of river valley that we had ridden up. Long sand and rock wash in this section.

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2-11 #35

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Rider coming up road out of the river valley.

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2-12 #36

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Some riders coming up the road out of the valley. There were a bunch of guys video taping from this point and offering running commentary on everybody’s riding style through this section.

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2-14 #38

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Lunch stop, day two. Top off gas and make a quick sandwich. Rental DR in foreground.

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2-15 #39

Wednesday 4/15/98.

The Zink’s were run off the road while passing a semi just before the gas stop that preceeded lunch. We had talked with them as they pulled in for gas and I took this shot of the son at lunch.

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2-16 #40

Wednesday 4/15/98.

This is John Zink’s arm. There was not one piece of clothing that wasn’t ripped to shreds. They both walked away with little more than a few scrapes and bruises. Pretty lucky after getting run off the road at 60 mph.

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2-17 #41

Wednesday 4/15/98.

After lunch we rode out to a lake bed and then followed a stream up a canyon for about 30 miles. This was a beautiful section and these pictures don’t begin to capture it. Bob Mueller takes a break.

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2-18 #42

Wednesday 4/15/98.

The same canyon, looking back downstream. This section led out onto some very high speed, deep sand sections.

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2-20 #44

Wednesday 4/15/98.

We finished the day at Bay of Los Angeles. This area is teeming with sea life around the islands in the Sea of Cortes. Shots #43, 44 and 45 are a panorama taken from a scenic point on the road down into Bay of LA.

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2-22 #46

Wednesday 4/15/98.

Bob Mueller’s shoulder showing the post-endo damage. Bob had pulled the cartilage in his shoulder and had very little right arm strength the rest of the ride.

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2-23 #47

Thursday 4/16/98.

There were three guys on sport bikes down from San Diego who knew one of the guys on the ride. They had arranged their weeklong tour of Baja to intersect with us at this stop. This is sunup over the Sea of Cortez (Bay of California) at LA Bay.

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2-25 #49

Thursday 4/16/98.

Another sunup shot. We saw the sun come up every morning. At this point, I was waking up after about four hours of sleep and then waking up on the hour, every hour.

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3-2 #51

Thursday 4/16/98.

Grilled lobster tails San Fransisquito. Incredible food and views. There was a group of people from the states renting out the little cabins. They had fishing gear and dirt bikes. The ultimate vacation.

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3-3 #52

Thursday 4/16/98.

View from the lunch stop looking South down the beach. The rental cabins are to the right.

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3-5 #54

Thursday 4/16/98.

Little boy at El Arco. We’d stopped here to take a break. One of the vets recognized this kid from the prior year’s ride. He’s eating a power bar that Don Mackey (on the bike) gave him.

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3-6 #55

Thursday 4/16/98.

In San Ignacio. At the end of the day, the usual drill is to check your spokes, lube the chain, check the oil, etc. This was oil change day for me. The large pile of dirt on the ground is what I cleaned out of my air cleaner box.

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3-9 #58

Thursday 4/16/98.

At Hotel La Pinta San Ignacio. Doing some emergency welding on one of the bikes.

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3-10 #59

Thursday 4/16/98.

In San Ignacio is a wonderful old mission church and surrounding compound. Bob Mueller and I went in and spent some time here. Amazing place. We ate dinner at Rene’s, where things got a little raucous later in the evening.

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3-11 #60

Friday 4/17/98

Along the salt tidal flats on the way to Punta Pequena. L-R: Russel Ogilvie, Bob Mueller, Brian Pietak.

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3-12 #61

Friday 4/17/98

Along the tidal salt flats.

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3-13 #62

Friday 4/17/98

Coming off the salt tidal flats, one of the scores of roadside shrines that we saw along the way.

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3-14 #63

Friday 4/17/98

Gas stop at Punta Pequena. The gas was siphoned from 5 gallon jerry cans. The family used a stick that they stuck down into the cans to measure how much you’d used. Octane unknown.

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3-16 #65

Friday 4/17/98

View from the restaurant at lunch. It was run by a guy named Jim from San Diego. He’d been down there for over seven years. He spoke no Spanish when he moved there. Has since married a local girl and has a child. The good life.

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3-17 #66

Friday 4/17/98

Scorpion Bay Bar and Grill with the lunch crowd.

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3-18 #67

Friday 4/17/98

After lunch we headed down to the beach for a run south at high speed. Great fun playing in the sand and surf.

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3-20 #69

Friday 4/17/98

Doug’s DR350 in its natural habitat.

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3-21 #70

Friday 4/17/98

Coming off the beach. The run up went through a mud hole, up a steep bank, then through a section of deep sand.

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3-22 #71

Friday 4/17/98 The usual method of getting up the second section, dismount and walk it up.

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3-24 #73

Friday 4/17/98

The view from the top of the dunes. The rocks to the left are the reason we had to come up off the beach.

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3-25 #74

Friday 4/17/98

The view back down the coast. We had ridden the beach as far as you can see.

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4-1 #75

Friday 4/17/98

The road into San Jose De Comondu, a really neat little town that will take you back 200 years instantly. Beautiful oasis valley forested in date palms.

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4-2 #77

Friday 4/17/98

Russell and I in jail in San Jose De Comondu. A local took our picture in the lockup. We took a break here and hung out with the locals for a while. Great stop. One of my favorite memories of the entire ride is the time spent here.

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4-4 #78

Friday 4/17/98

Bike wash station at the Oasis Hotel in Loreto. I washed off the ocean salt after doing the daily maintenance. Later took a ride around town to get some film. Great place, and probably my favorite overnight stop on the entire ride.

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4-5 #79

Saturday 4/18/98

Sunrise over the beach and the Sea of Cortez. View out the front door of our room. Beach was pretty coarse. Wind was blowing a ton the day before, but calm now.

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4-9 #83

Saturday 4/18/98

A couple of riders heading down the trail towards the San Javier Mission.

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4-10 #84

Saturday 4/18/98

Short rock wash trail just before reaching the mission. Great little tour and some neat artifacts at the mission. Didn’t spend as much time here as the one at San Ignacio.

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4-12 #86

Saturday 4/18/98

Lunch at the taco stand in Ciudad Constitution. The lady cooks every taco to order on a little grill about 18" by 24". It took about 25 mins to get a chicken taco.

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4-13 #87

Saturday 4/18/98

Bob helps Brian fix a flat at the lunch stop. The rest of us were occupied trying to keep the world’s most larcenous little girl out of all of our gear and tools. Bob finally occupied her for a few minutes with a power bar.

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4-15 #89

Saturday 4/18/98

L-R: Bob Mueller, Malcolm Smith, Doug Hackney

We’ve got another shot similar to this from Malcolm’s first dual sport ride 3 or 4 years ago. Bob and I have put in a lot of dirt miles since then. If we keep going we’ll catch Malcolm in 2078.

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4-17 #91

Saturday 4/18/98

The dirt trails led down to the coast, where we had to decend a massive sand cliff to the beach. Once down, we rode down a long beach section filled with natural jumps.

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4-18 #92

Saturday 4/18/98

Scenic stop along the beach.

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4-19 #93

Saturday 4/18/98

Doug Hackney at the end of the beach run. The successful run down to the beach and making it down the sand cliff had provided some vindication from my disaster with the cactus trail earlier in the week.

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4-21 #95

Saturday 4/18/98

At the support trucks, before the pavement run down into LaPaz. The sattelite phones proved to be invaluable in tracking which riders had made it in, and which were still on the trail. The signal quality was incredible, with not too bad of a lag.

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5-1 #99

Sunday 4/19/98

Sunrise over the bay in LaPaz. The town has about 150,000 people and at least 20,000 roosters. I felt like I was back on the farm. The symphony of crowing cocks was amazing.

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5-7 #105

Sunday 4/19/98

Looking south down the amazing bike eating beach.

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5-8 #106

Sunday 4/19/98

After taking shot #105 I looked down the beach and saw a big cloud of white smoke. I couldn’t figure out what it was, I thought maybe someone was steaming some fish or something. When I got to the end of the beach I found the problem.

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5-10 #108

Sunday 4/19/98

This is probably the best shot. Notice the oil on the gas tank and side covers. We towed the bike a short distance up to the road and left Bob to wait for the chase truck.

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5-14 #112

Sunday 4/19/98

About 11 miles after we left Bob we came across a guy who had went over this cliff on his Honda XR400 and broken his hand. A passerby knew of a US orthopodic surgeon fishing in the area. They put the two of them together in the Mexican hospital and got the guy fixed up in no time.

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5-15 #113

Sunday 4/19/98

Lunch at Calafia at Boca del Alamo. Great food. I can recommend the Chilies with shrimp and cheese. Can’t beat the view either. Had lunch with Mike Quade, a once and current off road racer who hadn’t seen Malcolm in about 15 years.

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5-19 #117

Sunday 4/19/98

Bob and Russell take in the view.

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5-20 #118

Sunday 4/19/98

Three kids from San Diego were camping out and surfing. This one had been there about six months. They’d found this rattlesnake along the road that morning and skinned it.

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5-22 #120

Sunday 4/19/98

Note how clear the water is. I was dying to snorkel at this point.

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5-25 #123

Sunday 4/19/98

Russel Ogilvie enjoys the view and makes plans to return next year.

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6-1 #124

Sunday 4/19/98

Doug Hackney on the deck of the condo at Hotel Los Missiones Del Cabo in Cabo San Lucas. No major get offs, no flats, no major injuries, and a hell of a good time.

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6-3 #126

Sunday 4/19/98

Doug holds the cactus needle that his wife, Stephanie, had just pulled out of his arm. It had been there since he’d hit the cactus on day three.

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113-795-16

Sunday 4/19/98

Russell, Doug, Bob and Brian celebrate a successful, safe and adventuresome ride prior to the awards banquet.

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113-795-21

Sunday 4/19/98

Doug Hackney and Bob Mueller in front of the fountains and the view of the arch and land’s end, prior to the awards banquet.

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113-795-23

Sunday 4/19/98

Malcolm and the support crew at the awards banquet Sunday night.

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6-5 #128

Monday 4/20/98

Stephanie Hackney at The Office in Cabo San Lucas. Great lobster omelets.

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6-6 #129

Monday 4/20/98

On the water taxi tour at Cabo San Lucas. The window. On the far side is the Pacific, on the near side the Sea of Cortez.

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6-11 #134

Monday 4/20/98

The arch at the junction of the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez.

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6-17 #140

Monday 4/20/98

The pool bar at the Hotel Los Missiones Del Cabo.

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6-18 #141

Tuesday 4/21/98

View from Di Giorgio’s restaurant at the Hotel Los Missiones Del Cabo looking towards downtown Cabo San Lucas.

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6-19 #142

Tuesday 4/21/98

View from inside the Di Giorgio’s restaurant at the Hotel Los Missiones Del Cabo looking toward the arch and land’s end. The awards banquet was held here Sunday night.