April had arrived and the Baja urge was once again upon us. We gathered our forces and headed south for what is usually one of the best trips of the year. The weekend we were leaving experienced a southward shift of the jetstream and fronts again began arriving carrying winter storms. We had hoped to miss these in Baja, but the jet was just too strong.
The trip began as usual and was singularly uneventful. I like it that way. No hassles at the border. An easy ride down to San Felipe. Icemup, foodemup, tequilaemup, beeremup, and gasemup is the order of the day. The road between SF and Puertecitos has again deteriorated. I heard that more rain had fallen at the end of February, so it undoubtedly contributed. The road was still acceptable though, all-in-all. We made it to Puertecitos in just over an hour.
The Gonzaga road is still much like it has been for the last few times: about as good as it gets. Some washboard was appearing, but the previous grading was still effective. Several machines still resided near Campo La Costilla. We rolled into camp an hour and 15 minutes later, ate some of Clara's chile, had a snort of Havana Club, and hit the hay. A fairly stiff offshore breeze was blowing, but swells were absent. We awoke the next day and the tides were way out.
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This tidal condition would be the pattern for the remainder of the trip. It was calm to begin with, but the wind soon shifted onshore and whitecaps began to appear and build. By late afternoon, they had subsided to the point that we could at least launch and run over to our beaching spot at Roger's Bay. The weather out over the Vizcaino Desert to the west appeared gloomy. They don't call it a fog desert for nuttin'. Clouds enshrouded Cerro Guillermo.
Saturday early, everyone was tidepooling.
Loads of cool critters could be observed. Another cool critter was Baja Bruce, who ascended the new stairway built by Janet and Brian. It's really nice.
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