I first met Bud Bernhard in the summer of 1973. He was leading a 7+ day Sierra San Pedro Martir trip for the Sierra Club and he was my ride down. I was a slightly "lost" 22 yr old looking for "something" and had first traveled Baja in 1969 on a trip from Puertocitos to Bahia Gonzaga and over to El Rosario. The chance to backpack this range seemed to be a once in a lifetime adventure so one morning Bud pulled up in front of the house I was living in in PB and picked me up. He was driving his old IH Scout and I really had no idea just who he was! We were driving down many days earlier to recon some trails. On the road in to the Melings he let me drive-I did not have a driver's license and barely knew HOW to drive. I distinctly remember him saying to me "Are you AIMING for those holes??????

We visited with the Melings-he was like a son to the old folks-and I will always treasure seeing their moments of "platicando". From the ranch we headed off to the hills where we eventually left his Scout and took off on trails. I was not in the fittest of condition but was proud to be able to keep up with him-just barely. He walked very briskly and carried a light pack that contained his old white down bag and a zillion cans of what we call "canned" instant breakfast! Somewhere on that plateau his empty cans are buried!!! We spent several days hiking and I learned what a "Mexican Duck" was....I really thought it was a duck!!!! Was I clueless!!!!

Eventually we met up w the Sierra Club group and spent the next week hitting Alcatraz, La Grulla, the mission (my first of 3 trips to that mission site!), all over the place including a run up Blue Bottle and Tres Venados....geez, that was a loooong time ago. There was a spry "old" lady that was good friends w Bud-she was always hiking at the head of the line and man, nothing stopped her! Her name was Louise Werner, 75 yrs old, and if you read up you will find her in Camping & Climbing Baja California along w her husband in the 40s-50s w Bud. Little did I know at the time just how lucky I was to have met these oldtime Baja folks.

At the end of the trip Bud was asked to help w logistics up on Blue Bottle for the Labor Day radio disc jockey who was doing the Jerry Lewis Telethon-thing from the BIG one.....So I with him and some others w SAR carried radio transmitter stuff up BB while the disc jockey somehow got up La Encantada-that was another story!

I have a great picture of Bud, me and a bunch of others on the top of Blue Bottle or Tres Venados.....he is huddled there w his distinctive hat and looking uncomfortable w getting his picture taken. I will never forget this man because it was this trip with him that changed my life forever and initiated this addiction I have for Baja. He had stories to tell but yet was a very quiet man who had his own little world. He was not one into writing or staying in touch yet I would visit w him a time or two after that first trip as I headed across the border and he would caution me to be careful, he even gave me a shovel which I still have.....yet every year his Dec. 8 birthday cards would be returned to me as addressee unknown or other stuff.

He was famous for his "cement" work....and I am sure there are many Coronadoans with their own stories to tell. About 5 years ago I tried to find him but all I could hear was that he was living somewhere underneath the bridge and had lost the home he'd inherited from his mother. I will always treasure the memories of him and feel honored to have known him. Sometimes you can reach out with your heart and hands to a person and they still refuse to grasp it. Bud Bernhard had so much to offer and tell the world but I guess he didn't feel he was important enough to share. Thank you Bud for sharing the trail with me-It was the honor of a lifetime. You will live on in the stories I tell my sons of the wild and crazy Baja adventures that really took seed in the summer of 1973 when a man pulled up in front of the house in a Scout and I stepped in to another world. Vaya con dios, Bud!

My other 4WD is a Baja Mule!