SUMMARY:
10x better than I thought and 100x better than Nov 2021 with the big bike (Tenere 700) as I cooked in the heat everyday working hard in the sand with a 500+lbs bike, so nice to be on a KTM 500 that was 250 ish lbs and could really have fun off road and on single track. The GPX files were priceless and SO NICE to have. The hotels were ok, but I think there is a desire to find better hotels next time. I would really love to bring my Two sons and grandson on this trip someday.
I won’t go every year, but I would like to go every 2-3 years…especially if I can travel and ride with Wes, Dan and Justin! The brotherhood and friendship was very wonderful and I feel blessed to have such good friends and brothers.
A couple of times a year, I go on a moto adventure.
last week was Baja on the smaller bikes.
We did a charity clothing and toys drive for the local kids in San Filipe.
Hard to see people live such a hard life, but be so giving and happy.
Lots of trash everywhere.
I enjoyed the rain …and even the mud, better than anything over 80 degrees. We did have a guy on our team brake his hand in the mud and another guy in another team have a very serious arm injury. Our guy will likely not need surgery.
At a ranch house it got so cold we did fires in our rooms and when we woke up there was frost on our bike seats.
Hard to give highlights with so many awesome trails, memories and brotherhood. Nice to go with older gentlemen that are wise and fun to see the contrast of the young bucks that break machines and get hurt vs marathon methods.
I do recall suggesting some fork z-mud protectors and our leader said there is no mud in Baja 
I’d say by the last day, half the bikes functioned. Break down of bike issues. My rear bearing was shot and wobbled for a couple of days until it was beyond rideable. 3-4 ish had blown front fork seals. Justin destroyed his rear moose tube…front and back.
So Seth had a bent rear sprocket, broken chain, bent chain guide, and 3-4 missing or broken spokes. Thats why we put the spare bikes wheel and your chain on Seth’s. He also had low brake fluid and I helped him out with that.
Cool ranch houses in the middle of no where to get food, fuel and housing. Last time I was in baja we did a lot of camping on the beach, no camping cuz too much gear this time on the smaller bikes.
The guy that organizes this rally has been doing so since late 1980s. He is much older these days, but him and his family are still doing a great job! The route files are priceless!
Baja March 7-15 2025 with Utah Trail Maintenance Association (UTMA)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UTMANET
Group/Team Thompson: Riders, Roles, Quotes and stuff.
Wes T. – Geologist and Jolene rider. “Nope, the other trail is correct”
Dan L. – Marguerita Grande Guy – only Blue bike – Blue Betty.
Leroy L. – More miles please
Spencer L. – “Look at that concrete”
Justin P. – Powdered Rear Mousse
Seth F. – “They told me to talk to you about a heat shield”
Wacey H. – Holt on tight with one hand
Levi C. – “that is the longest solo drive I have ever done”
Thomas E. – Check the spreadsheet, fly the drone, complete the Gopro vids and photos
Devin C. – Skinny dude chasing Leroy, (But not Wes up the big hill!) “There was a roach in the sink!”
Loved the single track trails in baja!!! There was a lot of double track to get to the single track.
We had amazing GPX tracks files to follow and on the trailtech I could see them rain/shine or even with a lot of dust on the screen or in the air. If you have a GPX file to follow, the trailtech is king, if you need to make adhoc changes then Gaia GPS is still king IMO.
I took my drone and got epic footage of the single track on cactus, the beach and the rain (got on the lens)
We traveled down to close to the border Friday, leaving about 9:30am after we got all packed up and hooked up to my 7×16 enclosed trailer.
First night we stayed in El Central California, which costs about $60 for a junky motel, but we were able to park the trailer.
Saturday we got up and moving about 8am and went to Dennys, which on 2nd thought we could have gotten yummy salsa and Mexican food across the border. (But Wes wanted to get out of Mexcalli as fast as possible)
We wasted time “concealing” our clothes and toy drive items for the border crossing, but it was not big deal. They did want to inspect the VINS on all the bikes, but my KTM 500 was really hard to see and so they just skipped it. Nobody got an FMM visa and no one ever asked for it. Wes tried to get on on-line but it was a waste of time.
We had an exciting route through the city, including a 5 way intersection with a trailer, but we finally got on the HWY to San Filipe. Passed the military check point without any drama. I think we got there about 2-3pm and unloaded and started getting our bikes set. We helped out with the service project at the Hotel Cortez. We organized our clothing donations into trashbags about 2’x2’ and loaded them into the trailer.
We went to the riders meeting and their safety briefing was super helpful, like don’t stop on blind corners. ALWAYS get OFF the highway and then T up and go across the highway, NEVER stop on the highway as they will run you over.
Buddy system! NEVER leave anyone ALONE, if their bike breaks down, someone stay with them and another team go for help/gas etc.
If you get lost, stop and wait and someone will find you, don’t keep going into the wilderness.
There is no helicopter medic evac, so we are on our own and take care of your bike as it is your only transportation.
DAY1 about 110 miles. Destination Rancho Meling
We then went down town near the grocery store and handed out toys to the kids, they were so excited to get them, they got out of line and just came up and got them. Wes carried a box of food for one of the widows and her family.
Then we went back and got loaded up, 1st night no trailer so I packed fresh undys, short, shirt and my wool hoodie.
We headed North and then east, dry lake bed at 60 mph was fun. I hit a sharp branch and it shredded my glove. I feel its a miracle it didn’t injury my hand, even though it hurt for a few days.
After the lake beds was a lot of dry washes and deep sand. We would stop about every 20-30 min and make sure everyone was going good and we were not missing anyone. I had provided radios for anyone that didn’t already have one.
We got on the HWY and stopped and bought gas out of 1 gallon jugs for about $7 a gallon, didn’t really matter the cost, we NEEDED gas. I launched the drone and got some footage, bought a coke and enjoyed it. We also ate some snacks.
We followed a double track for a long time and got to do a cool river crossing, took a nice break at Mike’s sky ranch, they had a pool and I soaked my head and got several water bottles. Checked out the dark bar.
About 5pm we got to Melling Ranch and were concerned we didn’t have enough rooms, but got that figured out. One guy had to sleep on a cot. We were told to start a fire in our fireplaces and I thought we would never start a fire, but about 9pm it was cold so we started the fire with a mix of diesel that burned slowly. About 3am it was OUT with a few sparks I could see in the dark, so I put new wood on and poured the rest of the diesel on and went to bed while it was smoking, later I woke up and the fire was going GOOD.
It was nice to shower before going to bed. For $100 that included a steak dinner from cattle raised on the ranch, our room and breakfast. There was frost on our seats in the AM. Spencer brought a starlink so we were able to text our family and some facetimed. We all chip’d in $10 for the starlink and it was super nice to have!
Just dropped a pin with inreach every 10 minutes and his wife really liked that!
I suggested we use the “you are responsible for the guy behind you”, so for navigation or medical/mechanical, if you come to a FORK in the road, you wait there until the guy behind you sees the route and he does the same. I would slow down to get out of the dust and folks would pass me, oh well.
Day 2 I was sweeper and got a few crashes with my gopro 🙂 “as sweep I must get photos of every crash :)”
At Mike’s sky high ranch, I was eating jerky near an old jeep and suddenly a dog appeared that was chained to the jeep. I said, this jeep comes with a dog and gave him some of my somewhat chewed jerky.
I really loved the salsa and Mexican coke at almost every meal.
Near the windmills we got off track and that is where I shredded my glove. Missed the pink trail marker ribbons.
DAY2 Monday (Melling ranch to Mission Santa Maria Hotel, near town of San Quentin)
we got going from Melling ranch, Spencer’s fuel bike was leaking so we re-crimped that with a borrowed tool from a van that had a couple of bikers in it. We got moving about 10am, but tried to leave about 9am. I went exploring and found the left hand fork by the river was not the right way and it was super deep and I got my right foot very wet 🙂 I found what looked like a landing strip.
Once we got on the trail, it was pretty boldery and rocky (decomposing granite which made cool sand), which was fun! We got a lot of switchbacks. I got Justin getting stuck in a rut and dropped his bike a bit on gopro. This was right after Justin was diceing with Wes. Wes backed off and the rut got Justin and send him into the pucker bush. Wes laughed as he went by. As we were coming down the mountain in a rock garden creek that required balance, momentum, I got Dan and Wes picking up their bikes at the same time. Wes said the gravity was extra strong in that area.
Once we got out on top I went ahead and got some speed and cooled off. We finally got to pavement at Vicente Guerrero and stopped at a gas station with one of the nastiest bathrooms I’ve seen and got gas, refreshments (we enjoyed some Mex snacks/treats, hosed off to cool down and headed north for the beach at Camalu. We got separated again and took a while to reconnect even with radios. Leroy lead a group out to Spiderman Snakepit a little farther north.
The head-sized rocks (shingle) were very loose and hard to get through on the bikes that lined the beach. In the future, bag the beach at Camalu, just hit it a Vicente Guerrero.
It took a while to get to the beach we could ride on and we went 50-60 mph for almost 20 miles of beaches. I found a whale bone and jumped it with my bike! The drone got awesome footage and even some dogs chasing me which I didn’t realize at the time.
Anywhere there was people, there was tons of trash on the side of the road, sidewalks, near shacks…my trailer was bigger than where a lot of people lived.
DAY3 March 11 Tues Santa Maria to Rosario de Arriba. Motel Turista.
We played on the beach again and got a group photo. There was deep sand and some hill climbs. Wes and Dan inspected the deep sand closely at the top of the beach climb out. At the big backside dune hill climb, I tried it in 2nd gear and got about half way up and looped to the right and got off trail on a steep downhill and just about endo’d, but pulled it off. Wes nailed it in 3rd gear and made it to the top while even a lightweight 2 stroke didn’t make it up. I was super impressed with Wes as a guide and rider, he really kept us all safe and good navigation. When folks split off or went too fast is when they and their bikes got hurt.
We got into some serious mud on the upper pass. We found another group (Hickman Group) that said their best rider (Park) got injured in the mud so we went a different way than the El Rosario Inland Loop. (John Bailey said it was not going to be fun and that was and that was enough for Wes to divert). Leroys crew went the hard way El Rosario Inland Loop. I wanted to stick with group leader so I went with them on the El Rosario Connection dirt road. About half continued on the normal route. I finally put my rain jacket on and I was glad I did!
It go so muddy in the red clay on top of the ridge our tires would not kick the mud off and it started getting cakes on our forks, rotors, chains etc etc. Some of the hills were hard to climb with so much mud. We stopped and teased some UTVs.
We finally got to a fence/gate near the bottom that said “wrong way” I said Won way and everyone thought that was funny. Jesse said this is the way, so we went through the gate down a farm road and reclosed it. The SCORE course went right at the gate and down an arroyo that connected with Arroyo El Rosario. Looked like we could have hit the road that way in the future.
Once we hit the hwy we went into town and got amazing lunch at Mama Espinosa’s. Saw the guy would got hurt and it seems his tendon separated from his biceps and he had a nasty blackeye. Lunch and salsa was soo soo good! The other team with Justin got there, we were all hungry so we gave the newcomers some food and then once they got their order they shared with us.
I was sad so many used the hose and put mud all over their driveway/parking lot. They loved Moto guys and had Baja1000 photos everywhere. I gave them a large tip for cleaning up our muddy boots…that we tried to wash off. I went to the gas station and filled up and asked for a car washes, they pointed to a low pressure water and cleaned a little bit. We got to a mega junky motel and a guy was washing bikes for $10 so I hired him. I got peeved that he didn’t clean my bike 2nd…nor 3rd, even though I was in line to be 2nd. So I sat on my chair near by and kept pointing to my bike. Took him about 1 hour per bike with a low pressure hose. I realized he didn’t know how to move the bikes or was so concerned with damaging the bikes he wouldn’t move them. I moved some buddies bikes closer for him too. Once cleaned we would work on the bikes. Seth crashed so many times I told him he won the major award that included a complete package of chain, sprockets and he was very glad to get them. I had pulled them off my 500 a year before and so they were in good shape and he used them and was very glad to have them.
I washed my clothes in the sink and was practicing drying them with my line in the room, as I went to bed they were not even close to being dry so I found a dryer and put them in and they were perfect in the morning!
We walked to the grocery store and once we got there a major rainstorm hit and it was really coming down, so I called our support truck guy and he said he’d come get us. He had to unhook the trailer and come get us. He was a champ! We should have just waited for the rain to die down.
Next morning it was slow getting going again, so I got on my bike and said, come park by me if you are ready to ride and that helped get guys going. I think we should do that every morning so you can see who is ready and who is not. I would go help guys load up and strap down their stuff and get going.
DAY4 March 12. Wednesday. Rosario to Catavina Single track Cacti forest, Clay hills badlands, Malcom Smith Single track, fast Sand road. 117 miles.
This was my fav day! The single track in cacti forest with the drone was sweet! The clay hills I was pretty tired, but still had a great time banking and climbing up and down and around. It was like swingarm city but 100x bigger. Wes was worried about the clay being too we after the rain the day before and during the night but they were awesome. The infamous silt beds were solid. We stopped on a double track and had our snacks and rested, lots of guys stressed about gas. Just before Malcom Smith my chain came off so we stopped and put it back on. Wes had a great idea of going backwards. I was careful not to get my hand/fingers in the chain and Wacey helped push the bike. We got it on in 2 minutes and it seemed pretty good to go (looking back this was the beginning of the rear bearing failing). We had a lot of mud and many many miles to go on double track on top of the plateau with tons of puddles in the SxS whoops that soaked our feet…again. The deep washout took it toll on a couple guys. Dan created a yard sale of Cholla buds next to a muddy puddle but his armor prevented any spines from reaching him.
We finally got to Malcom Smith single track, “sacred grove of cacti” and I launched my drone and the beacon battery was totally dead and it just auto landed and I ran over and caught the drone. Wes and I were very last so he had me go ahead. I stopped a couple of times to get photos and selfies and it was epic!
It is too bad it’s so far into the wilderness to get to Malcom’s trail. I would like to go both directions on the trail. There might have been some pranks pulled this night. No hard evidence was ever discovered – just baseless accusations.
While fueling up at the roadside gas barrels as we got into town, a cyclist asked us about Hotel accommodations. His name was Guillaume and he was a OBGYN doctor from France taking a vacation break after recently passing some type of new certification. He had rode his gravel/touring bike all the way from San Francisco California. We ran into him again two days later at the gas stop/restaurant at the Highway 1 intersection with the Bay of LA road. He had breakfast with Wes and Dan. He was headed for LaPaz for a boat ride to the mainland then on south to Cartagena, Colombia.
DAY5 March 13 Thursday. It was really raining and so Wes thought we could go south and try to find some trails to do w/o so much mud.
Wes, Dan and I headed south on the HWY for about 55 miles. Leroy led his crew on the traditional loop to the Pacific ocean, the baby heads, the fast sand road. I saw a trail on the trailtech and asked Wes on a break and he said it was Window Rock trail and so we did it and it was one of my favs!
My bike was making bad noises and I thought it was the bash plate and I tightened the rear axle nut and it went away, but when I hit the black top it was mega wobble. Just before highway after the dry lakebed #2, we went through a gate and someone in a truck started their siren. So we left and went the wrong direction for a while. We went back in a major dust storm and he was not there so we found the HWY and traveled a long long way to Bay of LA and got a cool picture before going down. Lots of dust, especially on the lakebed.. I put my bike on the stand and it wobbled really really bad, so I started making plans to get a ride back to San Felipe. Turns out about half the bikes didn’t work on the last day.
We found the lady in the restaurant that had our rooms (Dora the explorer challenge). They were WIP rooms with tile, but super junky and smelled badly as sewer gas kept coming up the sink and shower drains. Had some electrical problems with lights and outlets that required talking to someone to get solved. The electrician who recently did work got called some spanish expletives.
We got two of our guys a ride with the UTV guys. I stayed with my trailer and got everything loaded up and then Jesse/Mike came and got me and the trailer. They had 4 bikes on the sleddeck. We went and got a couple more guys further north in Bay of LA, at one point we had 7 men in the truck! Alex…Jesse’s adult son rode on the cot in the trailer almost the whole way and we let him out about every ½ hour. He was trying to get to an airport as his wife was in labor!
Dead or injured Bikes/riders:
Thomas – rear wheel bearing and intermittent electrical gremlin (turns out the whole rear hub is jack’d up)
Justin – Mousse powdered on the Window rock trail going North
Wacy – fracture on left wrist – rode pavement whole way back
Levi – Leaking fork seal
Seth – Leaking fork seal, messed up wheel
Leroy – Bent in clutch cover with minor leakage.
Once we got to San Felipe we started trying to get everyone back, Justin mousebib foam failed big time from a hole in the tire and lots of sand dried out the mousse bib so he was pretty much on his rim. Leroy and Devin left him alone and he made it to the hwy and then to the restaurant we had breakfast at the Highway 1 – BOLA turnoff and gas stop. Levi took a UTV guy in his car to Provo ASAP as his wife was in hospital too! Spencer and Wacey went back south in their truck and trailer to get Justin, Leroy and whoever else needed a ride. They road their 2 strokes from Bay of LA to San Filipe and then after a short break of shuffling bikes to my trailer and unloading their trailer headed to rescue everyone! 3 hours one way and then 3 hours back and then they headed to Utah, that is A LOT of traveling in one day. Seth and I did some market shopping and had lunch. I booked Victors RV beach house for $120 before we went to lunch, by the time I got back Levi and info’d us the UTV guy had a paid for hotel, so we tried to get my money back and they kept $10 for cancelation fee. But Justin and I got a free hotel for $10, but no wifi. It was a nice sunset and Wes and Dan made it back after riding Horse Piss Canyon, lots of pavement and an Epic Beach stretch a little south of San Filipe and we went to dinner to talk with them. We planned to leave at 6am which we did and we got home to my house about 2am Sunday morning. Wes and Dan slept at my house and then left for Bearlake area about 8:30 am. I went to church worn out and when I got home I unpacked everything and then pressure washed everything.
The bike needs new rear bearings, air filter and something is wrong with the electronics as the kill switch will not kill the bike. So I had to pop the clutch to kill it the last day I rode, which was thursday.
Gear Review
After every ride I like to ponder about the gear…what worked well and what didn’t work well.
I got to say, the Trail Tech was tops for this trip!
After that the mousse bib foam tubes so no flats from cactus! Protip for Justin, if you put a big hole in your tire and then rub sand in it for days…it will destroy your mousse bib!
Other gear I was so glad I had:
- Giant loop cactus canteen https://amzn.to/3QRFiSS
- Klim Mojave pants and shirt! https://amzn.to/42aQkYH
- I wish I had these! boot dryers! https://amzn.to/4c1hc1C
