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The Baja XL (formerly known as the Baja 4000) is a rally-style event extending over 10 days / nine nights. The 2019 edition was the second time its been run. The path starts in Los Angeles and travels down along and through absolutely stunning deserts, mountains and beaches of the Baja peninsula do the most southern tip in Cabo San Lucas. Then the path returns all they way up to Los Angeles. There was an organized camp site every night – like a checkpoint. There were four classes of vehicles: (1) Race; (2) Touring; (3) Motorcycles; and (4) Spirit. Race category competed for points by completing daily stages and finding navigational points given by GPS coordinates. There were a handful of motorcycles, which was arguably the most difficult class of the event. The Spirit category contained vehicles that really didn’t belong in the event but more power to those brave souls traveling in them!
My co-driver Jim and I jumped in not knowing exactly what to expect other than a great adventure and probably some stories to tell when we got back. We were right on both points. Although we’ve been off-roading and camping for several years now, most of those trips have been limited to weekend trips in the backyard of Southern California (local deserts, forest and mountains such as Big Bear, Mojave, Death Valley and other local-ish national parks, national forests and wilderness areas). My only lengthy trip of note would be a week-long into central Oregon. However, lessons learned from all of those trips would prove valuable for this Baja adventure.
The Preparation
To prepare, we re-evaluated how the truck was set up. Typically, everyone travels in their own rigs and I may bring a lady friend and almost certainly will bring my dog as well. Thus, my normal set-up likely was not going to cut it for two stinky dudes who may not shower for the better part of a week.
First, we wanted to figure out sleeping quarters. I had been using a roof top tent which, while it was a favored by the lady friend, did not help with driving dynamics or gas mileage. For my needs, the roof top tent was an idea that is great in theory but not that great in execution. We opted for ground tents, in part to free up roof space, and in part so we can each stew in our own stank without disturbing the other.
We then needed to re-configure the truck in order to carry everything we wanted to bring. In the end, we our gear organization in the truck would be split into four general sections: (1) front driver & passenger area, (2) rear passenger area, and (3) cargo area, and then (4) the roof.
The front driver & passenger area would include our communications devices and navigation devices. Primary concerns were also easy access to water and snacks. The rear passenger area would be designated as a personal items and recovery bag area. This area would be the easiest to access (the rear cargo area requires two-handed operation due to the tire swing-out). Primary concerns were ease of access to tire accessories for airing up and down. All items here were also secured with a net over everything to prevent projectiles in case of an accident. The cargo area contained the fridge and a Camp Chef kitchen, along with some miscellaneous camping items (chairs, lamps, etc.). With the rear seats removed, we opened up a lot of extra space which allowed us to build a custom box (we called it the “black box” because, well, it’s painted black) in which we put all extra fluids, extra parts and most of our tools. The black box is bolted onto a new wood platform which acted as the ‘floor’ of the truck, and allowed us to place d-rings where needed to strap all the equipment and gear down (again, so nothing becomes a projectile). Finally, on the roof we placed a small Thule roof box filled with overnight camping equipment (sleeping bags, tents, etc.), strapped on our Maxtrax and two extra gas jerry cans.
The Event
First, let me say we cannot wait to do this event again in 2021 and also cannot wait to head down to Baja on our own now that our comfort level of general travel in and off-roading around Baja has increased. Nothing in Southern California holds a candle to the beauty of Baja California – but that’s just me, and there’s nothing I want more than to be a beach bum. We are contemplating doing the Race category next time, or perhaps entering one rig in the Race category and having some buddies in other rigs in the Touring category.
For the 2019 Baja XL, the starting ceremony was at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. From there, we hustled down to the border crossing at Tecate. Apparently, there are three major nearby border crossings: Tijuana, Mexicali and Tecate. Tecate is the smallest of the three and likely the best one to go though on any given day. We had no trouble getting through and bought our tourist visas at the border (needed for stays of over seven days).
Jim did a massive amount of research on routes, military and police checkpoints, gas stations, grocery stores, and additional potential camp sites. The organizers provided us with GPS coordinates of each night’s campsite, but we were on our own to find our way there. Sometimes the best route was obvious, but on some days they were not. One way we found to determine the “best” route was to talk with some of the Race category teams to see where their checkpoints were, which clued us in on the route most of the teams would be taking. Our navigation was done primarily via Gaia GPS, with a Garmin unit used as back-up. The Garmin unit was surprisingly on point for most of the trip.
The route of the Baja XL takes you through some amazing terrain – all the more amazing that such differing terrain is in such close proximity to each other. Early on in the rally, we did some mildly technical rock crawling, and later on we would be driving on beaches, through dry lake beds and dry salt flats, on sand dunes, and through miles and miles of dirt trails that varied from rock-hard corrugated trails and endless whoop-dee whoops to trails of soft sand. Even the paved roads and highways required plenty of caution – lots of potholes and just generally uneven roads everywhere.
We didn’t run into any trouble with the military and police checkpoints – no bribes were requested. Not all teams were so lucky but from the sounds of it a few stickers and some beer were all that were needed to grease the wheels of justice. In preparation of this as well as to curry favor with any locals we may find, we had stickers made for our team. The little triangular sticker is ours, with a picture of my truck on it.
Our first trouble happened on Day 4, as we deep in the southern portion of the peninsula. The previous night we camped at the beach, and the next night would be our only planned hotel stay for the rally (hotels are optional; we thought it would be nice to have a shower at some point during the rally). Our hotel (and the official camp site) were beachside, so we planned our route to take us to the beach and to drive on the beach for as far as we were able. The plan hit its first snag when the path we intended to take was blocked by fencing, which caused us about 1.5 hours of delay as we backtracked. Unfortunately, locked fences are something Gaia cannot warn you about. We traversed over ten miles of whoop-dee whoops, which caused me to reconsider my preference for whoop-dee whoops over corrugated roads, however bone-jarring and noisy those may be. During this time, we couldn’t get much over 10 mph. It was painful. Already running late, and with Baja California Sur one hour ahead of Pacific time, by late afternoon the sun was getting close to the horizon already. And that’s when we finally hit the beach, still at least two hours away from the hotel and with absolutely nothing nearby.
The beach, it turned out, had a sandy shelf above it and the trail dropped us onto the sandy shelf, even though it looked like it was putting us right onto the beach. The shelf was approximately 5 feet tall and quite crumbly. The beach below was full of rounded rocks. With this little surprise, we turned a hard left onto the sandy shelf and promptly buried ourselves in the soft sand, a bit off-camber and rear wheel sliding toward the edge with each rotation. In hindsight, we should have stopped at the end of the trail and walked onto the beach first to check things out. But we were so damned excited to see the beach that we threw caution into the wind.
The sandy shelf. No "action" pictures because we were more worried about recovering ourselves...
We stopped and assessed, then deployed the Maxtrax. We also threw some of the rocks from below for extra traction. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. We were able to move the truck about two truck lengths before getting re-buried in the sand. At this point, we knew we were not going to make it to the hotel, but we hoped to get unstuck before nightfall.
The rocks we threw
After about five attempts (and over an hours’ worth of work), each time inching us forward, we finally gained enough traction to get out of the soft sand – once successful, I just drove off, leaving Jim behind. I basically drove until I felt confident that I wouldn’t get stuck once stopped, which ended up meaning driving a mile down the beach, where I happily found two other Baja XL teams setting up camp on the beach. Jim and I ended up camping with the others for the night. To make up for missing our hotel, we decided we would plan on going on our own for one more night by going to Cabo San Lucas and getting a hotel room, then catching up with the rest of the group as we all turn northbound. This decision was made in part so we can say we made it to Cabo (the most southern tip of the peninsula), rather than cutting across the peninsula to catch up to the rest of the rally. Without reaching the southern tip, it felt like we would be leaving the rally a bit incomplete.
Our second incident occurred on Day 7. The truck was noticeably bouncy and an odd rubbing sound was coming from the rear of the truck. An inspection at a gas station showed damage to the rear driver side tire, and upon closer inspection we saw the shock rod sticking out of the boot, which was rubbing itself on the tire and the inside rim. We consider ourselves lucky that the rod did not puncture the tire – I wonder if such a puncture might cause a flip-over if we were going fast enough? To our good fortune, an Autozone was down the street so we made our way down there and bought two new OEM-spec Duralast shocks to replace the two rear Toytec shocks. A quick installation in the parking lot and we were once again ready to hit the road. The damaged tire was swapped with the spare. Side note, this would be two too many failures of Toytec shocks on my vehicle. Time for something new.
The broken rear shock
A third incident occurred on the road somewhere south of San Felipe. Many highways in Baja are only partially paved, and this was one of them. Driving along, an engine valve somehow punctured our tire. Luckily we were able to quickly fix it with a tire patch kit and be on our way. However, since the tire that is now our spare was also compromised, we decided it would be best to stop in San Felipe for some tacos and get the tire professionally patched. With an incoming storm and fearsome weather forecasts, the handful of teams we ran into in San Felipe all decided it would be best to just stay in town rather than trying to make it through camp, which at that point would require driving in the dark and potentially crossing salt flats that were no longer dry and perhaps impassable. Others had to make a run to the border in order to get in front of the storm on the way home, skipping out on the rest of the rally altogether. The next morning, we made the long trek home from San Felipe, once again through Tecate.
Hooray for tire patch kits!
Hooray for local tire shops! No new tires (but lots of BFG's), so I didn't replace the spare tire. But at least we can get the tire professionally patched.
We left Baja with a lot of neat stories which I can probably go on about for a long long time.
Cont'd next post...
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