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Old 03-28-2018, 10:14 AM   #11
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We got a couple fat tire MTN bikes last year and have really enjoyed riding them around down there.
This new toy is a folding electric fat bike! The electric boost really helps in the soft sand, and it folds so it fits inside my van with room to spare:



In the past I always brought my mountain bike with me, but it was broken down and ended up being mostly emergency transportation that I never used. I was too lazy to reassemble it for fun riding when that required reattaching both wheels, handlebars, etc.

-- Geoff

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Old 03-28-2018, 11:18 AM   #12
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great trip! curious how long this segment took ya? Thanks for sharing the gps coordinates, cant wait to check out some of those spots!
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Old 03-28-2018, 11:32 AM   #13
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curious how long this segment took ya?
After crossing the border from the US, I camped one night up in Sierra de Juarez, and three nights in the Laguna Salada area.

Then after finding my leaf spring broken I spend two nights at Percebú south of San Felipe, and one final night over at Tornillal.

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Old 04-03-2018, 02:08 PM   #14
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Love the look of that hot spring. More importantly, the wife loves it too!
How much of the 10 miles in was as bad as those pictures make it look? How long did it take you to get in there?

-Mark...
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Old 04-03-2018, 03:00 PM   #15
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Most of the Palomar Canyon road is just "fine" - the usual bumpy dirt track. Below is a random example shot from my dashboard cam. The road goes up the canyon, but avoids the wash itself except for where it has to cross in a few places. These crossings are where the dirt is all washed out, leaving all those soccer ball rocks. The photos I posted earlier are from the longest crossing, where the road stays in the wash for a quarter mile. It's the worst of it. There a few other crossings, but they are more like 100 yards. Overall the 5 miles of canyon road took me 1.5 hours, including what my GPS says was 45 minutes I spent moving rocks at that one spot.



All that above is the "fun" difficult road. The other aspect is the tediously awful roads you need to take to get access to the canyon. These are beaten up from frequent use and racing. Coming south from Highway 2, there are 30 miles of heavily washboarded dirt road up to the Guadalupe Canyon turnoff, followed by 20 miles of soft sand/gravel that has undulations that make any speed unpleasant. The other option is to come east from Highway 3, which only 30 miles from pavement to canyon, half of which is on dry mud and half on that undulated soft sand/gravel.

Here are some photos of what I mean. It's difficult to really see how tedious it is in the photos, but sand/gravel is really soft and undulates such that you can't just speed over it like you can with normal washboard. There are lots of unofficial side tracks where people try to avoid the main road but it's not always possible:





Feel free to message me with any more specific questions about how to get there, as I am purposely keeping the access directions a bit vague here.

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Old 04-03-2018, 03:03 PM   #16
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The photos where I show my van going up a steep rocky incline out of a wash can be avoided. I found a better route into the wash on my return trip.
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Old 04-03-2018, 03:19 PM   #17
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Thanks for sharing! Love seeing trip reports, helps me daydream about where to go in the future.
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Old 04-03-2018, 04:02 PM   #18
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That hot spring looks awesome. Great trip and report. Thanks for sharing.
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Old 04-03-2018, 05:00 PM   #19
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I also added this story to my personal website, with a few more words and photos:

Baja California, Mexico 2018 | Baja California

And another map, of the Laguna Salada area:

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Old 04-03-2018, 05:07 PM   #20
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Curious if you are doing this travel solo? I'm chomping at the bit to get retired so I can take off on mini trips like this ...
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