krazytoy
Adventurer
Boise to Baja
I have always dreamt about Baja since I was a little boy, the thought of the cool ocean breeze and vast desert landscapes had always appealed to my inner being. This year I had the opportunity to make the trip happen after many failed attempts, seemed my job or life just always got in the way.
Back in August I bought a 1986 60 series Land Cruiser, it had the 5.3L Vortec, 4L60E transmission, air lockers, gears, and a ton of other stuff already done to it, I had to fix a bunch of stuff on it and make sure it would be up to par for the journey, but it is what I consider to be a great rig, the perfect mix of size, power, reliability and simple enough to repair in the back country if needed.
My good friend Ian and I have talked about making the trip to Baja for several years now, and as I mentioned I could never pull it all together between my family of 5 and work, but somehow the stars aligned towards the end of 2014 and the possibility of making the trip was looking more and more positive. I submitted my time off request at work and with the blessing from my wonderful wife the trip was on! Luckily I was able to talk my good friend Mike into riding along with me as well to help with the cost of the trip, driving duties and overall companion for the 3500 mile trip.
Day 1 & 2 January 15, 2015 Boise to Vegas to San Felipe - 1065 Miles
Today just so happened to be my birthday and what a better present than to be leaving for this awesome adventure! I picked up Mike and loaded his stuff into the Cruiser and we left Boise around 2:00 pm, we had planned to meet Ian in Las Vegas as his good friend was flying in there and we could all gather our thoughts and make a game plan from there. Unfortunately Ian was coming in from Jackson WY and was running about 8 hours behind, so we got a room in Vegas for the night and let Ian catch up to us. After a quick call to Ian in the morning he was still on the road and about 8 hours behind us. We decided to go ahead and continue on and make a run for the border agreeing to meet up in San Felipe. We had to go through Glamis sand dunes on our way and stopped for a few t-shirts and the quintessential dune picture of the Cruiser. We crossed the border about 4:00 on Friday, a busy time to be crossing the border, however we were able to figure it out with little effort and after getting our papers we were off to San Felipe. I don’t recommend crossing the border on a Friday afternoon at rush hour if you can, Mexicali is a large city and traffic was very heavy, it took us about an hour to get through Mexicali. Anyway we made into San Felipe and stayed at Victor’s RV Park for the night, it was nice place just a little pricey at $25 a night. We go our spot and headed down the street for what we had all been waiting for, cold Cerveza and fish tacos! After a few awesome tacos and a few cold ones we headed back to camp and set up our sleeping arrangements, me in my Cruiser mounted Hammock and Mike in his tent. I climbed into the hammock and somewhere around midnight Ian and his friend Chris rolled in, we enjoyed another cold one and high 5’s we passed around as we were happy that we were all together and had made it across the US and into Baja with no issues.
Glamis Beach Store
The Quintessential Dune Pic
Fish Tacos!
Nice 80 Series
Not a bad place to wake up!
My bed for the next few nights, very comfortable.
San Felipe
Ian needed some sleep…
Ian’s Sweet 80 Series
Day 3 San Felipe to Gonzaga Bay – 110 Miles
Saturday morning was beautiful, sunny no wind and WARM, something us northerners haven’t felt in a few months… Ian had added much weight to is 80 over past few weeks in preparation for the trip and his rear springs (over 10 years old) had given up, so he stopped by Cruiser Outfitters on the way down and picked up a set of new coils and some 1” spacers to try and gain some more up-travel out of his newly installed Fox remote reservoir shocks. Luckily the campground we were staying at had a suto gantry type of lift that would make it super easy to lift the back of his Cruiser with my winch to unload the rear suspension. Within an hour or so we had the old coils out, the new coils and spacers in and sitting back on the ground with a much needed lift. I must say the winch rope paired with the Factory 55 Flat Link and Hawse Fairlead worked like a charm!
With the new springs installed we packed up the rest of our stuff and headed down the road to Gonzaga Bay. We crossed over a huge wash and decided to blast down the wash towards the ocean and find us a camp site for the night. We found a great spot on the beach and proceeded to break in Ian’s new grill and cook us up some mighty tasty steaks.
Getting the gantry into position.
Up She Goes…
Road to Gonzaga Bay
Video of Gonzaga Bay Wash Run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6oF4Ey944w&feature=youtu.be
Pelican about 5’ from Mikes tent!
I have always dreamt about Baja since I was a little boy, the thought of the cool ocean breeze and vast desert landscapes had always appealed to my inner being. This year I had the opportunity to make the trip happen after many failed attempts, seemed my job or life just always got in the way.
Back in August I bought a 1986 60 series Land Cruiser, it had the 5.3L Vortec, 4L60E transmission, air lockers, gears, and a ton of other stuff already done to it, I had to fix a bunch of stuff on it and make sure it would be up to par for the journey, but it is what I consider to be a great rig, the perfect mix of size, power, reliability and simple enough to repair in the back country if needed.
My good friend Ian and I have talked about making the trip to Baja for several years now, and as I mentioned I could never pull it all together between my family of 5 and work, but somehow the stars aligned towards the end of 2014 and the possibility of making the trip was looking more and more positive. I submitted my time off request at work and with the blessing from my wonderful wife the trip was on! Luckily I was able to talk my good friend Mike into riding along with me as well to help with the cost of the trip, driving duties and overall companion for the 3500 mile trip.
Day 1 & 2 January 15, 2015 Boise to Vegas to San Felipe - 1065 Miles
Today just so happened to be my birthday and what a better present than to be leaving for this awesome adventure! I picked up Mike and loaded his stuff into the Cruiser and we left Boise around 2:00 pm, we had planned to meet Ian in Las Vegas as his good friend was flying in there and we could all gather our thoughts and make a game plan from there. Unfortunately Ian was coming in from Jackson WY and was running about 8 hours behind, so we got a room in Vegas for the night and let Ian catch up to us. After a quick call to Ian in the morning he was still on the road and about 8 hours behind us. We decided to go ahead and continue on and make a run for the border agreeing to meet up in San Felipe. We had to go through Glamis sand dunes on our way and stopped for a few t-shirts and the quintessential dune picture of the Cruiser. We crossed the border about 4:00 on Friday, a busy time to be crossing the border, however we were able to figure it out with little effort and after getting our papers we were off to San Felipe. I don’t recommend crossing the border on a Friday afternoon at rush hour if you can, Mexicali is a large city and traffic was very heavy, it took us about an hour to get through Mexicali. Anyway we made into San Felipe and stayed at Victor’s RV Park for the night, it was nice place just a little pricey at $25 a night. We go our spot and headed down the street for what we had all been waiting for, cold Cerveza and fish tacos! After a few awesome tacos and a few cold ones we headed back to camp and set up our sleeping arrangements, me in my Cruiser mounted Hammock and Mike in his tent. I climbed into the hammock and somewhere around midnight Ian and his friend Chris rolled in, we enjoyed another cold one and high 5’s we passed around as we were happy that we were all together and had made it across the US and into Baja with no issues.
Glamis Beach Store
The Quintessential Dune Pic
Fish Tacos!
Nice 80 Series
Not a bad place to wake up!
My bed for the next few nights, very comfortable.
San Felipe
Ian needed some sleep…
Ian’s Sweet 80 Series
Day 3 San Felipe to Gonzaga Bay – 110 Miles
Saturday morning was beautiful, sunny no wind and WARM, something us northerners haven’t felt in a few months… Ian had added much weight to is 80 over past few weeks in preparation for the trip and his rear springs (over 10 years old) had given up, so he stopped by Cruiser Outfitters on the way down and picked up a set of new coils and some 1” spacers to try and gain some more up-travel out of his newly installed Fox remote reservoir shocks. Luckily the campground we were staying at had a suto gantry type of lift that would make it super easy to lift the back of his Cruiser with my winch to unload the rear suspension. Within an hour or so we had the old coils out, the new coils and spacers in and sitting back on the ground with a much needed lift. I must say the winch rope paired with the Factory 55 Flat Link and Hawse Fairlead worked like a charm!
With the new springs installed we packed up the rest of our stuff and headed down the road to Gonzaga Bay. We crossed over a huge wash and decided to blast down the wash towards the ocean and find us a camp site for the night. We found a great spot on the beach and proceeded to break in Ian’s new grill and cook us up some mighty tasty steaks.
Getting the gantry into position.
Up She Goes…
Road to Gonzaga Bay
Video of Gonzaga Bay Wash Run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6oF4Ey944w&feature=youtu.be
Pelican about 5’ from Mikes tent!
