Misadventures In Baja 2021

[Condor]

 

Part 1

Spoiler Alert:  Not my personal misadventure this time.

The Covid kept us out of prospecting spots in Baja for over a year now, but we were finally able to give it a go this past week.  Drove down on Monday, smooth sailing through the port at Algodones, although we did have to buy a $35.00 tourist visa.  They stamped our passports and everything, so it's probably legit.  Baja 5 highway is in great shape especially down past San Felipe where is was always under construction from washouts.  We made it to Miramar and 4 wheeled it down the main wash out of sight from prying eyes.  This year we took my Polaris RZR for its maiden trip in rough Baja terrain.  All our trail building in the past was designed for 2 wheeled motor bikes, so we had to make some improvements for the RZR 60" width to get up the wash to the placer zone.  We toted rocks and built ramps to get up on some of the steeper sections and tested our improvements.  Scary, but passable.  In one section I had Dennis hanging off the passenger door frame to counter-balance the rig from sliding off into a deep hole.  Pictures will follow.

We got back to our camp and settled down for some cold ones when we noticed a hiker coming down the wash we had just driven.  A fellow prospector with true pioneer blood.  He had hiked a roundtrip of no less than 15 miles over a span of 4 days with only 2 gallons of water.   He carried an SDC 2300 and a Equinox 800 in a pack that weighed at least 65 lbs.   In desperation he had tried to filter water from a spring far up the canyon, but found it full of alkaline.  He pulled up a chair and downed his fill of fresh water and started in on a couple cold beers with us.  As we talked about his experience he asked "hey, is one of you the Condor", I read your posts, especially the ones about Baja.  We swapped prospector stories till after 8pm when he said he needed to get going.  His vehicle was parked another couple miles downstream in a hidden gulch.  I convinced him to let me drive him down in the RZR and got a chance to use the myriad LED light bars on my rig to light the way.  We found the road he had driven even though he had broomed off his tire tracks.  Well, we got to his parking spot to find nothing but emptiness.  We knew it was the right place because the thief had thrown out the hiker's trash and a gallon of water.  That made for a long night back at our camp, where we drank and cursed the dirty dogs until after midnight.

The next morning we drove back down for a view in the daylight.  The only track was a motorbike track, with one knobby front tire and a nearly slick rear tire.  No tracks or footwear impressions to speak of.  I think the sly dogs had used the hiker's own broom to brush out their own tracks where they would have broken into the car, reconnected the battery cables and hotwired the ignition.  We did a full circle around the area, there are no inhabitants for over 10 rough miles.  The road itself is not suitable for travel for anything but offroad capable vehicles and its just not a stretch of any interest expect for prospectors who know the placer history.  An unlucky day for sure.  

Anyway, the hiker did have a satellite phone and was able to call for a ride.  We futzed around with him most of the day till his ride could get there, so no detecting to speak of that day.  

Part II to follow with 2 full days of detecting.

 

[Condor]

Baja terrain can be tough to navigate.

[GotAU?]

Great write up, your posts have international acclaim!

[Condor]

Part II

Wed we got up early and worked our way up our new trail, this time with marking paint to mark not only the route, but at times the exact location for wheel placement.  Off by a few inches in some spots would come a nasty and expensive surprise.  The RZR is slung pretty low and we bottomed out in a number of places, but the low center of gravity kept us gripped to the bedrock at some impressive angles.  We got to within a 1/4 mile of our intended start spot and clambered up the sidewall to an old Desert Bighorn Sheep trail.  We got over to a new wash that contained numerous old drywash zones.  Unfortunately, there was plenty of evidence that someone had been ahead of us by a couple months.  Lots of dig holes.  The Miramar Placers are no big secret among people that prospect Baja, but some of the locations are not obvious without exploration.  I went back to an exposed bedrock area that I had detected on our last trip in 2019.  I had previously spent about 3 hrs on this spot about the size of a basketball court in 2019.  I dug a number of nuggets, many in the half gram range back then with the GPZ.  The GPX6000 made the spot come alive again.  I dug 15 nuggets in about 2 hours, all micro nuggets, some right between my previous dig holes.  The 6000 made the alkali encrusted bedrock more tame, and the micro nuggets were clear and distinct with the absolute minimum Sens.  My detecting partner is still dragging the dinosaur 7000 and watched in wonder.   Total weight day 1 of detecting was 2.6 grams, as I said, all micro nuggets.  My partner managed to scare up one nugget .33 gram.

Thursday, day 2 of detecting my partner was discouraged by all the dig holes and decided not to make to long trek on the sheep trail.  I packed the 6000 into my hunting style fanny pack and made the hike up and over the ridge.  I decided to do what the 6000 does best, hunt the old shallow decomposed bedrock for the squeakers that everyone else had passed by.  I put in a pretty long day and burned a lot of shoe leather but I found gold in nearly every spot that showed bedrock.  Squeakers for sure, but it sure beats the skunk.  I ended up with 10 for the day, some with a little more weight, but certainly nothing up to half gram.  

On my way back to camp I came across this nice full curl ram on a small ridge next to our trail.   I was within 25 yards and he was obviously cautious but did not spook.  I watched for a while and found he was preoccupied with 2 coyotes harassing him.  The ram was using the bluff between him and me to protect his backside and facing the coyotes head on.  Anytime he turned away, one of the coyotes would creep up on him and the other make a faint charge.  The ram seemed healthy enough, but you never know, maybe it was his time.  Baja is a harsh environment, everything is fighting for survival.  

We decided to call it a trip on Fri morning and head back to AZ.  We got to the border at 11:30 am, and spent 2.5 hours in line to cross.  What an ordeal sitting in that endless line of cars, having to try and ignore a steady stream of infirmed, crippled and poor beggars on the street.  Baja is hard on all Gods creatures.  

 

[Valens Legacy]

Thanks for sharing the adventure and the photos of which just shows how rugged the area is.

Good luck on your next hunt.

[rvpopeye]

Quite an adventure !

 

 

[F350Platinum]

My new phone (Galaxy) seems to have an orientation issue when saving. 😵

Tip: crop-edit the photo just a little bit, and save it before posting, make sure your phone is upright.

I find I have to do that almost every time now.

Great finds, be careful out there. 👍

[strick]

Nice story thanks for sharing That ram was close...I seen 3 coyotes fighting over a dead rabbit the other day 50 feet off the freeway...the sideways upside down pictures seem to happen when loading to the site from cell phones...best way is to load them on your desk top when you get home and up load from there. 

strick 

[beatup]

man Steve you always have the most interesting time down south of the boarder

[GB_Amateur]

21 hours ago, Condor said:

I can't for the life of me fix these photos so they're right side up.

Might help if you keep your RZR on its four wheels....    Excellent chronicle!  Thanks.