Day 22
November 18, 1977
Last night two land hermit crabs found my tipped cup, and in it clattered about all night. This morning I find them hiding in it.
Rise at daylight and a leisurely breakfast of brew and eggs. Some reading and writing then we walk out to the point carrying our boats, and then lash them to the rocks in a vertical position where John will be sure to see them if he paddles past.
We then spend most of the day diving. See a lot of fantastically beautiful fish; indescribable beauty of the first rank. One particular fish, which I hadn't seen before, is a small puffer, two or three inches long, purple with white polka-dots. I find seven or eight of these in shallow water. I shoot a couple of fish: a bass, a cabrilla, and a small needle fish. Al bags two parrot fish, the second one of which breaks his spear into two separate and distinct pieces. I find one pismo clam and also collect a pot of periwinkles.
At dusk our campsite suddenly comes alive with loads of sea shells wandering all over the place. Hermit crabs.
Through out the day Al and I have discussed John, and where he could be. He's had two days to go 55 miles, and should be here by now. We suspect he might have turned back, and returned to Loreto for his van. We toy with the idea of returning ourselves, to look for John on the way back, in case something has happened. But on the other hand, maybe he has passed us somehow. That thought is the more likely, because John is a strong paddler with a don't-give-up attitude; and it pretty much kills the idea of our going back. So we decide to paddle ahead to La Paz, starting early the next morning.
Day 23
November 19, 1977
Up at 2:30 am, a leisurely breakfast, and away an hour before the crack of dawn. Easy going for four hours, then a break. Another 1-1/2 hours and we find a superb diving spot with clear water. It is very beautiful down there. I give up on shooting a big parrot fish. Shoot one point blank, 2 feet away and the spear just bounces off. I quit on these guys!
Paddle another 2-1/2 hours in spectacular country. The day is hot. The sun burns us out, and we have to quit.
8 hours, 29 miles.
Our beaching routine: beach, unload the gear into two piles, one for camp, the other not needed for the evening (diving and fishing gear, paddle, spray skirt, etc. Drain the boat and carry it to high ground. Load the boat with pile number two. Carry pile number one on up to camp. Collect firewood and start the fire. Get a pot of water on. Shoot bearing to determine position, and write in journal over a steaming cup of Irish coffee. Clean fish, set up grill over coals. Open a can of vegetables. No tortillas tonight as John is carrying the maseca, wax paper, press boards and cooking oil. Eat in the dark. Brush teeth, spread out sleeping bag and do yoga for 15-20 minutes. Sleep soundly.
Day 24
November 20, 1977
Get up rather late (4:15) because the sea is rather noisy. Make a quick fire for coffee and shove off by 5:00. I experience a bad case of vertigo this morning. Heavy seas and no light, plus it is raining a bit. Have to quit paddling briefly several times to regain equilibrium. Gradually the day gets a bit light, and I feel much better. The sea is quite choppy and we paddle hard for four hours. We take a shore break for half an hour, and then paddle another four. Because of the rough conditions, we paddle extra hard. The last hour and a half is a real gasser. Push it through though, and make it to our objective.
8 hours, 34 miles.
We stroll down the beach a bit further, looking for a campsite out of the wind, and discover a perfectly waveless cove where we could have beached, but more, where could have good access to the sea in case of heavy surf in the morning.
Day 25
November 21, 1977
Up at 2:00, and paddling by 3:15. The sea is calm, we paddle four hours and take a shore break and a bearing to check our progress. Only ten miles; what a blow. The currents are against us. So we paddle much harder for the next 3-3/4 hours, as if to make up for the effects of current. Finally we find another cove where we can get to land without passing through the awesome surf. It is very hot and we are tired, but here we can break for a couple of hours and get back out to sea again for a bit more paddling.
We lay on the beach with our bodies crammed against the kayaks for the scant shade they offer, and fall asleep.
I awake out of a deep sleep and sit up, looking out at the ocean - when suddenly I see a kayak come around the point! I whistle as loud as I am able. The solitary kayaker gives no response, but paddles past us and continues down the coast.
Al and I jump in the boats and paddle hard. Is this John?
Slowly we close the gap, with spray flying off our bows. We are really cranking. Finally we get close enough to recognize John. We paddle up and surprise him.
So we paddle for another couple of hours and beach it where I think we can portage directly across the spit into Bahia la Paz. Getting through the surf is an experience in itself. It is nearly dark. I set off to cross the spit while Al keeps a watch out for John, who has fallen behind. I did not find the bay, only lots more empty desert; and Al did not find John, only lots more ill-tempered ocean. We think he has beached somewhere behind us.
So we scrounge for firewood, and eat the last of our food in the form of eggs and two cans of verduras. The ol' sleeping bag (and all else) got quite a drenching when I took several breakers, and the boat was quite damp inside. What a joy (not) to crawl into a soggy sleeping bag which is atop a drenched pad, which is upon a soaked poncho, lying on the finest grain sand imaginable - the type of sand that gets into everything and clings to it tenaciously.
We paddled about 11 hours and went 36 miles.
The lights of La Paz are bright and all around us.
Day 26
November 22, 1977
Wake up at dawn, one large mess of clingy sand. The dew last night was something else. It got into everything, and everything is coated in sand. John stops in to say hello, and helps us load our boats. Then we all three take off, paddling quite briskly for an hour to reach the end of the spit. Then after crossing the sound we land on the town's public beach area. John buys his bus ticket for Loreto, and we all have breakfast, not together but in shifts because one of us needs to keep an eye on the kayaks at all times. Back at the boats we make one last paddling jaunt three km down the beach to a hotel named La Posada. We check into a room and take hot showers. John leaves his kayak with us and heads for the bus station, while Al and I spend a couple of hours washing and drying everything.
From my Journal
Reflections of a 500 mile kayak trip whilst nursing a margarita under the influence of a bueno marimba band.
We have arrived in La Paz! And the trip has been fantastic. All I dreamed of and ten times more!
We got up at 3:30 or 4:00 and start paddling in the dark; and from the time the eastern stars disappear, until the sun actually pops over the horizon is about 2 hours. This is the time of day to be out on the ocean. The sea is calm and phosphorescent, the air is till but heavy. The coastline slips silently by, unseen in the murky darkness. It's an experience you have to be there to even get an inkling of how incredible it is.
It was a lot of paddling to be sure, and a lot of hard work - in fact rather exhausting at times. An element of danger in the wild seas, or boring after the 6th hour on a flat ocean.
And the days were hot. Sometimes you'd wake up at night sweating, but couldn't get out of the sleeping bag because of the mosquitoes. Out padding you'd dip your hat in the water 20 times a day, and once in awhile throw a couple handfuls of water on the sweating torso, but do it quick so as not to loose speed. The butt would ache from sitting in the same position, you'd wish you could sit on something else for awhile. Tendons aflame from gripping the paddle. Lots of hard work. You'd come around a point and see the next point way, way down there, almost out of sight. And you would get there in for or five hours and go around that, and there would be the next one in the barely perceptible distance ahead.
But did we see the country! Fantastic. Went for days without seeing anyone. Wild and beautiful coastline and the diving was superb. Thousands of fish, good water clarity, but mostly it was the adventure - the five hundred miles of wild territory. A few towns interspersed to relieve the strain, something to aim for every now and again.
Those campsites, and those incredible sunrises. We'd start paddling in the dark and slowly, ever so slowly, the horizon would get light. The crimson would turn into gold, yellow, then bam! Up comes the sun over the ocean.
The 50 mile day to see what we could do, and a whole slug of 30 and 35 ones. The paddle I made new for this trip is now an old friend, and rather worn. The spear gun has done a lot of shootin', and put a lot of fish on the grill. The coffee pot is well used and is encrusted in black soot.
My wardrobe for the last four weeks has been an old sleeveless shirt, a pair of gym shorts, an old baseball hat that says "Recuerdo de Mulege" (Recuerdo = souvenir) and the tennis shoes I had found back in Yosemite last spring. I used the sleeping bag as a pillow most of the time, except when the bugs were out. It's going to be hard to return to the snowstorms that they are rumored to be having back north.
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My companions? They were superb. John and Al were new to the sea-kayaking game but took just a short while to learn to paddle efficiently and adapt to the Baja coastal environs. They managed to get up to speed in pretty short order.
John is an ex marine and tough as nails, and I think he had the hardest job of all. He had driven to Utah to pick up our kayaks, and then twice mid-trip he had to take the public bus back to his van, and drive back down to join us again. While Al and I were waiting for him, we got to just rest.
After we found each other, ten miles short of La Paz, the three of us put our heads together and figured out what had gone wrong. During our night in Escondito, John was actually in the bar, just near where Al and I had camped. We looked all over everywhere for him and his kayak, but we did not think to look in the bar because I had never once seen John go into a bar. Given the choice, he tends to avoid people. And somehow we missed seeing his kayak. The next day, during our 50 mile run, John was actually ahead of Al and me, as remarkably he started the day even earlier that we had (3:00 am). And more remarkably he had kept ahead us through the day, and even went on another few miles after we had stopped. The next day, while Al and I waited on the beach all day, John was waiting on his beach, because we had agreed a few days ago to do this, in case we missed someone. In the next few days we must have leap-frogged along the coast without seeing one another, for somehow he got behind us. And when, by chance we did reunite, we learned that John had been paddling with a broken blade that was missing half of one side. All this is pretty amazing!
Allen was a superb partner also. He started out a kayaking neophyte, but in only a few days he became a seasoned paddler. I have never seen someone become so proficient in that sort a time. He was rock solid paddler with a good attitude and fun for both John and me to be with.
Loreto
From my journal:
So here I'm in Loreto. Got here last night with John and Al, but decided to stay here for a few days. John has agreed to dump my gear off at my car in San Diego, so I'll work my way up by public bus in a day or two.
I Spent the evening with Chuck and the other O.B instructors. It is Thanksgiving and they had bought a live turkey with plans of a fabulous feast, but no one had the gumption to actually kill the thing. So here sits, the pet turkey in its cage. They plan to ship it off to the course for the hungry students to deal with.
We sat around for hours discussing the various things we had seen and done here in Baja. Stories of paddling over sharks and whales, sleeping over little crabs hidden in the sand which attempt to burst out from under the ground sheet all night. A Moray eel grabbing a fish away from a successful spear fisherman. And another moray grabbing a bite of a fish which was being cleaned several feet from the water. A student hooking a 150 pound marlin that went into a frenzy and completely terrified everyone. A bird diving from high in the air, nabbing a fish, dropping it from altitude - right into the maws of a waiting shark. Capsizing the kayak in the high seas or getting nailed by a scorpion. Having your spear pulled to maximum power and bouncing it off a lunker like it was a brick wall. Good stories, good friends and a wonderful warm, starry night - it was a real pleasure comparing experiences with these guys. It appears rather universal, with our common lifestyle, to become more focused on nature and wildlife.
San Diego
From my journal:
I am writing this now in San Diego. What a trip! The bus trip ride back to the states was really fun and I'm glad I came via that. I met a few Mexicans on the bus including one pretty young senorita who sat next to me for several hours. At the stop in South Rosalia she got off, and five burly commercial fisherman climbed aboard and sat near me. They informed me (in Spanish) that "Don't worry, we're Mexicans, but just don't worry about it." We had a great time. They worked on a boat out of Ensenada and were on a one week leave home. At one of the later stops, one of the guys came looking for me, and bought me a beer and taco at the cantina. It was a nice gesture that he would extend his friendship to a Grino stranger rather than just hanging out with his friends. And I didn't get the impression he was expecting anything in return.
I got a chance to talk with other people on the bus, so it was a good chance to gain insight into the Mexican culture. I only wish I could speak Spanish better to communicate with them on a little higher level. The Mexican people are great, in general of course. Their way of life seems fine, they are friendly and courteous, and always very polite.
I love Baja and its seacoast, and all that they contain. And I really like the people. I'm glad to have the opportunity to experience the sea coast in its golden years, before it sustains the rabid growth similar to that which as befallen the California coast, once the water problem is sorted out down there. For now, it is sea-kayaking paradise, and I am already planning my next trip down next fall.
Baja is a Black Coffee Pot
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Baja is a Black Coffee Pot
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Another Baja Day
A Paddling Poem by Ray Jardine
I long to be under the canopy of bright stars a shining,
Where twilight yet casts its crimson glow upon
A tall and solitary cardon.
Where the sea calls softly with its gentle swells
That lap at the edge of my campsite.
Where the air is warm and still, and scented with aromas of the day's catch
Drooped over the smoldering embers.
It's another Baja evening,
And joyfully we hope to rise early and greet . . .
Another Baja Day.
