BajaXL 2025 Day 3 - Bahia de Los Angeles to Bahia Concepción
I didn’t want to run today…
Last time this was the section that almost killed her, medium speed sand with hidden rocks. Without a doubt it is some of the most amazing roads in Baja. We start out in a small fishing village headed out among the cacti on a mostly smooth dirt road. It winds itself around small mountains up and around with small beach access scattered about. there are a few rocky sections that our Miata is a champ in because of the narrow and short wheelbase. Then it meanders through soft sand that requires speed to keep moving in 2WD until you encounter a mysterious paved section. From there you pass a small town that had a smooth road to hwy 5. The smooth section of dirt we were cruising at 70 mph, well beyond any posted speed signs in Mexico.
However before encountering the scenic adventure there are a number of pinche vados aka damn dips in the road. As we don’t travel at Plaid this isn’t too much of a concern. Chad on the other hand couldn’t hit the brakes as fast as Dark Helmet and tested his front differential’s skid plate abilities.. They were weak with the force. Emergency road side repairs….
Our first real breakdown.
Chad seriously hurt his truck, this is our third day in Baja an there are another 2000 km left over 7 days. I was following and remember hearing on the radio, “I’ve got a problem.” A statement never uttered by this man. Radioed back and he confirmed yes it is serious. We pulled up and prepared to see the oil pan cracked in half or something truly terrible. Turns out he ‘only’ shattered the front differential case and dislocated one of the half shafts. This is an EZ fix. Took a bit to talk Chad down from sad failure, huge thanks to Mike Madrid stopping to help. He was clutch both in the calm mentality and having a 35mm socket for the wheel nut. It took around 3 hours to remove both half shafts and get his truck back into action. For this serious of a failure it was a solid road side repair/recovery.
Oh do not touch or even thing about touching the fucking cactus thorns. They are evil. Easily took up 20-30 minutes of our time with cussing and flailing about. They will stab you through anything less than Kevlar.
And then our Wolfpack grew from 2 to 3
Mike stuck with us for the rest of the trip, he was an excellent addition to the fun and shenanigans. We vaguely met him in past years, but never got to know him too well. Great dude from local to us! Santa Crus based Taco!
In past years this was one of the most defeating days for us, we cracked the oil pan and I almost wanted to head home. This year with the added protection we were ready and took the rocks like a beast. It did take its toll on Chad though, we made it through as a team.
