BajaXL 2025 Day 1 - Calexico to San Felipe
Today was a good day, making our way across the border then almost immediately hitting the dirt and dusting out all the other rigs. First challenge after getting up was repacking the Miata. Somehow we brought more stuff this year and thus have almost no space. Lots of cramming bags into crevices.
After repacking and pawning off some things to Chad we were ready for the quick trip to store for basic supplies. Filled up on some snacks, cervezas, aqua and forgotten toiletries. Headed to cross the border. Which wasn’t too bad, just some basic inspections of the vehicle then to get our FMM. This process is incredibly strange. Visit one building to show passport and fill out form, followed by walking across the parking lot to the federal bank and paying for the FMM, then walking back to receive your stamped form and passport back. Not hard, but also much more confusing and difficult than necessary.
Since we actually made good time on the dirt without any break downs we ended up in camp at around 8:30 instead of midnight. Meaning we could hang by the campfire!.
Sharing stories from the day. Most rigs made it without too much damage.
While chatting around the campfire we found out that Sam’s new Bronco rear shocks gave up on him, silver Cayenne with four New York guys were having brake troubles and we made few small dents in our undertray.
First impressions from the suspension; loving the wheel control and improved comfort over the Koni circle track shocks. The Koni were good, but didn’t let the suspension move enough on smaller bumps. Aside from being loaded down too much for the rear springs the ride was plush. The calle heading into Laguna Salada is pretty smooth and we ended up cruising around 50-60 mph for most of it until reaching the tighter rockier section.
Will keep track of things as the days progress, but first task is to offload more weight to Chad.
First day is in the bag. Success.
