Baja Sur - Part 3 of 3 - The summary of kayaking the Sea of Cortez

     From Mulege I paddled into Bahia Concepcion  This added extra miles to the trip but I wanted to see it.  It is a scenic sheltered bay with multiple small islands.  A good place to take novice kayakers but beautiful enough to entice experienced ones.  At Playa Santispac where I camped I was not roughing it.  There were 2 restaurant/bars and an ice cream truck would periodically drive by.  I met a bunch of great people there (Tom and Dan of S/V Persistence, Pete, Janeene, Allen, Cathy, Louie, and Cindy) along with seeing many of the same characters that had been in the bars in Mulege (like the ever present Bob).  It was a fun place to hang out for 2 days with a fishing tournament going on the first day with a big fish fry and "Disco Night" the second.

View from Playa Santispac

Leaving Santispac              

     Once I left Santispac it was time to get serious again.  The section going around the Concepcion Peninsula that forms the bay is the second most remote section of coastline. 

Punta Hornitos - Concepcion Peninsula

     The second day going down the Peninsula turned out to be the scariest day of the trip.  The North winds had started the day before and had built up a good sized swell.  In the morning I thought that it had died down some but I was wrong.  The morning started off with a pod of dolphins not noticing me because of the choppy conditions.  They were leaping out of the water and didn't see me until one landed about 3 feet from the right side of my boat and I started screaming at them.  When that dolphin first launched out of the water I really thought that 200 pounds of dolphin was about to hit me.  That was just the start of the day.  The swells kept building from my left rear side.  In a kayak your butt is basically at water level so your eyes are about 3 feet above the water.  These waves were way over my head so they had to be at least 6 or 7 feet tall.  They would not only block my view of the horizon but they would block out any view of the mountains also.  I had never paddled in water this big.  I would surf down the waves which would cause me to hit wind waves that were blowing sideways from my right causing spray to fly all over me.  At least it was warm water.  The swells were hitting the beach making big surf.  The shore looked even scarier then where I was so I was stuck out there until after several hours I finally got around Punta Santa Theresa which protected me from the swells and I only had to deal with the wind waves. 

Concepcion Peninsula

The first good place to camp that day was a cove called San Sebastian.  This turned out to be a private community but luckily the guy I asked about camping was the land owners son.  Scott and his wife Joy took one look at me, said "we can't send you back out there" and then fed me not only lunch but dinner as well along with showing me a place to camp. 

Camp 33 - San Sebastian

     The next day was still rough but nowhere near as bad and for the rest of the trip I was able to say "at least it's not as bad as that day".  This day I passed a towering rock/mountain with cliffs hundreds of feet high that jutted out into the sea called Punta el Pulpito.  It ended up being the most impressive point of land on the whole coast. 

Punta el Pulpito

Like the entire geologically tortured coast this mountain was made of a variety of different rocks and even had sea caves/arches that I was able to paddle through.  Anchored at the base of this point I met a Canadian couple on S/V Prairie Oyster.  We had a small world experience where they knew of my friends Shawn and Ben's boat, S/V Pangea from when they were in the South Pacific in 2008.  I hiked to the top of the point and it had some great views but was crazy windy. 

View of S/V Prairie Oyster

View north from el Pulpito

    On the beach and in the water where I camped at the foot of the mountain it was covered with gelatinous fish eggs that were about 0.5cm in diameter.  I have no idea what kind they were. 

Fish eggs on beach

     The day before reaching Loreto I went extra miles to get close to town.  The current was also really working against me so I was pretty tired at the end of the day.  However, when I got to where I had planned to camp all the spots sucked and I kept being swarmed by bees.  I tried four different places before deciding to paddle across the 2 mile channel to Isla Coronados.  There was a small island halfway across where I could catch my breath and be sheltered from the current.  I ended up camping on a gorgeous white sand beach but it turned out that the other group camped there was part of a rattlesnake relocation program.  They were trying to catch the snakes that had been hanging around the campground and move them to another part of the island.  If it's not one thing, it's another. 

Camp 36 - Isla Coronados

     Despite being tired from paddling 22 miles against current that day I still had energy so I went for a 1/4 mile swim/snorkel and then ran the 5 mile out and back to the top of the island which had sweeping views of both what I had paddled and the upcoming section. A Baja triathlon. 

View from top of Isla Coronados

     I stopped in Loreto and spent an extra day there.  This was the location of the first successful settlement and Jesuit Mission by the Spanish and is as old a town as you can find in North America.  It was the last place for supplies before the 175 mile run to La Paz.  I had noticeably lost weight by the time I got there.  The first night I had 3 chicken enchiladas with rice and beans at one restaurant and then went and ate an entire family size pizza at another. 

     As I was packing up the boat to leave Loreto a damn Lab came up and started sniffing my gear.  I didn't think anything of it until he lifted his leg and claimed it as his own by pissing on it. At least everything was in dry bags so I could rinse it off.  That day got me to Puerto Escondido which is a great hurricane hole for boats and has a big marina.  It was there that I saw news of the Boston Marathon bombing.  This terrorist attack effected me more then many others since it was directed at my running brethren and I have no problem imagining me or Kathleen being there during the race.  The yacht club there had a big book exchange so I was able to get some new reading material.  The reason books are free in a book exchange is because they all suck.  Way to many murder mystery and romance novels.  I did manage to find a couple of books that worked though - a spy novel and a Revolutionary War historical fiction book. 

Baja Outdoor Activities guided group

     It was the next day of the trip (Day 40) that I saw my first kayakers go by.  I was fishing at the time so didn't have my camera to catch the moment I had been waiting weeks for.  I got up early the next morning to catch up with them and took their picture.  It was a group of 8 clients (including a 77 year old woman)  with one guide from BOA (Baja Outdoor Activities) doing a shorter version of the Loreto to La Paz paddle.  We chatted and the guide warned me that a north wind was supposed to blow for the next two or three days.  That worked for me since I had planned on taking a rest day at a village called Agua Verde.  There is a goat farm and small store there.  The second day I got a little antsy and paddled 10 miles despite the big waves.

Goats herded through camp - Agua Verde

     The next day I met the other group of kayakers that I would see on the trip.  2 couples in 2 tandems.  Janet and Pat have a ton of experience and reminded me of an older version of Kathleen and myself.  The other couple were Greg and Louisa who haven't kayaked but have traveled a lot.  Each morning I would pass their camping spot and they would invite me to shore for coffee.  They would then go past me in the afternoon and camp a little ways further down the coast.  We leap frogged like this for several days.  We would talk kayaking, traveling, and just general adventure.  I even camped with them one night after a town called San Evaristo. 

Pat and Janet

Sunset behind Cerro Caballo

     The next morning I had another example of how great the Mexican people are.  Pat left his wallet at the Tienda (store) the day before.  The owner had checked with all the sailboats anchored in the harbor and then sent fishermen in a panga down the coast to catch the kayakers.  The fishermen gave Pat a ride back to town and he was able to recover his wallet intact. 

     The last days the coastline gradually flattened out into low bluffs and then a very large sandbar that formed Peninsula el Mogote that creates the La Paz harbor.  I saw more turtles in this section then anywhere else and on the last day a new type of vibrant blue jellyfish I hadn't seen before. 

Last bluffs of coastline

Blue jellyfish

     The last night I stopped 2 miles short of the finish line so that I could stare across the harbor of La Paz and reflect on the trip I had just accomplished.  It was weird to be so happy and sad at the same time.  I stayed up late looking at the lights of La Paz (I hadn't seen that much electricity since Los Angeles, CA) and listening to the sounds of music drifting over the water.  With a very large moon rising over it all it seemed as if the last two months were a dream. 

   

View across harbor at La Paz

     The next morning I paddled across the mouth of the harbor to the Hotel La Concha where my Mom was supposed to have checked in the night before.  There was no sign of her when I arrived and the front desk said she was a no show the night before.  Since I had no email or Facebook message from her or anyone I figured she had airplane connection issues.  I sat down at the bar and 3 beers later she showed up after spending the night in the Mexico City airport.  We hung out for a few days in La Paz before I flew back to LA to meet Kathleen, get my truck, and road trip back down to La Paz.  My Mom stayed in La Paz to watch my kayak and gear until I got back.

Just finished - La Concha Hotel

    The trip that I had dreamed of doing for so long was done.  I don't ever need to repeat that paddle but I absolutely would come back down here with friends and do some 10 day or 2 week paddles out to some of the islands I passed.  I never felt unsafe in Baja at all or met anyone else who had any problems.  I can't speak for mainland Mexico but I would recommend coming here to anyone.  Many of the people I met here are in their 60s and 70s driving their RVs.  If they can travel here then my younger outdoor friends should have no problems at all.   

Final Tally:  51 days, 730 miles paddled, 553 miles as the crow flies from San Felipe