Easter in Morro el Fraile

Easter Sunday turned into the best day ever. I had spent the night on a crappy beach next to a 

dirt racetrack with motorcycles, ATVs, and dune buggies racing by and just a little ways from a 

large gypsum mine spewing dust.  I paddled the 7 miles to Santa Rosalia easily. It would have 

taken a hurricane for me not to paddle across the bay. I had low expectations for Santa Rosalia 

and they were exceeded in every way. I paddled into the marina where I promptly met two 

wonderful Canadians Russ and Gwen of S/V A-Train. I don't know if it is possible but Canadians in 

Mexico may be even nicer than Canadians in Canada.  They had absolutely no problem having me leave 

my kayak tied up behind their boat and watching it for me while I went into town for a few hours. 

Turns out randomly that it was Easter which I did not know until I got there. Easter is a big holiday 

in Mexico. 

I went to the store and got some supplies and water. The Mexicans were very interested in my 

water bags as I transferred the water from the plastic jugs into them. Pretty much the consensus 

about my trip is "hardcore" from the gringos and "su es loco" from the Mexicans. I then went and 

ate a real breakfast of eggs,bacon, hash browns, and toast. The next trick was trying to find 

Internet. All the places were closed since it was a holiday. I even had a Mexican guy try to help me 

find a place, who later I learned had been deported from Tacoma (of all places) 2 weeks before. 

I gave up on that mission but then on a whim stopped at a restaurant across the street from the 

marina for a beer and they had Wifi. I got to chat with Kathleen and my Mom so all my main 

goals for the day had been completed. I went back to my boat, loaded up, thanked Gwen and 

Russ for their help and paddled a few miles out of town to where I knew there was a place to camp. 

Morro el Fraile is the most spectacular camping spot on the planet. It is going to be really hard 

to ever beat this spot. A flat ledge with water almost 3/4 around it that jutted out from the land. It 

was made of sandstone and the rock was full of shells and fossils. I was able to jump off the ledge 

and snorkel around the rocks, kelp, and coral. Sea lions and whales swam by a short distance from 

the ledge. Because the ledge juts so far out into the water, people came there to fish and probably 

have for 100s of years. Here the technique is to use a weighted hook with a piece of fish as bait. 

They would twirl the hook through the air and then launch it as far as they could. Some of the guys 

could really get it out there. It appeared that the further you could throw then the more fish you 

caught. 

A Mexican family (two brothers Javier and Marcos, their wives, kids, and Mom) caught some 

fish and then invited me to have some ceviche they made right there. It is funny. The Mexicans are 

always very concerned about me and their hot sauces. That day was the first day when I was truly 

frustrated not being able to have conversation in Spanish. The sunset was of course amazing. The flat 

water turned a rainbow of colors while the sky did its yellow to red to purple transition. 

I killed the batteries on  both my video and still camera. That was followed by a bazillion stars with 

meteors streaking overhead. I fell asleep to the sound of whales breathing. It really was an almost out 

of body experience kind of day and the high from it still lingers. The only thing that could have 

possibly made it better was if Kathleen had been there to share the experience. 

The internet lied: Grinding it out to Santa Rosalia

Kids. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. LA Bay to Santa Rosalia I knew was going to be one of the longest legs. Turns out it is hands down the longest. My Internet research found a site with pretty exact milages listed for this leg that said it was 139 miles. Boy was that wrong. The guy must have been smoking crack when he was  looking at his GPS. I ended up paddling almost 190 miles to complete it. Took me a couple of days to realize how off it was and that I needed to refigure on the charts. Made it to Santa Rosalia with one day of water left. Cut it kind of close. Psychologically it was a rough week at times. The realization of the added distance got added to the fact that I was in a grind out the miles part of the trip. The first two weeks you have excitement of the adventure and something new to get you going. Week three into four you have "wow, I have gone 200 miles which is an achievement but there are  still 500 to go!"  That and a rough day on the water (high wind and rough water in a bad spot of coastline) coming around Punta las Animas put me in a bit of a funk. However by the end if the leg I was better.  Had some beautiful camping spots, the weather has been very cooperative, and I have passed the halfway mark which means it is all downhill from here. 3 days gets me to Mulege which is the gateway to Conception Bay, one of the premier kayaking spots in Baja. So far I have only seen local fishing pangas. I have seen no other kayakers, no sailboats, no fishing trawlers, or a cargo ship until I got to Santa Rosalia. There I finally saw a cargo ship loading gypsum and a pair of sailboats.   The next section has Highway 1 (the main road up and down Baja) along it so I may see more people along here then anywhere else. If I don't see kayaks in Conception Bay then I may never see any. I was surprised I didn't see any in LA Bay. 

The wildlife highlight of this section (there are many to choose from) was a 2+ mile long line of whales (50 to 100 to I have no idea how many) that were leaping out of the water and making loud smacks when they hit the water. It sounded like thunder. It went on for about 5 minutes before the settled down and just went back to being a whale parade headed north.  Amazing to watch but too far away to film. 

More when I can report again. 

Through the Heart of The Wall

First time I have gotten to a computer. Can´t find WiFi or I would add some pictures. Red sky in morning, red sky at night. Amazing sunrises and sets. Wildlife galore. Whales breathing as I sleep in my tent. Dolphins frolicking outside my tent. Sea lions grappling birds 20 yards off of my kayak. Just under 200 miles done at this point. The first week was a good warmup with lots of houses and a road nearby. This last week was the most technical section. The most remote area with no road anywhere near and the cliffs went straight into the ocean. Very few beaches if the wind picked up. Next section is 139 miles to Santa Rosalia which is just short of the halfway point. It tends to be very windy here. I have had 3 days of calm out of 13. I get up very early to get as many miles in before the afternoon winds start to pick up (usually starting at 9am. So far I have had one fisherman offer me marijuana and 2 run ins with the Mexican Navy so I would say so far the authorities are winning the drug war. All the Americans and Canadians that live down here feel quite safe. They say just don´t do dumb things just like in the US. I have met some great people here. People have invited me to their houses, fed me, given me rides to the market, etc. Both expats and the Mexican people. This is the 5th time I have been to Mexico and each time it has been great. The hardest part of this trip is missing Kathleen but I can look at the mountains and water and have to pinch myself that I am actually living this dream. It will be over before I know it. The funny thing is I keep dreaming about snow.

Into Mexico

     So I made it out of town.  Everything took much longer to get done then expected but eventually it got done.  The entire house was packed into boxes and everything was put into a storage shed for the foreseeable future.  Initially the storage shed was neatly stacked and packed but I will admit by the end I was just throwing things into it to get it done.  If there is an earthquake there will be major problems trying to get the door open.  While I was piling stuff in there I did have some moments where I was convinced I was about to be buried in a crap-a-lanche of my own belongings.  I managed to get everything done with only a few scrapes and cuts on my hands and shins. 
     I have now spent the last 5 days taking my time visiting friends as I made my way to Juli's house in LA out of which I am staging the Baja trip. I spent a night in Portland and then 3 nights in Northern California visiting friends from High School, undergrad, vet school, and former coworkers.  It was a relaxing few days to catch up with old friends and to slowly get my head wrapped around the upcoming weeks.  Good food, a few drinks, and chatting it up with friends I hadn't seen in way too many years was the perfect way to immerse myself into the trip.  It also allowed me to catch up on some neglected sleep. I picked up a friend Toby at LAX who is going to come to Mexico with me and then drive my truck back to LA where it will stay while I paddle.  The clouds chased me down then entire way.  I did get some sun yesterday afternoon but even today in LA it is completely overcast.  Meanwhile I hear that Seattle is gorgeous.  Soon after a few weeks of burning under the sun I will probably be praying for clouds.   
     Now that I am dropping into Mexico the amount of communication I will have and internet access will be very intermittent at best.  My cellular service will be disconnected so from now on the only way to contact me will be through email (solsoul@aol.com) or through Facebook. I will only be able to check this when I can get a WiFi signal so it may be 2 months before I can get a solid update posted about my trip.  My SPOT tracker is supposed to update my position on Facebook  but it has not seemed to be working.  At least it has been sending a text message/email to my Mom and Kathleen which is the important thing it needs to do so they don't worry as much.  However on the front page of this blog there is a link for "My current position" which should show my camping spots for the last 7 days. Once I get back and have my own computer I can post pictures again
    The plan is to take a day or two to hang out in San Felipe, get a lay of the land, enjoy being in Baja and set off when the wind allows.  700 miles and 7 weeks later I hope to pull into La Paz.  My Mom has now decided that she is going to go to La Paz so she will meet me there and watch my stuff while I go get my truck and Kathleen to come back down to La Paz and get my boat and gear.  As a result I will have a much nicer hotel room then I would otherwise once I get to La Paz.  I will update as soon as I can.  Thanks to everyone for the support and help, especially Kathleen, my Mom, Juli and Morgan for being home base LA,  Nicole, Nick, and Heather for feeding me and giving me shelter on the drive down, Toby for helping with the launch, and GU for the support on this expedition. 

Last minute prep and butterflies

A thousand and one different little odds and ends that have either gotten done or need to be done at this point.  The list never ends.  ..................Sort gear for the kayak trip, dehydrating and organizing food, sorting gear for the backpacking section, arranging plane tickets, arranging couch surfing with friends and family in Europe, getting up to date on vaccines, filling prescriptions for being gone including malaria prophylaxis, training for the physicality of what we are going to do, planning a wedding in Thailand including sending out the invitations, getting my powers of attorney/banking/taxes/medical insurance arranged for being gone for 2 years, getting car insurance and an international drivers license for Mexico,  getting passport photos for visas, packing the house into storage, change of addresses, finishing up working at the hospital, trying to grab in a last day of skiing or two, organizing medical and repair kits, sanding down the boat bottom to make it hydrodynamic and resealing the bulkheads to make them water tight, registering EPIRBS (satellite emergency beacon), arranging some sponsors, working on learning a little more Spanish, figuring out Skype and cell phones for communicating with home, throwing a going away party......................................., ad nauseam.   I eventually had to make a list of all the little lists I had.
However, now with less then 2 weeks to go before the rubber hits the road it seems like it is all coming together.  Most of the time I have been too busy to think about things, especially with my last days at work at the hospital.  It is better that way.  At the times where things slow down I can have my occasional brief freak out.  The magnitude of what we are about to attempt hits me like a ton of bricks.  I have been on multiple 3 month trips and a couple of 6 month long trips but never 2 years.  This trip is like taking many of my previous trips and combining it into one huge package.  As before any of my big trips it is a combination of excitement with some fear of the unknown mixed in.  It ends up like a big ball of butterflies in my stomach.  The same kind of feeling when you first meet someone you really like, or when you are about to go for a big interview, or about to go on stage in front of a lot of people.  Mostly it's excitement but I really just need to get this ball rolling.
In the meantime, I think I will just go pack.

Help from unexpected places

     We are very excited to announce that a couple of generous companies have graciously elected to help support our upcoming trip.  The great thing is that with both companies we use their products on a regular basis with our adventures.  It is an honor to represent two great product lines. Both companies products work equally well whether you are running, biking, hiking, or kayaking.
     Ultraspire is a company that makes hydration packs, belts, and handheld water bottles.  Kathleen has been one of their Elite Immortal athletes for a couple of years.  She tends to use either the Spry or Surge backpack on long runs and I use the Kinetic vest.  I love my Kinetic and it was what I ran Cascade Crest 100 in.  31 hours of running and no chaffing with the perfect amount of carrying capacity for a supported run.  We also have an assortment of their handheld water bottles around the house.  For the trip they have given Kathleen one of their Fastpacks which has more carrying capacity since we will be out for multiple days on some of the runs we have planned.  I will be using an Ultraspire Fastpack also.  For more information on their products go to www.utraspire.net.
     Gu Energy Labs is a producer of nutritional products to help power you on your adventures and in recovery afterwards.  They make energy gels, chews, electrolyte solutions, and a recovery brew.  On long efforts we try to eat every 30 to 45 minutes so the GU gels and chews provide a quick easily digestible energy source that comes in a small easily carried package.  I use these a lot so if you are what you eat I probably have at least one foot that is made of GU.  There are a variety of flavors (some with caffeine) that we enjoy though sometimes Kathleen and I might arm wrestle over the Mint Chocolate ones since those tend to be the favorite.  Kathleen also tends to use their Roctane gels when she races. Gu Energy Labs will be a main source of our training fuel over the course of this adventure. Their website is http://guenergy.com.
     Not only do these two companies produce top-notch products, but the people behind these businesses have been extraordinarily encouraging, kind, and supportive of our plans.  A HUGE thanks goes out to them.


     Lastly, many of you know that Kathleen entered in a contest with First Endurance.  The contest had already been going on for a couple of weeks so she was behind from the start but still managed to get to third place with everyones help.  Thank you if you voted.  First Endurance awarded a runner-up prize to the contestant with the most compelling story.  Our upcoming trip caught their attention so Kathleen was awarded a years supply of Optygen HP.  It is a supplement that is designed to improve endurance and performance.  Stay tuned and Kathleen can let us know how it works in a few months.    

The Plan (for now)

     So a lot of people have been curious about what our plans for this little escapade are going to be.  There have been some of you that have also been interested in meeting us in certain places so we wanted to send out a rough timeline about what we are thinking.  That said, no plan ever survives intact once implementation begins.  Part of the beauty of our trip is that it is free form.  With the exception of the initial plane ticket and our wedding in November we are not locked into anything.  If we meet people on the way, hear of someplace cool to go that we weren't aware of, or decide we really like someplace and want to stay there awhile, then we can do that. The plan of course also relies on us staying safe, healthy, and not going broke. 
     With that caveat, the current plan is as follows.  My last day of work is 17 February.  That gives us 10 days to pack up the house into storage and load my truck with a lot of gear and two kayaks.  Kathleen will finish up work in Seattle while I will set off on a 700 mile solo sea kayak trip down the length of the Baja Peninsula in the Sea of Cortez from San Felipe to La Paz.  I have been dreaming of this trip for over 20 years and can't believe that it is finally coming to fruition.  I plan to take 7 weeks to do this which works out to 16.7 miles a day with one rest/weather day per week.  I can carry 10 days of water so have to get to resupply points/towns in that amount of time.  Much of this paddle is very remote along roadless desert.  The pictures I have seen are jaw dropping beautiful.  Many photos and video will be shot along the way. Being separated from Kathleen for 2 months is the only drawback to this part of the plan.
     At the end of the paddle I will reunite with Kathleen, my truck, and the other kayak.  There are some bays on the west side of Baja where the whales come to mate.  I am excited to show this to Kathleen and be able to do some day paddles in this area.  Eventually our road trip will lead us back to the states ending up at my Mom's house in Durango, CO.  We will spend a week there saying good bye to family before spending the last week of May on the Front Range with friends.
      Then begins World Tour in earnest.  We will fly from Denver to London on 31 May with a week long layover in Iceland.  Serious trail running will now ensue.  The rest of June will be spent in Ireland visiting Kathleen's relatives and running the drumlins and eskers that make up the landscape.  This month will be the training for our upcoming Alp-capades.  From the British Isles it will be a hop over to Oslo.  There an old high school exchange student that I haven't seen in over 25 years has offered to put us up and show us around her corner of Norway.  Then it is down to Germany to see more relatives and by this time the snow should have melted from the Alps.  Much of July and August will be spent doing long trail runs through the Dolomites, Alps, and Pyrenees Mountain Ranges including the Tour de Mt Blanc over 4 days.  For September we are planning on going to Turkey and trekking the Lycian Way.  This is a 300 mile trek along the southern coast and we are considering this our "warm up" trek.
     October will signal that it is time to switch continents.  We plan to take the Trans-Siberian express using the Trans-Mongolian route as the way to travel to Beijing and then Southeast Asia where we will spend the winter.  We have a 4 month window to see this section of the world.  Our wedding will be on 29 November on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand.  The rest of the time will be spent exploring.  Myanmar and Vietnam are high on my list but Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos are also on the list.  We hope to find some volunteer work during this time.  Veterinarians Without Borders is doing some excellent work in Laos and I hope to find something similar in Vietnam. 
     Once the snows start melting in March it will be time to move on to Nepal.  Besides going on world tour Kathleen has always dreamed about doing an epic long hike like the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail.  I introduced her to something called the Great Himalaya Trail and now we want to attempt the Nepal section of this.  This trail basically traverses Nepal.  It is an almost 1000 mile hike involving multiple 20,000 feet high passes.  It has only been done a handful of times.  The hazards and obstacles are numerous including high altitude, navigation, crevasse hazard, technical climbing and rappels, finding food, river/stream crossings, rockfall, and the remnants of the Maoist revolution.  It makes Kathleen (and me) giddy just thinking about attempting it.  This will likely take us about 4 months if we succeed.  Ideally this is how we will end up in northern India.
     At this point the plan becomes fuzzier as it is getting to be too far into the future.  The rough idea is to spend some time in India before moving on to East Africa.  I am not sure if we will have the time or money but in a perfect world we would attempt to make on overland journey down the length of East Africa from Ethiopia to South Africa.  This would be getting us into the winter of 2014/2015 which is summer in the southern hemisphere.  We want to spend time in Patagonia doing some trekking and Kathleen has expressed interest in climbing Aconcagua (which I summited in 2001).  If we are going to southern Patagonia then I have to go to Tierra del Fuego just so I can say I have been there. 
     The plan is to go to New Zealand last.  We are both afraid that when we go there, we may never leave.  It has always seemed like a paradise of climbing, trail running, trekking, sea kayaking, and skiing.  Kathleen has been but I have only dreamed of it and drooled over pictures. 
      If any of that sounds interesting where you might want to join us for a spell then feel free to contact us.  I can't promise that we won't smell really bad during periods (or a lot) of this trip but if you have a strong nose and a good spirit of adventure then come find us.