Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

- the only deep one. We were moving along at a good speed on this section -of dirt road. 1 noticed that we were encountering these small puddles every now and then. This one snuck up.on us. 1 came around this one comer and Wow! almost ran smack into it. 1 got my bike slowed in time, skirted the edge and went o.n. Ron must have been going faster than I was. He couldn't get his Yamaha stopped in time, so he hit hjs power and went through the middle. Bo.y, he sure was a mess. Mud allover everything. This was 20 miles before we reached Rancho Laguna Chapala. Getting back to Chapala. our meal there was real good but first, if you want to eat, you have to ask them for a place at the dinner table. Ron had to ask one of the truckers to ask for us as were late. It's starting to get dark and we're 100 king for a place to make camp. About eight miles from Chapala we met the Oso Negro group again and made camp with them. Started the third day at six AM. Ron's rear tail light had a bolt and nut missing; also the rubber pad. 1 had a piece of rubber hose on my handle bars that I sue for mounting a chart when 1 ride enduros. We used the rubber hose to make a new pad. Using the nut and bolt out Ron's license plate we were able to finish 'our repairs. Said good-bye to the Oso Negro group and off we went. Last night, Ron lost his plastic gallon jug which we used for carrying extra gas. 297.7 miles on the speedometer is where we tum for Bahia de Los Angeles. 1{0n was doing his thing again. You see this big Baja bus had just passed me. Well. Ron had a chicken contest with this bus. It was the Baja Express that goes from La Paz to T.J. Ron saw it just in time and got by. Less than a mile later, we made our next tum towards Baha de Los Angeles, which is still some 45 miles away. On the way down the road, we came across two VW Bug~ and a Datsun truck from the U.S. We passed them and continued to the Bay of L.A. Ron took up the rear slot. Aha! The Gulf and Bahia de Los Angeles right in front of us. We made it. There's a big, beautifully-made stone hotel belonging to Antero (Papa) Diaz. It'snow 10 P.M. We just finished dinner in the open patio at the hotel with the rest of the guests. ESCO DIRT BIKE STORAGE MAINTENANCE REPAIR GUARANTEED Always ready to ride at a moment's notice monthly rates Freeway convenient PHONE (714) 534·5644 noon to 8 pm 10492 Trask, Unit F, Garden Grove, Ca. 92643 EXECUTIVE SERVICES CO. ED WIGHT Ron is making friends with a scallop diver. He lives on one of the largest islands across the bay from us. His name is Felipe Aveiles. He dives for scallops at 120 feet for 3 hours at a time. Eight or more men live on the island for two-three weeks at a time. Then they are brought to Bahia de Los Angeles for a weekend. Now we have been invited to watch scallops being cleaned by the local people. From the time the scallop boat arrives, they begin shelling and can tinue un til all are shelled. I coun ted 57 of them. Each person shells his (or her) own net full in to a bucket of water. The scallops are then taken out and pu t in a plastic bag. Each person's bag is weighed and tallied. All are put into a freezer to be held for air shipment to their destination. Well, Ron's doing it again:Felipe has him righ t in there with young girls shelling scallops. Looks like Ron will make a good Scallop plucker. Now to bed on the beach. It's nice and W'll'm. Ron went skinny dipping in the Gulf. Me, too. He even mooned me. Got up at six A.M. Had a breakfast of eggs and granola. Packed up and off we went for the ride back. We're 16 miles from Bahia de Los Angeles and I'm following a 1957 Chevy truck. There are two Mexicans in the cab and one on top on a piece of plywood. 1 followed them for abou t one-fourth of a mile. Then all of a sudden the truck slid to a stop. The passenger door flew open and a big Mexican jumped out with a .22 rifle held at port arms (It looked like an agressive move.) Ron was behind and when he saw what was happening, really honked it on with a little manslaughter in mind if he didn't lower the rifle. The Mexican was just staring at me without moving. I motioned for him to close the door. As he noticed Ron riding up he lowered his rifle and closed the truck door for us to pass. (Whew!) Forty-five miles to where the road forks is a building where you can buy gas and beer. Then, a righ t turn to Chapala. We met six fellows from the United States on a Kawasaki, a Husky and a Suzuki with back packs. They were headed for La Paz. We are now back at Santa Inez cattle ranch. We stopped for gas and rest. Ron is now wandering around with camera in hand taking a few pictures_ About 10 miles from Santa Inez, Ron did his final thing. We were going through this rocky hilly area, both going too fast. Came to this shaq> corner going downhill. 1 made it and stopped to see how Ron would do.. He didn't make it. Ron fell down, taking some skin off his left elbow and damaging his pride. We picked up the pieces: one foot peg rubber and his wrist watch. Then we straightened out the rest of his shook-up gear. The road was real good traveling at this point and we were making good time. Our next stop was El Progreso Ranch. We were lucky. This time they had gas for sale. Some 42 miles later, 1 was there but no Ron. I waited five minutes, then 10 minutes, and still no Ron. While waiting I gassed up and had a beer. After waiting 20 minutes, 1 started back to look for him. Just about that time 1 saw his cloud of dust headed my way. He had lost his sleeping bag and had to back track for five miles before he' found it. So we once more repacked his gear. We decided maybe he needed better bungie cords next time. We are now back at the man-mad hell - the poin t where the Mexicans are working on the new highway. Now it's even worse. We had to stay a niile apart to keep from eating the leader's dust. It .was so deep that the bikes would almost vanish when plowing our way through it. This miserable condition kept up til EI Rosario where we stopped to eat and get gas before at Espinoza's place. It's starting to get dark and we thought we'd try some night riding. By now the same road we came down on to EI Rosario is nothing but a dust bowl. It's to-ugh going at night. When we were 5.5 miles from EI Rosario we met two guys from San Francisco. They were in a small MG and dust had gotten to the ignition. Their wheels were 13" and the dust came up over our motorcycle hubs. Behind these boys was another car stuck. It was from T.J. and had three Mexicans in it. We gave them some water from . our canteens. We couldn't do much for anyone so we decided to move on. The road was still bad at this point but where it got good, Ron almost did it again. I was au t in front and saw it first. Rocks in a straight line across the road .... OFFICIAL RACING TEAM ~ Mike Patrick's HOT for HATS CZ. MAICO, HUSKY, SUZUKI, YAMAHA, BULTACO, HONDA, KAWASAKI, TRIUMPH, HARLEY, PENTON. FACTORY EMBLEMS AND COLORS "A CYCLE NEWS PRODUCT" SEND $1.0Q to HOT HATS to P.O. BOX 663 ·EL TORO, CALIFORNIA i': 92675. Specify size S, M, L and TEAM. Calif. ~, residents add 5%. _ Dealer inqu iries invited. ~ : YWHA of COlONA : 1101 E. 6th St. - Corona ~

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