Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128204
2003 FMF Baja Mar • (Left) No wonder gas prices are so high· we took it all to Mexico! (Right) GNCC Champion Rodney Smith shows us how to cross a ravine. If he had shown me this earlier, he wouldn't have had to dig me out of one later. (Below) The goat feast. FMPs Art guy Mitch Ikemoto. Race Tech's Ash Vaughan. Everyone. Don't go into Baja without tools· is that a beer In his hand? you immediately understand why. Baja Mar offers 27 holes among the Lagos, Oceano and Vista courses with really affordable rates for such a nice course. Hotel guests pay $56 Monday through Thursday, and $70 Friday through Sunday; both prices include a cart. Bill Keefe and I played in a scrambles tournament (18 holes) and actually finished pretty well, and then we decided to play the nine-hole Oceano course one more time before it got dark. We couldn't resist. That night we made the trek into Ensenada for a little fun. I can't really talk about the trip that night. As the saying goes, what happens in Ensenada stays in Ensenada. Our return mileage back to Tecate was a little less than the first day's route, due to the elimination of some 46 MARCH 12.2003' .. U .. I of the AA cut-out loops (there were multiple cut outs the first day for the die-hard guys) to add extra mileage. I was having a great day. I felt totally in sync and felt like I was riding really well. I was also having a total blast on the KTM. I really couldn't believe how good the little Katoom was. The bike handles really nice in the tight stuff, and it really kept me from getting too tired out on the trail. The trails were in awesome shape for both of our riding days because it had been raining the week before we arrived. There was hardly any dust. allowing us to ride in close formation while still seeing where we were going. This is where my day got crappy (or so I was told). We were within 20 to 30 minutes of our fuel stop, riding e n e vv s along a fence line that we had used in both directions on the trip, and the area was vaguely familiar. I was riding behind Bill and Mike and ahead of Mitch and Ash. We were approaching a section of trail that appeared to go up a rise before dropping down into a ravine and then back up the other side to then make a right-hand turn onto the trail again. I rode up over the first blind rise and immediately realized that my notion of where the trail went was completely wrong. The next thing I remember was sitting in a ditch with a whole bunch of guys looking at me funny and asking me if I was alright. In my dazed and confused state, I didn't know because I didn't know why I was sitting there dazed and confused in the first place. The one thing I did know was that I was in Mexico on the FMF ride. What I couldn't recall was the fact that I was on that bright orange KTM sitting in front of me. I was sitting there trying to get my bearings back, and I remember saying out loud multiple times, "Am I riding that KTM? I don't remember riding a KTM. Why the *&$% am I on a KTM?" Just to add frosting to the cake, one of the guys who had stopped to help me was none other that KTM bigWig Scot Harden. Luckily, at the time, he was more aware of my condition than I was, and I'm sure all is forgiven. Sorry, Scot, I really like the bike, I just didn't remember riding it. In addition to Scot and Mitch, Ash and Rodney Smith were aiso standing around looking at me with funny faces. They told me that when they