black bear ranch needs you !!!

Dan — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 07:04:45 GMT

i just want to tell all my friends here about the black bear ranch,
its nestled in the siskyoo alps of northern california. it is a commune in the best sense of the word.
i spent over a year there and i love the place deeply,
the reason i am writing this is that this holy place needs are help.
the main house is nearly 100 years old and in need of serious repair. pretty much anyone with skills could be huge help !
it would also be a great place to get some skills.
if you think you can help or you would like more info please contact the black bear ranch tribe.
namaste

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 1 reply

location, location, location?

Sat, 26 Feb 2005 17:15:01 GMT

maybe I'm being stupid, but are there directions for the baja gathering posted anywhere?

Thanks so much.

Love you all,

Tim

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 1 reply

rides forp the gathering

Dan — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 19:40:42 GMT

hey there folks it is gettin close i hope you all are gonna go to the gathering,leave a response here or contact i have some friends leaving from toucson az.
much love
Dan

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 0 replies

A bad fall

Dan — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 01:59:40 GMT

i am presently in bahia de los angeles ,
yesteday i fell off a ponga and sprained my knee
i am in a lot of pain and have decided to go back to cali to heal
I am hoping to make another trip for the gathering in early feb for the festival at todo santos then to get readyt for the gathering in march
peace love light

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 9 replies

When?

Liz4whirledpeas — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 23:52:37 GMT

When is the date for the Baja gathering? I have a busy traveling and working schedule, so I have to plan a little ahead sometimes.

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 7 replies

greatings folks

Dan — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 16:26:02 GMT

Wow!
i am only 40 miles north of the'line' or linea ,
it has been raining constantly since i have arrived here ,
i am waiting for the rains to cease to travel ,
as the roads are not the best.
fist stop tecate to find my friend kiki,
who was at the last gathering and decided to stay in mexico!
so i am very excited about this!
peace

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 1 reply

ride share

Dan — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:26:40 GMT

please post your rides and rides needed here also you can get a membership at www.kindrideshare.org please also feel free to post discussion and opinions in separate posts that way this section will be less cumbersome easier to use .
thank you all
D

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 0 replies

Vados y Chubascos

Fri, 19 Nov 2004 06:38:36 GMT

Vados y Chubascos

By Brian R.

South of Puertocitos, Baja Norte, Mexico

In late October of 2000 I vacationed in Baja, Mexico, for two weeks with two long-time friends, Joe and Greg, in a 1972 Jeep Wagoneer that we bought especially for the trip. We had planned the trip for months, and when it came time to head to the border, we found our desire for hot Mexican sunshine and sand intense. We drove for two days straight from Seattle before reaching the border at Tijuana.

One cool, early afternoon, about halfway down the Baja Peninsula in a small town called Guerrero Negro, we pulled into a Pemex station to fill up the tank and five-gallon containers strapped to the top of the Jeep. A routine check under the hood found that our transmission fluid was leaking into the engine coolant.

As rain from a chubasco, a tropical storm, began pelting the top of the Jeep, we steered into a local garage and agreed to have the local mechanics do what they could to weld shut the leaking part, as well as take a peek at the problem with our automatic windows, which were frozen in the "up" position after a wild and grueling day journey across 100 miles of jarring dirt road along and above the aqua blue Sea of Cortez.

Four hours, a few margaritas, three bowls of fresh seafood soup, and $60 later, we headed south out of town a few miles, only to find our transmission slipping from a bad repair job -- the fluids were still mixing! We limped the jeep back into Guerrero Negro and began looking for an old friend of mine -- Juan Lopez Lopez -- a famous local Baja 1000 mechanic who had saved me twice before when my car had broken down there.

It had been years since I had seen Juan's shop, and I couldn't seem to find it along the main pothole-covered road. So we pulled into a dirt driveway and an old man came out to see what we wanted. I asked him if he knew where Juan Lopez's shop was, and in Spanish, he said, "That's me!" He was covered in grime, and looked more disheveled than I remembered. The shop had a few new additions as well. A few cervezas and several crude dirt drawings of our motor, radiador, and hoses later , we each shook Juan's hand, and rolled south out of town again, along Highway 1. About 50 miles down the road, in the middle of the Vizcaino Desert and in drizzling rain, the transmission began slipping again.

Fortunately, this time we were a few hundred feet from a small village along that stretch of highway. Later, I found out the next town, Vizcaino, was more than 30 miles away. Joe pulled the Jeep onto a slippery road entering the village and three little Mexican boys came out from their nearby home to greet us.

While Joe dropped under the Jeep to check things out, I asked the boys to help me find some transmission fluid. Winding through the maze of tiny homes, they led me to an old woman's tiny shack that served as the grocery store for the 55 denizens of the village. I bought each of the boys a Pinafiel soda for helping me find the old woman, and we spoke Spanish as they helped me carry seven pints of transmission fluid back to the car. I asked them what the most dangerous thing was about living in the middle of the desert, and in unison they shouted "The floods!" I laughed. "How can you be worried about floods in the middle of the desert?" Wide-eyed, they shook their heads at me.

It turned out Juan used a water hose where a fuel hose should be, and the water hose burst from pressure. We had transmission fluid, but no spare fuel hose. At that moment, Raphael, the village sheriff and father of the oldest boy, pulled off Highway 1 in his van, and after surveying our situation, proceeded to hand over five feet of pristine fuel hose he found buried inside his van. In minutes we were back in business, and we found ourselves invited into Raphael's small home to swap stories and sip Sol and Tecate for the evening, since it was quickly getting dark. Determined to press forward the last 120 mountainous miles into San Ignacio, we bought some spare ice from Raphael, said our goodbyes to him and his family, and as we turned away I tossed a pocketful of pesos throughout their garden on the side of the house, for the young ones to find on a sunnier day.

Sixty miles later, things were rolling along smoothly as the chubasco churned around the safety of the Jeep in the blackness. At one point, someone noticed fewer and fewer cars coming toward us from the opposite direction. Finally, we came upon a line of cars lined up on the side of the road. We passed them only to discover a small river had flooded a vado, a dip in the road for washouts that sometimes happen during Baja rainstorms. We slowly crossed the stream and soon found several more one- to two-foot deep washouts in the vados in the miles ahead. Steadfast, we continued on up the mountain pass as fewer and fewer vehicles passed.

Cars gave way to large trucks, and eventually we found we were alone along the road for several long minutes at a time. Suddenly, the road lit up ahead and again we found ourselves behind a small traffic jam. Stuck behind two Baja 1000 offroad pickups, we poked our heads into the rain and were shocked to see a 150-foot wide raging river, complete with large tree parts and bubbling eddies, flowing across the road below. The rain was coming down hard, and the Jeep was too packed with gear to sleep in it. Turning around would have likely found us facing another deep washout.

While heavy in thought inside the Jeep, we noticed one of the lifted pickups begin to reluctantly wade across the river. We watched in amazement as the truck was slammed with water on the left side as the driver struggled to keep the car moving forward. The pickup then lost traction toward the middle of the river, and began sliding. The car was floating downriver! After a few moments, the truck touched bottom again and the driver punched it. The pickup climbed out the other side of the river, just before sliding over the drop-off at the edge of the road.

Inspired, heart bursting, it was my turn to take us across. I noticed no one volunteered for the task, and I wasn't sure I was going to hand my life over to someone else anyhow, so I kept quiet. Roosting in the shallows, we decided that our car was heavier thanks to the gear in the back and on top, and that our chances of floating were far less.

I swallowed hard as I eased the Jeep into the water, feeling my way across. The only thing lighting the way was our headlights, which were soon engulfed by water. My anxiety grew as I realized the engine was going to be completely submerged for more than a few moments, and that we were not going to have enough light to make sure we made it across in a straight line. Soon, thick water began washing over the hood. Not long after, we were hit by a torrent of water on the driver's side. I looked out the window to my left, and saw nothing but thrashing, black water. The river came up over the windshield, and over the roof of the car. The Jeep began rocking, and I noticed we were going too slowly. I tapped on the gas and realized we weren't moving anymore. Panicked, I fell speechless. My two friends yelled "floor it!" and I mumbled, "I am." Then we felt the car start to move sideways.

Just as I began to consider putting the car in reverse, suddenly, the engine died. No surprise, really -- it had been underwater for about a minute. We sat silently, watching the black, frenzied river swallow our car. Through the rain-pelted windshield, I saw a broken tree float past the front of the car, in the dark. Somebody suggested we break the windows, which were stuck. But it was clear that if anyone exited a broken window, they would have to exit on the right, and then carefully climb on top or be washed away without much of a fight. Opening a door would have been suicide.

As we spent several moments contemplating our next move, the car began sliding again toward the edge of the road, where a four-foot drop-off was sure to turn the Jeep over on its side. After several seconds, the sliding stopped. It felt like a log prevented us from going farther downstream. The car creaked and vibrated against the river that hammered its left side. All the while, I instinctively turned the ignition key every few seconds. Then I noticed the car was still in "Drive." Shoving the shift lever into "Park," I turned the key again but heard nothing but the roar of the water swirling around us.

I kept trying. Eternity passed and my mind tried to avoid the inevitable. Then, hope -- a quiet spark from under the hood. Was it dying, or coming back to life? One more desperate turning of the key in my sweaty palm - disbelief - the engine began to sputter! It was as if God himself reached into the water to towel dry the distributor cap!

The engine roared as the water-clogged muffler blew away from the side of the engine. Cheers of excitement and surprise didn't distract me from stomping on the gas pedal, and we sailed like a Harley-Davidson jet ski across the far side of the river. Gloriously, river water turned white in our headlights as it engulfed the sides of our car. Somehow, I knew there were no more rivers to cross that night, and I was right.

Just before reaching San Ignacio, we stumbled into a particularly pesky military checkpoint, partially hidden in the darkness of the storm-soaked mountains. We stood in the rain for a half hour as our car was searched, since it appeared we were trying to dodge the checkpoint. The young military official wanted Joe's beatup portable stereo as a souvenir. Normally, this would have been intimidating, but we shook our heads and grabbed the stereo right out of the gun-toting official's hands, in the middle of nowhere at night. The truth is, we couldn't see our way 30 feet in front of us, and I made a wrong turn.

At last, all danger was left behind as we stumbled into the local "Beans and Rice" restaurant. The only two cars in the lot were the two pickups we had run into at the river. We celebrated our survival by having frosty, lime margaritas and fresh, steaming seafood with hot tortillas and rice. Videotaped Baja 1000 racing footage played over the color television in the corner. I felt newfound respect for the drivers in the video who were flying across the rugged Baja terrain at 80 miles per hour.

The next morning outside our room at the Oasis motel, we shared a good laugh as we reattached the muffler and started the engine, and watched a six-foot geyser spout from the back end of the car, just missing my leg.

After arriving back in Seattle a week and a half later, I took a few hours to put together a small web site I promised to make for Juan, our mechanic. I don't believe he's ever seen his own web site, but you can give him a visit and share a cerveza or two with him at www.geocities.com/BajaMecanico

Ni modo.

Copyright ©brianrichard.com ™. All rights reserved.

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 1 reply

tales of baja!!!!!

Dan — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 22:32:14 GMT

please post storys of questioons about or comments about your experiences here!!
this could be fun!

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 1 reply

Thank you

Sun, 14 Nov 2004 20:32:00 GMT

Thanks for the invite Dan. :)

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 1 reply

address for baja gathering info

Dan — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 22:30:15 GMT

www.indybay.org/news/2004/01/1668309.php
thisa is the address for the info for last years gathering.
they were a little optomistic about the numbers but there is a lot of good info here please check it out .
i do not know how to import links yet but when ido ill put one in.
peace friends
Dan

posted in bajarainbowgathering - 3 replies

bajarainbowgathering's topics - tribe.net

black bear ranch needs you !!!

location, location, location?

rides forp the gathering

A bad fall

When?

greatings folks

ride share

Vados y Chubascos

tales of baja!!!!!

Thank you

address for baja gathering info