Backpacking for me has always been a refuge, from my first adult vacation at eighteen up Mount Washington in New Hampshire to the hiking around the mountains of Northern California, I have enjoy getting away from it all.
Most of trips have been solo, since it was hard to find company willing to spend precious vacation days “working” harder than at their day jobs. This time five of us venture out into the wilds of Baja led by primitive skills teacher Rio, who has hike these mountains for the last forty years.
While most feel privileged to wake up in a house, have a factory processed meal, drive a fancy car to work and spend all day in front of a computer screen to return home to sit on the couch and watch Survivor, we were bless to begin the day with meal of raw oats, chia, nuts, and/or dried fruit, getting our hearts pumping by climbing the next ridge, collecting seeds and wild fruits before finding a cool pool to swim in and a flat place to sleep, cooking a meal of tortillas, beans, cabbage, and air, dried deer and settling in front for the bush TV, the fire, telling stories.
There is something to learn from hiking. It is a meditation. It requires focus, flexibility and balance. Hiking up a south face in the hot sun is rewarded by shade that is just over the ridge. It is never up or down, but a series of ups and downs that get us to our goal. We hike along in the heat of the day lost in our own thoughts and then are rewarded with a pool of water that’s too good to pass up for a group swim. Hiking is another metaphor for life.
We began our trip hiking up the Boca de Sierra. It was three days up this arroyo until we could see the Pacific Ocean. We walked along crossing he arroyo as the trail went up through it. Each night we would fine a flat spot by water, cook a big meal and sleep out under the stars. Morning came with the chirp of the birds and the light of day erasing the stars in the sky.
Most mornings, I would find a spot in the arroyo for my morning meditation. After a morning fire to take off the night’s chill, we would eat and pack up for another day of our adventure.
On the forth day we started across the ridges, we would leave the water to climb up and down the ridges until we reach the our next arroyo. Water is a must in the dry tropics. We reached the top of the Agua Caliente water supply which feeds the farm most of us were staying at. Here was a beautiful meadow with willow and oak trees. We had plenty of fallen oak to keep us warm at night.
The next day we took off from the packs and hiked up to the source of our water. It was a beautiful spot where three canyons meet to form a beautiful pool. This arroyo is very rough and a four day hike out of it, without a trail for most of it, but if you venture down it would lead right to our farm.
Day six we bushed whacked to Don Francisco canyon. Bushing whacking in shorts and a tank top is a bad idea and I ended up looking like I tried to take a ferrel cat’s temperature (there is only on way to take a cat’s temperature and it’s not pleasant, ask your veterinarian).
Don Francisco is the Land of the Lorax. Here we entered a pine forest, that was spotted with oaks, yucca, black palms. In Baja the oaks lose their leaves in summer to escape the dry part for the season. They call it the land of the strange trees and it was very special to sleep in such a spot.
After a few years of drought, water was a little hard to find, but we succeeded at the base of the second waterfall, in a small crevice to find the building block of life.
The following day we hike to a Biological Station at the head of Guadalupe de la Zorra Canyon and camped there for the night. We would hike out the la Zorra canyon, but first we were to go to the top of Baja Sur.
We hike to our highest camp the next day and camped the la Laguna, pronounced la la guna. This is a massive lagoon that with many springs. The next day we hike up to the el Picacho and for the saw both the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. It felt good to be at the highest place in our area and that each step from here on out would bring us home.
The high home was challenging and beautiful. We left the la Laguna and hiked past the Biological station and down in to la Zorra canyon. We hike over a long, steep ridge and down the main part of the canyon. We walked for most of the day, going for maybe 15 miles. Knowing that we would have another long day the next we found a camping spot with a couch and celebrated by eating a lot of the extra food we packed.
The next day was another tough day. The canyons get washed out by the hurricanes and the trail disappears and with the free range policy a trail can quickly turn into a cow trail only four feet (1.33 meters) high. However the pools we found to swim in, in this canyon were the best of the trip.
We made it to a 200 year old ranch in many hours up the mouth of the canyon and slept in a mango orchard on a soft bed of mango leaves. But first we ate most of our remaining food. The next day the ranchers invited us for breakfast and we had our first meal which we did not carry in over a week.
The three hour walk out the canyon was rewarded with a swim in the Sol de Mayo, a waterfall and swimming spot near where we began.
About 100 miles (160 km), twelve perfect days in nature, five life long friends and an adventure of a life time.
One night, high in the mountains, as I slept a tree reminded me that nature was our neighbor. I thought about this as I walked along and realized that we are not different that nature. We come from nature and we return to in to become nature again.
For me, nature is where I want to be. To enjoy a good fire and the company of good friends. To challenge myself without competing another’s game. To celebrate the diversity that nature is and to realize that everything has value in this world. Our world is changing, it is not longer the world where “he with the most toys wins” it a world where the more of those who help each other and get along with their environment means we all win.
