Baja Adventure Week
Mountain biking is a sport just coming into its own in Baja California. Long a playground for fishermen, surfers and off-road dirtbikers, the Baja Peninsula only recently began attracting mountain bikers to its vast collection of unpaved roads.
The operative word when describing Baja biking conditions is "harsh." The original Spanish settlers of this harsh desert land dubbed Baja the land "accursed by God." Chances are the modern-day mountain biker struggling up a sandy road amidst 105 degree heat and 90 percent humidity will utter his or her own choice epithet. Then again, such conditions are merely the price of admission in a region where a day's worth of hard riding can be washed away by a night's worth of lime-soaked mariscos and ice-cold cervezas -- all for the average price of a movie rental back in the states.
"In Baja, expect soft sand, hideous washboard roads, mud, snow, heat, cold, uncertain water, spines in skin and tires, and limited food availability," says Barry Logan, a computer programmer and avid mountain biker. "If one is prepared to deal with these hazards and maintain a salubrious attitude, then there is no place more rewarding to travel."
