We have been through at least 20 army checkpoints during the last year, and there is a pattern forming. They almost never search anything when you are headed south, but regularly do when you are northbound.
I also noticed that local mexican vehicles seem to get much more thorough inspections than do tourist vehicles (at least for me).
And I mentioned to Harley that they have never once looked in the cab of the truck, only in the camper. He looked at me, rolled over, idly scratched his belly, and closed his eyes.
Wouldn't you know it, the next two checkpoints both looked in the cab as well as in the camper! They don't look very hard, mind you, but at least they looked.


The morning started off pretty cloudy and relatively cool, so it was a good time to make a mile. Went in to Guererro Negro to check the mail and weather, then fueled up to make it across the 'gas gap' in mid Baja.
G.N. is on the border between Mexican states Baja California Sur and Baja California Norte, or BCN and BCS.
The first section of road north is very narrow and fairly rough, but luckily it is fairly straight. There are some cool lava flow formations, and an area of huge, round boulders.
Then the highway climbs, winding over a mountain range with some great views before decending back down towards the coast. I checked out a couple of potential camp spots, but none met all my criteria.
So we made it throught the 'gas gap' and into El Rosario where we filled up again. The road from there joins the Pacific coast again for a while.

We were tooling along enjoying the early sunset when a policia car came flying over the hill towards us with all it's lights on and indicated for us to stop! Hmm! How could they have known? What was the problem now?

But it as all cool, and I don't think Harley even disturbed his afternoon nap to see what was going on. The officer asked if I spoke English, then asked if I had seen any sign of a vehicle accident?

I assured him that I had seen nothing today, and off he went in search of the phantom wreck. Kind of reminds me of work at home ...

Had an alternative camp spot entered into my gps and Google Earth in this area, so decided to check it out. Turns out that it is way nicer than the one
I have stayed at twice before. The access road is shorter and better, it is right on the beach, is half the price (It was marked $8., but he only charged me $5 (unless that US $10 he gave me in change was 'funny'?), has water, hot showers, and a dump station. It looks very well maintained, the managers are very friendly and speak english, and there are some other big rigs parked here.
Unfortunately, the ones with satellite internet did not send it my way!

El Pabellon Campground map >
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=30.369590,-115.862616&h1=en&t=k

One photo shows a cow in the back of the mini-pickup on the road in front of me. when I passed, I could see that her calf and a spare tire were also in the back.















Another pic shows the track of the highly elusive Mexican hunting cat who was prowling around the camper last nite.














And finally, to stay in practice, I found a class 2 avalanche close to camp. I will recommend that they 'close the backcountry'!