A month before Outside Magazine online published “The Ultimate Baja, Mexico Travel Guide”, we had confirmed a seven-day itinerary at the tip of the Baja with the express intention of riding. The first paragraph of Outside’s review references growing mountain bike trails in La Paz, Todos Santos, and Los Cabos, and offered – if nothing else – positive confirmation bias about our decision to seek out south-of-the-border early spring miles.
Our favorite way to travel is with a bike. We are not travel writers: we are mountain bikers, who really like to travel. While we love discovering new destinations, eating at hidden gem cafés, and turning over rocks to find local bakeries, we put the majority of our travel energy into being on the trail. Accordingly, our travel reporting is a bit unvarnished, and our ride reporting focuses on trails, conditions, and routes.
GEAR
Our quick gear packing list:
- Large Trail 429 Pro X01, in an Evoc Pro travel bag (an extra 3” to 4” of space in the Pro version is best for the large frame)
- Small Rocky Mountain Instinct X01, in a regular Evoc travel bag
- Spare parts, including derailleur hangers, extra GX derailleur, SRAM 12-speed masterlinks
- Maintenance and flat repair supplies, including chain lube, hand pump, shock pump, standard flat repair (no C02), multitool, and a few spare wrenches
- Hydration packs
- Riding gear
- Headlamps
Arriving at San José del Cabo airport (SJD) is a quick, easy direct flight on Southwest, where bikes fly for $75 USD each way, even with the additional weight of tools. Although we had reserved a minivan prior to arrival, the art of negotiation at the terminal earned us a long wheelbase 4×4 Jeep Wrangler for the weekly price of an economy rental. The Jeep proved valuable everywhere we went. We cruised past the Cabo San Lucas all-inclusive scene and Costco, heading up the Baja west coast toward Todos Santos.
TODOS SANTOS
Sleepy, magical, and still uniquely Mexican, Todos Santos is one of 111 Pueblos Mágicos in the country, a domestic initiative of the Mexican Tourism Secretary to preserve the historic and symbolic pueblos of Mexico’s collective imagination. Stylish small hotels, quaint cantinas, and art galleries neighbor the panaderías and tire shops of every day Mexican village life, an intoxicating combination for us. Over The Edge bike shop in Todos Santos (Pivot, Trek) is ideally located just up Calle Javier from Hotel California. The hotel, once claiming indirectly to be the spot where you “can check in any time you like”, was actually sued by the Eagles in 2017 for monopolizing on the band’s successful song.
The main trail attraction in Todos Santos is Sierra Madre Trail, built and maintained by Dave, the easy-going owner of Over The Edge. To get to Sierra Madre from Over the Edge, ride straight up Calle Obregon from Dave’s front door, keep going when the road turns to dirt, and go all the way to the colorful cemetery. Turn left and circumnavigate the cemetery clockwise until you reach poorly marked single track. If you make it to a wide double track, you’ve gone a bit too far. Follow the single track to a sign that says “MTB” with an arrow pointing up and to your left. In about 50 yards you’ll come to a red and white hand-painted sign that reads “Sierra Madre” and beyond that a rancher’s gate. This entrance feeds you clockwise into the trail loop, and you’ll soon climb to an electric tower, followed by a fun descent to the highway underpass.
The real evidence that we are neither professional trail reviewers nor travel writers? We forget to stop and take pictures. We’d nearly ended our 2-day, 3-night stay in Todos Santos before we remembered our intention to blog about the trip.
The remainder of Sierra Madre, including the El Ejido and Dave’s Trail loops, roll through a coastal desert landscape. At the outer edges, near the entrance to El Ejido, the trail sometimes shares cattle paths or wider dirt tracks used by local ranchers but is still easily navigable on Trailforks. The only benefit to riding the loop counterclockwise would be to finish on a downhill from the electric tower, which we did once and it’s fast. Upon returning to town, Brad’s talent for literally sniffing out local bakeries proved to transcend borders.
All in all, our estimation is two days of riding in TS. The only surfing we did was on the internet, as we both chose to work remote half days during the first leg of the trip, but the surf at nearby Cerritos beach is alone worth the trip for many.
LOS BARRILES
We crossed the peninsula to the Sea of Cortez with the windows rolled down and the Pacific breeze blowing over the mountains. We had almost no expectations about Los Barriles as most travel sites cursorily mention the place in a list of eastern cape hot spots for kiteboarding. LB flies below the radar of Baja travel guides…a fact that thrills Todd. We met Todd by random luck within 20 minutes of checking into our seaside one-bedroom rental. He rolled by in his minivan, and we struck up a conversation. Forty-nine years old, with enthusiasm seeping from every pore, Todd builds and maintains a grassroots network of trails in Los Barriles. He comes down from The Dalles, Oregon in November and for the next four months invests approximately 30 hours/week to keeping single track single. Todd’s not alone. He threw out names we had heard from other locals – names like Warren and Eugene. They tend to work independently, discovering each other’s work with each new season on the trail.
“I got addicted to not having to ask permission to build new trail”, Todd told us. And these trails are the real deal. Truly a single track, we rarely rode anything wider than four tire widths. The topography of the mountains bordering the sea in Los Barriles, ideal for mountain biking, took us quite by surprise. Each ride we put together averaged about between 100 and 150 feet of climbing per mile of riding. We found purpose-built features, professional contouring and tread work, and plenty of elevation.
All the trailheads in LB are an easy 5 to 10-minute ride from the center of the village. Finding them, however, requires Trailforks and a little sense of adventure. We mistakenly pedaled up more than one arroyo our first day out. The most useful trail entrance is just south of town on the carretera, turning right onto “Lefty’s Road” just before the mileage sign. Here you can jump on Scotty’s and climb south into the majority of the trails or turn back to the north on Righty’s. We easily found trail to turn a three-night stay into four days of riding.
1.5 – 2 hours: climb Lefty’s Road to Righty’s, descend Greenhorn. Greenhorn is one of the most recent trail additions to the Los Barriles. When you pack for a mountain biking weekend in LB, don’t forget to pack your bike handling skills. Greenhorn shows the genius of the local trail builders: little techy step-ups are strategically built between cactuses and embankments. There’s literally nowhere to burn a B-line and stitch the trail. It’s awesome.
A screenshot of our location, heading down Greenhorn, the blue trail to the north, yet so new the name didn’t appear on Trailforks.
Brad at the Longhorn/Greenhorn intersection.
3.5 – 4 hours: climb Scotty’s to Shady Rocks to Vista to Lejos. Ride Jupiter clockwise, and descend via Cielo, ChinChin, and Gummy Bear. The canopy changes as you climb Vista to Lejos, with more foliage and shade. Heading up to the massive granite boulders on Jupiter, we felt like we were leaving the seashore altogether. It’s worth pulling out your trail app to navigate through the intersections to descend ChinChin and Gummy Bear.
4+ hours: Link it all together via Gummy Connector, starting with the Scotty’s / Vista / Lejos climb. Adding the Corrales and Mars/Rastro Vaca loops to the Jupiter and Cielo. Halfway down Gummy Bear, turn north on Gummy Connector to get back over to the Righty’s climb. Descend Greenhorn into town.
Why did Outside – a publication dedicated to adventure and exploration – miss the LB trails? We can only guess. And these are our two guesses:
1. They’re not super easy. The trails are sometimes rocky with plenty of kitty litter, the climbs are punchy, the margin for error is slim, and the corners are hard to cut. But that’s not a good reason for a publication dedicated to adventure an exploration to overlook an awesome experience.
OR (more likely)…
2. “The Baja Wheelchair”: LB is largely populated by retired ex-patriates who traverse town and the beach on four wheelers with milk crates strapped to the hood. Before arriving, we had heard Los Barriles referred to as “Gringolandia”. The charm is, shall we say, hidden.
The Baja Wheelchair
Using the nothing-draws-a-crowd-like-a-crowd standard, we judged the most popular restaurant in town to be Dylan’s Hot Dogs and Tacos. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights this taco cart and open-air kitchen is surrounded by a dirt lot jam-packed with ex-pats crowded around plastic folding tables. If there were a dress code, it would say “bandanas required”, and a Christmas tree made of recycled bottles casts a romantic glow over the whole scene. If you could envision the opposite of Todos Santos, Los Barriles is it.
LA VENTANA
With complete transparency, we decided to change course for our sixth day of riding. We had originally planned to drive up to La Ventana area and ride at Rancho Cacachilas, a beautiful piece of property with camping, an organic farm, and private beginner/intermediate trails developed by a Walton heir. After our experiences riding the trails built and maintained by Dave and his crew at Over The Edge, and hanging out with Todd and riding dozens of unique miles in Los Barriles, we couldn’t bring ourselves to pay $90 USD to ride trails machine cut by one of the richest women in the world. Todd didn’t charge us a dime. In fact, he offered to buy us a cookie at Joe’s Deli. We stayed in LB to link together a few more loops, opting to pay our respect instead – to Todd and the other locals who have a really good thing going. We’ll be back.
Nearly dark on a nearly deserted Pacific beach.
Businesses we enjoyed in Todos Santos
- Pura Vida Health Food Store – Staying at a casita with a kitchen, we cooked most of our meals, sourcing ghee, local honey, almond milk, and our other pantry items at Pura Vida.
- Caffé Todos Santos – near Calle Centenario, there are entrances at both the front and rear, and a hometown vibe.
The rear entrance to the Caffé, where the wifi connection and coffee were both strong.
- The local pasteleria – we stumbled upon the local bakery late one evening while taking a walk. Six pesos each for empanads de queso, sugar cookies, and other delightful treats. “Stumble upon” are the best directions we can offer.
- Docecuarenta – A decidedly upscale and delicious coffee roasting company based in La Paz has opened a slick new location just outside of downtown. If Mexico’s dusty backroads having you missing an urban vibe, this is the place.
Camping out for a few hours of pre-ride remote work at Docecuarenta.
Businesses we enjoyed in Los Barriles
- Joe’s Deli – A local entrepreneur, Joe was born in Ensanada, BCS, raised in Northern California, and now calls Los Barriles his personal and professional headquarters. This unexpected fine food grocery was our home away from home, and we stopped at Joe’s every day for his wife’s homemade chocolate chip cookies.
- Spa Vida – This sweet day spa with a palapa roof sits behind Joe’s. El enjoyed a facial and massage with the local girls.
- Tres Palapas Pickleball Resort – Five bucks for three hours of “happy hour” court time! And the only place in town we found veggie tacos.
Purple pickleball courts and fresh guac near Buena Vista beach.
- Café Encinalito – This is the best coffee, smoothies, and coconut macaroons in town. The open air café is a laid back social hub for adventurers in town.
Sitting at the bar at Café Encinalito for post-ride papaya, ginger, and date smoothies.
Brad, the owner of Sports Garage Cycling, and his wife Elorie, are not travel writers. They probably missed some stuff, for sure. They don’t “live the dream” getting comp’d at fancy boutique hotels. They just really love to travel, ride, discover new trails, and share their experiences with their community.