Baja Misadventure

Here's one final story I left out of my Baja 2019 trip report ....

I was checking out yet another side canyon in the Laguna Salada area, whose name I'm not going to mention here, looking for palm tree oases, petroglyphs, or other interesting stuff. Bumping along the access track, I encountered this big dead plant sitting in the middle of the road. Hmmm, this seemed just a bit strange. I never see plants just sitting in the road like this. It was a hefty plant, not some kind of tumbleweed. Yeah, strange. Anyway, I moved it off the road. Here's a dash cam photo:

I got to the end of the road, and sure enough, there's a nice large scenic palm oasis. I relaxed, made lunch, and had fun photographing all the blooming cactus flowers.

Then it was time to do some exploring. Because I'm a geek, I decided to send my drone up first to do some scouting before setting out on foot.

This palm oasis was extensive. I flew about a mile up the canyon, and spent some time hovering around taking panoramic photos.

Then, I noticed some arching stripes or grooves on the ground. Someone was irrigating in here!

I wondered what they were growing! (Yes, I had my suspicions...) I took the drone down real low — almost landing in the field — and saw this:

Then I saw movement. It was a person. A person running. A person, holding some kind of stick-like object, running and hiding behind a big boulder. Huh... I had assumed I was alone out here. There were no other vehicles.

I tasted adrenaline. I wasn't alone.

I zoomed back home to the van. (When drone flying it feels like I'm in the drone, so I never considered ditching it.) I landed roughly, threw all my equipment willy-nilly back into the van, and bounced out of there down the trail as fast as I dared. I kept looking in the mirror for someone following. A motorcycle could easily catch my slow van out here. But there was nothing.

At some point I thought about putting that dead bush back in the road, but I was already past that spot. At least now I know why the bush was placed there!

I was so freaked out I felt I needed to completely leave the Laguna Salada area. But eventually I managed to chill out. I realized Baja a very big place. I didn't want to completely give up on my solo adventuring because of one unusual event. I left the area, but kept on exploring. From now on, maybe I'll check out all secluded sites with water from the air before walking in there myself.

Here's a close-up from one of my photos, I made after getting back home. As you can see, there were at least two guys out there, next to that blue-green tarp thing.

Anyhow, I have mixed feelings about sharing this. I really want to share my story, but I don't feel the need to get these guys into trouble. I'm sure they're plenty freaked out already, seeing my giant buzzing robot mosquito descend from out of nowhere right into their secret field.

I'm sending you a link to this page privately. I'd like to keep this page off Google.