Slow Baja

Glen Horn is about as Slow Baja as it gets. He has prioritized a life filled with surfing, physical fitness, and living modestly and in harmony with nature. After moving to San Diego as a "young tike," Horn grew up playing Davy Crockett in the local canyons. Soon his older brother was surfing, and the Horn boys were hitch-hiking down Balboa Drive to the beach. He began surfing as a youngster and tried his hand at shaping a board when he was 12 years old. Soon he was exploring Baja looking for his version of Endless Summer. Amazingly, he found it and has held on tightly to it for decades.  In The Bull, Filmmaker Eric Ebner captured Horn's beautifully spare existence feeding his surf habit and living his soulful life. "A secret spot in Baja, California, hundreds of miles from civilization. An old milk van converted into the perfect surfing mobile. A 67-year-old man at the peak of his physical fitness and in line with mother nature every step of the way. "The Bull" is the award-winning story of San Diego surfing legend Glen Horn and his journey to an unconventional lifestyle. Enjoy this intimate Slow Baja Podcast with shaper and surfing legend Glen Horn. Hearty thanks to his wife, Roberta Horn, for her help in making this conversation happen.

For most off-road racing fans, Ivan “Ironman” Stewart needs no introduction. Stewart utterly dominated off-road and stadium racing in the 1980s and 90s. Born in 1945, Stewart grew up in East County, San Diego. As a youngster, he raced go-carts, competing on street circuits on both sides of the border.  Stewart made the unlikely leap to off-road racing in 1973. Scheduled to co-drive the Ensenada 300 in a Class 2 buggy with his friend Bill Hrynko --before the race, Hrynko broke his leg. Stewart raced the event solo, virtually unheard of then, and won! A tradition and a nickname were born.  In 1983, Stewart joined PPI Motorsports, Toyota’s factory-backed race team. At the time, Stewart was seeking a ride from an American manufacturer --“something with a V-8 motor.” The 4-cylinder motor and the Japanese truck didn’t sound like a winning combination to Stewart.  Cal Wells, head of PPI, stressed the reliability and the better weight-to-horsepower ratio of the Toyota and talked Stewart into taking the ride. This unlikely marriage created one of racing’s longest and most successful relationships. Stewart and Toyota teamed up for over 30 years resulting in unparalleled success in the Mickey Thompson Stadium Series and SCORE Off-Road desert racing. Slow Baja would like to thank Carol Mears for her help in arranging this conversation. We would also like to thank Ivan and Linda Stewart for their generosity in opening their home and making time for us. Learn more about Ivan Stewart here. Follow Ivan Stewart on Facebook here. Photos courtesy of Kurt Scherbaum see more of his photography here.

Today’s show is with Pauline Marguerite Wickham --Paulina, as she’s known in Baja, is a retired “child-whisperer,” having taught for over 35 years. She resides full-time in Bahía de Los Angeles, where she keeps busy with three mules, a burro, an elderly dog, and her husband, "Dern." We discuss her life and friendship with Baja legend, prospector, and raunchy-raconteur Herman Hill. She began traveling to Baja at 3. She fondly remembers sport fishing trips to Ensenada with her Grandfather. As the men fished, she would dip her sleeves into the bait well filling them with cool water and tiny fish. From those earliest days, Baja has played a significant role in Paulina's life. Her parents were adventure-seekers. They were avid off-roaders and raced motorcycles. Paulina soon joined them, running enduros in the powder-puff class. She made many trips to Baja in high school and continued traveling to BDLA to study Marine Biology in college. She is a highly accomplished mule rider and had ridden with the vaqueros of Rancho San Gregorio during the spring round-ups --an experience she calls “life-changing!” Paulina loves a challenge and relishes her arduous remote emergency radio work with BFGoodrich for SCORE. She rides for hours carrying radio equipment by mule high into the mountains so the racers and teams can maintain vital communication. Enjoy this Slow Baja Conversation with the Mule Mujer of BDLA, Pauline Marguerite Wickham. Follow Pauline Marguerite Wickham on Facebook

As we sort our video and audio recordings from our recent BajaXL drive, we are delighted to share one of my favorite shows from last year. We will return next week with a video of our Slow Baja conversation with Ivan Stewart on YouTube. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel here. "Chango," the twelve-inch tall, plaster-of-Paris, irregularly painted statuette, first appeared in the San Ysidro border traffic lines during the early 1970s as street vendors hawked them to passing tourists. Many a gringo returning from their surf trip, tourist jaunt, TJ bar run, or mission trip came home with one of these in the back seat." Slow Baja has questions, and in this riveting interview, Beth Slevcove of the Surf Monkey Fellowship has the answers. Monkey or ape? Who is Chango's creator? How did an icon of border tchotchkes become nearly extinct? Stay tuned for all the answers! Check out the Surf Monkey Fellowship Follow Surf Monkey Fellowship on Facebook.

Today’s Slow Baja conversation is with filmmaker and photographer Sam Hurly and his Baja chauffeur and amigo Danny White. Sam creates automotive films and photographs for Turtle Wax. He convinced the fine folks at headquarters to send him down to Baja to follow us in the NORRA Mexican 1000. Sam needed a skilled off-road driver with a reliable rig to pilot him while he made photographs and shot film. Danny White got the call. The Baja beginners get a heaping dose of adventure --and they speak candidly about their pre-trip worries and the multitude of scary stories that (well-meaning) Baja veterans gleefully shared with them. After a day or two in Ensenada, the myths and preconceived notions flew out the window, and after a few tasty tacos, all was well. Watch the Slow Baja Turtle Wax Sponsored film here. Watch the behind-the-scenes cut of the film here. Follow Sam Hurly on Instagram here. Watch his YouTube channel here. Learn more about the NORRA Slow Baja Safari here.

Today’s Slow Baja conversation is with Ramon Castro, the genial Class 11 Champion better known as “El Tomate.” Growing up in Ensenada, Ramon Castro watched the early Baja 1000 races from his elementary school playground.  When he was only 17, much to his mother’s chagrin, he entered his first Baja 1000. He had no experience, no plan, no pre-run, nothing. Amazingly, they finished second. “We were young boys; we don’t know nothing; we raced to La Paz, turned around, and raced home.” Castro dominated Class 11, winning Championships in ’83, ’86, ’87, ’88, and ’89 in --’84 and ’85, they finished in 2nd. He became a Baja racing legend, setting the fastest finish time of 27 hours in Class 11. He worked tirelessly with SCORE chief Sal Fish behind the scenes, negotiating with ranchers, marking the course, and helping young racers get their start in his RECORD Off-Road Series.  Enjoy the ride and this Slow Baja conversation with my amigo, “El Tomate.”

Genevieve Mattar and Kevin Branscum met in South America while exploring the Andes ruins and the Amazon forests. He was an American seeking adventure, and she was a travel guide leading a group of French Canadians. The couple soon married and as Kevin was a Southern Californian and seasoned Baja traveler, they began exploring the remote regions of Baja Sur. They became interested in the old mission trail while visiting the Sierra de San Francisco rock art. One day on a mule ride, they came across a track that looked different from the one they were following. They asked their local guide about it. He replied, “That is the old mission trail, el camino antiguo de los misioneros.” El Camino Real. The El Camino Real, or “King’s Highway,” is the mission trail leading from Loreto in Baja Súr, Mexico, to all Californias. They include Baja Súr, Baja, and Alta California, better known as the state of California. The mystery of that trail, combined with its history and the beauty of its surroundings, hooked them. For twenty-two years, they’ve regularly returned to explore El Camino Real, locating and accurately mapping additional trail segments. They hope to find and preserve the exact position of as much of the El Camino Real as possible. Only through sharing the story and developing eco-tourism --will the historic trail remain alive. Learn more about their work here.

In this archive edition of Slow Baja, we return to my 2020 conversation with professor Paul Ganster. I wanted to share this show again as I recently watched Isaac Artensteins's magnificent Journeys of Harry Crosby documentary. The Crosby film is available to stream on PBS here. Ganster began traveling to Mexico with his friend and former high school teacher, Harry Crosby, in the early 1960s. When Crosby landed his 1967 commission to photograph the El Camino Real, he asked Ganster, then a graduate student at UCLA, to make the trip with him. In retracing the original Portolá missionary expedition of 1769, Crosby and Ganster covered 600 grueling miles, mostly by mule. Ganster took trail notes, made detailed drawings and maps, and shot scores of photographs. However, no job was more important than feeding the mules. Each evening, he would climb the palo verde trees and use a machete to hack off branches that the mules would crunch on loudly. The trip was a life-changing trip for both men. Crosby's photographs from the journey were published in The Call to California in 1969. He often returned to Baja to photograph cave paintings and study early life in Alta, California, and published several books on the subject. Baja figured prominently in Ganster's life as well. In his long academic career, he is an acknowledged expert on the U.S.-Mexico border region. Currently, he directs the Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias at San Diego State University. He's recently edited Loreto, Mexico: Challenges for a Sustainable Future (2020, SDSU Press) with Oscar Arizpe and Vinod Sasidharan. He and Arizpe, a professor at the Universidad A. de Baja California Sur, collaborated on two earlier projects examining Loreto's sustainability. Check out Paul Ganster's extensive writings here.

In today’s Slow Baja Podcast, we talk to Bruce Trenery about his experience racing the wild and wooly early days of the La Carrera Panamericana Classic. Bruce ran in the LCP Classics from 1987 to 1993. In its early “Baja” period, the race was a high-speed sprint from Ensenada to San Felipe. A few years later, the La Carrera moved to mainland Mexico and, at 2000 miles, officially became the world’s fastest, longest, (and most dangerous) vintage car race. Bruce raced it for three more years before moving on to less perilous racing pursuits. In 1987, I was a college kid on Spring Break in San Felipe and heard the snarl of a Ferrari V-12. I followed my ears to the finish line and marveled at the assembled cars. Rumors of mayhem and death swirled around the event. For decades I’ve wanted to talk to somebody who ran that crazy race and hear their account of it. Bruce Trenery owns Fantasy Junction, a classic car dealership in Emeryville, California. Over the last 30 years, he has built a reputation for quality and integrity worldwide. With his son Spencer, he has raced the NORRA Mexican 1000, among many other events. Spencer, a highly accomplished racer in his own right, now runs the day-to-day operations of Fantasy Junction, allowing his dad the occasional afternoon off to record a Slow Baja Podcast. Learn more about Fantasy Junction here. Follow Fantasy Junction on Instagram here. Follow Fantasy Junction on Facebook here.

Doug and Shannon Miller open their hearts to share honestly about their service-first approach to family travel. After their newly adopted daughter from China needed open heart surgery, they did the only sane thing you can do with two weeks of "use it or lose it" vacation. They packed up their fresh-from-the-ER-brood and headed to Baja! When Doug realized his family was spending their "vacation" hunkered down on a wind-whipped beach so he could enjoy kite-boarding, they began exploring family-friendlier locations. One day a flat tire on their minivan led them to seek help nearby at Rancho Sordo Mundo, a home for the deaf and mute. Soon they realized why they had come to Baja. Seventeen years of service travel, and giving back have followed that initial encounter. Enjoy this uplifting conversation with my new friends, Doug and Shannon Miller. To learn more and support the places mentioned in today's show: Casa Hogar Mulege BCS click here. FFHM Orphanage Vicente Guerrero BC click here. Rancho Sordo Mundo, Deaf Ministry click here. PAW Animal Clinic Mulege BCS click here. To contact Doug Miller about Baja service travel, click here.