Slow Baja - Evan Christenson A Slow Ride On The Baja Divide

Episode Date: July 15, 2023

“Evan Christenson is a dirtbag who believes that the slower you ride, the more you take away. He’s also a photographer and a burnt-out roadie who’s bikepacked on four continents.” -Bikepacking.com We met in 2021 while Evan rode the Baja Divide on a 1700-mile first date with his new girlfriend. I was on the BajaXL Rally and was happy to share a little Fortaleza Anejo to celebrate our meeting. I was delighted to run into Evan again in February at Casa Concepcion. We were going in opposite directions this time, and we both had to get on the road. We recorded a quick conversation about Evan’s Baja ride and his work for BikePacking.com.  Follow Evan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evanchristenson/ Check out his articles on Baja: https://bikepacking.com/?s=evan+christenson

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. I always say, ask your doctor if Baja is right for you. Well, right now, folks, it's the open enrollment period for the Slow Baja vintage expedition.

For vehicles 1993 and older and motorcycles 1980 and older, and I'm not going to tell you anymore about the motorcycles because the motorcycle side has already sold out, teamed up with Adam Sheared at Speed Deluxe, and that side is closed. So if you're coming, you're coming on four wheels. It's October 15th through the 20th, 2023. We're going to start out at a hotel.

We're going to end at a hotel. We're going to have four nights of camping under the stars on private land. we've got a chef and a team that's going to prepare fabulous, fabulous food, got great dirt roads, good people, and great old trucks. If this sounds like the way you'd like to experience Slow Baja, well, you've got to reach out. The information is at slowbaha.com. On the new Adventures tab, you can click the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition at Slowbaha.com and if you're ready to pull the trigger and sign up, well, over there at the Slowbaha shop at

slowbaha.com, you can click on the deposit ticket. and pull the trigger. And I will see you in Baja in October at the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition. Next event I want to tell you about is the Slow Baja rally. Now, this one doesn't have many rules. It's February 23rd through March 3rd, 2024, and it's for anything you've got on wheels. So if you've got a sprinter van, if you've got a VESPA, you can do this event any way you want. It's really about going slow and saying hello, community, commerce,

Maraudery. We're going to have a big party before we leave in San Diego. You're going to get to meet some travel buddies. And for those folks on the dirt, you're going to have some friends with you. And for those folks on the pavement, you're going to find some folks who want to travel with you and at your pace. And again, what we're doing here is being where we are, fewer miles, more smiles, getting into camp. We're going to have the pre-selected campsites, getting into camp during the daytime, putting up your tent, popping open a cold one, sharing with your neighbors. maybe you're going to cook a little meal together. You're going to play a little free-form bachi ball on the beach or go for a swim.

But it's really a much more relaxed pace than some of these other rallies that need to be the biggest and the baddest and cover the most miles. We're going to cover the best miles with the most smiles. I guarantee it. Slowbaha.com slash adventures for more information. It's the Slow Baja rally February 23rd through March 3, 2024. Well, hello. Thanks for tuning in to the Slow Baja. today. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Sam Hurley. That name may sound familiar to a few of you.

Sam film the fabulous experience Slow Baja, which you can watch on YouTube, the film of the Nora Mexican 1000, and my experience in it with supporting roles by Big Oli, Big Roli, as they say, and a bunch of other fun folk who made that adventure a major league one last year. Sam made the great film, experienced slow Baja on turtle wax. And he became the subject of a slow Baja conversation. Baja beginners get a heaping dose of adventure on the Nora Mexican 1000. So Sam, thanks for stepping in and taking over the podcast producing duties.

And without further ado, let me tell you about today's show. It's just a shorthy. Evan Christensen is a terrific photographer, journalist, bike packer. I ran into him on the trail in 2021. It's a great story, a love affair, the 1,700 miles of dirt getting to know a new girlfriend. And we had a few shots of Fortaleza. We had a few laughs. And I was just thrilled to run into him on my February trip.

He had about 10 minutes, and I broke out the microphones. We had a quick chat. He was able to tell me about the work he's been doing for bikepacking.com magazine. And without further ado, Evan Christensen on Slow Baja. Did you catch any of that? No. Well, that was pretty good for first thing in the morning. Yeah, it's early.

I'm ready. Evan Christensen pugnaciously peddling his way down the Baha Peninsula. Tell me about the last time we ran into you and I poured you some tequila shot. That's the only impersonations I'm doing this morning. But who are you impersonating there? Yeah, well, if you're young enough, you don't know Howard CoSell, the legendary sports broadcaster of the 70s. I had no idea what that was.

Hey man, how are you? I'm good, bud. Good to see you. So nice to run into you on the trail again. Yeah, yeah, it's been interesting. We ran into each other two years ago in the back country, and we had some tequila shots on the bumper of the truck. As you do.

As you do, because, you know, you're out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, and I don't actually carry much tequila on the bike. It's surprising. Yeah. Some people do. Actually, I met this one guy, and he had. He had a tequila bag that exploded, and then it went into his little alcohol burner, and he shot the tequila out of the alcohol burner.

Look up. Important words when you're on a bicycle. Hey, so talk to me about what you're doing on this trip. So I'm covering the Bahadavide for a magazine called Bikepacking.com. This sport here is called bikepacking, and there's a super popular route called the Bahad divide, I'm sure. Which is where I met you last time. Which is where we met. Yeah, I did the route two years ago, and just about everybody does it north to south.

Okay. Because of the wind and because that's the way the book was written and I just think people like funneling down the peninsula Because it starts in San Diego and it also starts in San Diego. Yeah, but so I I took the bus down to the end of the peninsula and then I'm riding it backwards to then meet the people along the route and then I'm photographing them a little bit I've done a couple times turning around and riding with them for a section or camping with them if I can Getting some interviews and I'm writing some stories about like who were the people doing the Baja divide? Why do they come down here? I'm camping with them if I can getting some interviews and I'm writing some stories about like who were the people doing the Bahadavide? Why do they come down here? I'm like what is their experience so so we met we met when you were on the Baja divide in 2021 and I was on the Baja XL in 2021 but in 2019 I met a guy at the Melling Ranch who was riding the Baja divide and I thought I've never even heard of this thing oh really yeah it was uh yeah I think it was in beta form in those days but what can you tell people about you know bike packing is a thing

It's a serious thing. And what can you tell people about this ride specifically, that you're back doing it backwards, talking to people about it? Yeah, for sure. You're going to blow this thing up. No, actually, I think this route has already been blown up. You know, we're going to get something like 400 riders doing it this winter. Wow.

So it's definitely a thing now. So it started in about 2016 was the first year it was released. And then 2017, they had like the big grand apart. I think 30 people did it together that year. And every year it's just slowly gone more and more popular. And I think it's due to the fact that it's this huge grand epic adventure that starts right out of like our backdoor, you know, being us, you know, from the States. So, you know, you take a quick flight to San Diego and then just within two weeks you're having the craziest adventure of your life. I mean, you're in these small backcountry towns and in these little fishing villages.

And, you know, now they're starting to kind of, you know, understand what's going on. And it's been interesting seeing it two years later because already, like I can see. changes on the route. Some of these ranches have put up signs like, hey, come in and get some food or get some water. You can camp here. And they're making a little bit of a business out of it too, but still it's like, this is a pretty wild adventure. You know, you're doing five days, no resupply. You have to carry all your food and water on the bike. My bike will push 100 pounds sometimes. It's the water. It's mostly water, yeah. You know, you got to carry a lot of water. But so, and what's been nice about this year is there's a lot of surface water. So I definitely think, like,

if there's a year to be doing the divide, it's this year. A lot of surface water. It's been pretty, pretty cool. Cold? It's been pretty cold, frankly. Yeah, it's been pretty cold, yeah. Oh, you're coming from the south. We've been coming from the north.

It's been frigid. Yeah, I think everybody of meds been decked by a bunch of rain. They got pretty swamped, so. Explain what surface water importance is to you because you have a filter. Yeah, yeah, I carry a filter. And then so I'll just, like, I'll filter it. And then I don't have to carry as much, you know, instead of carrying four gallons, I'll carry two,

and then filter some along the way. And bike packers would actually take water out of the puddle. Yeah. No, I'm aware. I drink some disgusting water. I met this guy recently who's like, I know, we're going to let this truck go by.

I hate these things. They're everywhere. Hey, so you were saying, we're talking about filtering water out of mud puddles here. Yeah. No, I met this guy. That's a slow Baja A-F. He'll just use a coffee filter.

He's like, I just get the scum off of it and drink it. You know, he's like, I'm tough. No, so back in the old days, you know, back in the old days when people doing this by mules, they would basically put, you know, filter through their felt cowboy hat. Yeah. That's where the water came. See, that's kind of gross.

It'd be sweaty. Sweaty, salty. You get some salt water. But you get one filtration in anyways. We have rush hour going out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Hey, Evan, we're going to wrap up because you've got to get down the road and we're going to hop in here. I got a roll, yeah.

Tell me how you're like a Baja veteran now. You've done this before. I'm getting there. Yeah. It was interesting. And then I just came from mainland. I was in mainland for a couple months before. Where were you? I went down to Wahaka, to Chappas, and to Yucatan. Oh, nice. Yeah. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice warm. Yeah, for sure. It's. It's definitely different

some context for me. Like this is kind of an outlier in Mexico. Yeah. Now I always say it's desolation on our doorstep and when you ride the Baja divide, you see an awful lot of desolation. Yeah, for sure. Beautiful. Beautiful desolation. Yeah. You spend a lot of time in middle of nowhere by yourself. Yeah. And I don't know through your thoughts. Peddling through your thoughts. Yeah. We're going to maybe leave it right there. Folks. I think that's about all we need to say. Nice to run into you again. Hey, good to see you. Can I get another sticker? Yeah. You can get another sticker. You can get another shot. All right, Evan Christensen, where are we going to find this write-up?

Where are we going to find your work? It's going to be on bikepacking.com, B-I-K-C-I-N-G. All right. And is there Instagram as well? Yeah, they're on Instagram, bikepacking.com, and I'm Evan Christensen. Evan Christensen. All right. And I have to say, every time I'm driving around some remote road with my benchmark map,

and I think, wow, this road is, this road is beautiful. This is a perfect slow Baja road. I'll look at the map and it's got that little green dot on it. Yeah, it's the Baja Divide. Yeah, for sure, yeah. Yeah, they did an amazing job putting this thing together. Yeah, they really did. I got to give them a lot of credit.

They really did. All right, well, we'll get you some stickers. You can get down the road. We can get back to work. Cheers. Well, I hope you enjoyed that brief conversation with Evan Christensen. Check his workout, Evan Christensen. That's within O.Evincristen.com or at bikepacking.com.

And if you like the work that I'm doing here, please take a minute. head over to slowbaha.com, hit the donate button, drop a taco in the tank. Please, por favor. That's what keeps the show on the road. It really does, and I really do appreciate you doing that. So please drop a taco in the tank. And if you like the show and you like listening to it, and maybe you don't have any tacos in your pocket right now,

well, please drop a five-star review on Apple iTunes or on Spotify. However, if you're listening to the show, you can do that for free. And that also helps. So I'd appreciate if you did that. Keep an eye on the Slow Baja store. There's a big hat replen coming. So we've got a bunch of baseball hats, all the styles. They're all being replenished.

They're on their way in production. So keep an eye on the store. We've got a couple of new styles coming in. I hope you'll like you, L.A. Dodgers fans. I'm doing something special for you, but we won't have very many of them, so you better jump on them quick as soon as you see them. Okay, well, I will be back with a new show next week.

And to paraphrase, almost Hall of Fame. or nominee, Hall of Fame nominee Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame nominee Mary McGee, to paraphrase her pal Steve McQueen. Baja's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. And when we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use.

Check them out at Bajabound.com. That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Big thanks to my new sponsor Nomad Wheels. They stepped up and sponsored the Slow Baja Safari class at the Nora Mexican 1000, and I don't know if you've seen the pictures, but Slow Baja is running a set of 501 convoys in utility gray, and they look pretty damn sharp. They were a little shiny.

I will admit that they were a little shiny when I got them installed at Basil's Garage just before the Norah Mexican 1,000, but after, I don't know, 30, 800 miles from Baja Dirt. They look perfect. They really do. Nomadwheels.com. That's right. Check them out, reflecting a minimalist approach to off-road travel. Nomadwheels.com.

You know, I'm a minimalist when it comes to Baja travel, but the one thing I don't leave home without is a good old paper map. My favorite is the beautiful, and I mean beautiful, Baja Road and Recreation Atlas by benchmark maps. It's an oversized 72-page book. It's jammed with details.

It brings the peninsula's rugged terrain into clear focus. Get yours at Benchmarkmaps.com. In fact, get two. One for your trip planning at home and one for your Baja rig. And while you're at Benchmarkmaps.com, you've got to check out all their other atlases. I think they're up to 17 now, including British Columbia. They've got folding maps. They've got digital maps.

They've got giant wall maps. My favorite, and I've got it up on my wall right here at Slow Baja HQ, is the 30-inch by 46-inch Baja wall map. It's so great to just look at one thing, see the entire peninsula there. I love it. Benchmarkmaps.com, slow Baja approved. Huge news, folks. Huge news out of Ensonata this week. Cervasarea Transpenincillar has added Slow Baja to the summer tap list. I can't believe it. That's right. You can walk right in to Cervasarea Trans-Pencillar and order yourself a cold and Mosty, Slow Baja on tap. And that's what I'm going to be doing this weekend.

I'm heading to Baja this weekend to pre-run for the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition. I'm going to stop right there in Plaites de Ansonata right next to the Hotel Corral and Marina. And I'm going to walk right in and I'm going to say, hey, bartender, I want a slow Baja Cervasa and he's going to pour me one. And Colin, the good-hearted owner of Cervasaria Transpennigilar, said he's going to drop a couple paces in the tank for every servesa he sells this summer. So you buy yourself a cold, frosty, slow Baja beer. That helps Slow Baja stay on the road, bringing you these great podcasts.

It's win-win. All right, I'll see you down there. Cervasarea Trans-Peninsula, limited time only this summer. Get yourself a Slow Baja on tap.