Day 5, Preliminary Expedition: May 19, 2016

May 19, 2016 (Day 5)

I woke to the sound of birdsong this morning. The song of a quail in the desert will always bring a smile to my face. As the sun rose, we were quickly on the move again, wanting to get to Loreto to get the boat fixed. When we arrived at the welding shop the owner told us his welding machine was broken and there was no one in town that could weld stainless steel. So we kept on, driving south and heading for La Paz. Being a big city and a large boating community, we were confident that we could find someone to fix the Zodiac.

Staying true to the film's name, The Devil's Road, we rounded the corner in the middle of the desert to find a dead cow in the roadway. There were car parts strewn all about the lanes and a dozen vultures perched in a nearby tree. We pulled over to film when a trucker passed, then stopped. He backed up, jumped out with a tow strap, and pulled the dead cow out of the roadway. We caught this on camera.

Truck driver pulling cow from roadway.

As we pulled into town and turned onto the Malecon, we rolled down the windows to take in the atmosphere. Every other bump produced a loud bang coming from the trailer. We pulled over to find that the leaf spring on one side of the trailer had partially failed and the axle was banging on the trailer rail. Fortunately we were only four kilometers from the boatyard that could fix it.

We were graciously greeted by Able Pino at Berkovich Boat Works. He agreed to do the work for us and committed to having it done by morning. We were very grateful for his help.

Able Pino of Berkovich Boat Works working his magic to weld the T-top on the Zodiac!

The director stopping to take a few shots of the scenery.

Tonight, we will go out to the point and camp on the beach for the night to prepare for tomorrow’s adventure. Our plan is to launch and visit Isla Espiritu Santo to spend the night. The next day we will head south to Isla Cerralvo.

We keep our fingers crossed that all goes as planned . . .

Day 4, Preliminary Expedition: May 18, 2016

May 18, 2016 (Day 4)

The Bahia de Los Angeles Natural History Museum is curated by Carolina, a lovely and charismatic woman that has put her soul into the museum and the natural history of the area. We were pleased when she agreed to an on-camera interview. We met her at nine this morning in the museum and she was great on camera.

The Bahie de Los Angeles Natural History Musem. Whale bones in foreground.

After leaving Bahia de Los Angeles, we headed to Guerrero Negro to get the T-top welded. We were delayed a bit by a few stops to film along the way. First, we stopped to film a Goldman’s agave plant in full bloom. Next we captured some horses and a donkey wandering through the desert before coming upon a dead donkey on the side of the road, several turkey vultures feeding on its carcass. As we slowed to pull over, we noticed a large bird in the road that had been hit—another vulture. As we got closer, we realized that, astoundingly, he was still alive. JT took a moment to get a few shots of him as he rest there, most likely paralyzed or stunned, blinking and looking at the camera.

Goldman’s Agave (Agave shawii ssp. goldmaniana) in bloom pictured here with Greg Meyer, scientific director of The Devil's Road (left) and JT Bruce, director of The Devil's Road (right).

JT, director, making friends with the locals...

Turkey vulture in road. Most likely stunned or paralyzed from being hit by a passing motorist.

We decided to move on to Loreto to get the T-top welded. I knew where the welding shop was and it was getting late, so we kept driving. A short stop in Vizcaino found no sign of Taco Kenny, or rather Kenny Martinez, who runs a taco cart called Baja Tacos with his wife. I met Kenny during a trip earlier this year, and quickly struck up a friendship. We checked in with him about our return trip and our plans to climb Goldman Peak.

Camping in the desert is always a treat. We found a side road, just south of San Bruno, that lead to a small pueblo and came to a shallow bowl-like basin to camp away from the roadway. We cooked our dinner and settled down with a cocktail around a fire.
 

Camp at sunset, near San Bruno.

Camp at night.

Day 3, Preliminary Expedtion: May 17, 2016

May 17, 2016 (Day 3)

An hour and a half, thirty miles of wind, and rough seas was all it took to get to Isla Rasa. The tide was flooding, which meant the access to the only viable landing was underwater. We circled the island hoping to find another option. We had to get creative to get the film crew off the boat, and get all the camera, sound, and filming accessories off without getting them wet. To anyone watching, it must have been a show.

As Greg and JT stepped off the boat, thousands of birds took to flight. At times it was difficult to hear one another over the noise of their calls. On this particular island (about one square mile) three main species of seabirds nest and mate here. In fact, nearly 90% of the world’s Elegant Terns and Heermann’s gulls breed on this island. The third bird species is the Royal Tern. The terns were not breeding. They did not show up this year and there may be a good reason. Climate change and the rise in sea temperatures as well as overfishing may have interrupted their food supply and they were forced to move elsewhere to breed, lay eggs, and raise their chicks.

(More on this issue can be read on Wildlife.org's site in an article published July, 2015.)

Nesting Heermann's gull. Photo credit: allaboutbirds.org

Photo credit robertharding.com

Though Nelson and Goldman did not visit Bahia de Los Angeles or its outlying islands, we wanted to highlight the importance of this tiny island. It was the first Gulf of California island to become a wildlife preserve. In the late 1950s and 1960s, scientists recognized its importance as a seabird breeding colony and in the early 1970s it was official. Early visitors collected the massive guano deposits and gathered thousands of eggs to feed hungry miners and residents around the gulf. This had a major impact on the bird’s ability to reproduce and sustain its population.

We arrived back safely, but with only one issue: the T-top on the Zodiac cracked partially through one of the four posts. Tomorrow will require a stop in Guerrero Negro for repairs before we can continue.

Day 2, Preliminary Expedition: May 16, 2016

May 16, 2016 (Day 2)   
Calexico to Bahia de Los Angeles

We woke up before the sun with no wind. The air was very thick with dust and particulates. We all slept well since, for most of the night, we were lulled to sleep by the gentle rock (and only occasional violent shake) of the camper in the wind.

We crossed the border without a hitch and quickly got into the groove of being in Baja and on the Baja roads. San Felipe is an interesting place that needs more time to explore. We were on a timeline and did not have the proper time to give it its due. When we come back in March next year on the motorcycles, we expect to spend a little more time to get to know this little gem of a place.

The road deteriorated once we left town, causing us to slow a little more than we wanted but it is paved and travel was decent by Baja standards. The wind continued to wreak havoc with us all the way into Bahia de Los Angeles.

Stopping at Cocco’s Corner was a delight. Cocco is a character of a man that has occupied his little corner of the world for many years. He has opened his place to visitors, stay-overers, passersby, and the curious. We bought a few cold beers from him and spent a half hour interviewing him about his life and some of the history of the area.

I spy a Broken Wagon Films sticker! Thank you, Cocco!

Nelson and Goldman traveled through this area in 1905 and we explained to him that our project was, in part, to look at what changes have happened over the years. I look forward to seeing an edited version of the interview.

Tonight, Jose Merceade has graciously opened his house to us on the water overlooking the beautiful bahia. Tomorrow we will make the nearly 30-mile run to Isla Raza.

Day 1, Preliminary Expedition: May 15, 2016

May 15, 2016 (Day 1)

Packed and on the road, heading south, by 10:30am. Excitement and enthusiasm seemed to ooze out of our pores as the conversations didn’t slow until we hit the Grapevine on Interstate 5. There was so much conversation that we missed several interchanges, not paying attention. At one point, we were all mesmerized by the dust devils spinning through the Central Valley; one appeared just a few hundred feet in front of us in the median. As it turned out, a truck had clipped a car and the car flipped and rolled through the median, kicking up the dust there alongside the highway. We had to swerve to avoid the debris strewn across both highway lanes, and watched as the car settled as we passed. 

Once we arrived in the Palm Desert, where windmills line the freeway and dot the hillsides, we hit a wind storm. Dust blew across the roadway, at times obscuring the road altogether. The air was thick with dust until we reached the mountains.

We camped for the night in the Anza-Borrego State Park, about an hour north of the border. The wind hadn't slowed, so we situated the truck in the lee of a small ridge, but even that was not enough. No sleeping outside for us; all three of us settled into the camper for the night.

Preliminary Expedition Underway!

Early this morning the Broken Wagon Films Crew departed for the preliminary expedition to film The Devil's Road. During this first stint, the producer, director, and scientific director will be visiting a number of islands off of Baja's Pacific coast and in the Sea of Cortez. In addition, they will be conducting additional research to aid in the main expedition and find (and climb) Goldman Peak, named after Edward Alphonso Goldman. 

Points of interest on the itinerary:
• Bahia de los Angeles
• Isla Rasa
• Vizcaino
• Santa Rosalia
• La Paz
• Isla Espiritu Santo
• Isla Cerralvo
• Isla Magdalena
• Isla Santa Margarita
• Puerto San Carlos
• Ciudad Constitucion
• Mission Santa Gertrudis
• Isla San Geronimo
• Isla San Martin
• Isla Todos Santos
• Coronado Islands


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@brokenwagonfilms

Meet the Broken Wagon Films Crew!

Following a route taken by several naturalists over a hundred years prior, a group of present-day adventurers embark on an expedition to document the beautiful and unforgiving landscape of today’s Baja California.

In 1905, two American naturalists set out on horseback across the remote deserts of Baja California, Mexico. Their 2,000-mile expedition was the first of its kind to span the entire peninsula and complete a comprehensive survey of Baja’s flora and fauna. Zig-zagging from coast to coast across the desolate interior,Edward William Nelson and Edward Alphonso Goldman described plants and animals unknown to science. One hundred years later, Goldman’s ancestors return to Baja to retrace the steps of this landmark expedition on motorcycles, and document the changing nature of this strange and beautiful landscape.

 

FOLLOW the JOURNEY on the BLOG
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THE MAKING OF AN EXPEDITION: The Inspiring Story Behind "The Devil's Road"

On a hot summer day in 1891, a black-bearded man driving a buckboard lumbered down a dusty dirt road in the San Joaquin Valley of California. He had just completed a scientific expedition into Death Valley and crossed over the Sierra Nevada near Yosemite. A broken singletree on his wagon forced him to stop at a nearby ranch in search of needed repairs. His name was Edward William Nelson and he was a field naturalist working for the United States Bureau of Biological Survey. Mr. Jacob Goldman, the owner of the ranch, took a keen interest in the work Mr. Nelson was assigned. The two gentleman instantly realized their shared mutual interest in the natural world.

After Nelson mentioned his need for an assistant, Jacob Goldman offered, “Maybe my son, Edward, would do?” By chance, Mr. Goldman’s eldest son, Edward Alphonso Goldman, was just the person Nelson had been looking for. The elder Goldman quickly fetched his eldest son, who was at the time employed as a foreman in a vineyard near Fresno, California. The rest, as they say, is history.

On October 10, 1891, young Edward Alphonso Goldman, then 18 years old, rode off under the employ of Edward William Nelson as his field assistant. Their first assignment was to last three months and would entail a survey of the southern San Joaquin Valley and southern coast of California. Upon completion of that detail, the two men were then dispatched to another assignment. On January 24, 1892 the two naturalists landed in Manzanillo, Mexico, in the state of Colima. Their assignment was again to last three months. Instead, this assignment lasted fourteen years, ultimately resulting in a survey of every state and territory from coast to coast. Their last assignment through Lower California, now known as Baja California, was in 1905 and 1906.

Goldman and Nelson compiled impressive resumes during their field work in Mexico. They traveled by rail, stage, steamer, schooner, wagon, mule, horseback, and by foot, all while camping much of the time. Together they collected 17,400 mammals, 12,400 birds, countless plant specimens, and amassed an enormous fund of information on the natural history of the country. These specimens were sent to the Smithsonian Institution and ultimately included several hundred specimens of plants and animal that were previously unknown to science.

Edward William Nelson (left) and Edward Alphonso Goldman (right)

President Theodore Roosevelt praised Edward William Nelson that he was, “one of the keenest naturalists [he has] ever met and a man of singularly balanced development.” And the work that the two naturalist did in Mexico has been described as “among the most important ever achieved by two workers for any single country.” 

The names and works of pioneers like Nelson and Goldman have been long forgotten by the few and unknown to the many. To most, Baja is an unforgiving wasteland of desert, cactus, and banditos. While some of that may be true, it is also a wildflower-strewn, sandy-beached, high mountain-ranged oasis with remarkable plants and incredible wildlife, some found only in this region. Such is the case with the Sierra San Pedro Martir, where several feet of snow falls each winter, the California Condor soars its skies, and its waters host the only native trout on the Baja peninsula, the Nelson’s trout (Salmo nelsoni, renamed in 1989 to Oncorhynchus mykiss nelsoni) named in honor of Edward W. Nelson. And near the old ruins of the mission Santa Gertrudis, is a 5,000-foot mountain that rises above others, Goldman Peak, Edward A. Goldman’s namesake.

These fascinating facts and incredible historical accounts have enticed a filmmaking team to dig into the Smithsonian Archives, dust off the history books, and set off on an expedition to follow Nelson and Goldman’s historic 1905 and 1906 expedition route. 

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Welcome!

Thank you for visiting the official site and blog of Broken Wagon Films. 

Here, you can follow our journey as we film The Devil's Road, a documentary retracing the route of the 1905-1906 expedition of heralded naturalists Edward Alphonso Goldman and Edward Nelson. 

Read the full backstory of the film here. 

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