We are so excited to welcome LIFEPOWER to our team of sponsors! They'll keep us powered on the go during our expedition, even in the middle of the Baja desert! Thank you so much for your support!
Please check out their incredible products. They offer the smallest AC powerpack ever designed, making it possible to keep you powered wherever you go.
Episode 2 from the island expedition brings the Broken Wagon Films crew to Isla San Martín off the Pacific coast of Baja California.
Elephant seals, breeding sea birds, scientists tagging snakes, rugged lavascapes, and strange endemic plants are just a few of the wonders found on this small volcanic island.
3,000 MILES | 110 YEARS | 3 GENERATIONS | 1 EPIC ADVENTURE
In 1905, two American naturalists set out on horseback across the remote deserts of Baja California...
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 descendents return to Baja to retrace the steps of this landmark expedition on motorcycles, and document the changing nature of this strange and beautiful landscape.
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The Broken Wagon Films production crew is pleased to announce our newest sponsor, Sena Technologies! Sena will be supplying the motorcycle riders of our main expedition with cameras and intercoms for effective, reliable, and quality communication during the journey.
Thank you for your support, Sena!
@Senabluetooth #RideConnected
The film currently has a working title of The Devil’s Road. This is a multi-faceted reference to Baja’s notoriously “devilish” hot weather, the creeping devil’s cactus found there, and a twist on the historic “royal” road that spanned the length of the Baja Peninsula, connecting San Diego and the present day town of Loreto.
It is often said that Baja in the summer is “hot as hell.” There is little to dispute about how hot and dry it can get in parts of Baja at certain times of the year. But how hot is hell? Surely, only the devil knows!
By the time Nelson and Goldman reached the Magdelena Bay region, they supposed all the possibilities of novel forms among the desert plants had been exhausted, but they were mistaken. A new form of cactus appeared, consisting of great beds of devil’s cactus, creeping along the ground in all directions like gigantic spiny caterpillars.
During their journey, Nelson and Goldman traveled mostly along the El Camino Real, or “The Royal Road.” The historic road connected the peninsula’s numerous missions, presidios, and pueblos—and water holes—running between principal settlements. Centuries later, this route has been reduced to a thin meandering trail through the desert—used predominantly by coyotes and local ranchers—it’s physical existance reduced by the desert climate, shifting sands, and ever-encroaching cacti.
The devil's cactus, or creeping devil. 1905 picture by Edward A. Goldman.
Machaerocereus ecura was dubbed “Creeping Devil” owing to its prostrate habit and rigid, serrulate spines. The branches radiate from a seedling or detached joint, and rise just enough to clear a low obstruction, thus giving the appearance of a creeping, stiffly bristled caterpillar. The fruits, to 10cm in length, oval in outline, are edible, faintly acid-sweet, and highly prized as a delicacy. (From Flora of Baja California, by Ira Wiggins)
Pick up some of the most delicious fish tacos on the peninsula from Kenny Martinez and family at Tacos Baja in Vizcaino, Baja California Sur! Thanks for the support, Kenny!
And we wondered why so much of the Gulf was familiar to us, why this town had a "home" feeling. We had never seen a town which even looked like La Paz, and yet coming to it was like returning rather than visiting. Some quality there is in the whole Gulf that trips a trigger of recognition so that in fantastic and exotic scenery one finds oneself nodding and saying inwardly, "Yes, I know." And on the shore the wild doves mourn in the evening and then there comes a pang, some kind of emotional jar, and a longing. And if one followed his whispering impulse he would walk away slowly into the thorny brush following the call of the doves. Trying to remember the Gulf is like trying to re-create a dream. This is by no means a sentimental thing, it has little to do with beauty or even conscious liking. But the Gulf does draw one, and we have talked to rich men who own boats, who can go where they will. Regularly they find themselves sucked into the Gulf. And since we have returned, there is always in the backs of our minds the positive drive to go back again. If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen. The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back if we live, and we don't know why.