From Zombieland to Cabo: Walking, Paddling Coast of Baja

On Feb. 2, Bryan Morales and Justin DeShields set out on a walking and paddling journey of the Baja California peninsula. Here is their incredible story.

Serge Dedina: Why did you decide to walk down the coast of Baja California?

Bryan Morales and Justin DeShields: It was the ultimate adventure. The chance to leave the desk job behind. Also, Baja was familiar. We surfed there, speak the language, we’d spent weeks camping and surfing there in our teenage years. After the two of us had left California’s coast for some time we were itching to return.

Dedina: What is the exact itinerary for your trip?

Morales/DeShields: On Feb. 2, we crossed the border at Tijuana. We never wandered far from the Pacific coast, walking roughly 600 miles by foot until San Ignacio Lagoon the day before Easter. From there, we went north and east to cross the peninsula, occasionally walking on the highway.

On April 15, we departed from Mulege on Stand Up Paddle boards. We will arrive in Cabo San Lucas by May 31.

Dedina: Was the beginning of the trip hard—since you had to cross through some of the poorest parts of Tijuana and the most urbanized area of Baja?

Morales/DeShields: On our first day, we walked through what is known as Zombieland. It is Tijuana’s concrete river that lies along the border fence. It is there where drug addicts live. Used syringes litter the sidewalk and gaunt dark people stumble out of it crossing the highway. We never felt in danger, not at 9 a.m.

At one point a group of what looked like Los Angeles gangsters, tattooed and shaved heads, yelled out to us, “Surf’s up!” from their patio. As L.A. area residents, we believe that L.A. is a much more dangerous and explosive environment than anything you’ll find in Tijuana right now.

The only problem we encountered was trying to arrive at the beach. The policeman that we asked for directions told us where we could catch a bus. We explained that we were walking, but he told us that it was utterly impossible.

Dedina: What surprised you about the coast of Tijuana-Ensenada?

Morales/DeShields: The difficulty of coastal access was surprising. Everything is private property. There are various resorts, guarded housing communities, gutted abandoned hotels and land slated for more construction. We got trapped a few times behind barbed wire.

Dedina: What have people’s reactions been to the trip so far? Have the people in Baja been welcoming?

Morales/DeShields: It takes a few minutes for the concept to soak in. We have to explain multiple times that we’re not hitchhiking or riding bicycles. “See-n ra-ee-day!,” (no rides) we explain. Then people get excited and say that it’s an amazing adventure. Backpackers are a rare sight here in a land dominated by dirt bikes and quads. Only one young guy actually wanted to come along and the rest think we’re crazy.

Dedina: How are you keeping yourselves supplied with food and water in desolate areas?

Morales/DeShields: We can carry enough drinking water for three days. So we make sure we’re familiar with the route and various fishing camps or communities ahead. This info just comes from local knowledge.

For emergencies, we’re carrying a Katadyn Survivor 35 desalination hand pump. The Swiss-made pump produces a gallon of fresh drinking water an hour. Bryan has been carrying the 7-pound pump in his backpack since day one. Thankfully we haven’t needed it yet.

We rarely use water for cooking. Instead we eat a lot peanut butter and jelly tortillas. Some packets of refried beans too. Early on, we experimented with eating dried ramen noodle and chips. Then we discovered the hospitality of the Baja people.

On numerous occasions we’ve been invited into people’s homes for a bowl of warm beans and homemade tortillas. To connect with the locals has been the most rewarding part of the trip.

Dedina: What was it like as you moved south of El Rosario and went completely off the grid? Were you both nervous?

Morales/DeShields: We were incredibly excited to get into this remote coastal region known for great surf. This is where the highway departs from the coast and only a heavily equipped off-road vehicle can navigate these shores. It’s famously named the Seven Sisters region referring to seven major peninsulas that jut out into the Pacific and snag incoming swells.

There are scattered fishing camps along the coast but we happened to traveling through just after the end of lobster season. All the fishermen were on vacation. In about 200 miles we saw no more than 60 people.

Dedina: Somewhere around the area of Scammon’s Lagoon, it sounds like you ran pretty low on food and water? What happened?

Morales/DeShields: Just south of Scammon’s Lagoon is a huge area of salt flats. There is an entire industry of salt extraction there of which we had been warned about but we had no clue as to the extent. Horizon to horizon is a large patchwork of deep salt pools and dirt roads that lead nowhere. It is in fact a labyrinth so that giving directions is impossible.

We traveled in circles for two days and eventually became so discouraged that we had a salt flat worker drive us to the most southern security station. We were never far from security stations during that time so there wasn’t any concern for food or water.

Dedina: Have you seen a lot of wildlife?

Morales/DeShields: We haven’t seen as much wildlife as we’d hoped. Though we did have a great coyote interaction. One night we camped just off the highway north of Guerrero Negro. After a month of camping we had long since given up using our two-man tent and instead were sleeping in our rain ponchos.

Justin was just nodding off to sleep when he felt a tug on his sleeping bag. He thought it might be me because I was still awake and moving around.

When he looked up toward his feet he saw that it was it was in fact a coyote with its teeth sunk into his bag. He started yelling at it but it hardly retreated more than 10 feet. It eventually wandered away allowing us to set up our tent where we anxiously waited with cameras and pepper spray. Twice we awoke to find the coyote’s face pressed up against the mesh of our tent staring at us. He was a curious guy.

Dedina: Have you been surprised by the surf you’ve gotten—better or worse than you expected?

Morales/DeShields: The surf hasn’t exactly lined up amazingly with our trip. One of the best days of surf was a slow longboard wave in the Seven Sisters region of Baja. We spent an entire morning catching head-high waves off the point. 

Dedina: What’s next?

Morales/DeShields: We are currently learning how to be sea people. We are in the Gulf of California on 14-foot boards traveling south along a coast that is at times more remote than anything we’ve encountered yet. Neither of us is very familiar with the sport of SUPing nor are we familiar with the Gulf’s currents and wind conditions.

We’ve been warned about deadly squalors, man-eating squid, sharks and more. Until we actually do it we can’t say for sure what we’ll find. Stay tuned!

You can follow the adventures of Justin and Bryan on their Facebook page and through their website, What is West.

Serge Dedina is the Executive Director of WiLDCOAST, an international conservation team that conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife. He is the author of Wild Sea: Eco-Wars and Surf Stories from the Coast of the Californias and Saving the Gray Whale. He lives and surfs in Imperial Beach.