I just returned from my EO Forum offsite in Ensenada. After 2 days of workshops with the forum, we headed over to Horsepower Ranch, home of Wide Open Baja, to pick up our dune buggies and guide. These are the guys that take F1 drivers and celebrities for 4 and 7 day tours up and down the Baja Peninsula. We happened to schedule our offsite only weeks prior to the Baja 1000, so race enthusiast Patrick Dempsey of Grey’s Anatomy fame was pre-running his section of the Baja 1000 course while we were there (and no, we didn’t see him, so don’t ask if he’s as cute in person). Our 2 day trip included a significant amount of driving on the actual Baja 1000 course, although we didn’t run into other racers during their pre-running. We did use the very same vehicles they will use for the Official Baja 1000, ours were just broken-in a bit.

After a hearty breakfast (the food was amazing), we got off to a rough start. Only 12 miles into the trip, my co-driver came around a corner too fast and clipped a stump on the side of the road, causing significant damage to the right rear suspension. It was the earliest our guide Jose had ever seen client crash. Check out the crash aftermath video. After the humbling experience and expert crew’s speedy vehicle replacement efforts, we were back on our way to Mike’s Sky Ranch without further incident. On the second day, we started out with greater confidence and speed. Just as I thought I was making significant headway in terms of fast driving, I did a ride along with Jose, our gifted guide and competition driver. Unfortunately, the video of my ride-along was too poor a quality due to wind noise and jiggles as he drove faster than my camera could clearly film. I did get some footage of him teaching us how to get big air off a jump at the end of our trip, however. All in all, it was a magnificent adventure worth every penny. The bonding with my forum members and Wide Open Baja employees was priceless. I can’t wait to go back. Check out pictures of the Wide Open Baja trip.

[tags]wide open baja, dune buggy, desert adventure, eo, forum, offsite, baja 1000, race, crash, jose, mexico[/tags]