1998 was the beginning of the end for Baja as we knew it. The wonderfully tranquil place that we had grown to know and love became the home of a predatory pack of thieving scum. It started out well enough. The April and Memorial Day trips were fun, although the fishing could have been better. The fishing in October, November and December was quite good, but it was overshadowed by the presence of the evil, ever-present parasites. They laid low when we were there, save for casing the joints over in October, but they were always down on the rocks during low tide, stripping whatever invertebrate life they could sell. Enjoy the pictures of all the invertebrates on the May trip, because it will be years before they reappear in these concentrations, if they ever recover. The only question remaining is will the parasites leave or is the magic gone for good. Only time will tell.

April

This year, we were back to an April trip, since the previous year's trip in March had yielded yukky green water and the poorest fishing on record. Not a lot of pictures from this trip however, just a couple on the way back. Mike and I stopped to look at the washout at Arroyo Las Palmitas, just north of camp about 6 miles or so. This is the aftermath of Nora. It's what happens when you try to force 50,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water through a culvert designed for 50 cfs. It's an awesome sight. I'm surprised the culvert survived.

• Arroyo Las Palmitas, looking down from the edge of a 20 foot drop-off
• Looking down Arroyo Las Palmitas toward the sea
• Here's Amigo Mike checking out the situation

May

Over Memorial Day, the tides were running radical with the new moon. Not only were they annoyingly large, but annoyingly out-of-sync too. They'd be too low to get out in the morning, so you could get out only to try your luck during the noon feeding frenzy. Yes, I'm being facetious. There is no noon feeding frenzy! There was little fishing. What there was wasn't good. The low tides allowed for some good tidepool viewing though. That is if you could stand the devil wind blowing at around 25 knots offshore. Check out the sights. We also had momma and poppa Black-tailed Gnatcatchers feeding their fledglings in our bushes in front of the trailer.

• Here's one of the fledglings
• When the tide goes out, it goes out. Tidal range is about 23 feet
• This Stingray got stranded in a little pool by the outgoing tide
• The American Oystercatchers had a field day
• This Am. Oystercatcher faced into the wind to make life easier
• These Anemones closed up tight to conserve moisture while exposed
• These Anemones had the luxury of a small pool, so they remained open
• A Red Sponge lied exposed
• As did this Starfish
• This is what the Mexicans call a Caracol Burro (a hefty snail), prime target for the scum
• This sea snail is a Caracol Murex. There USED TO BE lots of these

The rest of Baja 1998 was entered under Recent Trips and is in the form of an illustrated narrative document, rather than the linked format of the previous Baja years. You might have already seen them. If you haven't seen them, they might still be under the Recent Trips Heading, or they may be archived. In either case, the links below will take you there:

October 1998

Thanksgiving 1998

Christmas 1998