2002 marked the start of a new life for me, and the end of two innocent lives for a couple visitors. I got laid off from my job in May. Cathy and I went on a 10,225 mile road trip during the summer. I've been consulting part-time and bumming around ever since. Campo regular Eileen Kelkowski and Baja first-timer, Bonnye Stuart Carter, lost their lives in a foolish boating mishap on December 29, 2002. Baja Bud also passed on to the big tidepool in the sky. Bruce got a new pound-hound, Penny. She's getting her Baja orientation. We got ripped-off by some scumbags during the summer. We made only three trips down there in 2002, which was the first year since 1990 that I didn't spend the holiday season in Baja. We were not constrained by taking our vacation when corporate America dictated, so we spent the holidays here in San Diego and went down to Baja a couple weeks later.

Fishing was pretty good. The surface fish were around in April. Marwan and Pandro both came down. As usual, we had plenty of fish tacos. Deano caught and released a big Golden Grouper out on the seamount over Memorial Day. Bruce caught a campo-record Shortfin Corvina, and Scotty got a big Leopard Grouper. Mike was down over Memorial Day and caught his traditional Sicklefin Smoothhound Shark. Kerry retired and came down for a couple weeks with us in October. The new spot we found last May that had good Cabrilla and Grouper fishing produced again this Memorial Day. The Corvina were around occasionally, mostly when Eddie was fishing. The fishing south of Punta Bufeo remained dismal. We rarely even went down there.

The weather was pretty good, overall. Spring 2002 was cold in San Diego. April in Baja was nice and warm during the day and cold at night. Memorial Day was pleasant, but the water was too cold to swim. No significant storms hit the camp during the Eastern Pacific hurricane season this fall. October was generally nice, but one day, the thermometer stayed at 104° all day during an offshore wind. That afternoon, I recorded a new Baja high of 128° in the sun. We stayed in the shade. The nighttime temperatures were always pleasant however. Bruce reported a couple days of rain over Thanksgiving. A light rain also fell over Christmas/New Year. The plants seemed happy when we were there a couple weeks into January. We had lots of birds in camp during our October trip, which occurred a little later in the month than usual.

I secured the outhouse with screens to keep the bees out. I also put a small solar system in it that powers a light. We had lots of visitors. The road stayed in half way decent shape until fall. After the storm season, a couple minor washouts made it a little slower going. The Mexicans improved the Puertecitos road significantly down to km 32, around Campo Santa Maria. Below that, it's first potholes and then no pavement at all into Puertecitos. I wish they'd clean it up a bit. The Baja 1000 was run on our stretch of the Gonzaga road in October. The race screwed up the road big time. The washboard is as bad or worse than I've ever seen it. Click on a link below to read about one of our trips in detail.

Web page design and all images contained herein, except where indicated otherwise, are © 2003 Dean R. Charles and are the exclusive property of the author/photographer. Limited license is granted to download these images for personal use, or to use these images on a non-commercial basis. Any other use is prohibited without express written permission of the owner. Violators will be summarily keel-hauled. Encantadas - Gonzaga Campo Productions. Created 02/05/2003