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Outside Magazine January 2002

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Mexican Hat Trick
A world-class mountain biking, surfing, and boardsailing hideout awaits in Baja. All you have to do is find it.

By Tom Byrnes


	Pacific views: Punta San Carlos, Mexico

I was mashing at the pedals and sucking wind as we ground our way to the top of the final ridge. The Baja desert is unforgiving, but when you throw in lung-busting ascents, technical descents, and dense stands of towering cardón cactus, you're really asking for it. Ignoring the oozing gashes on my knee and forearm—the result of a crash on a near-vertical scree slope—I crested the final 1,000 feet of our 20-mile ride and followed my guide into a sandy arroyo that split open to reveal the sun setting over the sparkling Pacific surf.

I had been coming to this desolate spot in northern Baja—known as Punta San Carlos—for more than a decade to surf its legendary mile-long waves, but this ride was a revelation. A new, 30-mile network of singletrack has transformed the barren, rust-colored landscape into a knobby-tire playground. The realization that this was now a place where, in a single day, I could nail the trifecta of my outdoor addictions—surfing, windsurfing, and mountain biking—hit me like a shot of tequila.

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Get the full scoop on guided trips and getting to Punta San Carlos on your own.

An isolated outcrop 300 road miles south of the U.S. border and 35 miles from the nearest stretch of pavement, Punta San Carlos was discovered by the California surfing crowd in the late sixties. Set on a south-facing bay with a point break churning up dreamlike, slow-turning barrels, its only flaw was a relentless afternoon wind that sandblasted everything in its path. But the "flaw" attracted a new set of fanatics in the mideighties: Windsurfers raved about this secret spot where the side-off breeze ran parallel to the breaking waves in a textbook-perfect setting. Driving to Punta San Carlos was an odyssey involving roadblocks, bribes, and mechanical breakdowns, but the payoff was enormous: surfing and sailing in a pristine, private setting.

The peninsula's newest arrival, adventure outfitter Solo Sports, has only improved the scene. In 1997, Solo founders Kevin Trejo, 41, and Ron Smith, 39, a pair of annoyingly fit multisport enthusiasts from Irvine, California, worked with local landowners to secure a long-term lease on five square miles around the beach. Then, without altering the area's relaxed vibe, they began a series of subtle improvements.

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