Prickly Heat

Brian Lopes assembles a crew of old-school legends to cross Mexico’s cactus-riddled Baja California Peninsula

Deserts aren’t often the first places that come to mind when putting together riding plans, what with their energy-sucking sand, extreme heat, poisonous snakes, prickly cacti and the lack of water. But I was looking for somewhere new to explore and, with its amazing uncharted coasts and mountains, the Baja Peninsula of northwest Mexico seemed like the perfect blank canvas for an epic adventure.