I'm planning a first trip into Baja on dirt bikes. Any advice any of you can give would be appreciated.

Here's the plan. We have a loop trail from Ensenada to Ojos Negros by rte. 3, on to La Huerta on dirt roads then N. to El Condor, back S. to Laguna Hanson and El Coyote. Catch 3 again to Valle de Trinidad back on the dirt to Mike's then head W. to Santa Cruz and further to Colonet. Head N. through Johnson, Erendira and back to Ensenada. Bikes are XR and XL 250 Honda 4 strokes with 100 mile gas tanks, racks and dual sport tires. Some are ridden by 16 year old boys, some by adult men/women, a total of 6. We have one whole spare bike in case one breaks down. We plan to pull them into Ensenada, rent a 4X4 in San Diego (2004 Ford F250 4x4 quad cab pickup, $129/day includes Mex insurance and an OK to carry the bikes) as a chase vehicle and take about 5 days to do the loop ending in Ensenada in time for July 4th to shoot some fireworks. Round trip is 470 miles. At an easy pace is this a good time frame, about 100 miles per day with some sightseeing time? Any warnings, suggestions? The maps are good but seem sketchy on details are there GPS maps for this? Can a big 4 door 4x4 cut it up to Mike's? There's both a dirt and a rte 3 way to get from Laguna Hanson to Valle de Trinidad will either way work OK? There's also both a dirt/beach trail and rte 1 way up from Colonet to Santo Tomas, any suggestions? The beach way seems nicer but can we dirt/4x4 it all the way up the beach? How far? Clear to Punta San Tomas? Ensenada? Or do we cut over to rte. 1 at San Juan de las Pulgas?

Lots of questions, I know. Anything you can give will help.

if you want a good source for baja dirt riding try the off road section at www.baja.net
lots of dirt riders exchanging stuff there.

Capt. Mike's "Screaming Airlines"
www.flybaja.com
drink, fly, fish, dive...but not in that order!