Ruben's Campo

Me on the left and my friend Matt who will be driving the Biltwell Inc. chase truck, circa 1984 after about ten days prerunning in baja with our mentor, Ron Brant. We were 16. His grandma always said I was a bad influence on him. Some things never change...



If you've been having a hard time getting through to Ruben's Campo in San Felipe, don't sweat it. The whole place is ours, most palapas are already spoken for, but the beach is wide open. I heard from Aaron just yesterday and he said the going rate to camp on the beach, or in a palapa is $70 for two nights, up to four people. He's not going to run along the beach and pester you for money and give you an armband or something official. It'll be up to you to track him down, or one of the EDR staff who can point you to him so you can pay him. Less than $10 a night is impossible to bitch about. Do yourself a favor and use the showers next door at his cousin's joint- Kiki's. If you want a spot reserved, try Kiki's next door. He's great at returning emails. kikimr.baja@hotmail.com is his address. Last we checked with him, all hotel rooms at Kiki's were full but he still had a good amount of palapas open. You can trust this guy.


Aaron, Ruben and Billdozer. I was stoked to show up and find a legend like Ruben rocking an EDR shirt. Yes, that's a dog-choking wad of dollars in his left hand.

A little history lesson on Ruben's Campo. Arron's dad (Ruben) started the camp in 1964. His family has run it ever since. The place has been an icon in off-road racing long before the first time I went there in 1983. That was back in the days when you might rub elbows with Ivan Stewart there at night or have a friendly conversation about suspension and the feed business with Robbie Gordon's dad, Bob. Lot's of lore from those golden years is left on the walls of the bar, and is completely unnoticed by the retarded college girls on a binge drinking trip. The signature drink at Ruben's is a Coco Loco, and rumor has it that three or four is the most anyone has ever finished and survived. The stump the coconuts have been carved on for at least twenty years is the same one we all watched Chris Moeller hack saw his broken cocktail shaker muffler on last year.

What's my point? Well, like most vintage icons, money and progress are it's enemy. Seriously, the town of San Felipe seems like the only change in the past 25 years or so have all occurred in the last three. I liked it way better before the old Gringos from Canada and everywhere else found the climate mild and the real estate prices welcoming. That influx of snowbirds and their pesos is probably good for the local economy, but it sucks some of the soul out of it for me. The key is to just keep heading south to find real baja anyway, but that's hard to do on choppers, at least on this side of the peninsula. Progress in this case comes in the form of an 18-story resort hotel directly behind the camp. Might not be that big of a deal, but the camp is between the beach and the front of the hotel. Generally things move pretty slow in baja, and half-finished construction sites are about as common as three-legged dogs. Not in this case. When we were down there in January there were modern pieces of heavy equipment carving shit up and making a nice flat spot to start the resort construction. Damn. So, of course Ruben's is for sale. It's a great opportunity for the family to make some real money and I don't expect them to turn their back on that just because me and a few hundred other crusty old bastards have great memories of hard drinking in the place. The price? Asking 2.5 million US dollars. I wish someone rich and cool like Jesse James would come along and buy it and tell the new resort to find another way to access the beach, but I doubt that'll happen.




The inside of the cantina, littered with years of off road racing fodder and a few scars left from two EDRs. Scotty Halseth from Sacto can dig it.


What does this mean to EDR riders? Should be no impact on us this year other than just seeing the construction site. Aaron swears nothing will happen before the EDR. How 'bout 2009? I wouldn't count on it. We're already scouting locations on the south side of town and there are a couple little spots that are really promising. We'll keep you updated and in the meantime if anyone has a rich uncle who wants to own the biggest palapa in San Felipe, I could probably help broker a deal...

-Billdozer


This place just looks good with bikes everywhere.


Hard to beat sunrise over the Sea of Cortez, especially for us left-coast guys.