Control the things you can control, so it’s easier to react to the things you can’t control. This is one of the better pieces of advice I’ve received in my career. At the time I heard that, it was applied to a corporate setting dealing with complicated, high stakes marketing campaign projects—not motorcycles. But over time it ended up being relevant and useful for trips to Baja, too.

For people in San Diego or Yuma or LA, heading to Baja can be as easy as a weekend camp trip—with a few additional factors to plan for, of course. Being based in the Pacific Northwest, heading to Baja is an undertaking. Back when my first Baja trips took place, it was an intimidating and daunting task heading down I-5 eleven hundred miles before even reaching the border crossing. Arriving at the border or down at some camp site outside of San Felipe, and not having every single thing you need in order, ends up being the kind of thing that ruins a trip.

Take that whole mental mess, and multiply it by racing in Baja, and you have a headache and some spiking cortisol levels. It’s pretty important to have your situation organized and plan for everything.

Spreadsheets, checklists, packing lists, labels, totes, detailed GPS files, Google earth analysis, lengthy emails, checking and re-checking gear—all of these are your friend. One spreadsheet for scheduling. Another for budgeting. A checklist for riding gear. A checklist for photo gear. A list of meals and whatever else you’re going to want after a full ride day. A checklist for personal items. Life flight insurance. Mexican vehicle insurance. Passport copies. GPS pins. Neatly organizing your pile of charging cables for various devices. Radio frequencies. Emergency contacts lists. Lubricants, spares, tools, repair items.

iOS Notes checklists sync across phone and laptop and really help maximize productivity! 

Some of it I've learned the hard way. Sleeping in a wash south of San Felipe in the cold, next to a broken down race bike, will teach you a lot about what needs to be on your checklist. In those moments I start making the future checklist while the information is fresh in my mind.

✅ MYLAR EMERGENCY BLANKET

✅ WATERPROOF MATCHES

✅ EXTRA POWER BARS (not the ones in your pocket for eating on the bike, but the ones for when those run out!)

Photo from 2019 Baja 1000, 10pm, in Chenate Wash with a dead bike, and no warm layers

Experience is the best teacher. You just folded your rear sprocket into a taco on a toaster-sized rock? A tire lever in your kit will work great to bend it back into shape so you can limp out to the highway. Check your toolkit against your bike and ensure it has everything you need and nothing you don’t. Do you have a spark plug socket? Bet you didn’t think you’d need that…

The checklist of stuff for the recent winter 2025 Mosko Baja trip was a long one, but I’m fortunate to say that it was mostly items copied from other trips over the years. Take the Baja 1000 race checklist, delete a few items, add a few items, and you’re ready to start packing. Don’t get me wrong, it was still quite a production to get seven people (one coming from Barcelona), two ADV bikes, two dual sports, and four 2-stroke trail bikes from the Pacific Northwest to Baja. But we have a highly experienced crew, good equipment, and solid plans in place, so it ended up being pretty low stress.

Fortunately Killian is good at entertaining himself in the truck alone!

Killian was willing to come into Portland and drive the loaded Mosko Ram 3500 down to the border. Honestly the drive from Mosko HQ to San Diego is one of the hardest pieces of the puzzle to figure out. Two days, a lot of Bad Bunny playlists, and a thousand miles later, and Killian was picking us up at the San Diego airport. We re-shuffled the loadout and headed for the border with a long drive down Highway 1 still in front of us.

This is just the half way point! 

We’re also fortunate to have Travis on the squad. Travis is a jack of all trades and somehow a master of all of those same trades. His experience is broad, and his abilities varied. He’s supported race teams, navigated class 10 buggies in the Baja 1000, raced dirtbikes at a high level, and done tons of moto rebuilds and maintenance. He’s the guy you want on the crew. All of that in addition to being probably the single best rider on the Mosko team.

Travis hauled a trailer full of bikes, tools, spares, totes of camp gear, food, water, and everything else we’d need to be out in the sticks for 10 days. I’m not a huge fan of driving narrow, winding Mexican highways with steep drop-offs on the side; Travis did it with a trailer behind him. Big props for that.

Travis: lots of Baja experience, has his kit dialed, and he's a sick rider. 

The border crossing is always a headache. There are so many little details that it can be nearly impossible to get a straight answer on. Jumping into an Internet forum to discuss often leads to even more confusion and even less clarity. Do you need an FMM visa stamped and validated for 180 days? This one guy on Facebook says that the guards at the military checkpoints on the highways are asking for your FMM card now. We almost always get pulled into secondary inspection heading into Mexico. Is the guy going to inspect every single VIN number? Will he bust our balls about an extra tire in the truck? Is he going to scoff at the bikes' titles, and demand registration cards? Sometimes the border crossing is as simple as a wave through; other times, you spend 30 minutes under the microscope bantering in spanglish and opening every tote and every gear bag.

This crossing ended up being on the easier side. Two minutes of back and forth, a couple of glances at documents that might not fly in the US (but definitely looked good to a Mexican customs official), and we’re on our way. The FMM office didn’t even seem to care about if we had a visa or not—forget about that, let’s get to camp.

Some toll booths. One stop for excellent queso tacos. A few hundred stop lights. Plenty of topes. A million potholes. A $350 gas can and Diesel truck fill-up at the last gas stop, before there’s no gas for miles. One military checkpoint. If you don’t worry about the potholes, it all gets easier the further south you go.

We pulled into camp after dark to find Travis and Drew already setting up. It was cold, but we made it after 16 hours of travel.

If you can get all of that out of the way, manage to not forget anything you need, and still have a little energy left, the riding is truly some of the best imaginable. Cardons, granite, cirios, fast two track, winding singletrack, and lots of Carne Asada. Its all worth the price of admission.