Untamed Baja - 2 Dudes, Surfboards, Cameras and a Dream

photo snagged from Nat Geo.com

Justin DeShields won a Young Explorer Grant from Nat Geo for basically being badass. Everybody, especially up in the Tetons where I'm currently hanging my hat, is always talking about the great hikers of epic mountain peaks. It's the in thing to do, bagging peaks. Everest has never been more popular (hell, they even had a Family Guy Episode about it) and nearly all impressive U.S. peaks are regularly crawling with amateur mountaineers, like admittedly, me. So it takes some balls to buck the trend and propose a couple hundred surf-centric hike south along the coast. And not just any coast, along the coast of Mexico, where the possibility of narco-related death or scorpion sting pain is very real. I mean sure, once you get on foot beyond the villages and cities you're probably okay but then you gotta deal with the basic act of survival in that Baja heat.

On a personal note, every time I've gone to Baja, and that was quite a regular occasion in my San Diego years, I or somebody from my group has been hassled by bandits, federales, or both (and really what's the difference anyway?). You don't gotta worry about crazy drug gangsters possibly appearing with AK's to mow you down while summitting K2, that's for sure.

So anyway, right now Nat Geo Young Explorer Grantee Justin DeShields and his buddy Bryan Morales are in the middle of an epic hike down to the tip of Baja to be followed by a stand up paddle across the sea of Cortez and beyond.

Check out their site to keep up with where they're currently exploring and get inspired by the fact that, hell, even in North America along the Pacific there are still unexplored lands.

And, hell, it's the soul of Spring right now. Get out and do something, goddammit.

Happy Friday.

- Ryan