Ed Zieralski. San Diego Union-Tribune.
Pack up a bunch of late-life crisis. Stow away some empty nest syndrome. Mix in an aching wanderlust for dirt roads and sandy white beaches less traveled.
El Cajon’s Mike Younghusband says those are a few of the factors propelling him to hike the length of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula starting Oct. 1 with a burro and two dogs.
Younghusband, who is an El Cajon native and former policeman there, plans to start at Hernan Ibanez Bracamontes’ Rancho Ojai in east Tecate. He’ll walk approximately 1,500 miles with his white, 4-year-old burro, Don-Kay, devoted dogs, 9-year-old Max, a Chihuahua-dachshund mix, Rusty, a 4-year-old Jack Russell terrier and an adventurous spirit he hopes is a match for rugged Baja.
“I’ve done my duty to God, my family and my country,” said Younghusband, 61, a Vietnam War veteran (Navy) who has been working for Elite Security. “My family (three daughters) has grown, and they’re all successful with kids (six grandchildren) of their own. I’m done. Now it’s time for grandpa to go out and have fun. The world is mine, and I intend on grabbing a big chunk of it.”
He has been preparing for this late-life adventure for over a year, traveling to Baja to place supply caches of food, water and even whiskey in 25 key and remote areas.
“The whiskey is for drinking and trading,” he said.
There’s also dog food for the pups and processed dog bones for Don-Kay, who Younghusband said will stop and munch on just about anything along the way. In between caches, Younghusband will camp and live off the land. He has fishing gear to catch fish from shore during the many days he’ll walk Baja’s pristine beaches.
He has taken classes at REI in GPS and compass and topographic map reading. He has Search and Rescue and extraction insurance and a SPOT satellite GPS messenger so friends and family will always know where he is. He spent eight months “bonding” with Don-Kay.
“In the last seven, eight months, I’ve learned more about this than any one subject in my whole life,” said Younghusband, who has battled high blood pressure, gout and a twitchy back, but says hiking has cleared all that up.
He was introduced to Baja in the 1950s by his father, Ken, who once owned homes in Punta Colonet and Bahia de Los Angeles.
“I was 7 or 8 years old the first time I went to Baja, and I fell in love with the place,” Younghusband said.
Bracamontes at Tecate’s inland oasis, Rancho Ojai, said it will be great for Baja for a man like Younghusband to live out such an adventure.
“I sold him my best burro,” Bracamontes said.
No one has really tried to talk Younghusband out of it. His family is supportive. But he said he has encountered doubters.
“It’s hard for some people to believe,” Younghusband said. “People roll their eyes. One guy, a retired cop, said it was the most ill-conceived, ridiculous pipedream he ever heard of anyone doing. It really hurt me at the time, and I told him. He didn’t know me or anything about the work I’ve put into this. Since then we’ve had time to talk, and now he understands.”
Younghusband has spent more than $1,000 in gear, with most of it from Southern Missouri Mule to outfit Don-Kay with the best in pack accessories. He paid Bracamontes $750 for Don-Kay. He is selling his mobile home in El Cajon.
“I’m all in on this,” he said.
His mentor and good friend, San Diego author and adventurer Graham Mackintosh , hiked Baja’s entire 3,000-mile coastline in the mid-1980s and was the winner of the Adventurous Traveler of the Year Award.
“Graham has been a great help and has become a great friend,” Younghusband said. “I’m hoping he’ll join me for some sections of this.”
Younghusband plans to reach Cabo San Lucas by April, with a short layover in Loreto, where he owns a home, one that eventually will be Don-Kay’s residence. But for the next 6 months they will be traveling buddies-Younghusband, Don-Kay, Max and Rusty-a man his burro and two dogs. The Baja Fearsome Foursome.
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