Baja California has a way of putting everything into perspective.

Concepts like "durability" and "difficulty" stand in stark relativity to the brutality of the region’s rocks, ravines and—in my particular experience—rain.

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To illustrate, the best hot shower I've ever experienced was in a bare-bones Mexican hunting lodge with dish cloth-sized towels and power that shuts down at 11 p.m. sharp. I’d just plucked out my contact lenses, which had been discs of 30-grit sandpaper for the last 20-odd miles, and was finally able to blink without feeling like I was resurfacing my eyeballs.

The rubber the assembled media was there to evaluate—BFGoodrich’s new KO2—had handled the ascent to Mike’s Sky Rancho without a hitch, but the setting sun and challenging conditions had taken a toll on all the buggie drivers.

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At that point, we’d reached the midway mark on the junket’s 300-mile torture test, and had been briefed that the goat trails, locally referred to as “roads,” were even trickier on the way out.

Over a dinner starring steak and tortillas, we’d get a not-so-gentle reminder about the potential plunges which awaited the overconfident. I’d eventually get nervous, but first I was going to finish my beer.

--John Coyle

Find out more about the BFGoodrich Baja test of the KO2 tire at Ford-Trucks.