Day 2: Official Start and Uphill Slog

Our day 1 campground turned out to be okay, measuring by the quality of sleep.  After an early dinner I was in the tent by about 8 o'clock and after just a few pages of my book I was quickly asleep.

We had figured that it would take us about 18 miles to get to the border at Tecate and it would be another 42 miles to the campground at Mount Laguna.  The elevation map showed that our route would be continuously uphill until we got to Mt. Laguna.  We decided that this wasn't going to happen on day 2 so we planned to stop at Pine Valley, about 8 miles shy of the top of the hill.  The plan is to stay with a friend of Sarah's in Warner Springs on Wednesday.  That will give us about 60 miles to ride but at least half of it will be downhill.

With this in mind, we decided to aim for being on the road this morning by 7:00.  I woke up at 5:30 and decided to start the day.  Travel with Sarah means oatmeal for breakfast.  Not my favorite dish but I am learning to eat eat and find it much better with apples in it.

The apples are key

After eating enough oatmeal for two people (I have no idea how she eats so much of that stuff), we got started just after 7.

I thought that this would put us in good shape for finishing the day in the early afternoon.  That was before we discovered that the route from the campground to the border start (not on our elevation map) I realized I was wrong.  We were often progressing just faster than a brisk walk.  If not for being in the middle of nowhere, I would have worried about being passed by joggers.  It was clear that we were in for a long day.

Those hills were just the start

They just keep going up.

With the exception of one 2.5 mile stretch of downhill, it was uphill all the way today.  The downhill would have been pretty fun if not for starting to wonder at what point the momentum of me and my 100lbs of bike would wash out around a corner when catching one of the very strong gusts that dogged us all day.  I am not generally an advocate of lots of braking during descents, but as the bike started to get a little squirrelly in some of the turns, I started trying to keep it under 45mph.  I remember many rides years ago on very light bikes pedaling quite a lot downhill to try to hit 35 or 40 mph.  With this beast (I think the bike may have just found its name), I was shocked to find myself coasting downhill braking to keep it at 45.  Crazy!

Unfortunately, we had and even longer uphill after this to reach the turnoff to the border.  Once there, we stopped to take the official start photos, buy some stamps, have lunch (the first of several), and chat briefly with a border patrol agent.

Finally made it...to the start

Time to turn around and head North

During lunch, with the experience of the morning and the knowledge that it wasn't going to get better, we started to search for an alternative destination for the night.  Unfortunately, the only campgrounds along our route were 10 miles before and after Pine Valley.  turning the 8 mile morning uphill into an 18 mile uphill would likely mean we would not make it to Warner Springs (extensive plans for which have already been made by our host).  Adding another 10 miles to our all uphill day was quickly nixed as well.  Our conversation with the Border Patrol agent confirmed what we had already heard about trying to camp along the road somewhere...Don't do it, it isn't safe around here.  Pine Valley it would be.

During a brief stop in Campo, I was able to get phone service (which has been pretty spotty) and make a call to the only motel in town and arrange a room for the night.  It was pretty cheap and not too far off our route.  Credit card camping it would be for Day 2.

We didn't encountered any picture worthy roadkill today (with the possible exception of something that may have been a skunk, but it also may have been an oily rag).  However, we found the good folks of Campo to be very intolerant of monkey business.  So much so, that they have warnings posted on the way into town.

He is now a caged warning to other Naughty Monkeys

We had some nice stretches of road during the later part of the later part of te ride but since we had turned back west a bit, we also had a fierce headwind (the most evil of all bicycling perils).

Still have to get over that last hill

We made it to Pine Valley and found the motel only 1.25 miles off our route.  Unfortunately it was downhill, which means we just added some uphill to tomorrow's ride.  Additionally, now that we were in a valley (aka wind tunnel), the headwind was magnified.  While heading downhill at a more moderate 30 something, I got smacked with a wind gust of about 50 mph.  I was definitely ready to be done for the day.  A quick chat with the hotel clerk told us that these were in fact Santa Ana winds and they have been having frequent 50-60 mph gusts (some taking out electric poles).  The good news is that it will be a tailwind tomorrow back to our route.

The temperature has been reasonable most of the day wit everything from low 50s to 70 degrees.  Great biking weather (without the wind).  The warm shower was very welcome as I found myself  pretty chilled after the last downhill stretch (shocking to those that know me).  We found great wifi at our home for the night (no phone service again) which has made blog updates no problem.  I am really beginning to enjoy the process and now find myself looking for good photo ops to share.

Updating the blog