Day 7: Brrrr....It's Mother's Day

I poked my head out to find 30 degrees outside the tent this morning.  Chilly!

We climbed to 8443 ft. at Onyx Summit to start our morning.  Usually the morning climb is a good way to warm up.  Today however, I started with most of my riding clothes on and left them on for the entire climb.  At the summit it was so windy and chilly that I dug in my bag for one more jacket to wear on the descent.

That sign is bent from the wind!

It was a good thing I did.  By the time I got to the  bottom of the 8 mile descent, I was so cold I couldn't stop shivering.  I had to pull over to sit in the sun a while to feel my fingers.  With the exception of the teeth chattering, it was a great downhill with a comfortable grade an  the wind went away after descending 1000 ft or so.

Being that today is Mother's Day, I was looking forward to finding a coffee shop to get a hot drink, warm up, and give my mother a call.

Fortuitous find along the road

Thanks to a large bandage that I dug out of my first aid kit, I was able to patch up my butt well enough that riding today wasn't too bad.  Still I have decided that another short day is in order to try to heal up the saddle sores so we are staying in Big Bear Lake for the night.  Thanks to the quick and chilly downhill, that means that we are ending our riding day quite early.  

Getting the lay of the land from the locals

After an extended stay at the coffee shop for warm drinks and lunch, we hit the grocery store to stock up again for the next few days. 

Riding through town I stopped at a local bike shop to purchase two bottles to replace my broken water bottle and get rid of the one with the leaky lid (it has made quite a mess over the last few days).  With the ski resorts and forest roads around Big Bear, the bike shops are almost exclusively mountain bike only.

The other touring bike in town

There are no convenient campgrounds along our route in town and I found a super inexpensive ($39...really) hotel room so it will be indoor sleeping tonight.  That means a chance for some non-camping snacks this afternoon.

Tasty non-travel food

The room is surprisingly nice for the price with one odd feature.

I wonder how much it would be without dollhouse furniture

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and resting.  I even found some bike racing to watch on the television.  Tomorrow will be another full day to start week 2.