Today begins the 6 day, 400 mile, Hostels International USA San Diego Christmas Bike Trip. This will be my 5th year at this fun event. Following the family Christmas Eve shindig I drove 16.5 hours through the night, and Christmas day, arriving here about 3PM on Christmas day. Following a good night sleep, I'm ready to ride! It was raining as we made our preparations. The temperature was in the low 50's as we started out, but it was 34 and snowing in Pine Valley, our ending point for the day. The forecast for the day in Pine Valley was a high of 37 and an 80% chance of snow. I wore my winter riding gear, figuring I'd just have to ride easily until we gained a bit of elevation, to avoid overheating.
I had pre-loaded the 6 days of routes alternating between my two Garmin Edge 305's. The reason was that if I couldn't charge the Garmin one night, no problem, I'd have the next day's route on the other Garmin.
I fired up the Garmin about 10 minutes before we rolled out to allow it time to find the satellites after moving 1000 miles since it's last fix. I was surprised to see that it still didn't have a fix as we started out. I fiddled with it throughout the first 20 miles or so. It just wasn't going to work today. I had the paper cue sheet in my pack, but figured I'd just follow the crowd today.
Before we reached 25 miles the 20 or so riders I had been pedaling with suddenly rolled to a stop. It seemed we had missed a turn and weren't sure where we now were. They looked at me and my Garmin on the stem and asked about directions. Ah, what a day to have a techno failure. Finally someone who know the area a bit was able to lead us back to the route. We had no problems from there on into Alpine where we joined up with many from our group who stop there for snacks.
I jumped in with a group who knew the way and away we went. They jumped on the Tavern Rd/Japutal Rd alternate. It was a route that I had never been on before, and it had a bit more climbing. This particular group pedaled a brisk pace, and before long I was way too hot. It was also pouring rain from time to time. I knew if I removed rain gear now I would get hypothermic. I slowed down, and got dropped.
He I was, no Garmin, no guide, not entirely sure where I was.
I finally rolled into Descanso, familiar ground. It became clear that someone was expecting me.
I pedaled the rest of the way to Pine Valley. It was in the low 40's, and no snow around.
We had introductions tonight, and the chatter around was revolving around the weather, and what tomorrow might bring. It was predicted to clear up and be well below freezing.
No worries tonight, as inside we were warm and dry, if not also a bit crowded.
I suffered far more than I should have today, all related to being dressed way too warmly. I'll make a clothing adjustment for tomorrow. Now if I was just sure what the weather was going to be tomorrow. Rain, snow, or clear and cold?
Get a good night sleep and figure it out in the morning I guess.
It was a good day, and nice to see old friends.
...........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today............55..............0.............0..........0.............55 Jan..............105.............34............0..........0............139 Feb.............428............108...........0.........24...........536 March.........809..............0.............0.........22...........831 April.........1010..............0.............0...........0..........1010 May..........1000..............0............20........0............1020 June.........1500..............0.............0..........0............1500 July..........1558..............0.............0..........0............1558 Aug...........531..............0.............0...........0..............531 Sept..........730..............0.............0...........0..............730 Oct............844.............0.............0............0.............844 Nov...........835..............0.............0...........0.............835
Dec...........501..............0............0...........0.............501 YTD.........9848.........142............20..........46..........10,055
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