The weather has been cool for this area recently. At 3736 ft elevation, Pine Valley put us just on the edge of snow. It was a topic of conversation last night as our route today put us up and over Mt Laguna and to an elevation of nearly 6000 ft. I checked road conditions via my smart phone in the morning and found that there were chains required going over Mt Laguna. That bit of news was verified by several other folks using other sources. Some decided that the snow would probably be clear by the time we got there. I didn't buy into that so joined a few others on an alternate route that would keep us below 4500 ft.
We pedaled off under a clear crisp sky.
The "low route" as it was being called did keep us below 4500 ft, but only saved about 1500 ft of elevation gain. Whereas the Mt Laguna route had one big climb, the low route had several moderate climbs. It was a very scenic route. I pedaled with Ralph, a local who spent his youth recreating in this area and it was fun to hear all the stories.
As the route climbed in elevation I could see us getting closer to the snow line. Patches of ice began to be evident in shady areas. My mind wandered to those who had decided to ride over Laguna today. They would certainly be in ice and snow. As it was, many on the trip are unaccustomed to navigating on icy roads and several bikes went down as we made our way through this section.
I rode by the shores of Lake Cayumaca. This is on the RAAM route so it occupied my thoughts a bit more than normal.
I stopped at a little campground store and had some power snacks. I would have normally stopped in Julian for a piece of famous apple pie, but wasn't sure I'd go through Julian since I was taking this alternate route. I could visualize where I'd rejoin the normal route, just didn't know if that scene was a few miles before Julian, or a few miles after.
It was before. I rode through Julian without stopping for pie today.
On previous Christmas Bike Trips I always took a picture of a Spanish mission that the route passed in Santa Ysabel. Today I stopped and went in.
There were some very large murals on the church walls.
There was also a small museum to the side that told the history of the mission.
With my extra time I took the Mesa Grande option to finish the ride up today. It adds a few miles, and a few hundred feet of climbing. Neither of those would cause me concern today.
Mesa Grande was a nice diversion.
This route was definitely off the beaten path. There weren't many buildings along the way, but of those there, many had seen better days.
The best thing about biking up hills? Well, you usually get to bike back down them!
Unlike yesterday, today the route was easy to follow.
(okay, so I took some artistic license)
After suffering way too much on yesterday's ride, today I wore one less layer, and cooler layers at that. It was a good move. I rode well today, no suffering.
One of the evening activities scheduled tonight was the flat changing competition. Victor and Greg are always in tight competition. Greg has usually come out on top. Tonight however, Victor was victorious. He changed a flat in 35 seconds. Admittedly, not quite like a real tire change. For the purposes of this competition the flat tire is laying on a table. The competitor must run about 3 steps to the table, pick up the wheel, pop the tire off the rim, pull the tube, put a new tube in, put the tire back on the rim, use the floor pump to put in 10 strokes of air. Still a very good showing! Victor was so fast I didn't get it on video, but I did manage to get Greg's effort.
All in all, a great day on the bike!
...........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today............59..............0.............0..........0.............59 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...........560..............0............0...........0.............560 YTD.........9907.........142............20..........46..........10,114
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