I knew of a good location for a scenic overlook. Our support car would be waiting for us there. It was a beautiful morning to ride through the desert.
Unlike when I ride through here in late December, today the Ocotillo was not blooming. It made for a slightly less colorful ride, but still quite scenic. We arrived at the scenic overlook where Julie was waiting. Dave and I stopped, the others waved and rode on.
After taking a few photos and topping off water we pedaled on. Our next planned stop was a convenience store nearly 200 ft below sea level near the Salton Sea.
Before we would reach the Salton Sea we had a few more miles of desert to ride through. Dave and I both noted the colorful surroundings.
This was also the location of calcite mines during World War 2.
Before reaching the Salton Sea we also had to travel over a couple of miles of rough surfaced road.
Remarkably, this is a county maintained road. They had to put a sign up on a sandy cross "street" to differentiate it.
There is a sign advising of a "rough road" that comes at the end of the rough section. In fairness, cars don't feel the rough surface that we just rode over, but the dips coming up make motorhomes and vehicles pulling trailers bounce around violently. We bikes just roll over those whoop-di-dos.
Dave and I arrived at the Salton Sea. The others were still there topping off supplies.
Here we turned north and followed Hwy 111 near the shores of the Salton Sea, our next stop was planned for a small convenience store just under 20 miles out. As we crossed into Riverside County we began to see a lot of agriculture, in this case it was date palms and citrus. Our 6 week earlier ride was again notable, as the oranges weren't ripe.
We left the Salton Sea and arrived at our stop and resupplied from the store's shelves, as our support driver had continued on to civilization to procure some items.
At our next stop we planned to have a date shake in Indio. Off we went!
Our route followed the HI USA San Diego Christmas Bike Ride route with a few exceptions. Other than yesterday when we bypassed Warner Springs, all our other variations from the official route we in towns where we would route to our overnight lodging, and a detour to go to Shield's Date Garden. The little trip to Indio put us on some less scenic roads in some "industrial" sections. The roads were low traffic and safe, just not as pretty.
By the time I got my date shake, the others had already finished theirs and were anxious to get on the road. Dave decided he wasn't up to the speed fest anymore and opted to ride with me.
From here on into Palm Springs we were in an urban setting.
Part of our route took us on a multi-use path to avoid a busy section of Hwy 111. Though streetview showed we could access the path, when Dave and I arrived we were blocked by a locked chainlink fence. Luckily I knew the area a bit and was able to navigate around the blockage. We had been riding for quite some time and I was leading since I knew the way. I was pedaling along about 18 mph when our riding partners came up from behind. It seems that they too had found the locked gate, and weren't so lucky in finding a way around it.
The hares, and the tortoise, rode into our Palm Springs lodging together, just as check-in time opened. We checked in, showered, made a beer run, and spent some time lounging around the pool. We walked across the street for dinner then called it a night.
It was raining and cold at home. So far, we have had daily highs in the 80's and have not seen a single cloud. Life is good!
...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total
Today..............91...........0................0............0.............91 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0..........0.............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0................653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0................696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0...............900
June..............484...............0..............0............0..............484
July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300
Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638
Sept...............232..............0................0...........0............232
Oct...............307...............0................0...........0............307
Nov..............374...............0................0...........0............374 Total...........5844.............0...............0..........0.............5844
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