Day 6 of #ridingeverydayinNovember, Montezuma Grade

After a hard weekend of bike racing duty, it was time to start wandering homeward.  Instead of a 17 hour drive in one day, Dave and I are taking 4 days to return, and planning to do a bit of riding along the way.

Today Dave talked me into riding UP Montezuma Grade. Chris and Karin would be joining us. It was easier than I thought it would be, but of course I was the last dog on the hill. I've biked down the hill many times, today was the first time I'd bike up it.

 We started off with breakfast at a room with a view.

 We started off around 10:30 AM, it was already in the mid 80's

 We started from Borrego Springs, the first couple miles were just slightly uphill.

The Red Ocotillo  was still hanging on to a few blooms.

 After a gentle climb for a few miles, it was time to begin climbing more seriously.

 It wasn't long before we could see why the Race Across America folks call this the "Glass Elevator"

I took time to take in the sights that I miss when descending at 50 mph

click on the photo to see full screen and be able to read the text

About 7 miles in I took a side trip of about 100 yds at Culp Valley to  scope out this sign.

 After nearly 3 hours of pedaling, I reached the top of the hill.  No Strava records would be set today.
The others would already be back down to Borrego Springs by the time I summited.

 What had taken 3 hours to climb was covered in about 20 minutes on the way back down.

Today's stats:
24.9 miles

3607 ft (in 12.5 miles!)

I'll toss in these two photos from our drive over to San Diego after the ride.

The Salton Sea from Mt Laguna

A nice sunset as we approached San Diego

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today ...........25................0..................0.......................0............25
Jan...............0................0...................0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......559................0..................0........................0..........559
May.........414...............0..................0.......................0...........414
June........337...............0..................0.......................0...........337
July........310...............0..................0.......................0...........310
August.......40.............0....................0......................0............40
Sept..........100..............0...................83......................0...........100
Oct.............29...............0....................0......................0............29
Nov............72..............0......................0......................0............72
YTD...... 2239.............0...................83.......................0..........2382

3642 ft