Day 2 April 28th

There are some days when you ride that you work real hard to find something of interest to write about. Today wouldn’t be one of those days. The oppposite was true today. As a matter of fact it would be impossible to cover all of today’s events in this blog. You will have to wait & buy the book when it comes out.

I did not sleep well last night, probably in anticipation of the start of today’s ride. I was to meet the NBC TV station to do a piece on the ride @ the Oceanside Pier @ 5:45am. I arrived at the pier @ 5:30 when I got a call from the producer saying they had to turn the crew around & send them back to San Diego for a “breaking story”. (Probably a Donald Trump sighting, or J. Lo announcing her new boyfriend!) So I proceded to the end of the Pier in the dark & prepared to get some photos to document the moment.

I launched @ 6:00 sharp into a driving rain fall. Of all the preparations that I had made, I didn’t put a lot of emphasis on rain gear. After all it had not rained in So Cal in months. With a long sleeve shirt & the best REI rain jacket I pressed on. The route out of Oceanside is very technical with plenty of turns. I had most of these turns memorized from Garths Run in 2014. Or so I thought. About 15 miles into the ride the route takes you up & over the many hills surrounding the basin to the east. About 25 miles into the hills I realized I had missed an important turn & found myself now riding up some amazingly steep grades. I found a route to rejoin the scheduled route & was soon back on course, with some wasted energy spent on those hills. Even while back on the course I guess my selective memory had blocked out the grade & length of the first days climbs. I am no stranger to hills but these were relentless ! Think wheelerville Mt on steroids. 8% grades for 6 miles. I look back @ Garths Run & can not figure out how he did it?

By mile 50 I had blown through my entire wardrobe of shirts & jackets. 48 degree temp & driving wind. This was no fun. At 65 miles I made it to Lake Henshaw & stopped to eat with plans of calling that good enough for the first day as my legs were pretty well spent. But after an hour rest I made the decision to press on to Borrego Springs that lays in the desert valley 32 miles away. The temp @ LakeHenshaw was to drop into the high 30s tonite & the desert valley is a whole other world with temps to be in the mid 50s. The only problem is the route has a grade for 20 miles before you desend 14 miles winding your way into the desert on one of the most amazing views anywhere. I paced my way toward the valley but about 4 miles before reaching the summit my legs had enough. It was in the mid 40s at the summit. The problem is it’s cold enough that you have to wear a jacket but with the hard climbing you sweat so bad your soaked ( the rain didn’t help with the being soaked issue) Now at the summit I pulled off the road to change into something warmer as now I am shivering . I also had to disable the front brake miles earlier & decided I would hook it back up before the long steep decent. The problem is I am shivering so badly that I could not. The wind was blowing so hard it was difficult to even stand up at this point. A little panic set in along with the approaching sunset. I gave up on the repairs & headed for the valley below. I spent a good part of my life as a professional motorcycle racer so there isn’t a lot that worried me on 2 wheels. This did!  This road twist its way down the mountain changing direction up to 200 degrees. The wind is so violent & always changing as it blows through the passes. The first problem was I was so cold that I was shivering now so bad it was hard to hold the handlebars. The second problem was that you were pushed by the tailwind component that even while braking speeds exceeded 50 Mph! And then the rear brake overheated. This was going bad fast. As I rounded a bend in the road the bike suddenly came to a stop. I was so confused I thought the rear whel had somehow locked up. But it didn’t . The wind had switched from a tailwind to a head wind, so strong it stopped the bike in its tracks! I actually had to petal the bike now down the 6% grade into town. With no possibility of putting a tent up & still shivering un controllably I went to the only hotel in town. I stood at the desk shaking so bad I couldn’t fill out the paper work or sign it. This was bad. I got to my room &stood in the steaming hot shower for an hour . So I will wait & see what the weather does & hope the wind abates overnite & do some bike brake work.

On the flip side no flat tires 95 miles in the books and the So Cal mountains behind it was a “good day”all in all.

 

Cloths drying @ Lake Henshaw during a break in the rain