Day 5 - Palo Verde to Quartzite

Today we go on to Quartzite via Blythe. Leaving California just past Blythe. The ride started with a flat decent road through irrigated farmland. And somewhat overcast sky.

For me the first few miles into Blythe I felt sluggish.
We crossed the river into Arizona via a narrow pedestrian walkway along the freeway. It had a rather poorly maintained approach. Which was steep so had to push the bike up. When I got to the top it was very narrow so I ended up walking across.

Halfway across is the Arizona California border.

After crossing the river we had an uphill along the freeway. Lots of trucks and lots of shredded tire carcasses to dodge. But generally a pleasant ride for me. I'm used to riding where there is lots of traffic. Especially with a shoulder wide enough to park a semi on.

The hill was fairly long but not steep. For the first time on this trip I felt pretty good on a climb. Probably mostly due to better temperatures due to the clouds.

At the top of the climb was our turn off to a side road down to Quartzite. The downhill had a few rollers but went by quickly.

Then I arrived at our accommodations for the night.

I stayed in the Black Pearl. My roommates. Max is on the right.

We went out for pizza at Silly Als.

It was very good. Then off to Dairy Queen for desert.

Tomorrow we go on to Salome.  Another fairly short day with some climbs.

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Day 4 - Brawley to Palo Verde

Day 4, was hard.

I finally did get an early start rolling out the door before dawn to try and beat the heat.

About 5 miles down the road the sun came up.

Then we got into sand dunes and stopped at the Glamis store to get water.

The climb out of Glamis was fairly gentle passing by the chocolate mountains. Just past where this picture was taken we got into some rollers some easy some hard. Then past the border patrol check point where they waved me through. And then more rollers as we went downhill. There were a few nice downhill sections but always more rollers.

The day was hot and tiring. The sun really sapped my energy.

 At this point I was pretty tired so another 13 miles seemed like a long ways. More rollers followed.

Patty stopped after this post and I took on some more water and gator aid. I caught up with a couple more riders and we proceeded on. Finally reaching the flat of the the valley that Palo Verde is in.

I stopped at a rest area that had running water and refrigerated drinking fountains. As I rested in the shade there another rider Dave that isn't part of our group stopped. He is riding with a friend of Phil and Patty, Franklin and we waited until they showed up.

Shelly eventually showed up as well. Earlier I had passed her on one of last rollers and waited at the top where I somehow managed to drop my phone. She noticed it averting a somewhat major annoyance and expense.

I turns out we were only two miles from camp. So refreshed and slightly rested we pedaled into camp.

The camp hosts provided us a taco dinner. The town is starting to look like a ghost tow with the local stores and gas station closing.

I'm feeling stronger every day. But dreading what looks like another hard climb tomorrow.

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Entering Arizona

Pedestrian/bithe ccycle Bridge over the Colorado River

Day 3 - Boulevard to Brawley

Day 3 took us from near Boulevard to Brawley. 

For the first time on this trip I actually used my sleeping bag to keep warm as it cooled off nicely during the night.

This time I got the Garmin to work. The day started, with an uphill grind to get to Old Highway 80, which lived up to it's name as being old. The shoulder in places was unrideable because it was so badly cracked. More Border Patrol vehicles. There was some up and down to get into Jacumba which put us very close to the border. This is the best picture of the fence that I got. Off to the left. A rider coming down the road in the distance. Plus you can just make out a border patrol vehicle at the fence.

Then we had a bit more climbing. The following is close to the last hill before the big downhill on the freeway. Some cyclists are barely visible just going up the hill.

Then for the fun part. Down hill on the shoulder of the freeway. Which was well paved, but they did have a rumble strip. Mitch started down the hill just before I did. For awhile I wast sure I would catch him, but he slowed down for a police car that had someone stopped on the shoulder. I popped over the rumble strip and passed him. I passed a number of other riders on the downhill as well. At one point I saw a 50 MPH speed limit on a corner and checked my speed to make sure I wasn't going too fast. I think I was just over 45 MPH at that point. According to the Garmin I hit 50.3 MPH on the downhill along the freeway into Ocotillo.  Nice ride.

Unfortunately, the temperature continued to climb as we descended. It was well over 100 degrees in Ocotillo. I stopped as gas station and filled up with water and had a gator aid. From there until Plaster City the riding was fairly fast, but the road was quite rough. In plaster city Alicia and I sought out some shade from one of the buildings had something to eat and drink. We were soon told to leave and continued on our way.

From there until Seely I started to really feel the heat. I stopped in the shade of a tree for awhile. At one point the temperature on my bike computer registered 121 degrees. It was probably more like 105 but it really sapped my energy.

After that Max Phil and I stopped at a little air conditioned Taco stand in Seeley. Excellent tacos! They also filled our water bottles and my 64 ounce thermos. A cold drink on a hot day is really good.

From there Phil and Max headed into El Centro to stop at the bike shop.  I continued north along the designated route. Stopping frequently in the rare shade along that road.

About 1/4 mile out of town I had a softening rear tire. I tried adding some air but it was so hot I couldn't see myself fixing it. I proceeded to walk to town. In town I found an AM-PM mini mart and they were kind enough to allow me to fix the tire in the mens restroom. 

Refreshed after a nice rest in the AC I proceeded on to our Camp at the Lions Center. We actually camped inside of an air conditioned building. Although it again wasn't cold enough to use a sleeping bag.

We were also given some good information about the local fauna by Jack who was responsible for arranging the lodgings at the site.

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Day 2 - Alpine to Boulevard

Day 2 was a relatively short ride mile wise but in theory more climbing than day 1. The day started with everyone trying to figure out how all this is going to work with cooking, etc. I started trying to organize my stuff so that it is quick to pack up but have not had as much success as I would like.

The route had a number of fairly difficult climbs along with a section on the freeway to start out. Some might think this was bad, but I think if you could stay on the freeway with the wide shoulder and pretty smooth pavement that it would be safer.

A view of our campground on the way out.

The day started with some riding on the freeway.  Quite a bit of uphill. There was a vista point that cyclists are required to exit on. You could just barely see the buildings in San Diego from here. 

After getting off the freeway we eventually made it to Pine Valley.  Mitch passed me on an uphill before I got there.

At that point he informed me that Jim Burke who I had the pleasure of riding wih for part of the first day had decided to abandon as well. He added a lot to our group with a unique outlook on things. After the first two days of very hot riding with a lot of climbing I think many of us have been challenged and at least speaking for myself I was close to my limit more than once.

 When I got into Pine Valley I first noticed some emergency vehicles on the side if the road. I hoped it wasn't one our group.  Unfortunately, it was. Clint had run into the back of a truck that was parked on the shoulder. He had his head down pedaling and didn't see it.

He appeared to be reasonably OK with a bandaged left arm from the accident, no apparent damage to his bike or the truck. The officer at the scene wanted Mitch's phone number.  Which he immediately called.  It turns out Mitch was just up the street in a local diner so he was able to ride back to the scene and took care of helping Clint get transportation.  As it turns out Patty, Phil's wife was driving Max to the next camp and then Jim Vincent back to San Diego.

At first it appeared that Clint was going to continue on the next day but eventually he made the decision to try and rejoin us in Phoenix.  I really hope that he can.

Here is a picture of Jim, on the left and Clint that I took in San Diego at the hostel.

After leaving Clint in the capable hands of Mitch and Phil I stopped at Majors Coffee Shop and had a half a sandwich and bowl of soup. The staff went out of their way to fill all my water bottles, with ice, and my 64 Ounce Thermos, which so far is looking like one of the best things that I brought as it keeps water ice cold all day.

After a climb out of the Pine Valley, which proved to be somewhat easier than I expected there was a nice long decent, including dodging a speed bump that the Border Patrol had in the middle of the road. It seemed like about every 4th or 5th vehicle was Border Patrol. Given how much they use that road you would think it would be better maintained.

Later on I saw Patty shuttling Clint and Jim back to San Diego. They told me to take Church road instead of the other one that we had planned on taking. 

About this time the clouds came in and just after Mitch caught up and passed me again it started to rain. Very pleasant!

Got to the appointed road and had a very nice fast decent. At the end of the road the decision was to turn left or right. I figured right, but took my phone out to check with google. I had a text from Mitch, turn right and about 1 mile uphill to the camp turn off.

Got my tent set up and a shower and dinner was ready. Need to get to camp earlier. Must get an earlier start in the morning.

Here is the route I took. Again, not from my Garmin. I need to pay more attention to what I'm doing I think.

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Pacific Ocean Photos

We often see these wonderful starter photos where all those departing for their cross country ride are standing in a neat row ready to depart.  Getting these photos is not always as easy as you may suspect.  As an example look at the photo below. The rider on the far right is carrying his bike across the sand to the beach.  Yes skinny tires do not work well in the soft beach sand.  Now look at the two bikers with fully fully loaded pannier access to the beach was very difficult.  Now for problem number two notice the rider on the far left of the photo.  She is getting her picture taken and as she was waiting a wave came in and sunk her and her bike.  Yes wet shoes are not fun to ride in besides ocean water and sand are very difficult on those delicate bicycle parts.  One of the most difficult is to get someone to take those photos.  Thank you Patty for volunteering your services.



And here is the final result.  After 15 plus camera's where we needed to move forward four times we finely got our picture.  MB

Day 1 - San Diego to Alpine

The day started with a quick stop at the beach.

The day was hot. 104 degrees. I was riding with Jim B. and Max. Jim was having a rough time with rhetoric hills and heat. He opted to get a ride into camp from a couple of nice girls in a pickup. Max and I declined. 

Earlier in the day Jim found this nice air condoned customer service location at Padre Dam. Vicki was very nice and we hung out here for a few minutes. Refilled water bottles and cooled down.

Many hours and one very wrong turn later.

 Getting to Alpine was good but there was a lot more climbing left. It was about 8pm when we got to the turn for the camp. Unfortunately we missed the second sign and ended up about a mile past where we needed to be before we got some good help from a guy at the fire station.

When we got to camp we received much help setting up tents from Shelly and Clint.

We also found out that Jim V. had decided to abandon after passing out at a convenience store. We are all sad that he had to leave.

Then a shower and off to dinner at the Casino.  Didn't get to bed until after 11.

Unfortunately The GPS track wasn't on my Garmin when I downloaded it. So the following is approximately, based on my memory and dead reckoning the route I and Max took due to me missing the turn off of Julian street. It comes in at about 50 miles instead of the planned route. Plus the ride from the hostel to the beach is not on this one either.

If you are planning to do this route I recommend downloading the GPS tracks from Adventure Cycling. I had them, but didn't use them. The really sad thing is that the mistake I made was not in a place that was at all confusing on the map. I just was not paying attention and assumed I knew where I was going. Sorry Max.

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