CANTBIRD’25, Day 2: Santee to Viejas, CA

(23.5 miles and 2934 feet of climb)

It was a pretty good day for biking. It rained a little bit off and on, but nothing nearly as bad as the last two days. I still have that 1972 song going through my head: “It never rains in Southern California.”

Fueled by a couple thousand calories of free hotel breakfast, I made it to a Starbucks in my target town, Alpine, by 2 PM. There was a casino hotel there that I heard was really nice. It cost $96 last night, but tonight it is $275, because of Friday night and Valentine’s Day.

So I decided to push on to reach what I thought was a great campsite another thousand feet higher. Doing this means that tomorrow will be 3000 feet of climbing instead of 4000.

I was really looking forward to this campground, because the web page talked up the hot tub and the game room with food. The problem with with biking at this time of year is that there’s 13 hours of darkness, and it’s pretty cold right now, so all I need is any warm place to hang around in until bedtime. The hot tub is certainly a bonus! So I was excited when I called them and they said there’s plenty of room for a bike and a tent.

The climbing went better than expected. I did have a tailwind, which is not all that helpful when you’re traveling so slowly uphill, but it’s better than a headwind.

I was actually very pleased to average 7.4 mph the entire day. My average heart rate was 125 beats a minute, which is much higher than I normally get while biking. So I was working hard, but that 3000 feet of climb is what slows me down to such a slow average.

When I got to the Ma Tar Awa Viejas campsite, I was in for a surprise. This might be the worst campground I’ve ever stayed in. The hot tub is not working. The pool is not working. The game room was now permanently closed. There’s not a spec of food. In fact, the entire building closes at 5 PM.

They do have a bathroom, but two of the toilets aren’t working. One of the showers is not working. At least the other shower does have hot water. And I do mean hot — there’s no control; it is either on or off. 

I was able to take a shower, but my socks got wet because there was so much water on the floor in the main part of the bathroom from a leaking toilet. So I’m glad I have an extra pair of dry wool socks.

I got my stove out and cooked some instant Japanese noodles that I bought at an 7-11 last night, and drank some “Karen Hurd coffee” (hot water) to warm up. Then I brushed my teeth and crawled into the tent at 6:00pm. I will be a prisoner in my tiny one-man backpacking tent for the next 13 hours. I guess on the bright side, I’ll probably get a record amount of sleep tonight.

I finally got out my drone, but not until I got to the campsite. All of yesterday, I was biking in a no-fly zone due to the San Diego airport. Today I finally escaped that area, but immediately entered the no-fly zone due to Miramar, the original Top Gun naval base. 

The good news with the weather forecast is that the next eight days are all supposed to be sunny. And tomorrow should be a little easier than I had earlier expected. After tomorrow, there should be less climbing on the other side of these mountains. Now, if I can just keep that tailwind!

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