(35 miles, 2000 feet of climbing)
Today was a great day for biking! I set many new trip PRs today — highest miles at 37, most time in the saddle, and yet my heart rate was lower, even though I still climbed 2000 feet. The weather was spectacular! I did face headwinds, but they weren’t too strong, and the temperatures were so pleasant that I didn’t notice much.
When I got to the casino gas station I had been aiming for at mile 17 and 1700 feet of climb, I decided not to go in there, but to push on only another 1.6 miles to a small town café that I saw on Google maps. That was a great choice — that little café was completely deserted except for me. It was a little run down, but the three-egg Denver omelette hit the spot.
I discovered that I was going through water a lot faster today because of the heat. I completely drained two of the bigger bottles (24 oz?) in just those 17 miles. So I’ll have to be careful and fill up my third and fourth bottles in the coming days.
I had been emailing a Warmshowers host who is just past Jacunba Sorings, but did not hear back from him. I got to Jacumba Springs at 3pm. I was tempted to push onto Ocotillo, the original destination for today. But there was only two hours of light left and I just didn’t want chance riding 20 more miles into a slight headwind.
There are no campgrounds in this town. Not only that, but according to the reports from others who have bicycle through here, they do not let you camp in the city parks or fire stations or backyards either, due to being right on the Mexican border.
So I really had no choice other than to get a hotel. It was a hotel in an RV park and was 5 miles from town, the second half of that being on dirt roads. But they did have a hot tub that felt great!
Somebody in town told me that they had food here, so I was planning on eating after I checked in. But they do not have food on Sunday nights. So I had bought some microwave popcorn at the gas station and came to my hotel to use the microwave, but surprise! No microwave in the room.
I walked to the clubhouse to use the microwave there that I saw when I checked in. Unfortunately that closes down tight at 5pm. There was a 50-year-old man and his fiancée playing a game in the pavilion, and when I asked them if they knew about the microwave, they jumped up and grabbed it and took it to their RV to cook it for me and brought it back. The even added garlic! So thank you to George and Julia for your hospitality.
George asked if that was my supper. But I assured him that no, I still had Chex mix and a Clif bar back in the room.
I soaked in the hot tub for a while and just before I was about to leave two other guys came in and sat down. We talked for a little while, and it turns out that this guy Ben was the host of the Warmshowers tower that I wanted to stay at tonight!
So we had a good laugh at that, and he gave me some great advice for routes. The Adventure Cycling Association has you going on a southern route from here to Mexicali and the north to El Centro. But Ben said that road is too dangerous with farming trucks whizzing by. So I’m going to take the route north of that that I see on Google maps. I think it’s also a little shorter.
If I can make it to El Centro tomorrow, then I will be right back on schedule. The only problem is that it is 60 miles away! However, after a 700 foot climb it’s all downhill and then level all the way. Not only that, but there are tailwinds predicted for tomorrow! So I’m going to go for it. El Centro is my first designated rest day. So once I can get there, I can take the next day completely off, so that means I can push a little more tomorrow.
Oh, and I took NyQuil last night and tonight…my nose is running. I think it was the freezing night in the tent. 🙁
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