It was a great morning to ride a bike. We ate a
complimentary breakfast at the Ayres Lodge. While chowing down and discussing
the events of the day, the server indicated that he was from Canton, OH. In
fact, his entire family lives there. He is the only one who escaped! We
conversed for quite a while. Finally we reminded him that we had 45 miles to go
and we should get started.
The up and up phrase from yesterday was premature. Today
we were going to go up 5200 feet and descend 3800 feet. All of this undulating
was crammed into 46 miles. In fact, the climbing was all done in the first 32
miles. The last 14 miles was as though I was in my rocking chair, eating
leftover chicken and getting a foot massage, while the bicycle slipping
seamlessly down the road. I can’t remember pedaling more than a few times. The
fatigue of the first part of the ride melted away as we coasted into Jucumba
Hot Springs feeling as perky as fresh cut daisies.
But I am getting ahead of myself. We left Alpine at 7:15am headed up. The climb
was a pretty tough one in spite of our fresh legs. In due time we were in Pine
Valley where Saint Susan was waiting for us. We needed her encouragement as
much as we needed the water and food she had for us in the van. As we arrived
Susan suggested that we use the bathroom at the gas station about a tenth of a
mile back from where we had toiled. There was no way I was going back DOWN. Susan
and Sara headed off with the car while I guarded the bikes. I should have left
them for someone to steal. That would have excused me from finishing the ride.
While I waited for the women to return, a gray Ford pickup
pulled up. Terry got out of the truck and cinched up two mattresses he was
hauling. He came over to inspect the bikes and that was my tip that he was a
cyclist rider. We talked for twenty minutes until Susan and Sara returned. Then
the four of us talked for another ten minutes. He told me that the ride up to
Pine Valley was as challenging as any he had ever ridden. I would agree. Five
thousand feet in 32 miles is as tough as it gets. Terry has ridden RAGBRAI seven
times, three more than I. Coincidentally, he rode in 2015 when Mike Ryan and I
were there. Of course there were about 15,000 other riders along with us. Terry
told us that there would be two significant climbs ahead of us. At one point, after Sara
and I climbed several significant climbs, she and I debated which ones Terry
thought were so.
As we clicked off the miles up, the thermometer was
following suit. Susan staged up at a total of four rest spots before it was all
over. On the third such stop Sara and I
got into the van for a little relief. It was hard to get out of that cool van
into the baking oven that surrounded us. The temperature eventually made it to
the mid 90s. We were lucky, though, that
we were nearing the end of the ups and were about to turn things around.
In the last four miles we came within a few hundred
yards of our southern border with Mexico. The fence ran a distance of 3-4 miles
with the west edge ending against a mountainside. Finally, the Jucumba city
limit sign came into view. We arrived at the Jucumba Hot Springs Resort,
located on the north side of our all day historic highway, Olde US Route 80. When
I rolled my bike into the restaurant/lobby, the barmaid asked me, “Are you
looking for your wife!”
Tomorrow, we have more downhill on our way to El
Centro, CA. Stay tuned.
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