Lots of Free Miles Today

Breakfast in the hotel lobby at 7:30 this morning.  With a long-ish day ahead, a few riders had the world's quickest breakfast and got on their way.  Just early trip nerves; they'll relax in a few days.  Some of us had a more leisurely departure.  A few of us shared a table with a PCT hiker who had also done some epic self-supported bike rides, so had an interesting start to the day.  The forecast wasn't terribly encouraging this morning so lots of layers for most people.  It was cool to start but the rain held off all day so layers were shed pretty quickly.  I really enjoyed the scenery today.  Over the course of the ride we moved from a forested environment to much drier areas with cactus and rolling hills with lots of sage bushes and other desert dwellers.  Lots of rolling hills today.  Just a few sustained climbs.  The best part was all the "free" miles, as we descended just over 6000 feet - wheeeeeee!

At the town of Santa Ysabel we found The Julian Pie Company. And - no - I didn't go in for a sample.  Early in the day we saw lots of farms.  Apparently they're really know for their apples (and pies) in this area.  During the course of the day we saw apple (and other fruit) orchards, beef farms,  and lots & lots of horses.  And on that theme - we made it to the hotel in time to watch the Kentucky Derby.

Early in the day I saw some other bicycle support vehicles on the road.  I stopped to chat with one that was pulled over waiting for a rider.  Seems there was a race on today - 2 riders per team and together they were trying to cycle 400 miles in 24 hours.  Wow!!

We passed a glider airport just past Warner Springs just as one was taking off. Pam was pulled over for a SAG stop and had a CCR cd blaring; we could almost hear her before we could see her.

We passed through a number of small towns today, but not a lot of services en route.

The County Line BBQ Restaurant just past Oak Grove apparently had not had food delivered in a few days so they opened their gate to us (our food & drink needs are pretty basic) but were keeping the general population at bay.  Shortly after lunch we came upon this really interesting metal sculpture park out in the middle of nowhere.

Towards the end of this ride I saw this microwave tower that reminded me of my youth.  Dad worked at a microwave site in Ontario and took us tobogganing when we were kids.  The slope was about the same but the vegetation is a tad different.  Funny the things you think of on a ride.......

We are staying in Hemet tonight.  Hemet is a city of about 80,000.  Apparently it is a mecca for retirees.  Seems a lot of them live in "manufactured" homes; sure saw a lot of those on the way to our hotel.  It is located in the San Jacinto valley and it looks like there is also some agriculture based in valley.  A great day today topped off by another yummy dinner prepared by our chef Emily.

Stats for the day:
113 km / 70 miles
3442 feet up
6089 feet down
Weather:  Temps starting about 5C and then mid-teens to low 20s for most of the day.  Up to about 27C as we pulled in to Hemet about 2:30.  Cloudy for much of the day, but the sun shone through quite a bit.