Day 59: Alpine to San Diego

April 14, 2025

The streets of Lakeside where I took a small detour to get a donut at Mary's.

O.k., not really a donut. A cinnamon thing. It was o.k., but I am usually disappointed by donut-like things.

JF on the San Diego River and Walker Preserve trails. It was a soft surface and 28 mm tires were not the best on it.

Most of the ride was in bike lanes or bike paths and not on busy routes.

Path through Mission Trails Regional Park.

More of the San Diego River Trail. Not show are a number of homeless encampments.

The whole crew after touching our wheels in the Pacific.

Newton Avenue in Ocean Beach. It has a kind of '60s vibe and is where Samesun is located.

One steak and shrimp, one octopus, and one scallop taco and a Pacifico. Yum. Guess I will start eating like a normal person tomorrow.

It took a while after we got back to dinner to get ready for the morning. So, I didn't get to bed until almost 10:30. With a short day and a lot of downhill, there was no real reason to leave early. So, I didn't set my alarm. Unfortunately, I didn't unset it either and it went off at 5:45. I got up about 6:15 and started getting ready. I was a little bit of a let down to get ready, not just for me, but for the whole group. It was a little cool (in the low 50s) so I wore leg warmers, full finger gloves, a vest, and my light rain jacket. I left camp about 8:00, the same time as BD, who was sweeping, and BW, who usually leaves early.

The first 15 miles were a pretty good downhill, descending about 1800 feet in total. After that it leveled out and there were some ups and downs. My legs felt really dead from yesterday's effort, and as we got closer to the coast there started to be a noticeable headwind. JG had mentioned Mary's Donuts in Lakeside was close to the route. So, when I got nearby I looked it up on Google Maps and went there. I had a cinnamon swirl donut, which was just ok. The vast majority of the route was on nice bike lanes or bike paths. So, it felt really safe. A 42 mile ride is still a real bike ride, even if a lot is downhill. so, it took almost 3 hours of riding time and 3:22 elapsed time. I arrived around 11:30. It was another emotional moment to see the Pacific after aiming for it for 2 months. JG was there with the van. I hadn't brought much with me, so I ate a couple oranges and some cookies at the van. It was. bit cool so I put back on my vest and jacket, which I had taken off at various points in the ride. JE, SR, and JW arrived about 25 minutes later. Then JF and DS. BD, BW, and PB showed up about 12:30. We headed for the beach to do the requisite tire dip. I didn't get mine very wet until a sneaky wave came in and I think got the rim wet briefly.

After the photoshoot we headed over to Bernie's Bike shop, less than a mile from the beach. Several of us, including me, had Bernie's box our bikes. They charged only $40, a special ACA rate, which seems like a steal. I asked them to use a small box for mine because I want to put it on the plane. He said he would open a beach cruiser and use that box. We then headed over to Samesun hostel. it is a funky place and I think that when we checked in we significantly raised the average age of the customers. I had reserved a private room, partly so I could pack my stuff, and partly because I just didn't want to deal with roommates and shared bathrooms any more. I brought my stuff up and took an hour nap. When I got up, SR, DS, and JW were packing their bikes in some common area. At about 4:00 I got a notice from Bernies that my bike was ready and headed over to pick it up. The box is 51x8x27, which comes out to 86". That is above the size limit on Southwest, but smaller than the box Ethan brought with him (which he thought totaled 93 inches. I think I will give it a try

JF had suggested we get together for dinner at Mike's Tacos just down the street. We met at 6:00. My selection is described above. They were quite tasty. Afterwards we went down the street and found an ice cream place. I got a scoop of strawberry and a caramel ice cream in waffle cone. I definitely need to start eating like a normal person tomorrow.

After dinner I worked on packing my stuff. If I want to carry on I have to get down to one bag plus the bike box. I did that by putting some clothing and tools inside the bike box. It now weights 46 pounds and my duffle weighs about 47. I will carry on a small backpack with my laptop and some electronics. So, I think it will work as long as SWA aren't sticklers for bike size dimensions. I did some googling and it seems people say they generally aren't.

I'm not sure what I will do tomorrow. I definitely don't plan on riding a bike. I might see if people want to go down to the Old Town for dinner. I think SR, DS, and JW will be here. JF is going to drive back home (to near San Francisco), JE and family fly back to Texas in the morning and PB is flying later I Day. BW got together with family and flies back in the morning.

Another thing I did today was to tip our leaders via Venmo. I thought they did a good job, and decided to give them 10%. I'd love to know if that is a typical amount. I saw that is what Trek Travel recommends on their trips.

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 3,071 miles (4,942 km)

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DAVE BENDERSONCongratulations Eric! What a feat and inspiration. I told Susan that you were to finish today. She asked if I was ready to go. My response was, not this direction or time of year. You battled some fierce winds and low temps. Your tip was very generous if 10% of the registration fee. Congrats again!
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4 days ago

Martin StumpfVery well done! What an incredible achievement!
“ I'm not sure what I will do tomorrow. I definitely don't plan on riding a bike”
If your bike wasn’t already packed I’m sure you would be riding it 🚴
Just think how easy and short all of your future rides at home are going to seem now.
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4 days ago

Bill ShaneyfeltGood tour! Thanks for the nature shots!
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3 days ago

Kathleen JonesCongrats! A tough ride but you did it.
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3 days ago

DAVE BENDERSONAfter having this experience, what would you have done differently?
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2 days ago

Nancy GrahamI have enjoyed following along with your journey. Congrats on finishing an epic and thanks for sharing.
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2 days ago

Eric FreyTo DAVE BENDERSONEquipment-wise I would have like to have 32mm tires. My bike wouldn’t accommodate them, but it might have been nice in the rough roads.

I am happy the way chain waxing went. It was not practical for the eastern part of the trip because it was wet, but synergetic worked well. On the western part it was so dry and dusty that wax was perfect. Drip wax isn’t as good, but hot waxing to refresh chains would’ve have worked.

The Karoo was great.

The bike was great. I didn’t seem to be bothered as much by rough roads as some people and wonder if that is partly because of my Ti frame and ENVE carbon stem, bars and seatpost. Still, as I said above, wider tires would have been even nicer.

I am super happy with my position, (pretty low), aero bars (aero and extra hand positions), and that I had a light weight bike. People with touring rigs suffered longer, I think.

I would have gotten a helmet light with a long life. The Varia was great but petered out around 5 hours.

I would have gotten a mirror that worked and practiced using it before the trip.

BW had a bigger tent and I kind of wish so had brought our 3-person tent. But it is bigger and heavier.

I would have started the trip with more stuff sacks and better organization. I bought some along the way and that helped me be more organized so I could set up faster in the afternoon, get to the shower quicker, not spend so much time looking for stuff, and get out faster in the morning.

I brought a lot of stuff I didn’t use like tubes, CO2 cartridges, a heavy wool base layer, a Garmin Inreach satellite communicator and some other stuff. Some of that I could have left at home. The same with some of the tools I brought. But I am glad I had the chain wear gauge (for others as much as me) and the quick link pliers (for me and others).

I am super glad I used tubeless tires and was glad I brought the pump with the reservoir. I used it as did BW and SR, plus many others as it had the most accurate gauge.

I was not prepared for the relentlessness or headwinds. I am not sure what I would have done to prepare. During the trip I learned to try to stay in the moment: focus on the distance to the next turn and not the winds or the upcoming difficult days.

The biggest thing in preparation would have been to get a bike seat fitting and do some longer (7 hour) training rides. I did long distances, but not that many hours in the saddle. I also wonder if a different seat would have been more comfortable. I think that I spent a bigger fraction of time on the aero bars, and that may need a different saddle or saddle position. My a__ really hurt on some days. It was so bad I really thought about quitting. Johnson City to Kerrville was absolute agony.

Related to that, my feet also hurt, especially near the end. I almost wish I had used road shoes, but it was nice to be able to walk around camp. Maybe some SPD pedals with a wider base would have helped.

Those are the things I can think of right now. I plan to go through my equipment and talk about it later.
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2 days ago

Eric FreyTo Eric FreyI also want to comment on the direction and time of year. I originally wanted to do it in the fall, but Esther preferred me to do it in the spring. I would have liked the fall because it would have given me the summer to train. In retrospect, I did a pretty good job of training. Going to Florida for a month before the tour really helped. I read part of the blog from the group that did it starting last September. They had some really cold days at altitude in New Mexico, etc. They also had lots of rain as it was hurricane season in the Southeast. As far as winds, I think they can be bad both ways. The prevailing winds are supposed to be from the south, and that seemed true. I used myWindSock to analyze my ride data and looked at their Wind Impact statistic. My understanding is that it is supposed to be the amount of additional (or less) power needed to go that speed in the winds compared to riding the same speed and course on a wind-fee day. For example, a Wind Impact of 4% means that it required 4% more power to overcome the headwind and go at the average speed of the ride for the day; a wind impact of -5% means that 5% less power was needed to achieve the average speed for the day, because of tailwinds, than had there been no wind. I am not sure this is a perfect statistic, but it does give some idea of how the wind affected things. Overall, there were 15 days where wind helped and 35 where it hurt. That seems about right. The time-weighted average Wind Impact was 4%. That seems low, but a lot of rides had very little impact so perhaps not. I am not sure how it would have affected us going the other direction because a wind has be be at your back by some angle greater than 0 before it helps. I guess it still means that we would have had less difficulty with wind going the other direction, but not by a factor of 2:1.
On the other hand, we discussed the benefits of this direction. We started out in Florida where there are very few hills. So, we could train to get ready for the hilly days in Texas, NM, AZ and CA. Going from the West to the East would have meant riding to Alpine and over the Sierra Nevadas on days 1 and 2. That would have been a lot of climbing. Also, a lot of the long days were on the western part of the trip. Assuming we stopped in the same towns, I think I would have needed more training to get ready than doing it from East to West. Finally, I think the scenery was better in the west than the east, at least on average. That may be because it is different than what I am used to, and there were some beautiful rides including on the barrier islands in FL and the rural rides in LA. However, the scenery in the Texas Hill Country, Emory Pass, the Desert in NM and AZ, climbing to Alpine, and descending into SD were all really beautiful. I think it was better to save the best for the last.

So, all things considered, I am happy that we went the direction we did and at the time of year we did. Of course I haven't done it the other way. I plan to post more detailed ride data in another post, and of course you can look at my data on Strava. Maybe that will help decide which direction.

I can say that the ride was type 2 fun. A lot of the riding was not particularly fun (there were definitely exceptions), but I got a great sense of accomplishment from completing the entire tour, and from conquering Emory Pass and the days into Mesa and Alpine. I have not been this fit for a long time, and that feels really good. It was also really nice to get to know the other riders, and that only happens on a long tour like this.
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2 days ago

Karen PoretCongratulations! Awesome from start to finish..👍
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2 days ago