December 24, 2015
To Wynola
Christmas Eve
Our Chistmas Eve dinner awaits us in Wynola, just up that hill always at elevation 3700'. The big news for the day is the weather forecast - looks like we should get favorable winds, stay dry, and stay above freezing. No White Christmas this year for us - hooray!
Christmas Eve update: Just a note to say we arrived safely. Very weak Internet, so we'll catch up tomorrow. Merry Christmas!
Christmas morning: there's a bit of signal now, so no photos yet but I'll try to put some words in before it goes away. Lovely weather conditions when we set out from El Cajon - partly cloudy, light winds, low 50's. After a few miles weaving though the suburbs we arrived at Lakeside, where we were arrested by a loudly chattering tree filled wth about a hundred small green parrots with bright red wing patches. This tree had my vote for the best Christmas tree of the season.
Leaving Lakeside, we soon started climbing, rising a thousand feet in about three miles before generally leveling off for the rest of the way to Ramona. We avoided busy highway 67 , but it really is a decent arterial for cycling, with a constant and wide paved shoulder. The side roads were much more pleasant though of course, especially the detour to beautiful Highland Valley Road.
Our lunch stop for the day was in Ramona. Rachael had done some advance research on Ramona and was targeting an attractive deli for our meal. Plans changed though when I flattened on Main Street, precisely in front of a McDonalds. I think I can count on one hand the number of times l've eaten at McDonalds in recent years - the last was over two years ago when we had an early breakfast at one in Taipei - but this was too natural to pass up. It was as good a spot as any to fix a flat - on a bench in the sun, with a washroom close by.
Changing the flat though was the usual stressful challenge. I love our Schwalbe Marathons because we almost never have flats; and I hate our Schwalbe Marathons because when they do flatten they are awful to remove from the rim and replace afterwards. I didn't do too badly this time - I only broke one tire lever, and avoided pinching the tube and having it explode when I inflated it.
The first eight miles from Ramona were a steady climb up beautiful and quiet Old Julian Road. At its end though we were dumped onto shoulderless, busy highway 78 for an unpleasant five miles into Santa Ysobel, where we stopped at a shop to pick up meal supplies for tomorrow's breakfast and lunch - we're planning ahead because we don't expect to see anything open on Christmas Day until we reach our hotel in Borrego Springs.
The final miles to Wynola continued on highway 78, but were much better - most of the time there was a decent shoulder, and the traffic had significantly died down. The sky was getting grayer though and threatened rain, and it was becoming quite chilly. We were glad we had done so well with time today and happy to arrive at our motel just after 3, cold but dry.
Rachael had scoped out our stop for the night, and chose well. We stayed at rustic Apple Tree Inn, which sits immediately next door to Jeremy's-on-the-Hill, a stylish restaurant where we enjoyed our Christmas Eve dinner. It was perfect - a hundred yard walk from and back to our rooms was just right in this cold. It feels like we can't be far below snow level.
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Today's ride: 46 miles (74 km)
Total: 90 miles (145 km)
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