San Francisco to Indio, California

Pine Valley to Ocotillo

 Thunderstorms woke me a few times during the night but all was clear when I finally got up. No sign of rain on the ground, but the temperature was nice and cool to begin the day for a change. I had a good breakfast at the diner just down the street from my motel and headed off as quick as I could to try and beat the impending heat.

 

 The first hill was straight out of the village; relatively short though up to about 4070ft. to where I crossed over the I8 to get onto Old Highway 80 again. Then down for a few miles, back up to about 3600ft. where the road undulated for a good distance - this was in the area of the Cleveland National Forest.

 The temperature and hills were being kinder to me today - lower grades and cooler temps sure help! The next blip on map was Live Oak Springs, which required riding up to over 4100ft. before I could cruise down to the village. Nothing much there other than a small market and restaurant.

 

 Farther down the hill in a few miles was the next blip on the map called Boulevard - not much there either, just a small market and guy across the road selling VHS videotapes out of his, very, old motorhome - even at five for a buck I didn't see anyone rushing to buy! Not much for food in the store either, but there was a good selection of cold drinks. In hope, I enquired about sandwiches, but the choice was a frozen cheeseburger or burrito! But at least there was a microwave to warm up the delicacies!

 Out of Boulevard is another short climb, then a fairly long downhill to Jacumba Hot Springs. A bit more there with two restaurants and a market. One restaurant offered "Southern Soul Food" and staffed appropriately so. Great place, but seemed out of character with a small desert town where one usually sees mostly Mexican food joints.

 Before reaching Jacumba I was riding very close to the Mexican border and the ominous border fence that stretches for miles. Border patrols were everywhere today and even had a road block complete with spike belt on my route albeit on the opposite side of the road.

 

 So my last climb was out of Jacumba and I was very glad that it was the last one as the thermometer had been rising steadily with temperatures reaching decidedly hot again.

 

 About 10km out of Jacumba I was allowed to join the freeway once more as there really is no other choice, this was at about 3000ft. elevation from where I had about 20km of downhill on the freeway shoulder to Ocotillo at about 400ft.

 

 For most of the ride down, I had mountain formations that seemed to be all loose rock, amazing to see this for miles and miles. Check out the extra photos at the link below.

 Ocotillo - another one horse town, nowhere near as nice as Pine Valley. My motel is well-worn and I won't say much more than that! Definitely back in the desert now and I doubt that I'll have a cool morning tomorrow. I was lucky for my shelter though, as a thunderstorm with heavy rain just passed through here about an hour after I arrived...

 

 Hope that it finishes rumbling around before morning?

 

More tomorrow...

 

AdamK & Basil, "Finally I can relax and stop that "pushing" nonsense!"

 

Ocotillo to Brawley

 An uncomfortable room, thunderstorms and noisy air conditioner all accounted for a restless night without some good quality sleep. There were still some remnants of storm clouds when I looked out at first light and that inspired my dash to Seeley for a breakfast this morning, not wanting to stay another minute in Ocotillo.

 

 To try to beat some of the heat, I had a light breakfast out of my supplies this morning at the Ocotillo Motel figuring that, according to my bike map, there was a restaurant in Seeley for a full breakfast. Seeley was only 30km east on a flat road, so an easy ride one would assume!

 Forbidden to cycle on I8 again, my road was the Evan Hewes Highway which is actually part of Old Highway 80 again. For the first 10km this road was so badly broken by large cracks and potholes that it was like riding a paved single-track trail; I had to zigzag like crazy to keep something like level and from bouncing myself and all my goods and chattels off the bike! Then for the next 5km, fresh pavement, woo-hoo!, but that ended too quickly and I was back to the rough road.

 I rode through Plaster City, nothing there other than a huge plasterboard/drywall manufacturing plant. Luckily, there was virtually no traffic early in the day, so I could wander between smoother portions all the way to Seeley.

 Seeley - another one-horse blip on the map - a small market/gas station and the restaurant that I had hoped for was just a taco stand! So another 10km to El Centro then for me to get my elusive breakfast. At least the road and shoulder were good from Seeley to El Centro.

 

 El Centro, at 40ft. below sea level, is a fairly large city with lots of choices for my long-awaited breakfast. I dawdled a bit there enjoying the air conditioning and free Wi-Fi to catch up on my emails etc. and to have a bit of a rest. When I got outside again, the heat had ramped up considerably so I picked up some more drinks and scurried off north on Highway 86, which had a decent shoulder for most of the way to my destination of Brawley. On the way I rode through the city of Imperial which really just seemed like an extension of El Centro!

 

 I arrived in Brawley bloody hot and quite early so I found another air-conditioned place and had an early lunch (or was it second breaky?) while I waited for my motel check in time to arrive. This motel, although budget, is like the Hilton compared to last night's excuse!

 Not much for scenery today, but that's desert riding for you. I did pass miles and miles of haystacks from Seeley to El Centro, which makes me think that area supplies much of the hay for a very large region.

 

More tomorrow...

 

AdamK & Basil, "Shave my fur off, please!"