We came up sixteen miles short of the beach. This picture tells the story.
This is the image for riding in Southern California. You have your mountains, the old windmill, the live oak tree, and Jim fixing yet another flat tire. I spent an hour and a half watching Jim fix flat tires.
We had breakfast at the Live Oak Springs Resort restaraunt. Live Oak Springs is the next town up the mountain from Jacumba where we stayed last night. This is a really great lodge, with a bar and a great big fireplace. It would be a good place to stay, even though there is no hot spring. All these mountain towns, Alpine, Pine Valley, etc, are really scenic.
There was a lot of climbing today, two 1000' climbs and two 400' climbs. It was as much climbing as yesterday. But today, we got the payback. A 4000' descent, over 30 miles. I'm pretty sure the scenery was spectacular, I think I caught a couple glimpses of great vistas as I went screaming down the mountain at 40 mph. I set the speed record for the trip today, 43.5 mph. I was riding the brake on that hill too. I did get to admire the scenery, while I waited for Jim to catch up. His Trek hybrid is not the T-Bone on these descents.
When we got over the top, we were in the area that was burned over by wildfires last month. There is a lot of vegetation on the west side of the mountains, where the moist air from the ocean rises and falls as rain. North of I-8 is totally burned off. The fire didn't jump the interstate, and you can see the contrast.
Despite the frustrating mechanical problems, it was a beautiful day with great weather and scenery. Here's the map.
