coasting through mountains on day five

At the end of our fourth day of touring we settled into a comfortable hotel room in Pine Valley. We welcomed the fact that there was no place to camp, and agreeded to the warm showers, beds, and the chance to clean and dry our gear after the night of rain. It was a great opportunity to thaw from the cold. I still don't understand the people of southern California. It seems like it must never rain here, and never be cold, unless of course you happen to be camping!

Biking with loaded touring bikes up mountains has been an interesting experience. Ever time I shift into the lowest gear of my bike and enter a rhythm of quick pedaling and slow movement I think back to a comment that Emily made during the first couple miles of our trip (when we could still feel the breeze off of the Pacific coastline). Emily compared what we were doing to snails: moving slowly from place to place with our homes on our backs. After completing our fifth day of biking we are starting to become more accustomed to this pace, and accepting of the fact that when climbing uphill it is ok to only cover 20 miles in a day.

With plans of making it from Pine Valley to Live Oak Springs, an 18 mile journey through both uphill and downhill areas, we decided to have breakfast/ lunch at Major's Diner (just outside of our hotel room), before heading off. We marveled at how many people were out on the roads to enjoy the holiday weekend. The place we were at seemed like a hotspot for the other type of cyclists as there seemed to be a steady stream of motorcyclists.




After tackling several steep sections of the road we finally got to spend some time going downhill! It was an amazing experience for both of us. Floating down the mountain on bikes is just an amazing experience, and the scenery around us was truly breathtaking.

Emily tackles the mountain:




Chris coasting down the mountain:




Some sights along the way:




Including the increasingly desert-like landscape:











As we have gotten closer to the Mexican boarder we have seen an increadible number of border patrol trucks passing us on the roads, and even passed over a security checkpoint complete with spike strips. We also passed by a very large parking lot full of extra border patrol vehicles. It makes you wonder how much they are there for catching people crossing to the US, and how much they just want the people here to feel like they are doing their jobs.

A final stop at a road-side vendor supplied us with fresh corn for dinner, as well as cherries and cranberries to snack on.

Some more uphill riding followed by an exceptional descent, and then we rolled into our campground along a final descent. Neither of us wanted to stop biking for the day, but with the amount of daylight left it seemed unlikely that we would find another place to stay for the night.

Location:Pine Valley, CA to Live Oak Springs, CA