We went through a variety of population densities, spending most of our day on Old Highway 80, which parallels I-8. Shortly after passing through some heavy road construction, I got the first flat of our journey. It wasn't a slow leak either, one second I had a working back wheel, the next second my tire was making funny noises and my bicycle felt strange. We found the only bit of shade on the road, and Chris quickly and efficiently changed my tube, and we were off again!
We have no pictures of the next section of our journey. I will say it was barely short of miserable. It was hot and constantly uphill for the rest of the day, about four hours. The road we were on was under construction more often then not, with one lane closed. The road workers were nice, asking where we were headed while we waited for the stop sign to switch to slow. We had no difficulty with going slow.
Nothing had quite prepared me for biking uphill, in the heat, with a loaded touring bike. Bleh. Chris was very supportive, and we took breaks often to drink water, let our legs relax, and catch our breaths. We decided we needed an extended break, and stopped at Subway for lunch, sitting with our bicycles outside. I just wanted to sleep and not bike for a very long time. But we continued on.
Not soon enough, we reached our campground. It was very pretty, situated in a valley in the Viejas Mountains in the Viejas Mountains Reservation. We had covered a bare 23.5 miles today, and I was absolutely exhausted. We both got naps this afternoon. Yay!
The next day we did not get up early. And when we finally did get up around 8am, we moved very, very slowly. We cooked a delicious breakfast of fried eggs and toast, and toiled over where we were headed. We looked at our beautiful maps and the wonderful elevation map of the route. Our next stretch looked like it went straight up. Our legs were tired, it was hot out, and after going back and forth we decided a day of rest wasn't a bad idea.
It was a good choice. We spent the day relaxing, getting our bags and gear in order, and exploring our surroundings. The mountains surrounded us on all sides, with rolling praries of wildflowers, small trees, and spikey plants similar to century plants, with 10ft flowering stalks. We, of course, were foreced to take lots of pictures.
Around 3pm a scary sight arose over the mountain range - a storm front. The clouds were fantastic, with layers and different colors, but definitely moving in our direction. We crossed our fingers and hoped it wouldn't rain during the night, but prepared our gear for the worst, very happy for our waterproof panniers.
Location:Kumeyaay lake campground, CA to Ma-Tar-Awa campground, CA
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