Our last full day of riding.

We woke up to another day in paradise. The sky was clear and we were expecting temperatures in the low 70°s.

The planned route was 70 miles and over 7,000 feet of gain to Mount Palomar and back. To be honest, Joanne and I were not up to that. So instead we rode to Lake Henshaw and back – 46 miles with 4,000 feet of gain. That was a big enough bit of the apple for us.

We left Julian on State Route 78 and descented 1,200 feet down to Santa Ysabel. It was fast and it was cold. It was fun. In Santa Ysabel, we turned onto SR 79 and then onto Mesa Grande Road, a gorgeous road to ride!

The view from Mesa Grande Road

The old Mesa Grande Store

Soon, we reach the old Mesa Grande store and our AdventureCORPS support van. That is where I discovered that I had forgotten my water bottles. Joanne came to my rescue and lent me one of hers.

AdventureCORPS Support Van

We now continued on to Lake Henshaw where we turned around to retrace our route. Joanne and some others opted for the flatter route back along SR 79, but I went for the return on Mesa Grande Road – it is just too pretty not to ride even if there is some difficult climbing involved.

I met back up with Joanne at Santa Ysabel where she had been waiting for my for thirty minutes. Yes, I took the scenic but slower route. After a pie of pie at the Julian Pie Company (in Santa Ysabel) to fuel our six mile climb up to Julian, we reluctantly left our table in the sun and climbed onto our bikes. The climb was long. The climb was a bit hard. The climb took us nearly an hour!

Back in Julian we showered and then walked down to the local espresso bar where we sat outside in the sun and cheered or co-campers as the finished their rides.