Day 2

58 miles and over 3000 feet of climb. Total to date 99 miles. Having fun but tired.
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7mi to Warner Springs

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Day two
Climbed 1600 feet in 11 mi
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Leaving motel at the start of the trip May 30 2011

Leaving Hotel at start of ride

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May 30, Day one of ride

Well we are finally on our way.  Left Point Loma on the west side of San Diego about 7 AM.  Rode north west to catch the San Diego River bikeway and met a fellow on his bike who got us onto Friar’s Rd.  Total ride today was only about 41 miles and we got to Alpine just after noon.  We had climbed just over 2000 vertical feet, most of it in the last 12 miles from Lakeside.  The problem is we were doing the climbing in the heat of the day and we really over did with our walk yesterday so true to our plans, we stopped for lunch, looked around and found this was a nice town with a very nice motel (Ayers Inn) so rather than push on for another 25 miles to get to Julian and have to climb another 1500 to 2000 feet today we decided to take advantage of the surroundings and take a rest.  No point in overdoing it on the first day of a long ride. 

 

The ride today was fun but a bit hectic as we were in the city for much of it and even though we were on bike trails and bike routes, there was a fair amount of traffic.  One great diversion was the Junipiero Serra Bike path through Mission  Trails Regional Park.  This was about 5 miles of bike/running path that avoided a big hill and brought us into Santee. 

 

No trouble following the route so far. 

 

Hope you got to see the photo earlier today as we left the Motel at Liberty Station on Point Loma. 

 

Tomorrow will feature more climbing and the one time we are going off the Adventure Cycling routes.  Right now we are still on their Southern Tier route and will be for about another 12 miles but then we are going to turn onto Rt 79 and head north rather than going all the way to Pine Valley to join the Sierra Cascades Route south of Julian.  This should save us about 7-8 miles but may be an even bigger climb than their route over Mt Laguna.  We also have a short stretch where our designated route is on Interstate 8 (about 5-6 miles) before we turn onto Rt 79. 

 

Weather is beautiful but for us it is hot and dry, something we have not seen so far this year.

 

Total distance to date:  41 miles

 

 

May 29

We did not ride at all today but spent the day enjoying San Diego.  We walked a total of about 16 miles more or less and toured much of the north side of the city including Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo.  It was fun and was a last day of activity before we begin to ride.  We hope to leave by about 7 AM and will travel East to Alpine then north and if all goes well we hope to end up near or in Julian CA.  Should be about a 60 mile day. 

 

It will be fun to finally begin to ride and I hope we are ready for it.  Weather looks promising with some winds from the west to help us along for the first part of the ride tomorrow. 

 

"The Foundation for PM&R is a nonprofit organization that supports physiatric research dedicated to improving the quality of life and ability to function in the activities of daily living for individuals with disability."

 

www://FoundationforPMR.org

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San Diego Zoo
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May 29

We arrived in San Diego Saturday May 28 with no problems.  Picked up the bikes from Moment Cycle Sport and had only a couple of small things to do to make them fully ready.  I have added both a headlamp and a tail light to both bike and had to make a repair to Mary’s rear fender.   

Hope to spend Sunday touring San Diego with the highlight being the Zoo.  Plan is to start riding tomorrow Monday May 30 with the first goal to get to at least Alpine and perhaps Julian CA.  There will be a climb of about 3000 feet to go from sea level up to the mountains where we will spend most of our ride.   

1 week to go

We are now one week away from San Diego.  I managed to get in two good rides this weekend.  I did a 90 mile ride on Saturday from Lake Placid to Glens Falls where I met up with Mary who had driven down for an appointment.  Most of the ride was fun and nice weather but the last 25 miles was in a steady rain.  Lunch with son Peter and his family.  Today we did a 30 mile ride on a fairly hilly course.  It was part of the lake Placid Ironman course.  I was a bit tired but Mary was fresh. 

Today we were surprised by a blessing from the parish of St Agnes Church for our ride. 

One final week to get all the errands done, hold the mail, close up the house etc. 

We are getting excited and can't wait to start this next great adventure.  We plan to start the actual ride one week from tomorrow and will spend next Sunday cheking out the bikes "Bob" and going to the San Diego Zoo. 

List of towns and significant sites along the way

Towns or significant spots along the way

This is designed to give landmarks of the significant towns or landmarks so that you can try to map out the route.  It requires a pretty detailed map as many of the roads are real secondary roads. 

CALIFORNIA

San Diego depart 5/30

Santee

Lakeside

Johnstown

Crest

Pine Valley

Descanso

Julian

Lake Henshaw

Warner Springs

Oak Grove

Aguanga

Homestead

Mountain Center

Idyllwild

Pine Cove

Banning

Beaumont

Calimesa

Yucaipa

Big Bear City

Fawnskip

Running Springs

Wrightwood

Vincent

Quartz Hill

Willow Springs

Tehachapi

Golden Hills

Caliente

Bodfish

Lake Isabella

Wofford Heights

Kernville

Fairview

Roads End

Johnsondale

Quaking Aspen

Alpine Village

Camp Nelson

Springville

Milo

Lemon Cove

Three Rivers

Sequoia Nat’l Park

Wilsonia

Squaw Valley

Wonder Valley

Piedra

Trimmer

TollHouse

Auberry

North Fork

Wishon

Yosemite Forks

Fish Camp

Wawona

Yosemite Nat’l Park

Yosemite West

Curry Village

Meadows Toulumne

Tioga Pass 9945 ft High Point

Lee Vining

Bridgeport

Sonora Junction

Walker

Tppaz

Markleeville

Woodfords

Echo Lake

Tahoe City

Truckee

Sierraville

Graeagle

East Quincy

Quincy

Keddie

Greenville

Canyon Dam

Mill Creek

Old Station

Hat Creek

McCloud

Mt Shasta

Weed

Montague

Hornbrook

OREGON

AshlandButte Falls

Prospect

Union Creek

Crater Lake Nat’l Park

Diamond Lake Junction

Beaver Marsh

Chemult

Elk Lake

Bend

Tumalo

Plainview

Sisters

Marion Falls

Idanah

Detroit

Breitenbush

Wapanitia Pass 3952

Barlow Pass 4157

Bennett Pass 4674

Mount Hood

Odell

Hood River

Cascade Locks

WASHINGTON 

Stevenson, Carlson, Stabler,

Randle, Packwood, Paradise Inn at Mt Rainier Nat’l Park

Approximate distance 1900-2000 miles.   Hope to complete in 36-38 days. 

2 weeks to go

Working on blog site at home with less than two week to departure. 

Photo from a prior ride:

This is how we looked during our cross country ride in 2005.  Mary in front, Dave second and Bob in the rear.  Only change for this year will be new panniers on both bikes. 

This has been a frustrating weekend with more rain making it difficult to train.  We did get a 30 mile ride in yesterday from Blue Mt Lake to Tupper Lake.  Thanks to Pam Gratzer for delivering us to Blue Mt Lake.  We had wisely left our car in Tupper Lake which was about half way back to Lake Placid.  The rains really started to pick up as we arrived in Tupper Lake so we bagged the rest of the ride for the day.

Today wash just a wash out so we did some packing and bought final supplies for the trip.

Thanks to the gang at Placid Planet, the bikes and Bob were tuned up this week and packed and shipped to Moment CycleSport shop in San Diego.  This should get them there in plenty of time for re-assembly and for our pick up on May 28.

We are trying to put together the final preparations for being away for 7 weeks and it is not easy to think of all the bills that need to be paid and other things that need to be done.  I did plant some vegetables in my garden hoping that we don't get a late frost this year but the odds are against it.  It would be nice to have some when we get home.

For those who wish to donate, the site for the Foundation for PMR is

(http://www.foundationforpmr.org/)

This will put you in contact with the purposes and goals of the Foundatiomn and includes a link to a donation form for our ride.  Thanks to all those who give.

May 8

Another good day for a ride. Mary chose to ride with her panniers with
what she expects to be carrying just as a trial run and I pulled "Bob"
but he was empty. No real problems but it does slow us down just a
little. Still did a 30 miler in about 2 and a 1/2 hours averaging about
12.8 MPH.

Took the bikes in for their final servicing and then to be boxed and
shipped to San Diego. Now we will have to train on back up bikes for
the next couple of weeks.

3 weeks from tomorrow we should begin our ride going east out of the Pt
Loma area of San Diego. Anyone in that area that wants to join us for
the first leg of the ride is welcome to do so.

May7

Today was a good day. We did a 53 mile ride through northern Essex Co
NY. Included one very large hill and some real back roads like we
expect to find on the ride.

Tired at night but this makes it look like our necessary 50 miles per
day will be very doable. Hope to go another 30-40 tomorrow just to
practice back to back days.

Ride starts just 3 weeks from Monday. Really getting excited. Good
links to both the Foundation for PMR and for Adventure Cycling can be
found at my office web site ADKMedPeds.Com.

4 weeks to go

Finally we had some decent weather for riding outside and we made use of it.
Last Wednesday evening I got out for an 18 miler. The next day we had torrential rains and lots of local flooding but amazingly by 2 PM the skies were clear and I got in a moderately hilly 40 miles. Unfortunately Mary was tied up with work and a dental appointment.

On the weekend the weather was perfect for riding and we got in a hilly 40 miler on Saturday and a gentler 30 miler on Sunday. At this juncture, what we need is just time in the saddle and this weekend we finally got some of that. The scary thin is we have only 3 more weekends to train as we fly to San Diego 4 weeks from yesterday.

Briefly about us. We are both 65 at present. We have enjoyed outside activities for many years with focus primarily on walking biking and cross country skiing. We have never been fast at anything but we have been blessed with good endurance. We took 4 summer bike "vacations" with our three kids when they were growing up. Each was 7-10 days long and covered about 300-400 miles each. 8 years ago, Mary and I got it in our heads that we could do an Ironman and commited to a year of training. We completed the Lake Placid Ironman of 2.6 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking and then a marathon 26 mile (run). The reality is we walked the entire marathon by plan but still finished and had fun doing it together. Mary at the time was the oldest female finisher that year.

We have also climbed the 46 "High Peaks" in the Adirondacks. In reality, the highest is only 5244 feet but over half are officially trailess and it is considered a major accomplishment in the Northeast.

We have been focusing on biking in recent years. We have done Ride the Rockies in Colorado 11 times. It is a 1 week ride for us and 2000 of our closest friends and is a wonderful event. We are sorry we will miss it this year to do the Sierra Cascade route.

6 years ago we did our biggest ride which was a cross country ride from Anacortes Washington to Bar Harbor Maine. Took us 54 days and was so much fun that we are now doing this ride to complete the second leg of what we hope some day will be a circumnavigation of the US.

We hope you will enjoy following us as we take on this ride and will consider supporting the Foundation for PMR.