Day 52: Brawley, CA to Jacumba, CA

 Daily Miles: 58.2 Total Miles: 2819.0

Riding through farmland this morning

Today was a great day with a big climb and finally some reasonable weather! We were a little slow getting started this morning, but since I had biked to the hotel yesterday we didn't have to waste any time driving back to a starting point. I was on the road around 9am and the ride started out very smoothly with no wind and flat roads through pretty farmland. After about 20 miles I had made it to Seeley and stopped to meet up with Mary for a snack. I had read several blogs to help prepare for this trip, and all mention that the 20 miles from Seeley to Ocotillo feature the absolute worst roads of the entire route. Needless to say I was not looking forward to it.

Cool palm trees

Luckily, as I headed out from Seeley I saw that the road was freshly paved for 10 miles to Plaster City. Mary and I had seen Plaster City on the map, and I at least was thinking that we would find either a. a weird Lego-Land-esque city made entirely out of plaster, or b. a normal, decaying East California Valley town with nothing more than a few trailers and 5-20 Mexican restaurants. We found neither of those things. Plaster City consisted of one enormous factory and nothing else. Nothing. Not one single house, store... Not even a Post Office! Just a huge factory in the middle of a desert. I later researched it, and it turns out that the entire city is owned by a gypsum mining company and that site is a gypsum quarry and processing plant. And, as you may have guessed, gypsum is a key ingredient in... drumroll please... plaster.

The gypsum plant at Plaster City

How boring. They should at least build a real city out of plaster to get some tourists out there. Once I rolled through Plaster City the nice pavement ended and I truly rode the WORST road I have ever been on in my life... including Honduras. It was awful. I don't even know why anyone would want to drive their car on that road. My speed went from over 13MPH to under 10MPH, just because of the terrible roads. There was a ton of bouncing and I had a killer headache when I finally rolled up to Ocotillo 40 miles into my ride. Mary and I had lunch at a biker (motorcyclist) bar, and the food was actually quite good. I spent the meal trying to prepare myself for the huge climb ahead. I had already climbed ~500' on the day, and over the next 12 miles I would climb another ~3000' on Interstate 8.

Climbing through the Jacumba Mountains

To make matters worse, this area is notorious for its very strong (50+MPH) winds. It hadn't been windy all day, but I was still nervous for what I would encounter on the mountain. I finally got up my nerve and set out. The climb was not too bad, and there was no wind at all, but the sun was brutal. I got really really hot, and stopped several times to drink more water. At one point, I ran into a road worker and he gave me a cold bottle of water which was greatly appreciated. About 3 miles from the top, I briefly stopped to chat with Mary and drink another cold water. I finally struggled to the top, just as a headwind started whipping up. I drank one more water and then enjoyed the 400' descent into Jacumba.

The border fence... I can see Mexico from my bike!

Jacumba is right on the border of Mexico, literally a stone's throw away, so I spent several miles riding right along the border fence. The one hotel in town was closed, so we had planned on driving 9 miles on to Boulevard to stay at the Lux Inn. Mary called the guy there earlier today and she said he sounded a little creepy, but you take what you can get. Once we got to Boulevard we saw no sign of this hotel and before we know it had driven the 2 miles on to Live Oak Springs, where we happened upon a very nice resort with private cabins. We decided to choose this place over the potential Norman Bates guy's hotel in Boulevard. The restaurant here was jam packed tonight, probably because it was Taco Tuesday. We got the taco deal, and it was quite good. Tomorrow I'm heading on to Alpine, my last ride before descending to the Pacific. We're going to stay with the parents of one of my fellow Peace Corps Honduras Volunteers, Jenna, and we're looking forward to meeting them and sharing stories from our trip!