Riding the roads of east San Diego county

After strolling the neighborhood on Saturday, I hung out at the beach reading a book for a few hours and enjoying the sound of waves and the smell of salt air. There were a ton of people on the beach which added a festive air to an unusually hot April day.

Sunday morning greeted me with another sunny, hot day. As I sipped my morning coffee, the thought of taking my Harley out for an all day spin caused a smirk to creep across my face. What a great day for a ride!

I grab my keys and half helmet and look in my wallet. Gonna need a few bucks in my pocket for the ride I think to myself, so I roll on up to the ATM on the corner of my street. As I'm pressing buttons in an attempt to cajole the electronic teller to give me some spending money, I glance over at my bike and see a guy sipping a coffee and admiring the customized Sportster in front of him. He looks up and down the early morning street for the owner and deduces that the woman in front of the ATM machine must be it. I can't help but grin every time I see the look of realization on a guy's face that he's just been admiring a chick's Harley!

We start talking bikes and I ask him if he knows of any good rides around here. "Are you going today?" he asks. "Well hell, I'm going right now. Want to come along?" is my response. He takes off down the street and assures me he'll find me by the beach in about 15 minutes. Sure enough, 15-20 minutes later, Fred rumbles up on a spanking new 2008 bagger. I can sense that he's a little skeptical of my riding abilities when he asks how I am with riding winding roads. I'm pretty proficient in the hills actually, I learned to ride in the Rockey Mountains after all! He pulls out a map and outlines a ride that will take us up to a town called Alpine. "Um, there's something you should know. I'm a wuss in the cold and I don't like to go above 2000 feet." I'm sure at this point he must think I'm lying about learning to ride in the Rocky Mountains! He rolls with it though and says that we'll turn around if I get too cold. I cheerfully agree as we mount up and start our engines.

It felt great to finally be able to ride in jeans and a t-shirt with no gloves and just a half-helmet. I love my leathers, but it's so much more comfortable to ride without all those heavy layers when the weather allows it. About 50 miles later, we ride through Alpine and stop at a place called Janet's Montana Cafe. Although we didn't partake of the amazing dessert selection, we did enjoy hanging out in front of it under the nose of a moose!

After brunch, we decided that a little more riding was in order. A stop at the gas station produced a map of east San Diego county that proved to be invaluable for the rest of the afternoon. We headed north on Hwy 79 towards Julian. This road took us past a pristine lake and straddled both Anza Borrego Desert State Park and Cleveland National Forest. We climbed up through the National Forest towards Mount Laguna. The familiar feeling of ascending roads = descending temperatures came over me the further we went. Although we pulled over and I put a sweatshirt on, it wasn't that bad.

As we crested a pass at around 5000 feet, we looked up and saw some para-gliders hovering on a breeze. We found a road that seemed to head in the direction of the human kites and followed it to a little parking area. After parking the bikes and staring in awe with the other folks congregated in the parking lot, we hiked up a ways and found what must've been the "jump off" point. The view from up there was amazing!

Back on the bikes and cruising down the road, I spotted an elevation sign that indicated we were at 6000 feet! I looked ahead of me and spied Fred looking back in his rear-view mirror a little nervously. So much for my 2000 foot ceiling! It was still a gorgeous day though and I don't think the temp dropped much below 70 degrees even at altitude. I don't mind 6000 feet when it doesn't require a jacket!

The rest of the day was spend on winding back roads until we ended back up in Coronado. I'm always amazed at how little adventures continually present themselves to me. With an open mind and cautious sense of adventure, I added a memorable day of riding and a new riding partner to my life!

Next stop: Louisiana! If all goes well the next post will be about a crawfish boil on the bayou! I leave on Friday where I will join up with Whit & Kathie and Jim & Karla at my parents' house in Houma for some Cajun-style relaxing! Stay tuned. . .