Starting the Southern Tier: Over the Mountains and Into the Desert

genevieve
Sep 26, 2017
6 min read

This post covers the first seven days of our Southern Tier bicycle tour. This week was tough and felt a lot more “adventurous.”

We’ve ridden 559 miles total at this point.
Our favorite parts were riding the hills before Palo Verde and staying at Jacumba Hot Springs (where we received a cyclist discount).
Our least favorite part was the heat and the desert.
We learned to wake up earlier than we think we should to avoid hot weather.
We laughed out of nervous fear upon learning about vinegaroons (no need to click this link if you don't like spiders).

Here’s where we rode from September 15 to September 21, 2017.

Map of Southern Tier route from San Diego to Blythe

Day 11 (9-15-17): Ocean Beach, San Diego to El Cajon—23 Miles

Bicycling Away from Ocean Beach Host's Home

We started by dipping our tires in the Pacific at Ocean Beach in San Diego. We then stayed on the ACA Southern Tier route for a bit before diverting to stop at the grocery store. Our host’s house was in El Cajon, a bit south of the route, so thankfully the sinkhole didn’t interrupt our day at all!

We didn’t plan to ride long distances these first few days because we knew we’d be going uphill, and that was a good decision. We stopped at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park for a picnic lunch, and it was already midafternoon by the time we finished.

We rode through Presidio, Hillcrest, and several other neighborhoods before making it to El Cajon. We enjoyed staying with David and Kathy, our hosts for the night. They made us a delicious curry dinner and had a really cute cat, Fog, who helped us feel at home.

Day 12 (9-16-17): El Cajon to Pine Valley—34 Miles

This was our first day really climbing. We rode through the Cleveland National Forest and up about 3,500 feet. It really wasn’t as bad as we thought it’d be because it was mostly a long, slow uphill. Plus, we had a great view of some of the mountains when we were most of the way up!

We had planned to find dispersed camping (we even got a permit from the Descanso Ranger District), but we had no luck. It started getting dark, and everything around us was fenced off, so we called the only hotel in Pine Valley (the next town) to see if it had a room. It did not, and we started to feel just a little bit hopeless.

We still didn’t find a camping spot, and we rolled in to Pine Valley at about 8:00 p.m. We’d heard fire stations sometimes allow cyclists to stay on their property, so we asked a fireman where we should go. He told us we would be safe in the estuary area just behind the station. We pitched our tent there—behind a construction vehicle and next to the parking lot—and had a pretty terrible night of sleep.

Day 13 (9-17-17): Pine Valley to Jacumba—29 Miles

We woke up at 5:00 a.m. to the sound of a motorcycle engine and started packing up. The Pine Valley Inn manager had invited us for coffee in the morning, so we stopped by and warmed up for a while before heading off for the day.

The day started with a lot of beautiful fog, and overall this ride was pretty much all up and down. It wouldn’t have been too bad on a normal day, but we were still tired. When we were about ten miles away from Jacumba, we called the hot springs and reserved a room. We knew $99 was way over our budget for the night, but there was nowhere else nearby to stop and we needed to sleep.

When we got closer to Jacumba, T-Mobile texted my phone to let me know I was in Mexico and that I wouldn't have service unless I upgraded my plan. Well, we weren't in Mexico, but we were pretty close. The border fence (pictured above) wasn't far from the road through town.

We arrived at 12:30 p.m. and found out the hot springs has a cyclist discount! The room was only $57, and it was well worth it. We rested for a while before going to the market in town and buying some food. We then did laundry, made dinner, and sat in the hot tub of spring water for a bit.

Day 14 (9-18-17): Jacumba to El Centro—45 Miles

“Yuck” pretty much sums up my feelings about this ride. The only photo I took of this day was of our breakfast. We spent $8 total by ordering potatoes and toast from the sides menu. We wanted to make use of every penny we spent on the hot springs, so we didn’t check out until 11:00 a.m. We were so dumb. Why didn’t we check the temperature? We’ve learned our lesson.

We had a really strong headwind for the first four miles, which were uphill. Thankfully this was the day we were going down the 4,000 feet we’d climbed a couple days before, so we did enjoy that descent.

The fun quickly wore off when we got on an extremely rough road and the heat climbed to around 95°. By the time we’d ridden 10 miles on this road, I wasn’t doing well. We finally came across some shade under a carport in Plaster City. We waited there for a while and then took it slow the last 15 miles to El Centro.

We thought we’d camp that night at Wiest Lake, but that was about 20 more miles away, so we stayed at the Crown Motel in El Centro instead.

This is the part of the Southern Tier that many people don’t look forward to. The ride from Brawley (15 miles north of El Centro) to Blythe is roughly 90 miles and has minimal services.

Day 15 (9-19-17): El Centro to Glamis—44 Miles

We woke up at 5:30 a.m., ate oatmeal, drank coffee, and left by 7:00 a.m. We had a great first couple of hours because the weather was wonderful. We hit the 500-mile mark on our trip and felt encouraged. The first half of our miles seemed to be slightly downhill, which made us feel like we were flying!

Even once we started climbing a bit, we still felt pretty good. Around 10:30 a.m. it started to get warm out. We’d planned to stop at Gecko Campground to free camp, but the road was closed for construction. We called the ranger office, and the woman told us we could camp at Glamis Flats another six miles down the road.

We paused a few miles later at an overlook of the Imperial Sand Dunes to have lunch in the shade, and then we continued to Glamis. Pretty much the only thing in Glamis is a store. It was closed, but we took refuge in the shade-covered tables out front.

The store owner came out to check on us and said we could pitch our tent on his patio. He told us about the vinegaroons—scorpion-like spiders—in the sand at Glamis Flats, which convinced us to take him up on his offer.

Day 16 (9-20-17): Glamis to Palo Verde—40 Miles

We didn’t have the best night of sleep in front of the store because there were trucks going by most of the time (and because we were sleeping in front of a store). We were on the road by 7:00 a.m. again and started the day with about 15 miles of slow uphill.

I was in a pretty bad mood partially because I was hungry, but also because I was sore. Anyway, I was cranky, and I declared to Doug that we should rest the next day.

We passed through border control with no issues and then mostly had wonderful rolling hills after that. I should’ve taken a photo, but my butt really hurt and I just wanted to get to Palo Verde. We picked up speed, and my mood drastically improved. Something about going uphill in the wind can really make me mad, I guess.

Our day improved, though I still wasn’t feeling great physically—and it was starting to get hot out. We arrived at Palo Verde County Park, where we’d planned to camp, by noon. Because I wasn’t feeling well, we called up a couple we’d met the day before for a ride from Palo Verde to Blythe (22 more miles north).

Carmella is driving a van along the Southern Tier route while her husband, Dana, bikes it. They promptly rescued us and delivered us to our motel! Thank goodness we’d met Carmella at the dunes overlook the day before.