Beautiful weather, nice ride, nice destination, and of course STARBUCKS towards the end, always!
THE SHORT VERSION:
Started great, made a name for myself (or rather THEY made a name for me), saw Chapter leadership in action, learned a lot, you know, the usual great day of riding.
Leonard and Sissy have EVERYTHING for first aid, Michael likes snakes, Dan just kicks back.
Another short explanation:
-422 Pre-ride for Palomar Mountain June 12th.
-422 Regular ride for Palomar Mountain SUPPOSED TO BE June 19th, but found out from the bicyclist guy (whom we gave first aid to-he was experiencing anaphylactic shock, passed out behind the wheel of his SUV, we did the EMT thing) that there was a hill climb bike challenge on the 19th at Palomar so the 422 ride 6-19 ended up to Big Bear via 15-138-18 etc then back down 18-330-210-15 etc.
-422 Pre-ride for Palomar Take Two was Saturday July 3rd same day as 230's Mt. Pinos ride. I was TORN, believe me, TORN. (see 230 Mt. Pinos post for my decision)
-422 Palomar ride scheduled for Saturday July 17th.
Leonard sent the route out, Collin followed up with his wonderful turn-by-turn Publisher file, so I had a pretty good idea of where we were going and the temperatures thereof. I HATE HATE HATE HATE to be cold!
This trip was especially important riding-wise in that last year's Palomar ride was less than wonderful because I really started doubting my riding around then, so I wanted to see how it'd be on this trip.
On this trip we were to go UP the back way then DOWN the front way, the 'spastic colon' twisty way. I personally would've preferred the twisty way UP, but hey, I'm game and up for almost anything.
Route overview:
-Met up at Wingstuff
-Ortega Hwy to Grand/Clinton Keith for gas and Starbucks (GOD I love this group!!!);
-Thru Temecula around 79 to Lake Henshaw cafe/resort http://www.lakehenshawresort.com/
(pretty good food), DIDN'T fall over, was christened;
-Up the back Palomar Road which seemed like we were riding thru some low clouds, it got cold, misty/foggy, just like going thru a cloud, WISH I could've taken a picture, I really really do;
-Stopped at the observatory (where it was sunny and warm!!). Here is a link where, in the middle of the page, you can download an audio tour free as an mp3 to an iPod, phone, whatever. http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/visiting.htmlLast year's trip paid off regarding being able to go into the observatory for free and that there were pins for sale at the observatory gift shop http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/giftshop/
-Down the twisty way which was WEIRD since it almost seemed like we were going thru clouds again, it was cold, misty/foggy and damp AT 2 PM IN THE AFTERNOON;
-Back around thru 76 down towards Temecula and around a corner just in time to see a gentleman in an SUV having a great deal of probs;
-Back out and around to Mission, to Starbucks at College Town Center and a de-briefing of the day's activities.
I didn't mention that we hooked up with the El Cajon STAR Chapter at the Lake Henshaw cafe!!! Marge and Sissy did NOT let this opportunity get away from them to exhort/tout/inform these folks about the August 21st fundraiser, Run With The Pack!! http://www.star422.com/Default.asp?ID=205&pg=Run+with+the+Pack+Fundraiser
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