SC Route - Day 4

79 miles - 5853 ft. climbing

It was just a little chilly when we left Alpine in mist and fog, our front and rear lights on for visibility on the road out of town. Soon water was dripping off our helmets. As we made our way up Viejas Grande, the clouds lifted, giving us a good view of the community as we climbed past. Victoria’s Kitchen in Descanso was closed, so we got supplies at the small store next door and were soon heading up the Merigan Fire road then onto the highway past Oakzanita (store closed). Part way along the singletrack to the Cuyamacas, we came upon a woman who had fallen from her freaked-out horse. Paramedics were attending to her. Her pretty Appaloosa rolled its eyes and whinnied in fear when he saw us, so we backed up and wheeled  our bikes down to the nearby highway, picking up the trail a few miles later. 

The singletrack through the Cuyamacas was fun and scenic, a new route since we last rode the stagecoach. The sky was a bright blue with only a few clouds on the horizon, a contrast  to our morning departure. A light wind kept us cool. We had a brisk ride to the top of Oriflamme, a rugged, rocky descent popular with 4 wheelers. A large rattlesnake near the top rattled at us, and the descent went pretty quickly. The middle part of Oriflamme had been graded, and was soft in spots, but brisk. We had a tail wind when we hit the pavement, stopping at the Butterfield RV park to pick up some Gatorade, then zipping down to Aguas Calientes state park for water (the store was closed). 

It was 5ish when we entered the desert of fish creek, and quickly we started to feel the heat, probably in the lower 90s. The Hollywood and Vine sign appeared to be missing — a sight that gave us a good laugh on our first time thru a couple years ago. The building wind was behind us for 5 miles, but it hit us head on when we turned to enter the canyons. With the sand and headwind, going was slow. We stopped to look in side canyons and wind caves, taking it easy.

Around sunset we popped out of the canyon with a pale sunset on one side and the rising moon on the other. It was beautiful as we wound our way to the Diablo Drop-off, donning our lights before descending to Fish Creek. We haven’t done a lot of night riding this year. It was fun and fast and bumpy, hard to tell where pockets of deep sand may be lurking to grab your tires. We camped at Fish Creek Primitive Site, the only people there, having not seen another person since leaving the pavement. The camp site was nice, but we were dry and tired, the wind and heat having exhausted us earlier.