SC Route - Day 5

28.5 miles - 984 ft. climbing

It was a beautiful but restless night at Fish Creek, nice stars and full moon, but wind gusts. We were both feeling dry and tired from the day before. After packing up, we pedaled into Ocotillo Wells and waited on some benches for the tidy little store to open. After purchasing snacks and Gatorade, we headed up the highway towards Borrego Springs. It was already hot, and the headwind was significant.

Turning towards Borrego Springs, we expected to be rewarded with a strong tailwind, but the hills blocked the wind. It seemed unfair. We stopped briefly at a giant mastodon, one of many oversized sculptures dotting the desert around Borrego, then pedaled into town for a burrito and soda at Los Jilbertos, a favorite stop for bikepackers.

We started to plan the next leg of our ride, up through Coyote Canyon and the infamous willows. Many parts of the route are tough, but with the high temperatures (87F) and wind advisory, it was going to be a grind. We decided to call our journey done and find a ride back to Idyllwild. 

Bailing out of a bikepacking trip is often harder than riding. Ideally somebody has a bike rack and room for you and your luggage. With two of us, it’s possible for one person to get a ride back to the car while the other waits (for hours!) with the bikes. A taxi business in Idyllwild was able to fetch us after a few hours, but luggage and wheels had to come off the bikes with careful packing into the back of an SUV. 

The driver was a character, regaling us with stories of how he came to be in Idyllwild after attending Coachella and seeing more concerts in 3 days than in his entire sheltered NY life up to that point: Dr Dre, Eminem, Amy Winehouse and Lionel Richie just to name a few.  He told us about his cat, chicken, hydroponic strawberry gardening, dislike of raccoons (he’d like to shoot them in the face for biting his chicken for no reason!), suspicions of independent gas station owners (octane level irregularities), getting a business degree in Connecticut, masters degree in teaching, making a difference by teaching children (3rd grade and under, before they develop an attitude), and owning property in NYC, New Jersey, and Florida.  He made a keen observation that a rooster sleeping perched on a fence with his head hanging down looks just like a meth head.  And although he advertises as a taxi service he was confused about potential passengers calling for rides to a wedding (what wedding?!, he seemed to think he should know about any nuptials happening ahead of time.)

He kept the windows down even though it was very chilly outside.  He warned Ed that he might have to take over driving a number of times as he hadn’t had much sleep recently.  We only ran out of gas once, and he kept one hand on the wheel most of the time, checking his phone (calls and messages from Burbank are bank!), shifting even though it was an automatic transmission, eating a burrito and nuggets and fries, speeding into corners and braking only after it was too late to control the turn, swerving as needed. We made 3 gas stops for a 78 mile ride if you include when we ran out and refilled from a gas can. Sitting in the passenger seat, Sarah quickly gave up on maintaining a relaxed appearance, gripped the handle over the window, and kept her right foot firmly on the floor where a brake pedal would be if there was one on the passenger side. It was dark and cold when we got to the Bunkhouse in Idyllwild and our adrenalin levels subsided.