COSTA MESA, CA to PALM SPRINGS, CA

Weather:
Sunny all day
Starting temp 60, finishing temp 94
Winds varied from 3-4 mph to 20 mph and from south, west and east

Ride stats:
Today’s mileage: 117 Miles
Today’s climbing: 4285 ft
Total miles ridden: 117 miles
Approx miles to go: 3,343 mi

Excellent first day! Today, in many ways, was a “shakedown day” where we got our first feel for the daily routine, following the route cue sheet, SAG (support vehicle) procedures, etc. The riders do not all ride as one large group. Everyone starts out together, then people start naturally grouping with others wanting to go about the same speed, etc. I wanted to take these first several days at a moderate pace and fell in with a group of five thinking the same. Our group consisted of Jim (Iowa), Phillip (Massachusetts), Max (Australia), and Jan (Alabama).

You are given a cue sheet with each turn outlined and you keep that attached to your handlebar for reference. When riding with a group everyone really has to watch the cue sheet. It is easy to trust the guy in front and follow him, but if he makes a wrong turn, you can easily become like lemmings going over a cliff!

We left the motel in Costa Mesa, rode to the ocean for the ceremonial wheel dipping and group photo. Mike (ride leader) took the group photo and I don’t have a copy yet. Then we headed east. Stayed on the Santa Ana River Trail for about half of today’s ride to get out of the LA area. Rode right by the parking lot of Angel Stadium and fairly close to Disneyland. However, on the river trail you were pretty sheltered from the urban sprawl around you.

Even though our total climbing was over 4000 feet, most of it was very gradual uphill for miles or very gradual downhill. Highest elevation was in Beaumont, then down grade to Palm Springs. Riding on the Interstate highways is legal in the desert areas as that is the only reasonable way to get from point A to point B sometimes. We briefly got on I-10 today between Beaumont and Palm Springs. It felt REALLY weird riding down an entrance ramp on a bicycle and then riding on the Interstate shoulder. The shoulders are wide, so you have adequate separation from the traffic, but it still felt weird. A lot of debris on the shoulder to dodge. We weren’t on the interstate long today, but will ride quite a bit on it the next two days as we cross the desert.

Interesting wind phenomenon as we rode through a canyon on the way to Palm Springs. For a stretch of about 10 miles we had a great tailwind and slight downgrade. We were doing 25 plus mph with minimal effort. We were feeling pretty good thinking we’d have the rest of the way to Palm Springs like that, when something changed in the canyon and blammo! all of a sudden we were fighting a 20 mph headwind. Memo for record: we were no longer doing 25 plus…

Good first day. Long day tomorrow, 134 miles. Here are some photos from today. Click on any photo to open in a slideshow view.