Day+12+Journal

=Colin's Journal= 12 January 2006 35 miles Rt. 78/86 --> Borrego Springs 12 miles run, 23 biked

We woke and packed up well, waking at 6am, eating some hearty oatmeal, and hitting the road by 7am. Last night was nice: I played the harmonica for a while, and Grant kept freaking out about people he thought were watching us. It turned out to just be Bill, talking on a cell phone. We watched the farm workers get bussed away from the fields last night, and back early in the morning. Stephen remarked to me today about how, even though our days are tough, the farm workers have it much worse. This thought really put the trip in perspective.

I ran first, and had the plan of putting in twelve miles in the morning, six more in the afternoon, but it turned out to be not that far, so I didn't do the second run. A little over two miles in, we got to a border check, which was basically just a guy asking us where we were from, and not checking it. I then went into a workout: going just by feel: 1x5:20-(3:00)-2x2:30-(2:00)-2x70-(:70), at 10k-5k-3k pace. Felt good, and accelerated over the last five miles, finishing in 78 minutes, about 6:30/mile.

We saw a historic marker for "Las Puertacitas", where Anza crossed the mountains (the name refers to the "little pass" through the mountains). Soon after this, we crossed into the Anza-Borrego desert state park, and turned off Rt. 78. There was a very cool dip in the road here, where we went from 775 ft to 630ft, then back to 675 ft on the other side. From here, we rolled into Borrego Springs which is around 600ft, so there wasn't much more pedalling to be done.

Stephen and I rode ahead to say hi to Reena, and were soon joined by the rest. We got there before 1pm, so Bill and I rode down to a grocery store a mile aay for some cold cuts. We chatted with the workers there, who we are pretty sure were under the impression that we biked from Massachusetts.

Nice lunch of an italian ham and salami sandwich with spaghetti sauce, along with some delicious chips and dip, courtesy of Reena. We showered, washed our clothes, then drank beers and ate fresh oranges on the back deck in the sun. Very idyllic.

Less idyllic was us flooding her shower, then her bathroom while she was off scouting the trailhead for tomorrow morning. We spent some time cleaning this up, but couldn't fix it, which meant that there was no running water or bathrooms for the night. We had dinner at Pablitos Mexican Bar and Grille, which also has a branch open in El Centro (Reena made some sarcastic remark about the town when we mentioned we'd been there). I had a shredded beef taco with a melon margarita, which was great, and Reena picked up the tab, which was also great! Corey and Bill picked up a case of the giggles (a la our visit to the Golden Corral) while talking to Reena about how Corey "doesn't do" raincoats/hats/sunscreen. Hopefully she didn't take offense.

We noticed an NRA sticker on her 4x4 during the ride back, and asked her about it. She doesn't even own a gun, but thinks the 2nd amendment is very important. She said it throws folks off to see her leading Sierra Club hikes in her NRA hat.

Line of the Day: Corey: "What did you think when Bill pounded you in the crotch this morning?" Rogo: "I thought all hell was breaking loose."

(Note: Bill was waking people up this morning, by walking along the line of sleeping bags and smacking everyone on the butt. The proble was that Dave was sleeping on his back...)

Day 12

Day 13

Day 13 Journal