Finally, Pacific Ocean!

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Saturday, March 25

I made a super early start this morning (at 4:45am!) as I still had some tough climbing and 81 miles to ride, and I REALLY wanted to finish today.

It was quite beautiful early morning riding--with just me and the stars.  I would turn my bike light off occasionally to admire the stars, but given the mountain environment, I didn't leave it off for too long. I didn't want to ride off the side of a cliff on my last day!

Since it was a pretty rural area and the road wasn't a major artery (like Route 90 in Texas), I had the road to myself.  I think I saw only 3 cars the first hour or so.  It wasn't nearly as eerie as Texas probably because I could see house lights off to the side--and sand and mist weren't blowing around.  I listened carefully when dogs barked to make sure the sound didn't come closer.  It's bad enough having dogs come at you, but I didn't want to deal with such encounters in the dark!


The fact that it was a brisk morning didn't bother me starting out with the climb portion, but as I entered downhill sections I couldn't generate enough heat to stay warm.  Things didn't improve until I made it into Pine Valley about 30 miles into the ride.  It was comforting to stop, warm up, and have a decent cup of coffee.

I soon finished most of the serious climbing about 40 miles in, and then I had to get back on Interstate 8 for a short period.  This time I saw similar signs as I did yesterday but for downhill: 6% grade for the next 10 miles.  (I was only on the highway for 3 of those miles though!)  Needless to say I was pretty euphoric on those downhill sections.

Once I got into San Diego proper, the terrain became more rolling, but the hills were minor compared to the climbs of the last two days.  The maps went into some detailed sections to illustrate the route to follow, but they really need to expand the detail in my opinion.  If I didn't have Google Maps on my phone I wouldn't have been able to suss out the right direction to go at times.

When I saw some bikers around 1pm heading east and struggling up a hill, all I could do was whoop as I flew by and yell "Good Luck!"  I was pretty happy I would soon be finishing--and not just starting out.  I knew it would be a tough climb for them out of San Diego, not to mention the 3000 miles afterwards...

I rolled onto Ocean Beach in San Diego around 2:30.  I pushed the bike into the surf and asked a guy nearby to snap the obligatory picture.  Hard to imagine that I started out almost 40 days ago.  It was a pretty amazing feeling to be done!  It must be time for a celebratory beer...


Cheers, and thanks everybody for your support and for reading all this!  After I've had some time to reflect on the trip, I'll write a final post on what worked, what didn't, what I would do differently, and what I'd advise for others.

Day: 38
Time: 9 hours 45 minutes
Distance: 81 miles (Jacumba Hot Springs-Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA)


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