Friday, April 5th – Day 3 – Glen Helen Regional Park to Victorville

Best part of the day: Wind-aided gradual downhill on Mariposa Road

Worst part of the day: Riding about 9 miles on I-15

Distance: 35.2 miles    Riding time: 3hr 46min

Beds: 0                           Sleeping bags: 3

The chill of last night carried over into this morning. We bundled up even more this morning than the previous two. It didn’t take long before our we hit our first climb and that was pretty much right out of  camp!! And a couple of miles of over 9% grade!!

Eventually turned onto Cajon Blvd (well, they call it a boulevard). It was the old Route 66. It looked very sad indeed. The whole northbound side was blocked off and two-way traffic flowed on the other side. Barriers and weeds made what was probably a beautiful roadway into a now pretty much rundown piece of old asphalt. Really kind of sad.

(The once-proud Route 66. It look completely run down now. So sad.)

Now, came the most harrowing part of today’s ride, going in I-15!! At a 70mph speed limit which everyone obeyed (wink, wink, nudge, nudge!!), truck and cars whizzed by. Not to mention the strong tail wind. We had to remove our “da Brims” for fear of having them blow off of our helmets and be lost forever on the freeway!

As I mentioned earlier, being a chilly morning, even though we had already done some climbing and had warmed up, we saw at the next exit (only a mile from where we first entered the freeway) a McDonald’s!! Our first thought was coffee to warm us back up again. There wa a fun, short downhill to McDonald’s. Once at the counter, we ordered 2 of their big breakfasts (eggs, pancakes, sausage, English muffin, hash brown and bacon) along with coffee. Out of all this, we made a sausage egg McMuffin for later and scarfed the rest down!!

Then it was back on the bikes, up that very same hill to the I-15 onramp. Now came about 7 miles of gradual climbing with more trucks and cars zipping past us all the way to the Cajon Summit at a blazing 4mph where we stopped for the obligatory picture!!

It was a short, half mile downhill to where we exited the freeway. As we said with our “best part of the day”, our route brought us to Maripose Road where we were able to coast at over 20mph because of the gradual downhill and double-digit tailwind!! What a treat!! The road wasn’t perfect and there were some impatient drivers that came closer to us than need be, but, all in all that was a nice 8-mile or so ride into Victorville!

(The sign does say Victorville, trust me.)

We were providing dinner tonight as Peggy and Jerry had done so last night. Pick up a few things at a Costco and a nearby Food 4 Less in Victorville. The final few miles had no bike lane and the route to the campgroud (Shady Oasis Kampground) was also a bit scary. More cars and trucks zipping by. Just trying to make a left turn to head towards the campground was a bit unnerving!

The campground was cheap and we got pretty much what we paid for. The tent sites need a lot of TLC, but, we made ours work. The staff there was real nice. And of course, having a hot shower available is always a huge plus along with having power outlets at the site!

A nice dinner has us warmed up inside despite the cooling temperature outside here right now.

We’re right alongside of I-15 so we’ll have the noise of the traffic all night long. But, we’re pretty sure the sounds of all those vehicles will just become white noise and we’ll all be able to get some rest after today’s first of many climbing days to come.

Until our next post….