Trans America Cycling Day 3 - Jacumba Hot Springs, CA to Brawley, CA

The link to today's route and statistics is found here.

In the American west bicyclists are allowed to ride the interstate shoulders in an area where the interstate is the only way to ride from point A to point B.  It sounds scary to ride the interstate because of the speed of vehicles there.  However, since the interstate shoulder is very wide and usually divided from traffic by a rumble trip, riding on the shoulder of the interstate often feels safer than riding on a highway with a narrow shoulder.  Trucks get much closer to the rider on a smaller highway, and they are still driving at a lethal speed indeed. 

With that as a background, today's ride began with a high pucker factor ride down Interstate-8.  Even early in the morning the wind was above a 20 mph steady value with gusts estimated as high as 50 mph by Randy from Oklahoma, who is used to riding in 30 mph wind across the prairie.  To make matters worse, the wind was primarily a crosswind that was in places bouncing off canyon walls in unpredictable directions.  Cyclists were braking to control their speed, especially in the windiest middle section of the descent.  Ray from Malta was happy that the bicycle that he bought for the tour has disk brakes, because rim brakes can overheat the wheel when applied aggressively as was needed on the descent, and disk brakes have more stopping power than rim brakes.  Our Swiss riders, Nichole and Ester, are used to bombing down Swiss mountains at 50 mph plus without nearly as much wind as on I-8.  Even for these intrepid cyclists, the crosswinds whipped up a not insignificant pucker factor.  Congratulations to the cyclists who all deftly stayed upright during their descent, whether the entirety or partial.  Those who watched from the SAG vehicle have no regrets.

Average grade of 6% is menacing in strong crosswinds 

At the base of the mountain was a large field of windmills.  This suggests that the wind blows steady and hard in this area.  The wind that cyclists experienced down the canyon today is not unusual for the area.

Field of windmills at the bottom of our exhilarating ride down the mountain

Our first SAG stop was just after cyclists exited from I-8 in the town of Ocotillo.  Then along the ride in the desert from SAG1 to SAG2 we saw many of the cacti that the town is named after.  BTW, SAG means Support And Gear, and a SAG stop is where tour company staff Larry, Chuck and Vicki cheerfully set up hydration and food and have equipment for minor bicycle repairs.

Ocotillo cactus

If one looked closely, one could see roadrunners running around the Ocotillos.  No picture could be taken of the roadrunners due to their cunning and great speed.  If they are able to outsmart Wile E. Coyote, then they can also outwit our intrepid cyclists.  Beep beep.

We road past many containers, the lids of which were covered with rocks, and with a colorful flag nearby.  Roberto says that the flags allow helicopter pilots to judge the wind for landing.  Helicopters are flown there, because there is no border barrier there, and the area we cycled past is known as a chosen area for undocumented entry into the USA.  The flags were also very handy to show wind direction to cyclists, which joyfully was a strong tailwind of around 20 miles per hour along much of the route.  

Mystery solved, humanitarian water within

Flag beside mysterious container

We rode across a large sector of the Imperial Valley today en route to Brawley.  The valley has many irrigation canals that bring water to the greenery that grows in the desert soil if water is applied.  Agriculture accounts for one-fourth of jobs with major crops of alfalfa, lettuce, sugar beets and carrots.  Imperial Valley was so named by the Imperial Land Company, in hopes of attracting settlers to this piece of desert.  Sounds very British to do so.

After the end of the ride, a reporter from The Desert Review came to the Best Western Plus motel to learn about the purpose of the Save-22-a-Day bicycle tour and its support to military veterans in need.