Sequestration Palomar Ride Report

The government budget misfortunes has opened up an opportunity to Eric R to ride even more. He will have a number of Friday’s off courtesy of Uncle Sam or US Congress, depending on your perspective. In any case, this is our gain.

Eric will plan Friday rides when he is in town. Today he was training for his upcoming Mt Whitney/Horseshoe Meadows torture fest so he wanted to ride Palomar. Mike Hodges and I played am hooky and joined Eric on the ride.

We drove out and met at the Harrah’s Rincon Casino parking lot at 8 am. The three of us cruised together to the taco stand when Eric surged forward and pulled away fast. Eric planned to ride up south grade, down east grade and back up east grade. Mike and I were riding to the top of south grade and out to the observatory. The plan was to rendezvous back at Mother’s.

The day was warming fast and humidity was high. We climbed up the Palomar south grade, only a few cars and 1-2 motorcycles; a very peaceful climb. Mike and I regrouped at Mother’s for a minute and then rode out to the observatory. It was open so I toured the cool telescope while Mike tried to recover out on the front steps. We headed back to Mother’s right as it opened at 11 am. Mike had pie, coffee and lemonade.

Eric joined us shortly thereafter and we all relaxed on the front porch for a few minutes before a fast descent back down to the car. Eric hammered up both climbs; he is ready for Whitney. He covered more than 50 miles with about 7,100 feet of elevation. Mike and I rode 37 miles with 5,700 feet of climbing. Great way to spend Friday mornings.

Hope you can make it out some Friday soon.

Ride on-

Rob