Well, this one was a challenge. Ann and I were camping up at Palomar Mountain State Park, so I decided to ride up there starting from Lake Henshaw. We had all our stuff packed up and left home around 11:45, and it was a warm day. We got to Lake Henshaw in about an hour, and I was moving a little before 1:00 PM. Ann drove over to Santa Ysabel and had a snack at Dudley's Bakery. The climb started after a downhill run to the S7 East Grade Rd. The climb starts with about 4 miles at 5-7%, then it levels off for about a mile before picking up at around the same average grade. What made it more difficult than in the past was that I am more than 10 years older and it was over 90 deg for most of the climb. In the latter half especially, I was in either my lowest or second lowest gear nearly the whole time, and my back was aching. Thankfully, when I stood on the pedals the backache went away and I could get some periodic relief. I got to the top of the climb and Strava says I did it in about 1:13. Then it started going downhill, and I wasn't sure if I was on the right road, so I backtracked and stopped to check Google Maps and get oriented. From there, it was a downhill to Mother's Kitchen, which has been closed since the start of the COVID pandemic. Nice to have that downhill. Then I started climbing again on the way to the entrance to the park. This stretch was about 5 miles, including 2 1-mile climbs that weren't as bad as before. Ann drove by me on this road just as I was about to enter the park, and I continued on to the campsite, looping around the campground before finding ours, #8 (pretty good, no steps from the car but near RV camping spots). I took a couple of pictures near the top before riding down to the campground. Felt good at the end, tired but no cramping. My average heartrate hasn't been that high in quite a while, am attributing it to the combination of temperature and effort.
Avg speed = 10.4 mph. Total mileage = 17.2 mi
Avg power= 158 W. Weighted avg power = 183 W
Total elevation gain = 3170'
Avg heartrate = 144 bpm
We set up camp and I ended up putting my bike inside the vestibule, where it was pretty well concealed. I locked it up when we weren't around the campsite. Dinner was a vegan stew, which was very good, and a lemon berry cake made in the Dutch oven, which was okay, not a repeat item for me. We didn't get the coals onto and around the oven quickly enough, and it needed an hour to cook, so we ended up finishing the baking on the gas stove.
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