Originally Posted by btppberk

Thanks as always for the awesome advice! Checked out the weather and it was a little too cold for the triangle and have been wanting to try to the dessert, so did the counter clockwise loop. It was great! And it was definitely the right call to go counterclockwise. The Yacqui pass down into Borrego Springs was beautiful and lots of fun. The 78 could be lots of fun too, but, as you suggested, Friday's are not the day to do it. Tons of trailer campers heading out to the dessert (where? why?), and a few seem to forget either that they just passed a cyclist or that they are pulling a camper. On the plus side, there was very little traffic joining us up Montezuma. (I don't see how you can come down that without your breaks, or just lightly using them, headwind or not.

The only downside to today's ride was that it was really cold from Montezuma to S2 since we got a late start. Coming down S2 at dusk was also a mistake. Didn't have a strong enough light and the bike lane (amazing!) was littered with large rocks and other obstacles. I hit one that almost threw me. Another caused a flat 6 miles from home in the dark...

Thanks again for the tips! I really appreciate it.

I've got to figure out how to better time my meals for rides like this that start so far from home. This one was particularly tough since basically all the major work comes in the middle. I can't eat big meals before big climbs, so I was feeling pretty energy deficient on the climb. I'm thinking maybe I need to pack and eat a meal while driving out to the destination.