obrentharris 

Up ahead of you, partway up the mountain pass, is the Desert View Tower! Last time I was through there it was fenced off, but if it's open I think you would really appreciate it, a stone tower built many years ago by some guy who liked the view. The tower houses a small collections of various random desert artifacts and has a great view. Across the parking lot from the tower is a short trail that winds through the boulders, but these aren't ordinary boulders. They've been carved in the shapes of various real and imagined animals! It's only about a quarter of a mile north of the highway and it was all free last I knew. Of course they hope you'll buy something in the gift/snack shop at the base of the tower.
Brent

Oops! I just checked Google and the tower has been turned into a B+B, but maybe you can still walk the path with the great carved stone animals.
Brent

timdow

Desert View Tower is a good place to take a break and get an ice cream after the climb. For sure worth a look. The B&B part of the site is some cabins across from the tower. To visit the top of the desert view tower, it costs $6.50 last I was there. Worth it to me, but if you don't go up the view is really good from the entire site.

stardognine

Ha, I’m on In-Ko-Pah Road now, which is apparently where you need to get off of I-8, to go back to that tower. 😎 I already grabbed a pic of it, from the Eastern approach, not sure if I want to see it up close. 🤔 I’m seriously thinking about camping right here tonight, so maybe that’ll look better in the morning. 😉

There was a lot of rain back in Ocotillo, starting Monday afternoon, heavy most of yesterday, and still coming down lighter early this morning. The forecast said more today & tomorrow, so I said the heck with this, & left around 8:00 this morning. I found a pretty good spot, & stayed dry, but in hindsight, maybe I shoulda just stripped & got out some soap, lol. 😁😉

Here’s a pic of that tower, & a few random landscapes. 🙂

stardognine

Almost forgot the teddy bear tree. 😁 Sadly, this is probably a memorial to someone who died, but still too cool to just ignore. 🥺

This is just a little way past the Devil’s Canyon bridge, which was pretty trippy to cross. There’s a very narrow sidewalk, not wide enough for you AND your bike, but I just put my bike up on it, and walked on the road surface. I felt a little like a daredevil, lol, with all that traffic. 😲😉

BTW, the last elevation sign I saw, was for 3000 feet, plus you need to add a smidge more, from that.

EDIT: One more BTW, these are the Sierra Nevada Mountains, for those who don’t know. Don’t feel bad, I had to look it up myself, and I’m the one crossing them, lol. 🙄😉

Second EDIT: I wrote Devil’s Gorge yesterday, meant to write Devil’s Canyon.

diphthong

nice pics and write up. welcome to san diego county.

stardognine

Thanks. ✌️ I don’t think I’ll go up that tower today. It’s kinda foggy up here in the mountains, lol, and supposed to rain off & on all day. At least tomorrow’s supposed to be a lot nicer. 🙂

There’s supposed to be a big truck stop a couple miles ahead, but I don’t know if I trust some of these drivers, in this fog. Good thing I still have plenty of beef jerky & Cherry-Coke (& cannabis).

😁

stevepusser

The Sierra Nevada range is actually quite a ways north of San Diego County--you're now in the Peninsular Ranges that extend all the way down Baja. The rocks and overall shape of the ranges are similar to those of the Sierra, though--granitic rocks of Mesozoic age, and a steep eastern face with a much gentler western slope. Jacumba is still considered high desert--you don't get out of that probably until you get over La Posta Summit at over 4000'.

The desert, including Borrego Springs, did get some very heavy rain and thunderstorms this morning and afternoon--some places up to three inches. That's very unusual for March, but flash flooding is occurring very early this year! The radar shows Jacumba also picked up quite a bit of rain. There also may be another significant, but colder, storm coming on Monday.

stardognine

I stand corrected, yet again, lol. They make map-reading tricky, these days. 😉

I made it to the Golden Acorn Casino, soaking wet, but still alive. 😁 There’s some bad fog here again, and the high temps today are in the low-50s F. The last heavy rain is supposed to be tonight around 7:00, then relatively clear till Tuesday. 👍

I lost $6.00 in the slots, lol, but it was worth that and a coffee, to get warmed up. 😉

I’ve been on old route 80 again, since Jacumba Hot Springs, which is much better for finding stores & restaurants. You have to size places up, on prices, before buying. Some places price-gouge ya like crazy. 🙄

Steve B.

Not for nuttin, but as you are spending your days cycling forward, a heads up that the COVID-19 virus is currently in the process of shutting the world down. Not sure where you are from, where you expect to be in the next month, but I’d seriously be thinking of getting home, or maybe holding up somewhere with friends/family and very soon. I think the US has stopped all flights to Europe as note, excepting the UK. Not going to be pretty and you could get stuck somewhere you don’t want to be.

stevepusser

The nearest dollar stores are going to be in Alpine, along with some sizable supermarkets.

Pine Valley has a pretty good market, just not the cheapest around.

KC8QVO

Thanks for sharing your travels. Heres hoping you stay dry and more comfortable in your next leg of the journey. Stay safe!

stardognine

In case anyone can use this info, skip the Mountaintop Market in Boulevard, that has a big sign out front, for 2x 2 liter bottles of pop, for $5.00. A few miles up the road, in Tierra Del Sol, there’s a normal country grocery store, with gas pumps out front. RC Cola is $.99 a 2 liter (I got 2). Quite the difference, huh. 🤨 I also got a loaf of bread & a big package of sliced ham there, all for just under $10.00. 👍

stardognine

Yep, I had time to read the internet news this evening, and got a touch of culture shock. It felt a little like I slept through Armageddon or something. 🤔 I’m not gonna stress it too much, we’ll all go when it’s our time, not before or after. 😉

BTW, thanks for the good thoughts, all, I appreciate that. 🙂

stevepusser

Is it both ways, or just those traveling from Europe? (Including the isolated Iceland, yet not England, for unknown reasons. Cynics might think that Iceland has no golf resorts.)

stardognine

Woohoo, I made it to Alpine, just as it was getting dark. 😎😁 For now, I’m just gonna post a pic of the Alpine sign, so you know it really happened, lol, and a pic of 2 of the many ravens I saw today. The ravens get to be an experiment, with what my iPhone calls “bounce”, which I set completely by accident. Then I’ll post more pics tomorrow, I’m beat. 🙃

stardognine

Nope, it doesn’t work on the forum. On my iPhone, bounce plays about a second of film, so the ravens actually fly a bit when you look at it. 😎 They’re a little hard to see otherwise, but close to the center. 🙂

Miele Man

I went into a Zehrs grocery store here in town tonight and that's what it looked like = post apocalypse, just a couple of people. The same time last night the lines at the checkout were the length of the store. I was stocking up on more canned goods and now have enough for a month or two. Lots of canned goods left there still.

Cheers

diphthong

^grand ole bbq which is about 3 miles west of the edge of alpine and located along old highway 80
(running parallel to the 8 freeway) might be worth a lunch stop for you. the texas turkey and tri-tip
are pretty good but i think their beef brisket is the best thing they do.

Steve B.

Theres some info here

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/12/81493...el-from-europe

The comment was that many airlines have cancelled Euro flights entirely, so while maybe no actual restrictions, just no flights availability. As the Euro countries did not p, AFAIK, issue a ban for travel from the U.S. it then comes down to who’s flying ?,

stardognine

Sounds like a plan, and I’ve been riding Old 80 for quite awhile now, after all. But maybe tomorrow, it’s Sunday, and I’m pretty scuzzy, lol. 🙄 I found a laundromat, but it’s pretty busy today, so I opted for coffee & a danish for now.

I forgot to say, I rode around 20 miles extra last night, because I forgot to get back on I-8, where I needed to. There are some back roads that run through the mountains, where you can go DARN fast. 😁 But it’s really curvy, and plenty of traffic, so very challenging. 😉

stardognine

And I forgot to say, there’s no guardrail, in a lot of places. If you crashed going fast, that would be bad, but going off the side of a mountain is probably worser. 😲😁

A few more pics, hopefully no doubles.

stardognine

Ha!!! I bought a big ole chocolate brownie there, and found out it was hard as a rock. 🙄😁 But it was still pretty good, with pop, if you let it soften in your mouth before chewing. 😉

stardognine

And here we are, at the Specific Ocean! Or at least the harbor, right by the City & County Administration Building. 😎

I pushed on through, once I got kinda close, because my iPhone 7 is dying & driving me nuts. 🙄 I’m a block away from the Pacific Highway now, which makes it easier to get a new one (long story).

diphthong

rolled past there about 3pm today. enjoy the populated part of san diego county!

diphthong

but but that chaparral and native scrub is so cuddly and soft if you fall into it...