Day 4

I think I have become a hobbit. A large breakfast complete with trimmings, second breakfast down the road, elevenses (also referred to as a water stop), lunch, afternoon tea and then a very large dinner have become essential requirements to the day--between which I feel as if I'm starving. It's become completely ridiculous the amount of food I'm eating, but I suppose it only equals what I'm burning up these hills. At breakfast the ladies decided to form the "Bacon Appreciation Society" and judging from our plates, we fulfilled our obligation to the name most thoroughly! :)

Today is another big mountain climbing venture. It's not only hard to leave the beautiful desert vistas, but the initial gentle climb into the hills reminds my already exhausted climbing muscles that up is their only option today.

I love this place.

As we rode through the desert landscape, we noticed the cacti all in bud and wished we could stay to see them in bloom. 

barrel cactus

don't get stuck in one of these!!!

the mountains we must climb over today...a beautiful agony! :)

all that was left of the Vallecito-Butterfield station along the old stage line trail that started in St. Louis. The first stagecoach carrying mail and passengers to travel this trail left September 15, 1858. talk about a long, bumpy ride...

battling the wind, pedaling downhill and then toiling back up again...what a day, but still going strong I am determined to reach the lunch stop! :)

just before reaching our campsite, we stopped back in Julian for some more pie and coffee...after all, we must do a comparison test...and the apple-boysenberry pie was sure tasty! we reached our campsite high in the mountains just in time for the map meeting and another dinner! a large number of us discovered that the lobby outside the shower rooms was nice and warm, so we enjoyed some wild conversation, and general hilarity over the SET game that I had brought before wandering back through the thick fog to our tents for the night.