Day 3 - Monday, May 14th - Riverside to Indio, CA

Distance: 93.2 Miles

Elevation Gain: +2555 ft. or 27.7 ft./mile

Net elevation change: -996 ft.

Route 

• We took the mileage up a notch today with the first of our 14 rides that are 90 or more miles. Elevation gain was just average and by the end we wiped out yesterday's net increase in elevation and then some. University Avenue in front of the hotel was nice and quiet when we looked at 7:15 this morning. Weather was cool and calm. 

Like yesterday we started the day with a small climb of just under 700 feet over the first five miles after going south on Chicago Avenue. Once on Alesandro Blvd we finished up  in Mission Grove.

The next 25 miles were essentially flat as Alesandro Blvd turned east, and we had a straight shot until we turned south on Laselle St. This was followed by a turn east onto the Ramona Expressway where we passed along the southern boundary of the Lake Perris Recreation Area. The Lake Perris Recreation Area will serve as a venue for some of the rowing events in the 2028 Olympics. The lake is man-made and was created in 1973 and serves as home to a variety of birds and wildlife including mule deer, roadrunners, bobcats, coyotes, cotton tail and jack rabbits, quail, gopher and rattlesnakes along with the more commonly sighted lizards, rodents, water fowl, and birds of prey. Pretty amazing when you consider the large number of people in the surrounding area. That said, our first SAG stop was in Lakeview at mile 23 and other then passing cars there wasn't a lot of people in the area as you can see from these shots of the area around the SAG stop. 

• From the rest stop we continued east on the Ramona Expressway and it was here that the wind picked up a bit, but thankfully it was a tailwind. Along this stretch we passed holding stations for dairy cows on several dairy farms in the area. Not exactly what I visualize when I hear the term dairy farm.  There wasn't any pasture roaming going on here. Pics aren't great but I think you can get a sense of it.

Our second climb started around the 31-mile mark just after as we turned north on CA 79. We finished the climb seven miles later in Beaumont at 2612 feet, a change of +1152 feet. Pretty sure this is the biggest and longest climb I've ever done.  It won't stay that way if I am able to complete the rest of the climbs on this tour. Lots of climbing left.

From there we had 54 miles that was pretty much all downhill into Indio. For 37 of those miles we had a tailwind and it was in this stretch that I hit 35 mph....without pedaling. 😲

At mile 45 we went through Banning on Ramsey St and once past the Banning Airport, got on I-10.  I always thought bikes and pedestrians were not permitted on Interstates. Generally, this is true unless it is the only road available. Our use of I-10 today was fortunately limited to about two miles, but this will not be the case over the next few days.  For the most part, it will serve as our only route across the desert.

We went through Cabazon at mile 50 while on I-10. Cabazon, with all of 2500 residents, got started as a settlement in the 1870’s after the Southern Pacific Railroad built a railroad station. It incorporated as a city in 1955 to take advantage of a California law that permitted incorporated cities to host cardrooms. Over the next 16 years there was a fair amount of scandal and fighting between residents and cardroom owners before the city disincorporated in 1971.  To give you a sense of the chaos, the city went through 18 police chiefs and 21 City Council members in its’ first seven years. Today it's home to the massive Native American Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa, shopping outlets and the Carbozon Dinosaurs, a roadside attraction from a bygone era featuring two enormous, steel-and-concrete dinosaurs named Dinny the Dinosaur and Mr. Rex. Didn't get any pics of them, the crappy road surface on the I-10 shoulder had my undivided attention.

Seven miles later we went southeast on CA-111 towards Palm Springs where at mile 65 we skirted its' northern and eastern borders and the southern border of the Coachella Valley Preserve.  Along the way we passed one wind farm after another. The pictures below don't in any way capture the size and scale of these operations.

Here is the official city limits sign for Palm Springs sign followed by the one you will see in all the city promotional material.

 

With about 17 miles to the hotel I noticed a shift in the wind. Sometimes a head wind, sometimes a cross wind, but no more tail wind. With the temperature getting into the 90's I was really running on fumes. Every overpass felt like a killer and the wind felt like a gale which at a max of 18 mph is normal wind speed in Florida.  

We are at the Holiday Inn Express in  Indio where we will spend the night within spitting distance of the San Andreas Fault which we will cross about 4 miles into tomorrow’s ride. We were on our own for dinner tonight so Barry, Chris, Terry and I took a short walk to a restaurant named Pom located in the the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino. Service was a bit slow but food was good. Having said that, it is hard to give an objective review when you are tired and hungry. Just about anything will taste good and it can't come quick enough.

Sneak peek at tomorrow

The first of two days we will spend crossing the southern portion of the Mojave Desert cranking out 97 miles on our way to Blythe, CA, all on the shoulder of I-10. Blythe is an agricultural area in the Palo Verde Valley of the Lower Colorado River Valley Region and part of the Colorado Desert, a sub-region of the Sonoran Desert and, in case that didn’t pinpoint it for you, along the Colorado River. It has a year round population of 21,000 that triples in the winter months. It is named for Thomas Blythe, a financier from San Francisco who established primary water rights in the region in 1877. Sounds like a good reason to name the city after him since no water, no city, but, it seems Blythe’s real last name was Williams and I couldn't find an explanation of the why he used a different name.  He was from Mold, Wales, wealthy, and when he died in early 1883 (not long after his only visit to the area in late 1882) his estate went into litigation between his illegitimate daughter Florence and “other claimants”. Florence ultimately won 24 years later when the US Supreme Court decided in her favor.

The forecast is for sunny skies all day with temps in the mid 60's with west winds around 10-15 mph at the start, warming to a high of 95 with 10-15 mph winds out of the Southwest in Blythe. Hot but pretty far away from the 105 it was a couple of weeks ago.