Cuyamaca MTB and Camp

End of August, 2009

I cant believe that it is almost September, and yet it is the hottest its been all summer. I have lagged off in my beach going- it just seems too dang hot to make the move to the sand. I wander around the steamy house in a daze muttering to myself, "Its so hot, Its so hot..." That doesn't seem to improve my situation strangely enough.

I booked a weekend out in the Cuyamaca State Park, which is about an hour east of San Diego, and just north of Mt Laguna (in an earlier post I described this). Its a rather large section of protected forest and quite accessible from the city. I reserved at Paso Picacho, which is supposedly the quieter of the two campgrounds...I beg to differ! However, we ended up in a semi-secluded spot. My main objective was to be able to ride from the campground for two days...I sort of overlooked the fact it had been in the 90s for the entire week...Oh, well! That's silly stuff.

We got in late on Friday because I was a little over-packed, or oddly packed. Somehow the following food items seemed essential: polenta, squid, blue crabs, fish, tri tip, beef cubes, mango,can of tuna, can of salmon, can of tomatoes, can of condensed milk, and other odds and ends. How could we possible eat all of that, much less keep it cold, in 90 degree weather for two days? As it turns out we got one ride in on Saturday, but became so heat exhausted that we had to cut the miles from 40 down to about 15, and were both almost in tears. After chugging half a bottle of wine and two beers, I didn't feel well. A migraine ensued which felt like my eyes were being gouged out of my head. As I got up to gaze at the stars through squinting eyelids, I threw up all over the campground.

So we packed up Sunday to the heavenly cool AC in the truck...Ah, relaxing. Back to San Diego early with lessons learned and where bottles of Excedrin were within reach. Note to self: don't overdo it in the heat, at altitude. If you do overdo it, don't drink ANY alcohol, don't overeat a random assortment of meats and seafoods which may or may not be contaminated. And if you do, don't bring someone else along to suffer through it with you as an innocent bystander.

Oh well, back to real life, teaching ESL, velodroming, job searching and trying EVERYDAY to maintain the happiness and positivity of when I was traveling and living out of panniers.