Day 2

Ready to Go Best Western

Lake Elsinore

I got up early as usual, around 6:30, to check the weather.  It was very hazy and a little foggy so I decided to wait before heading out.  I've ridden in clear sunshine, snow, sleet, rain, fog and hellacious heat and the worst of all is fog.  It gets everything wet and never clears off of the face shield so you wind up squeegeeing your mask clear ever 2 seconds.  Better to avoid it.  I waited then and got on the road about 8:30 after picking up a ham and cheese sandwich at Ralph's from a guy named Juan who was VERY smily .  The hotel I had picked was right on the Ortega Highway (CA74) so after getting the sandwich and checking out, all I had to do was turn right and go.  Traffic was a little stacked up heading east so it took a little of the fun out of it but I got into it after a while and as the traffic lifted I started to enjoy it.  Very clean pavement and nice and twisty; twists that are easy to look through and spot your entry into the next curve.  I came over the ridge line and stopped at an overlook for Lake Elsinore.

The lake is very bizarre, looks like a gigantic puddle in the middle of a suburb.  I was able to see the road head down into the valley pretty clearly so I waited a 60 count until the last car went down the grade and passed the halfway point before heading back out myself.  The city of Lake Elsinore seems built like a grid and had a lot of construction that slowed me down in town.  I finally opened it back up as 74 continued out of town on to Perris.  The road from Perris to Hemet and then Valle Vista is a straight agricultural trucking road so not too interesting although the weather was turning out nice with big white clouds. Lots of orange trees blossoming... lots of bees.  Immediately outside of Valle Vista the road makes an obvious hard left up the valley wall so I stopped to take a break by an orange grove and beehives.  The peaks of the mountain range were hidden by clouds and when they parted I noticed that the mountains were covered in snow, which was unexpected. 

Click here for a Panoramic Photo of Lake Elsinore

Rusted Barn in Hemet

Highway 243 by San Jacinto

Nice tight twisties up to Idyllwild but I missed the split onto the Panoramic Highway (CA243) and stayed on 74 by accident.  It was a nice road and I stayed on it a little to see where it went before turning around and making the correct turn onto 243 to head up into the mountains. Very pretty alpine look to the area with clean twisty roads and white crispy snow.  Hardly any traffic up there too.  Up and over the summit of Mt. San Jacinto and then down into Banning going through two huge hairpins.  I got on I-10 in Banning and the temperature went up about 20 degrees from 65 to 85.  Blast over to Indian Wells and get back on 74 except in the opposite direction and head southwest.  Hands-down one of the best roads ever.  Curve after curve upwards passing through HUGE boulders that look like someone just threw them all over the side of the valley.  See a California Big Horn Sheep standing on one observing all the vehicles going by.  I stopped trying to find places to take pictures and concentrated on enjoying the ride up through that rock-fest. 

Once over the crest of the road I wound up in a long string of cars waiting to get through a construction area.  I broke through the jam and started down into a huge basin-like valley.  The road straightened out and I turned left onto 371 before stopping at a 76 station in Anza which felt entirely deserted.  I filled up the tank and ate Juan's sandwich looking at a whole lot of nothing.  Then back on 371 and onward to Temecula to finish the day's ride.  371 was a lot like the road to the Grand Canyon from the south except that it a) has hills and b) has no payoff.

I hit Temecula just before sunset, riding by the massive Pechanga indian casino and check into the Best Western.  I walked around Temecula trying to find a bar before settling for a Hungry Hunter to grab a chicken sandwich and write my notes down.

Above the Coachella Valley