Cuarta o Cajon

"Kwarta o Kahon" (money or the box) was a game show I remember watching as a kid, in which contestants pushed their luck on which one to choose. Well I was lucky enough to pick the Cajon on this day. After yesterday's extreme heat, I woke up to a cloudy morning with very light intermittent spitting rain, not enough to get wet, just enough for a cooling spritz.

I was up and out by 6 am but I was surprised nothing was open for a coffee. The nice bike path continued on for ten miles where I stopped at a gas station for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. The approach to the pass is a confusing jumble of freeway interchanges and railroads, and required some steep climbs on the local roads to get around to an old highway that goes partway up the pass and gets little traffic. Midway it joins up with the busy Interstate 15, but precisely at that point the freeway was being reconstructed. It is supposed to be legal to ride it in that segment, but being squeezed between a truck and a concrete barrier is not my idea of fun. After a mile of madness there is an exit with a McDonald's overlooking the busy valley where I ate lunch.

More fancy bike paths, I'm not a fan of grooved concrete though

Couldn't get a coffee this morning but I had caffeine with my shave

Heading into the mountains

First of some steep climbs, this one is just to get around an area cut off by the freeway

On the "Mother Road", an icon of American highways

I'm supposed to be on the other side of this barrier but the workmen did not stop me from going on the part that was under construction

Lovely view from the McDonalds: America on the move. There must be tens of millions of dollars of goods moving through here every hour

After doing some research on the internet I decided to take the advice of someone who had ridden through the pass on a minor road but in the other direction. I can see how he thought it was OK going that way, but from my end all the climbs were up some pretty steep narrow switchbacks. I had to stop numerous times, mostly to catch my breath but often because there were cars going both ways. Once over the top at 3,850ft, there is a gradual descent and a country store where I bought a well deserved ice cream cone, and chatted with one of the locals.

Steep climb off the interstate corridor, but it's much quieter here

That's the McDonald's down below

One twisty road up to the summit

Almost at the top, that truck ahead is on quite an angle

Goodbye San Bernardino Mountains, hello high desert

By the time I descended down into Victorville I was hungry again. It was 5 pm when I finished eating, and my ambitious plan for the day was to get to Barstow if I was to hit the right frequency of towns in crossing the Mojave desert, so I pushed on. I was ready to consider calling it a day when I stopped for a Gatorade in Helendale at 6:30. My legs must have gotten pumped up from the climb because when I expressed my doubts of making it to Barstow to the cashier, she said "It's 20 miles, your legs are huge, you'll make it." My ego would like to believe that, but I put more credit to the steady downhill terrain and the good tailwind that I made it to Barstow before 8.

I found a cheerful $35 motel where the guy gladly held the door for me to let my bike in the room. Not far down is an all-night Mexican food shack and I ate another meal!

A 150 km day with a lot of climbing.