The Santa Ana Winds are here.  And they are powerful.

The night is a swirl of gusts and flapping fabric.  The X-Mid holds secure - success born of its design and our campsite choice.  But the winds just continue to grow throughout the night.  I shove earplugs in deep to drown the sound of gusts whipping.  The heat of the desert dies in the night; it's replaced by a chill from wind and storm front.  I awake to use the restroom several times and tighten all guylines each time.  But I sleep, and so does Janna.  My eyes are already open when my alarm sounds at 5:30 am.  The two of us decided to wake up extra early for several reasons: (a) today is the crux of the route with The Willows, (b) today will also hold the most elevation gain per our plan, (c) the Santa Ana Winds will be at their worst for us, and (d) the latest weather report warns of a significant winter storm brewing over the San Jacintos threatening several inches of snow and whiteout conditions.  The Santa Ana Winds alone are against our favor - literally predicted to be blowing all day in exactly the opposite direction we are moving.  We mentally brace ourselves for 25-40 mph headwinds with 50+ mph gusts.  I ponder our fate after our alarm goes off.  It's nearly night still, the break of dawn just barely here.

I lay in bed comfortably most of the night, torn between equal parts excitement to show the wild beauty of Fish Creek to Janna tomorrow, and a feeling of dread and doubt about the Santa Ana winds we read about the day before.  Today will be the beginning of the winds, building slowly, surely, and then crescendoing over the next few days when we plan to climb to Idyllwild with wind forecasts building from 20 mph, to 40 mph, to nearly 80 mph in gusts.  I sleep soundly but awaken mid-night to the rustle of fabric as gusts start in.  Janna and I wake up early, pre-dawn in the cold blur of blue night and yellow dawn, to pack.  There's a lot of sand on the menu today which could slow us dramatically, in addition to the big miles we plan.  I also want to get as far as possible up Coyote Canyon to dispersed camp as I know tomorrow is the true crux of the route.

​The night was expectedly cold and well below freezing.  Morning revealed a coating of thick frost over bikes and shelter.  We packed up and enjoyed the well-heated bathrooms before pushing off down the road to enter Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.  Janna and I joined some singletrack paralleling the road as the sun hit the peaks warming everything.  We turned right on East Mesa Fire Road to begin an ascent next to Descanso Creek towards the Cleveland National Forest.  The hillsides were sage and olive green with dense groves of live oak and manzanita sprawling across them all.  I felt alive and refreshed being out in the backcountry on a spring day in southern California.  The dirt road wrapped and wound under hanging eaves of branches and into open spreads of open chaparral before finally gaining the ridgeline next to Oakzanita Peak.  Here, the terrain softened into beautiful doubletrack that sped across the highland.  Jeffrey Pines grew singularly on high along the route.

​Two years ago I made an initial attempt to ride the Stagecoach 400 in 2022 as a solo bikepacking trip.  I made it five days in but abandoned the desert due to temperatures well over 100 degrees; after living and biking for years in triple digit heat, I didn't have the desire to experience Anza-Borrego under those temps.  Instead, I twisted the route into a spiral and made my own tract around the San Diego area.  But, the beauty and diversity of the route hung heavily in my mind.  All I wanted to do was show Janna how incredible of a route it was.  Mountains, Deserts, Ocean.  Truly, a spectacular tour of SoCal spread.  We thought about doing it last year over Spring Break, but the blizzard conditions that hit the route that year made it unpalatable.  So Spring Break came this year.  The temperatures warmed up enough to beat back the worst of winter on high but abate the onset of summer heat down low.  Perfect.  I planned out the route deciding to start the ride in San Diego which afforded easier opportunities to park the car as well as a push to get the desert done first before it had any more chance to heat up.  That, and we loved Idyllwild as the optimal trail town to take a zero-day in during a mid-route rest day.  Janna agreed.  After a rough and tough end to quarter 3 of the school year, we were hankering for some backcountry adventure to shake the hold that work had on both of our constant waking thoughts.  The Stagecoach 400 ended up delivering on everything.  

​I made plans with my Aunt Martha to bike to their place in Escondido tonight to stay with them before I made my way back to Idyllwild to pick up my bike.  I bid Vineyard Hacienda adieu and started pedaling through neighborhoods that whisked me northwest back towards the ocean.  Komoot did a fantastic job taking on a weaving bike-friendly path down lesser-used roads and bike multi-use paths through the outskirts of downtown San Diego right back to Torrey Pines and the Pacific Coast Highway.  Once I reached the ocean, I laid out on the beach and enjoyed the perfects temps and sun with my bikepacking rig laying in the sand.

After my late night arrival, and looking at my schedule, I realized I had some flexibility with riding moving forward.  First off, a significant heat wave was due to hit the entire SoCal area over the next few days.  Looking ahead to Anza-Borrego, it was obvious that most of the daily highs were going to be well over 100 degrees - especially in the washes and canyons.  After last summer's theme of heat domes and exclusive night riding on the Sierra Cascades route, I wasn't feeling it to ride through those temperatures.  So, I made the decision to come back and ride all those desert sections this winter when temps would be more amenable (see Fully Anza-Borrego).  I would modify the Stagecoach 400 route to ride the area and enjoy the San Diego area. 

​After two big days, I sleep in a bit more before disembarking and biking to one of Janna's and mine's favorite breakfast places along the Pacific Coast Highway --> Pannikin Coffee and Tea.  After a warm breakfast there, I continued south along the Stagecoach 400 which is pretty much the paved PCH route for much of the day.  I stop along the ocean many times to take in the literally perfect conditions with sun-kiss and wavefront before arriving at Torrey Pines State Reserve.  I've biked up and through Torrey Pines many times before - notably during our 2015 PCH bike tour.  This morning, I sit and enjoy the beach and ocean at the bottom of the climb before pushing up and up the steep grade to summit on sea cliffs and endemic Torrey Pine fields overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean.

​I slept hard and woke up to a massive tom turkey gobbling loudly outside my shelter.  I arose into the very cold air and walked to the front of the resort for a warm breakfast at the restaurant.  Well fed and feeling warm, I pushed out and up and immediate gigantic paved hill.  I spent the next hour of so along the shoulder of the highway climbing up and up until a sudden right on unpaved gravel took me through a spell of live oak and green-grass fields.  This was Black Canyon Road - an absolutely stunning ride through the heart of the Black Mountain.  

​After winter's cold had sat on my bones for months, I ached for some desert heat and escape.  Spring Break 2022 was fast approaching, and I had yet to finalize plans.  I started pouring over Bikepacking.com maps and realized the Stagecoach 400 would be perfect.  The nearly 400 mile route spans an array of biomes in southwester California.  It begins in Idyllwild high up in the San Jacinto Mountains above Palm Springs before tumbling down to San Diego, rides along the coast, turns inland to cross Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and then climbs back up to Idyllwild, CA.  A trip through deserts, along the Pacific Coast, and up mountains was exactly what I wanted.  More-so, I was somewhat familiar with the locale due to our Sierra Cascades Bike Tour the previous summer - I was looking forward to seeing some of these places again.  The organizers of the Stagecoach 400 had made a deal with the Idyllwild Inn to let bikepackers stay for a discount at their smallest cabin.  I put in reservations and looked forward to Spring Break.