• Date: February 19, 2023

• 37.70 Miles

• Fish Creek Canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to Borrego Springs, CA

That night sickness came bubbling up in me all the way.  Mucus chocked back my nose and throat exasperated by the dust kicked up by tricked out jeeps careening by our campsite, griding dirt.  I woke up in the middle of the night shivering and hot.  I took Dayquil at daybreak, which knocked the symptoms down some.  Time to finish.

We eat slowly under a very sunny and warm morning before kicking out and jumping on dirt come pavement.  Dan and I glide slightly downhill towards a bend in the pavement leading to Ocotillo Wells.  Instead, we gear straight and jump on something like 10 miles of uphill deep sand - the deepest of the trip.  But the glory of the desert is full so I'm loving it.  Ocotillo, deposited river stone, chunky mountain rocks, sand in all its layers, and ample beavertail prickly pear line the route.  We push one as a few doom buggies come and go.  The sand ends and the side of a VERY busy highway starts.  Luckily, it's short, and we push off into the desert dirt once more.  The route is doubletrack light and flowy over small hills as we make our way down to the shoulder-lovely highway leading to Borrego Springs.

The day feels honestly hot (I'll be later amazed that it only was 68 F), so I'm absorbing it while simultaneously coughing phlegm and buckling throat.  We ride up the highway and hit one of the famous parts of the route - the desert-oxidized statues of Borrego Springs.  From steel elephants, velocitators, allosaurus, and a giant hawk catching a javelina, we stop and take into the glorious art sprung out of thornscrub.  It was truly so cool.  

And then we hit the city center, do a lap around the roundabout of Christmas Circle, and head north to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Visitor Center once more where we meet up with Janna, Kate, and the dogs.  It was a glorious trip through a desertscape I let seep into me; there will be more riding here in the future for sure.