This was my ride of what I'll call my ODC "Highland" route, going up the E Grade to Palomar, then descending S Grade to get back "on route". My best estimate of elevation gain for this route is 16,700'. My Garmin died and I cobbled together data which somehow dropped the value of the elevation gain. My highest sustained heart rate was for a couple of miles when approaching Ramona, 157.6 bpm for close to 10 minutes as I continue to try and minimize the amount of time I spend with a highly elevated pulse rate. The average recorded for the day was 128 bpm. I started with Pete and TJ. TJ was faster than us and eventually went off on his own. Pete and I stuck together until Borrego Springs; he left that stop before me and never looked back, recording a very good time of 13:47. TJ missed the turn onto W Lilac and took Lilac all the way out to the CA-76 near the Pala Casino, and the road evidently turned to gravel out there somewhere; so TJ put in some unintended extra credit - LOL. Since I was no longer obligated to try and "keep up", I was free to put in my extra credit and test ride my proposed "highland" route up the E Grade up Palomar, descending back to the regular route on S Grade. I had significant fasciculation at the Borrego stop and began to cramp in various places while climbing Montezuma, so I had to back off and spin easy. I decided then that I needed to "toughen up" and ride up to Palomar. At the Lake Henshaw rest stop, some Adobos shared with me one of their favorite items, which I now heartily endorse, pickled beets. Salt and calories, and easy on my stomach! I continued to have cramps threaten on the initial parts of my climb up the E Grade, but as I continued to climb it all subsided. I never did hammer away on the end of this ride, but I was able to ride at a decent pace without any more problems. My iPhone died as well as my Garmin, so I was unable to call Pete to let him know to go on home. So, at the "smoothie" stop on Cole Grade I asked Kermit to call Anny and have her deliver word to Pete for me; Anny told Kermit that Pete had just walked in but she never told Pete, not even later on when he asked her if she had heard anything! So the poor guy waited there for like 2 hours for me... I asked why he didn't get on the bike and backtrack to find me! LOL Garmin upload after deleting distance and speed data from the file. My Garmin battery died on W Lilac, so I mapped the rest of the ride and joined it with the Garmin data after deleting the distance and speed data which was off due to my entering a wheel circumference measurement that was too large. The process somehow also dropped the temperature data. It was 57F when we started, and dropped to 46F in Rancho Santa Fe. The temperature steadily climbed as we climbed towards Santa Ysabel, getting to 86F along the way before it began to drop with the altitude as we neared Julian, where it was 79F and dropped further to 75F as we began the descent towards the desert. The Garmin registered 99F on Yaqui Pass, and the same in Borrego Springs and while climbing Montezuma Grade until we reached the upper elevations and some wind coming from the west. Descending past Ranchita, the temperatures quickly dropped to a pleasant 75F. It was 52F after sunset for me at the top of E Grade and as I began to descend to the valley below, where the temperature picked up to 61F. The temperature then began to slowly drop as I progressed across Valley Center and on Lilac/W Lilac to 52F when the Garmin gave out. I kept my arm coolers on all day and was only slightly chilled when I started my descent from Palomar. Stopped Time: 14:04 stopped below Julian (#2) 20:47 - Borrego 03:16 - Ranchita 11:30 - Lake Henshaw 06:08 - overlook 11:55 - Cole Grade (smoothy) -------- 1:07:40 subtotal ~ 10:00 estimated in Bansall ---------- 1:18 total stopped time