Julian smells of apples and woodsmoke, and that alone tells you it is not the Southern California of beaches and freeways. The little town sits high in the Cuyamaca Mountains of eastern San Diego County, at roughly 1,300 metres, among oaks and pines, and in winter it occasionally gets a dusting of snow that brings half of San Diego up to look at it.
It began with gold. A strike in the hills nearby around 1870 set off a short, lively rush, and the main street still has the false-fronted wooden buildings and the slightly theatrical frontier air of that time. When the gold gave out, the settlers turned to orchards, and apples became Julian's second fortune. Today the town is best known for apple pie, sold in bakeries all along Main Street, and on autumn weekends the queues for a slice and the cider stands are long. Eat the pie. It is part of the ride.
What makes Julian special for riders is where it sits. To the north, Palomar Mountain rises above the valleys, crowned by the white dome of the Palomar Observatory and its famous 200-inch telescope, and reached by the South Grade, a well-known ribbon of tight, well-surfaced switchbacks that local riders treat as a rite of passage. To the east, the Banner Grade on Highway 78 drops dramatically from the pines into the Anza-Borrego desert, losing altitude fast as the vegetation turns from oak to cactus. To the south, the Sunrise Highway climbs along the rim of the Laguna Mountains with huge views down to the desert floor.
Mind the conditions. Mountain roads here can be littered with gravel and pine needles, and deer and slow tourist traffic are common on weekends. The area was devastated by the Cedar Fire in 2003, and you can still see scarred hillsides in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, a reminder of the wildfire risk in hot, dry, windy weather. Fuel options in the mountains are few, so arrive with a reasonable tank; Ramona, about twenty-five kilometres away, is the bigger town with more choice.