Apple Pie
Today we are taking a mini roadtrip to Julian. Julian is a small alpine village set up in the Volcan Mountains, just southwest of the Pinyon Ridge where the Anza-Borrego Desert lives. It’s north of the Laguna Mountains which were the famous barrier to the railroad access to San Diego from the east. One of the things I like most about this area is the vast diversity of geography that exists and Julian represents one of these extremes. You generally don’t think alpine when you think Southern California.
There are 1,768 residents of Julian as of the last census. It is both an historical district of San Diego County and a designated Dark Sky Community. While Julian was first “discovered” in 1850, it didn’t get settled until after the Civil War in 1869 when two families, the Bailey’s and the Julians moved into the area. Supposedly, it was Drury Bailey who named the town Julian since he said that Mike Julian was better looking than any Bailey. Julian had been a Confederate soldier who had gone west after the war. He finally stopped when he got to these hills at the base of the Volcans. The town grew due to the discovery of gold in them thar hills and the town sprang up around the mining claims. Strangely enough (given Mike Julian’s Confederate roots) the pool, it was Fred Coleman, a former slave, who first discovered the gold and established the Coleman Mining District which had its first big find in 1870. A gold rush ensued with an influx of people, one of whom, James Madison, brought a load of apple trees in and planted what was to become the main cash crop of the area.
What gold did not bring to the area, apples did. By 1873, Julian was a more thriving community than San Diego and was even in contention to take away the title as county seat. Interestingly enough, Julian was also the center for the African American community of San Diego, boasting almost 60% of the Black population, who serviced the mining and apple-growing communities.
Julian has had a conflicted relationship with water over the years. It’s development has been severely curtailed several times over the years by the abject lack of available water for all manner of growth. Its wells have run dry during periods of drought and during rainy spells its runoff has caused pollution issue for the San Diego River. The Cedar Fire of 2003 that devastated much of San Diego County just narrowly missed the main town of Julian, which is made up of mostly old Victorian wooden structures that date from before 1913. These days the town has two primary businesses, it is a tourist hub for San Diego area residents and it continues to produce apples that are mostly put into pies by one of the several pie companies; The Julian Pie Company, Mom’s Pies and The California Mountain Bakery.
Julian is one of two day-trip destinations for us if we are heading towards the east. The other is Borrego Springs, which is a stark contrast to Julian in that it is a desert town plain and simple. There is actually a loop which we take either by car or me on my motorcycle that takes us out through Ranchita to Borrego Springs and then back on Rt. 78 through Julian. Borrego Springs never seems to be too crowded and street parking is always very easy. Julian, by contrast, seems always to be too crowded to find a decent parking spot on the street and there are people crawling all over the sidewalks. The stores are always packed and the pie vendors are usually working overtime to shovel out the pies. My pal Mike tells me that Julian pies are a ripoff and that better pies can be had at Costco. He’s probably right, but then Mike never had much use for quaint Victorian western scenery either.
The area surrounding Julian is also pleasant, with Santa Ysabel being a spot where we often stop for lunch at one of several nice restaurants. There is an area just south of Julian called Pine Hills where a whole raft of expensive vacation homes have been built for the wealthy of LaJolla and Del Mar to keep a little place in the woods for themselves. If you go further south you get back into the real Southern California of Guyamaca and Descanso which are lonely wide spots in the road with names that reference their sleepiness. Speaking of sleepy, I am sitting in the car at the main intersection of Julian while Kim and Lennie traipse around the little town doing Lord knows what. I’ve been to Julian so many times that I practically know what’s in each store without walking in. That doesn’t mean I don’t like coming to Julian, it just means that I don’t need to walk around and go shopping every time.
Today Kim bought a caramel apple crumble pie, but not in Julian, from the Julian Pie Company down the hill in Santa Ysabel. She went in and bought it after we had lunch at Farmhouse 78 Restaurant. I also made sure that she bought me some of those wonderful pie crust cookies that I enjoy so much. The ride home by way of Lake Henshaw and Palomar Mountain is very familiar to me. It’s one of my regular motorcycle runs and I feel I know the road like the back of my hand. On the way home, we must’ve passed 100 motorcycles coming in the opposite direction. These roads are motorcycle heaven, which is, as I explained to Lennie, one of the selling features for buying our retirement home in this area. Even though I’m not riding my motorcycle today every curve I go around I think about leaning into it as though on the motorcycle and that makes for a fun ride whether I’m on a motorcycle or in a car. I’ve been riding these roads for about 12 years now, so I think I can righteously say that these roads are like home to me and nothing says home like apple pie.