Around the Bay

Today I met my friend Jim on the Coronado ferry, and we set out on a trip around San Diego Bay. Jim does this ride every Tuesday morning, and has arranged a few extra loops so it is exactly 30.00 miles. He's mixed urban, industrial, remote, and 4-lane highway - with much of the route on bike paths.

We headed south out of downtown through the convention center, marinas, industrial area, shipyards, Naval Bases, etc. I saw the Adventure Hornblower - the boat I've been going out whale watching in. But she was not in the bay, she was in a dry dock getting some maintenance work done.

We eventually ended up by the Salt Works. The white mountain below is freshly evaporated sea salt.

Eventually we reached the bottom of the bay, turned west, and began our slog up the coast. Only it wasn't a slog - we had a tailwind. This is very rare indeed - in fact, it might be the first time in 35 years of riding up this route that I haven't had to fight the wind.

You can see how exposed it is to the coastal winds - this flat strip called the Silver Strand. It connects Coronado and North Island to the mainland. It's normally about 5-6 miles of grueling, head-down grinding along in a gale.

Here's a view of the Coronado Bridge, with my (loaner) Holland bike resting against a happily-blooming Pride of Madeira (Echium Candicams).

Elapsed time for 30-mile ride, including ferry transportation to the mainland was three hours. A gray day, as you can see here.

I didn't forget the car of the day. In this case it was a red Ford Falcon Convertible, not a Mustang. It was parked in Coronado next to my car - I didn't even have to hunt for it.

After the ride I had to take the bike back. I might miss it - or I might not. After all, if I had my own... Stay tuned for more adventures.