Monday, December 31, 2012

Day 6, Fallbrook to San Diego

We began our last day of the trip under beautiful blue skies.  We did a group roll out from Fallbrook.


We rolled down a generally descending route on a secondary road to avoid construction on our normal route. It was a fun and scenic route as we made our way southward toward Bonsall.



At Bonsall we negotiated through some higher traffic intersections then hopped on the San Luis Rey multi-use path and followed it westward to Oceanside.


In past years we rode this trail in a tight double pace line.  This year we were a much larger group and rode in a less organized fashion. 



We finally reached the sea, and just as Ralph had told us during morning route instructions; "If you get lost, when you reach the ocean turn left".




We stopped briefly at Oceanside for photo ops.


We then mounted our two wheeled steeds for the final push..  We continued riding south toward San Diego, it was a beautiful day.





We had one last hill to climb, but the pull over Torrey Pines isn't all that bad.

I made my way up the hill and rode through La Jolla where the route moved east slightly to get on a path that paralleled I-5.  I was in my small ring as I climbed Torrey Pines and hadn't had to pedal on the back side since the top of the climb.  As I shifted into my middle ring upon entering the path the chain dropped between the small and middle ring and got jammed in.  I spent about 20 minutes getting it out, and that process involved a friendly motorist who offered the use of a very large screwdriver to use as a pry bar.

Following that little time consuming delay, I rode the length of the I-5 path, then got on the Rose Creek path. This path was very familiar to me as I used it as a commute route when I spent 6 weeks in San Diego a few years ago.


The Rose Creek path dumps us back onto the streets at Mission Bay.  That's not a bad place to be dumped!


From there it was just a few short miles to our finish at the University of San Diego.  I loaded my bike, gathered my bags, then milled around as folks pedaled in.



I had a few hours before many of us were meeting back at Tio Leo's for a little New Year's Eve/Post ride celebration.  The weather was just glorious. I drove the couple of miles back to Fiesta Island and went for a couple of laps of the flat man made island popular with local bike racers.

I checked into my nearby hotel room, got cleaned up, then joined about 60 fellow Christmas Bike Trippers for the evening at Tio Leo's.




It was a bit cooler on this trip than it has been in past years, we also got more rain, but it was still better weather than back home. It is also nice to be able to see different country and a good chance to visit with old friends, and meet new ones.

This wraps up my biking for 2012.  It is the 4th consecutive year that I've logged 10,000 miles or more in the year. I don't have any firm plans for 2013, not sure what the next 12 months will bring as far as cycling, but I'm looking forward to some bikey fun.

   ...........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today.............66..............0.............0..........0..............66 Jan..............105.............34............0..........0............139 Feb.............428............108...........0.........24...........536 March.........809..............0.............0.........22...........831 April.........1010..............0.............0...........0..........1010 May..........1000..............0............20........0............1020 June.........1500..............0.............0..........0............1500 July..........1558..............0.............0..........0............1558 Aug...........531..............0.............0...........0..............531 Sept..........730..............0.............0...........0..............730 Oct............844.............0.............0............0.............844 Nov...........835..............0.............0...........0.............835
 Dec...........848..............0............0...........0.............848  YTD.........10,195.........142............20..........46..........10,402

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