inglorious wanderer

The bike trail is more than 7.3 miles past College Boulevard. There's probably 3 quarters  of a mile more past the 7.3 mile marker to the east end of trail at Andrew Jackson Street.  From Neptune Way, the west end of trail to the east end which my locator marks as Guajome, Prius Iscariot and I did between 15 and 16 miles. Not bad for a solidarity ride for Native Americans who  don't actually find Thanksgiving Day a reason to celebrate, historically.  San Luis Rey was not some friars  as I thought he was. The Mission San Luis Rey was actually named after Saint Louis IX, king of France in the 13th century.  The people who inhabited the area for hundreds of years were referred to by the mission friars as Luiseño Indians. The river that the natives lived on became the San Luis Rey River. The bike trail traverses with State Route 76 from just past  the I-5 bridge that overpasses the San Luis Rey River. The bike trail sits atop a concrete dike  tha...

I just did two laps on the 5-mile loop and now hanging out on the picnic grounds waiting to see what happens after the San Diego Fire Rescue crew opens a truck with a crew bar.  "Good job guys!" The boss commends his crew. Nothing explodes and the fire rescue truck just drove away.  I am not bored nor disappointed that I didn't get to witness anything. Life goes on at Scripps Ranch where residents put up a show of protests and petitions in community meetings  to make their zip code associated with upscale real estate value. Even if I drive Prius Iscariot for almost 2 miles to do routine laps on the 5 mile concrete trail, I consider the recreational loop my home turf. The ride was not easy for this self-taught adult rider at first but the sharp curves, about 5 of them became a routine.   

Flower table is my translation   of Mira Mesa. The northwestern part of San Diego is however not that elevated.  MiraMesa is more of a flat terrain than a plateau. At least not in the center where many Asian business establishments are located. Mira Mesa is also where the Filipino and Vietnamese ethnic communities live.  This is where many Vietnamese doctors and other top earning Vietnamese professionals like pharmacists started when their families were FOBs. They have since left the area for fancier neighborhoods. Mira Mesa is more of empty nests for former Vietnamese refugees now. But for Filipino immigrants, Mira Mesa is more like Manila in terms of high occupancy households.  I did a short ride on the bike lane along Black Mountain Rd and it actually felt more comfortable pumping my pedals on an asphalted surface. I guess this is where I would train myself to be more comfortable before I would get myself a self-assembled road bike from Amazon on Cyber Monday...

Fashion Valley is known for the Fashion Valley Mall by the San Diego River. South of the mall past the Fashion Valley transit center is the San Diego Union Tribune building where RN used to work before he joined the New York Times.  West of the Fashion Valley mall is the Riverwalk Golf course which is accessed through a driveway that is not prohibited to wandering bicycle riders.  Along the area are portions of the San Diego River Park System, an on-going project that includes the construction of a 52-mile San Diego River Trail and bike path from the boundary of the San Diego River watershed  by the mountains near Julian to the lower bowels of the river in Ocean Beach. 

RN took the photo of Gail's house in 2005. Gail's residence at Bearswamp Road near the River Styx until her succumb to cancer late last month was built before the American Civil War. RN is Gail's uncle, Gary. The photo was taken from the back of the house. The photos was  taken from the front of the house over the weekend when RN flew to Ohio to get together for Gail. Gail who was an equestrian was also an atheist. When I met her in 2005, I remember her saying that when she dies, she wished she could just ride her horse into the woods and decomposed into the earth. I thought Gail was more spiritual than anyone I've met. Gail's pre-civil war residence is part of a 237 acre property which includes a barn and the very first nature trail I hiked at long before I started meeting up with fellow once normal college students to hike peaks and parks or join meet-up groups to bag buttes and summits and even to explore talus caves.  Gail's woods which was recently referred...

In his article about  Red Routes in San Diego at  efgh.com, my hiking maestro Magellan, Philip Erdelsky noted that the Tidelands Bike Path  in Coronado is an important link to the Silver Strand Bikeway, the 24-mile long bike path  I initially explored three days ago. Turning right into Glorietta Boulevard first thing as soon as I got off Coronado Bridge, I found the Tidelands Park already teeming with leisurely riders, some on rented bicycles. The Tidelands Park  bike path which is 1.66 mile long according to My hiking Maestro  starts by the Coronado Municipal Golf Course.  The bike path goes under the iconic San Diego-Coronado Bridge. Photographed from the Tidelands Park bike path, this iconic steel overpass reinforced by posts or girders burrowed a hundred feet into the bay bed seems to be more of the "suicide bridge" it has become. According to Leaky Wiki, the Coronado Bridge is the third deadliest bridge in the US, trailing behind another iconic br...

Ken Kugel has metioned to me about the Silver Strand Bikeway while we talked about mountain bikes at the Ramona Grasslands.  He gave me a tip or two about riding Prius Iscariot, my hybrid that I call a traitor to Toyota after I used its hybrid's name in vain. I love riding dirt trails and as Ken advised, I have been pumping my tires less. Ken explained that mountain bike tires which are wider than those of road bikes have more traction if they have less air. Using Philip Erdelsky's article about red routes in San Diego, I had to look for the names of the streets  instead of figuring out locating Thomas 1330 A5 N32 35 260 W 117 05 560  on the map. Philip Erdelsky is my Maestro Magellan after he lectured about Greenwich time and latitude or longitudes  while we explored some trails near Crestridge Ecological Reserve Trails in the East County  about three years ago.  The Silver Strand Bikeway would be the longest bike route I have ridden on  in San Diego....

Well, you done done me and you bet I felt it/ I tried to be chill but you're so hot that I melted/ I felt right through the cracks, now I'm trying to get back before the cool done run out I'll be giving it my bestest and nothin's gonna stop me but divine intervention/ I reckon it's again my turn to win or learn some/  I found another hiking theme song for my  wordpress Yosemite blog and what a coincidence, it's by Jason Mraz. I still think it was Jason Mraz who came to  Hema's hike to Lawson Peak more than a year ago. After that hike, I ordered a pair of Teva sandals at Amazon because Jason was wearing a pair. It was not only the sandals that Jason wore that struck me, it was how he helped everyone especially the women get off the Chimney Rock to go back down to trail head. "It's okay, use my shoulder as a step ladder." But I won't hesitate no more, no more, it cannot wait I'm yours Well open up your mind and see like me/ open up your p...

At Sweetwater Campground in Groveland, I learned to set up a real tent, not the pop-up kind, from Djeline. Now I know that a tent is framed with perpendicular collapsible rods, not parallel ones. I woke up disoriented inside my one-person tent resolving that the next camping would be perfect, I would secure my tent on the ground with stakes and get myself a foam mat to sleep on. No more "I slept on banig all my life" talk.  I got up before everyone did hoping to see a bear lurking from afar. Jill Richards posted several bear photos from her series of Yosemite hikes last summer so I knew they are somewhere close.Aren't those bear caches standard fixtures in the campground because of them?  The latrines lids in the outback should be down to keep odors where they should be.  Even the latrines, the kasilyas of my childhood, are blog-worthy. The sign on the door also reminds me of Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits . "Shhhh...be vewy vewy quiet!" The next camping trip would ...

Weeks before RN and I rode our sleeper car roommette to Klamath Falls, I texted Lou if she knew about covered bridges near Medford. She suggested that I check out Jackson County after she Googled about covered bridges close to her home in Medford. Covered bridges are relics of the past. I don't know why I became fascinated with  covered bridges the first time I saw a photo of one on Susan Gundran's Facebook. Susan is based in New Jersey and she must have been visiting an Amish showcase village in Philadelphia with her family.  Just like the photo of a covered bridge on Susan's facebook, the Antelope Creek Bridge that was built in 1922 is brimming with history.  The bridge makes me think of Amish people and their horses and buggies. The bridges strike as European in influence. The covered bridge is right on Main Street of Eagle Point, Oregon.  Seeing one covered bridge in a day would have been enough. Driving on Oregon state route 140 however, I spotted a sign that po...

The short movie about Crater Lake  that included reactions of first time visitors was sort  of a spoiler to me. "Breathtaking!"  "Amazing!" "Awesome!" "Wow!" Every exclamation has been taken so my best option for a reaction as a first time visitor could only be an ejaculation:  "Holy mother of God!" "Oh Virgin untouched!" "Virgin most pure!" "Glorious Holy Shit!" Crater Lake is indeed spectacular and breathtaking. Never have I seen so much water in a couldron before. The depression that contains all the water that California residents are so thirsty of comes from an average of 44 feet of snow each year. The caldera was formed 7,700 years ago when Mount Mazama blew his top and had a meltdown.  The Klamath Tribe of Native Ameicans who lived in the area described the eruption of Mount Mazama in one of their legends. The legend seems to be the basis for naming  Llao Rock or Skell Channel and coincides with geol...

Louie welcomes everyone to Big Bear Lake, CA. To the Serrano Band of Native Americans who were  the first inhabitants of Yahaviat or Pine Place until it became Big Bear Valley, a grizzly bear like Louie was thought of as their great grandfather.  For those who consider driving a sport, the drive to the Big Bear Valley  which takes more than two hours  from San Diego becomes a thrill past Highway 330 at Highland into the San Bernardino National Forest. Slow drivers are urged to  use turn outs else  a motorcade starts and ends four miles after into passing lanes. Some turn outs  are overlooks or  rest areas where one can discreetly take a leak.  Highway 18 is not only sport for drivers, it is also a sport for road bicycle riders pushing themselves uphill at 7,000 feet elevation.  Big Bear Lake is more like Lake Tahoe to me, a much smaller version since it is man made. The lake was created after a dam was built on 1883, almost forty ears af...