inglorious wanderer

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 ...