29.9 miles

 

EastLake to the bay

Usually leaving an hour or so before sunrise, I bicycle from home in EastLake, Chula Vista, westward on Olympic Parkway to Brandywine, a quarter mile east of Interstate 805 and old Chula Vista. I ride over the Brandywine hill, down to Main Street, which I follow to the bay. Then it's north on Bay Boulevard to Bayside Park and the J Street marina, time for rest, hydration, and invariably gorgeous views of the sun rising on San Diego Bay, the Silver Strand, and Coronado.

 

 

Homeward to EastLake via Sweetwater Valley

Riding through old Chula Vista, I turn north on Second Avenue toward Bonita and the rest of the journey to the east along Sweetwater Road, past Plaza Bonita and Rohr Park. A long, challenging hill returns me to EastLake on Mt Miguel Ranch Road along the steep flank of its eponymous mountain. Tired and happy, I arrive more than ready to sit in the early shade for a while in the little community park adjacent to EastLake High School, where the breeze coming off of the bay up Telegraph Canyon is a certifiably religious experience.

As an alternative, if I'm riding in the daytime, from Bayside Park I continue northward along the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge on a great bike path that crosses, then traces eastward, the Sweetwater Channel all the way to Plaza Bonita. (In the early morning darkness this is a little too isolated to ride safely, given that the route passes under several bridges, ideal spots for the would-be assailant to lie in wait.) Then I turn onto Sweetwater Road as above for the ride east.