50 miles

 

To the end of Honey Springs Road

Don and I ride twelve miles from my home in EastLake, in eastern Chula Vista, to Highway 94, a fairly flat ride. Then it's eight grueling vertical miles to the intersection of Honey Springs Road and Lyons Valley Road. One suffers seriously but ends up at a substantial altitude.

Sadly the southern half of my ride was almost completely burned during the Otay fire of 2003. Then worse, it burned again in the even more devastating Harris fire of 2007. I'm not complaining, as both fires narrowly spared my house in EastLake. But it is heartbreaking now to see the gutted homes, the devastated landscape.

 

 

Skyline Truck Trail through Jamul, down to college

We ride fourteen more miles, the first few still climbing over the mountain, then a gorgeous ride featuring spectacular views in every direction, of the East County mountains as far as Mt Laguna and of San Diego Bay to the west. Rocketing down Skyline Truck Trail, we fly through Jamul and down Highway 94 to Cuyamaca College in southeastern El Cajon. Don smokes his congratulatory cigar. I drink an Elephant.

 

 

Cuyamaca College back to EastLake

An eight-mile ride takes us from college through La Presa. Then we head along the bikepath through the Sweetwater Dam gorge and eight more miles through Bonita, up daunting Corral Canyon Road, and home to EastLake.