New Route

Christine and I went hiking a couple of days ago at Mission Trails Regional Park here in San Diego. Along the way, I noted that there is a brand spanking new separated biking lane along Highway 52. The bike lane is separated from the highway by a continuous length of concrete dividers and the path looked recently paved. I've been trying to find a East/West route in this neck of the woods for a while since it is very near where I work. Today, I decided to have a little adventure to check it out.

I geared up and left my apartment. It was a nice sunny day but there was still a little chill so I took my arm warmers and wore a base layer beneath my jersey. I took the normal route towards my workplace down into Mission Valley at Fairmount Ave to cross under the Interstate 8 and made my way along the Qualcomm Stadium bike path before climbing out of Mission Valley on Ruffin Road to Kearny Villa Road. There is a entrance to Highway 52 on Kearny Villa so I made my way to it. Lo and behold there was a sign that said, no bikes or pedestrians allowed. Hmmm. The bike path entrance must be futher east. Did a bit of backtracking to Clairmont Mesa Blvd and headed east to Santo Road where there is another entrance to the 52. Along the way, I meet a really nice guy, Dave who is also out for a Sunday ride on his Lemond bicycle, just like me. We chat a bit and it seems that we are going the same way so we continue on. There is in fact and entrance to the bike path off of Santo Road which we take and proceed eastward. The path is smooth and very safe although the noise of the cars whizzing by across the barrier made me flinch a couple of times. The first part of the path is about 3 miles of steading climbing followed by a mile of a really nice downhill. The bike path ends at Mast Road and the entrance to Mission Trails Park. Luckily, Dave knows the way and I follow him north and cross under the 52 one street, make the right turn and end up going southward along the eastern border of the park. Eventually we hit Mission Gorge Road which is the southern border of the park and start returning west. Following is a very steep one mile lungbuster climb. Dave breaks off and I'm riding solo again down Mission Gorge. From there it's back to Fairmount and then home. The whole ride was a nice 25 mile loop from my apartment and would probably make a good 10-mile lunchtime ride from work.

Totals were

26.06 Miles
2040 feet of climbing
Average Pace of 14.8 MPH
1905 calories burned

Here's a map