DART: Team Bike Path

DART-Bike Path route

I wanted a DART route on dirt. Made up a route entitled: Rock & Road DART. 1/2 dirt and 1/2 road. Just right. Posted it up and had 2 randos interested. Dave Horwitt & Keith Olsen. Neither had bikes for the route(in my opinion of pre-riding the trails). Scratch that idea. Like last years Dirt 4 DART route, another scratch! Bummer.

OK, made up a benign route entitled "Bike Path". How nice. It's John's Mestemachers "Bike Path X Two" permanent route with the added Torry Pines to downtown section added. 75 miles in 8 hours.

Keith Olsen, Jeff Clark, George Freeman from Michigan and Dave Horwitt showed up at the Oceanside Pier for the 8:00 AM start. We hit the SLR Bike Path hard, with George after some personal record. The on to the Bonsall Control at the McDonalds-AM/PM. Chatted with a few North County Cycle Club members there. Off to Camino Del Rey and up the Champagne climb. Keith lagged back with his commuter bike, geared with 52/42 crank and road cluster in the rear!

Cruising through Escondido and on to catch some dirt at the Mule Hill Trailhead. Stopped at the Chevron for a long refill and trail checkout. There had a mountain bike event at the trainhead. Busy place! Across the new bike bridge over Lake Hodges and on through Rancho Bernardo. Nice cycling here. A few more trail overlook stops along Camino del Sur, before a Jeff refuel at the 56 Bike Path entrance AM/PM. Camped out there for a while and chatted with local riders. Had 2 hours to spare, so cruised the SR-56 Bike Path to the last Control in Carmel Valley. There we waited around for 1 hour. Dave and Keith got into a discussion on the Rando waiver and awards. Jeff Clark called his wife for pick-up. He was a little tired after a no sleep night. After getting receipts, we rolled at 4:00.

Climbed up inner Torry Pines. Keith didn't have the gears for an efficient climb. I paced him up. After Rose Canyon Bike Path, we took the Rose Creek Bike Path and then around Mission Bay on the Bike/Ped marked path. A little crowded there, but we had lots of time anyway. Dave led us around through Old Towne toward downtown. I opted for a SD Bay cruise ride and we checked out a monster yacht . Dave filled us in on the Russian owner details. We rolled into the Santa Fe Station at 4:00. Greg Olmstead was sitting there alone waiting for us. Guess we were the only team to ride. Quite sad.

Looks like we all had a nice time. Keith rode over to his home on Point Loma, Dave rode up the hill to his house. George and I took the Coaster Train back to O'side. For $2.75, we had a nice enjoyable trip back.

-randorides