San Diego Bay

February 2, 2024

The weather looks to be windy but warm and otherwise fine all day, so I plan an early start for my loop of San Diego Bay. Around 9 though Rachael observes that it’s in fact pouring out; and a quick glance at the overflowing downspout out the window confirms it. So I settle in, watch the updated weather forecast and the real weather outside; and an hour or so later when both look encouraging I head out the door.

Rachael’s gone not long after, following a route through Balboa Park and an adjacent neighborhood that I sketched out for her, embellished by a detour into downtown to mail back to Tucson the parking permit we skipped town with. She thoroughly enjoyed her walk, a nine miler that’s really not far off what she’d normally do with a day on foot. Her recovery from her tooth extraction is obviously going quite well.

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Biking through downtown I wonder if I should have waited another half hour as I skirt around large puddles in the road that haven’t drained down yet. It doesn’t last long though, and for the next mile I skirt the waterfront, pushing my bike through the pedestrian-only Embarcadero and making a quick circuit of the bay park.

I might be starting out a few minutes too early.

The view south to the Coronado Bridge and San Diego Bay.

The Bayshore Bikeway, a 24 mile loop closed at the north end by the ferry from Coronado to San Diego, is probably San Diego’s signature road bike route. Today is my fourth time on it, twice with Rachael and twice without (a couple of years ago I also rode it alone because she was ill). That makes it sound like it must be a better ride than it is, but in fact it has some negatives. The main thing is the first nine miles (if you’re riding clockwise as I am today), south of San Diego through National City and Chula Vista, miles that are on-road through a developed and largely industrial stretch. There’s a nice break with a bike path where the Sweetwater River runs into the bay, where I detour up the river for a mile and pick up a few bird shots.

Marbled godwits. We’ll see many of these today.

Nice to get a good shot of a bufflehead that shows its colors. They’re a frustrating subject, usually diving as soon as you’ve located them with the camera.

South of Chula Vista we finally come to the South Bay Salt Works, a salt factory that’s been in operation for over 150 years and which in its early years was the sole salt supplier for Southern California. Scenically it’s probably my favorite spot on the loop, a place that I always look forward to seeing again.

The South Bay Salt Works has been in operation since at least 1871, originally under the name La Punta Salt Works.

Looking across the salt lagoons toward Coronado.

Another look back at the old salt factory.

Just past the salt works we come to the end of the bay, and the start of a dedicated bike path that carries us for the next fifteen miles, ending in Coronado at the ferry back to San Diego. Really, a better ride idea here would be to take the ferry from San Diego to Coronado and bike to the salt factory as an out and back.

The south end of the bay is protected as a migratory bird refuge, and it’s an excellent birding spot. I only come away today with seven new species for the year, but that’s largely because many of the birds I see today were also seen yesterday.

A solid band of birds lines this stretch of the channel.

They’re nearly all godwits and and willets.

#113: Royal tern. I wish these birds had been closer in, but maybe I’ll get another chance somewhere down the road.

#114: Sanderling - it’s the one larger bird toward the back, surrounded by western sandpipers.

I make it to Coronado sometime after three. I started the ride with the idea that I’d have a late lunch here and catch the ferry afterwards, but I’m arriving late enough that it feels smarter to catch the ferry now and grab dinner somewhere on the other side. I don’t want to take a chance on arriving home after dark again. I’m really lucky in timing when I pull up at the ferry dock - I hand over a twenty and roll the bike on the boat while the agent goes above to make change for the $8 fare, and am startled once I board to turn around and see that the second agent had followed me down and is pulling up the plank.

Back in the city, I bike a few blocks north to Little Italy and stop at Allegro, the first restaurant I come to that looks appealing to me. And I’m lucky there too - they open at four, and it’s 4:02. I’m their first customer of the evening. They set me up at an outdoor table under a heater where I can keep watch over my bike locked up close by, and enjoy an excellent salad and pasta, feeling sorry that Rachael isn’t quite ready to join me for a real meal yet. Tomorrow, she thinks.

Looking across to the city from Coronado.

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Today's ride: 29 miles (47 km)
Total: 1,546 miles (2,488 km)

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