Yet another Sunday walk on beach

May 2014

Lazy warm Sundays, they are most welcomed. Escaping inland heat, one first thinks cool wind on the coast.  Some beaches start to be pretty crowded on weekends at this time of the year already.  Parking lots are full in the afternoon, but if you go there early in the morning, you only hit for few surfers.

Though Mission Beach is certainly one of the busiest beaches in San Diego, it's a bloody good one, too. One can walk barefoot on soft and hard sand a few miles from its south point up to Tourmaline Beach, just on the edge of La Jolla.

Between these two is a Pacific Beach and its glorious pier. Surfers near the pier wait a perfect wave to come. Longboard fans seems to stay more on Tourmaline Beach. There you see classic walks on the board while gliding smoothly on surf. What's more, age and gender seem not to restrict surfing, some really stylish and cool longboard surfers.  Youngsters north side of the pier use shorter boards and make fantastic tricks with them. This time waves were tough, not giving too much excuse on them.

Spring is busy time for birds too, who live amongst humans, trying to catch their daily food and to demonstrate their best to attract becoming fiancé.

Walking some 15km on bare feet make good manipulation to your feet, highly recommended.

Few snapshots

Pacific Beach

Crystal Pier on Pacific Beach

Yoga and other exercise

One minute might feel longer than just 60 seconds

Not sure about the name of this exercise

Barefoot running, a free massage to you feet

Birdies

A proud Godwit marching on

Snowy Egrets

Used-to-be-plants

What's left from a skin of a Palm tree

Bull kelp on dry land, children's favorite

Preparing for daily surf

Determined

Concentration

Final stretching

Carry on

Feels good

Rough waters today on Pacific Ocean

Dancing on a Longboard

Sunday Hike on Iron Mountain

May 2013

San Diego is surrounded by numerous hills on east and north. Good news is that many of them are accessible and contain good trails, for horse riding, mountain biking, trail running and for hiking.

These hills are typically few hundred meters high (vertically). Further away lies higher mountains, which offer more ascending and descending for longer trips, e.g. PCT.

Iron Mountain is a pretty popular place for day hikes on weekends. Its parking lot is full of cars at 8AM.  One motivation to arrive early is heat, which may hit you on spring, summer and autumn time.

Have visited numerous hiking trails last year and usually one thing has been common in them; there's no water available in them.

On Iron Mountain, there's about 300 meters to climb vertically on 5 km's distance. Trails are in good condition. One cannot escape heat, there's no shadow any place near. So, either leave early, or pick up a cool day.

There's a nice gate welcoming you into to the trail from the parking lot. The next after the gate the trail went through a tree alley.  At first the trail is is quite wide and dead straight, until it started to ascend more and more, having twists left and right.

Once you have climbed some time, you started to see to Ramona in east. Here the trail turned almost back to west and the final zig zag to the peak of Iron Mountain started.

Once on top, there's a pretty view in every direction.  Had some snacks and enjoyed scenery.

Back down one had to share the one and only trail until at trails junction one could select alternative route back. Even further there's a loop which circled hidden within high bushes.

Managed to get some 10km on GPS.

In overall, a good place for a day hike. Next time I'll carry more water with me.

Few snapshots

Welcome!

An Alley

Straight on

Trail runners

Zig Zag

A view towards south

Strategy meeting

Wild sage

On trail

Cabrillo National Monument Centennial

December 2013

The Cabrillo National Monument had its 100th birthday this year. It was one of the first National Parks created in the US, as it was established 1913.  The Centennial celebration were postponed due to government shutdown earlier this autumn, but continued now in December.

Walked around nature paths and checked tide pools. Had an opportunity to visit inside the old Lighthouse, even at the very top on the tower.  Probably the highest point in Point Loma, there's a good view over the city of San Diego. On a clear day one could have seen snowy mountain tops in the east.

The Army had its annual celebration there, too. People were in WWII costumes, looked pretty authentic to me.

It's a nice place to visit, though quite small. Soon, gray whales arrive and it'll be one more reason to visit there again.

Photos

Welcome!

Signor Cabrillo, in honor of landing here in 1542

There's no fortune at the end, but a Navy vessel

The Old Lighthouse

The Chief of the Lighthouse

The staircase of the Old Lighthouse

Glass in the tower, stunning

Guardian of the window

Christmas has arrived

WWII airplane circling around Cabrillo

Pipe's cool

Sunday walk

CicloSDias

August 2013

Since moved from Finland to California, have learnt that cycling culture was quite different that I'd accustomed to. San Diego being called a cycling friendly city, meaning cyclists are acknowledged in streets and local roads. There are bicycle lanes all over the county. However, to me getting accustomed for a cycling since a kid, local cycling culture has still been a slight disappointment to me. Mainly, missing an ordinary cycling, bicycling to shop, cafes etc and not just enjoying it as a training exercise.

Read sometime ago about a local cycling event called CicloSDias. Inherited from LA's CicLAvia, and the mother of all these cycling events done in Bogota Columbia, San Diego active communities had decided to promote alternative commuting methods for daily life. Four near-downtown-communites among some cycling, walking and other activity groups had setup a car-free day for their streets.  One of the key streets for the event, 30th street, was also referred to the city's brewery street. Thus, there were lots of reasons to spend a lazy Sunday among other cycling enthusiasts on the CicloSDias event.

It was a good reason to get to used to neighborhoods one wouldn't necessary to see so often. To me, South Park looked really nice with tree shadowed streets, local pubs, shops and bookstores. Few local bicycle shops were fantastic, boy I did like them. Event itself was nice, too. Artists playing music, pubs offering fancy local food and drinks. Got proper espresso and italian ice cream after  long time.

Enjoyed seeing beautiful bicycles, fixies etc, you named them and there they were. However, it's really people who made atmosphere there. Happy faces cycling, walking on car-free streets.

Photos

CicloSDias on the 30th street

Bypassing

Dog's life

In the shadows

SUV

Keith Haring's been on town?

Ain't she a real beauty?

A local bicycle shop, just fantastic!

As it all started some time ago

Cinderellas wear umbrellas

A Siesta

Traffic

Shopping

As cyclists go by

A glimpse of future

SUV 2

Street Art

Purple Haze and a local Police

A Lady reviews washing machines, chaps don't ...

On a rocket speed

Oh gosh, gym equipment have found their way on to streets

Play it again, Sam