Another beautiful day and nice ride to complete the 2006 Christmas trip. Last night we had an “awards” night where everyone had brought a T-shirt and presented these along with a brief award. Many of them were for riding partners or those who helped out in the bad weather days.

This morning a final cleanup as church services were at 9am and so we had to get out before then. We also stopped for an overall group photo. I stayed for the photo and hence one day that I was one of the last to depart instead of one of the first. After a brief trip through Fallbrook, the route descended down towards 76 and then headed out towards Oceanside and the coast. The instructions weren’t quite right, but I found my way onto the bike path and reached Oceanside at mile 20.

From Oceanside, a nice ride down along the coast – through Carlsbad, Encinita, Del Mar and other small towns. Many people out at the beach and some surfers on the coast. The bike was riding well, and I was passing some folks on the ride. At 42 miles one last climb of 500ft up Torrey Pines and along the campus of UCSD. Once again, the route was a bit tricky here, but found my way to the bike path past I-5. A mile of bike path and then onto Mission Boulevard and last few miles back to the start at 55 miles. It was only 1:30pm, and had skipped lunch so was in before most of the crowd. It was a nice finish to a trip with wonderful weather and a good cycling route.