Jackie Price Dunn Memorial Ride & Fund

We have had a few cycling deaths here in San Diego this year, but the passing of Jackie Price Dunn after a freak crash during a Velodrome race this past Tuesday hit the cycling community hard because of its circumstances. I think we all know in some level that every time we put on the helmet and roll our bike out into the city traffic there is a chance that we will end up dead or injured from colliding with a car. The velodrome, however, is a car-free environment with smooth surface to ride on... Even when in high speed races you don't expect much more than bruises and road rashes to result from a crash. Jackie went down hard and hit her head. The helmet survived but her brain didn't. I wasn't there and don't know how it really happened, but I doubt if it would have made any sense to me if I were... Sometimes you can do everything right and still end up with a catastrophe.

San Diego Velodrome

Anyhow, this Saturday (June 22nd) morning Jackie's friends and fellow local cyclists are getting together at 8am to ride one of her favorite cycling routes, the Bayshore Bikeway & Sweetwater Bikeway from Tidelands Park on Coronado to Plaza Bonita and back, in her memory. Everyone is invited and more details can be found at this Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/212819032199962/

A fund has also been established to help her family pay for her medical & funeral cost: http://www.gofundme.com/3brxtw

Added on 29 June:
Another memorial ride & fund-raiser in her honor is scheduled for July 4th. The bike ride starts/finishes at Moonlight State Beach in Encinitas at 7:45am. Two routes offered, with mutual rest stop at Double Peak. There is a fund-raising dinner (for Jackie's favorite charities) afterward at Union Kitchen & Tap in Encinitas from 11am - 2:30pm. More info at the event's facebook page.

Things You See When Riding Slowly Through The Great Western Loop

Some cyclists ride fast for the adrenaline rush or for challenging exercise or for Strava placing. I ride leisurely for the view... And here are some views you might miss if you speed around the scenic Great Western Loop as if being tail-gated by a homicidal oil tanker:

Yup, real life peacocks... Quite domesticated and watched over by a pair of cute goats.

There are some bike lovers living up in the mountains!

Rock, we do!

And we smile our way up the hill, too!

You've passed it a zillion time, but have you actually visited Loveland Reservoir?

The Japatul punishment is nearly over when you see this...

Oink if you approve!

Barrett Lake & Valley... you miss it going CCW because the view is behind you, you miss it going CW because you're busy enjoying the curvy & fast downhill.

Embrace the view!

Well, okay, a bit of off-route exploration required to find this place. But why keep doing the same route as if it's a rut. Explore a little!

It's almost a crime punishable by multiple tire punctures to roll on thru Lyons Valley without stopping to check in with Black Jack across from the trading post!

Above all, though, be nice to every GWL denizen 'cause you're always being watched like a hawk!