Here's a daily exercise regimen that several Coronadans ascribe to religiously - they don their colorful jerseys for a ride around San Diego Bay. The bayside bike route and its scenic surrounds is getting better with each year. Coronadan Dan Orr spins us a tale of one day around the bay and shows us there’s a lot on the horizon.

It's summertime, the ride is free and free-wheeling. So, grab your bike, helmet, some bottled water and gear up!

6:00 am
Up and at 'em! Gotta catch the free commuter ferry that leaves on the half hour from Coronado to San Diego. I'll be meeting David Boatwright and J.D. Dudek today. We've been doing this gig for some 20 years now: a 26-mile circuit round the bay. There are others who join us quite regularly - Larry Hoefsteder, Jeff Davis, Pat McMahon and Chad Lunt are among the hard-core set - who, like me, do this maybe three days a week.

6:15 am
We walk our bikes onto the ferry. Not too many of us on this Wednesday. Fridays are when the ferry is loaded with bikers. We say hi to our ferry boat captain and begin catching up with one another.

David is a retired attorney from Latham & Watkins, where he did mergers and acquisitions and real estate transactions. And J.D. - well, J.D. is a legend around these parts, he's Coronado's own Lance Armstrong.

Four years ago, in June 2003, J.D. found his stamina wasn't what it used to be and he couldn't do his normal sevenmile bike ride. So he went to the doctor and found out he had leukemia...and not just any leukemia, the ALL type that kids usually get with a Philadelphia chromosome thrown in. Kids can survive it, but for a guy at 46, the odds were stacked against him. He needed a bone-marrow transplant and before he could have it, he had to go through chemotherapy and radiation. During his chemo, we nearly lost him more than once due to complications from a staph infection and kidney failure. He got down to 140 pounds, went bald, had bruises all over his body, but all through it he had this great "I'm-going-to-beat-this" attitude. And during his chemo, a friend got word to Lance Armstrong about J.D.'s case, and Armstrong sends him an email that says, "You seem to be in the same shoes I was in a few years back - and they aren't cycling shoes! I just want to let you know that I am with you and I will ride in your honor, J.D., as well as all others who battle this damned disease." Then Armstrong invited him to join him in the Ride the Roses in Texas when he’s up for it. And guess what? In September of 2004 J.D. did just that. And he raised $23,000 for Armstrong's charity. Today, you'd never believe he was so sick. He's tan and fit—Coronado’s Comeback Kid.

6:30 am
The water on San Diego Bay is smooth as glass, as it usually is at this time of day, before the commercial boats and pleasure sailors start churning things up. I look up at the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge and see that it's packed with cars making the morning commute into North Island. Aah - this is a far better commute. 15 minutes across the water and my mind starts to wander...

Me? I've had my share of falls and now that I'm on the down side of 50, I know I've got to watch it...old bones! I'm proud to say it's been 18 months since my last crash, and I can sense my wife Cathy giving me the evil eye as I say that. My first crash occurred in 1999 as I was entering Tidelands Park, just finishing up the bay loop. There was my friend, Coronado Police Officer Diana Drummey, jogging south. Stupidly, I turned to wave and say hi and just as I did, the bike hit water and sand. I was really in bad shape with a broken clavicle, scapula, six broken ribs and a slightly punctured lung. I was taken by ambulance to the trauma center at UCSD.

Six months to the day after that incident, on a Wednesday night ride down the Strand, two little girls were riding their bikes on the bike path. Suddenly, they panicked and fell in my path. I crashed to avoid hitting them and broke my right clavicle. There have been other incidents - one at the corner of Jamboree and MacArthur in Newport Beach. You know, I think I better clam up now so Cathy doesn't read this. I can tell you one thing: I would never ever ride without a helmet. That's a death wish.

6:45 am
The Ferry pulls in at Broadway Pier, we disembark and we're off! Soon we're heading south past the USS Midway, tuna fishing boats, and the restaurants at Harbor Seafood Mart and Seaport Village in the distance.

6:55 am
Past the Hyatt, Marriott and San Diego Convention Center. Lots of signal lights in this vicinity, but little tourist traffic at this time of day. Traffic stays light as we pass Petco Park, head over the hill above the train and trolley tracks and approach Cesar Chavez Parkway. But once we're in the Barrio and under the Coronado Bridge, traffic begins picking up - it's a weekday.

7:10 am
We're passing NASSCO [National Steel and Shipbuilding Company] - all the employees are arriving at work here and at neighboring 32nd Street Naval Station. Now the road opens up to include a dedicated bike lane. Still you've got to pay attention in this area - the road is lousy. But, at least it's better on this side than the northbound lanes; it's one of the reasons we seldom make this trip in the reverse direction.

7:15 am
As soon as we pass the Naval Station, we veer right past the Port District maintenance yards and into the industrial warehouse district, where automobiles and lumber are unloaded from the cargo ships. We pass by the 24th Street terminal.

7:20 am
We're cruising across the Sweetwater River now via the Gordy Shields Bridge. We can all thank Supervisor Greg Cox for getting that bridge funded and built three years ago. Before that, we had to travel down Main Street in National City where there would be a number of, shall we say, "interesting personalities" hanging around. And there was this gigantic German Shepherd that used to lie in wait for us. We always tried to position ourselves so that the other guy would get the brunt of this dog’s wrath. This bridge is just for bikers; automobiles use I-5 which, of course, is off-limits to us.

7:25 am
We're now at Bay Avenue and E Street and that’s the last of the traffic signals we'll encounter today! It's a straight shot down to the salt mines. Yes, they've been mining salt in the South Bay for decades, and we pass mountains of the white stuff to prove it.

7:30 am
We turn onto a narrow dirt bike path that takes us behind Home Depot and Mervyns and deposits us onto Saturn Street. We need to keep after our Board of Supervisors to complete the bike path loop at this south end of the bay. For now, we have to ride three blocks west along Palm Avenue, turn right on 13th Street and pick up the path again.

7:35 am
The path is lined with wildflowers here as we cross over the South Bay Bird Refuge. The wind is picking up as we reenter Coronado from the south.

7:45 am
We're pedaling hard up the Strand now, passing the Cays, the Loews and Fiddlers Cove. Lots of birdwatchers are out with giant binoculars. As usual, we're bucking a headwind and I'm in the lead; think I'll let Dudek take over so I can catch the draft. Here's something that always amuses us cyclists: tourists in surreys who are cruising south, smiling and having the greatest time. Little do they know that as soon as they turn around, they’ll be huffing and puffing into the wind all the way home.

7:50 am
The bike path ends as we pass the Coronado Yacht Club and turn onto Pomona Avenue for one block, passing the city tennis courts on our right. We split up here; Dudek and Boatwright head into town and I continue around Glorietta Boulevard, which fronts the Coronado Municipal Golf Course. The course is already full of morning duffers.

7:55 am
The bike path picks up again just past Fifth Street, then juts off the road and heads south to the bridge. I get a good whiff of eucalyptus. A tall wire fence separates the course and its high-flying balls from me and bridge commuters over the berm. While those cars are headed up to the bridge, I'm headed under it. It's a great perspective to view the bridge from its underbelly where you can see the steel girding and the catwalk that runs its length. I hear the clump-clump of each car passing over.

8:00 am
It's cool-down time. I round the bend to Tidelands Park, passing the boats moored here and the small sand beach where dinghies are docked. Party planners are already setting up for all-day company picnics - it will be a while before families arrive and the ball fields and playground equipment are in full swing. Joggers, with iPods plugged in, frequently pass me; they're always deep in concentration. Remind me not to turn and wave at any of them!

That completes today's circuit. Minutes later, still in once piece, I'm back at the house and it's shower time! Oh, yeah!