BIKING HOME FROM THE BAY BOYS HOME GROUP WILL CYCLE 570 MILES FROM THE GOLDEN GATE.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- A group from an Antelope Valley boys home set off Saturday on a two-week, 570-mile bicycle ride from San Francisco to the Antelope Valley.

Emmett Murrell, who has run the boys home for 25 years, is leading the convoy, which will start the 12th annual bike tour today on the San Mateo side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

"Years ago when we first started, we were running an independent living program for the county, and we were coming into contact with so many kids who had never been outside the Antelope Valley," Murrell said. "My co-worker Lowell White and I started started using bikes for reaching unreachable kids. It turned out to be as good a vehicle as basketball, sports and other things that can be used to motivate and inspire."

The group is scheduled to return Aug. 4 at Antelope Valley College, where a celebration will be held for the riders and to honor agencies that have helped the boys home through the years.

The group of 26 includes seven adults and 19 boys and girls, 12 of whom are boys home residents. The youth range in age from 10 to 18 and will spend nights at campgrounds along the coast.

There will be three support wagons following the riders with supplies, food, and camping gear.

"We have a sag wagon, a mess hall wagon responsible for setting up camp, and a wagon transporting kids who aren't riding," Murrell said.

The youth in the group will take turns riding the route until the they leave the Big Sur area. "Once we come down into San Simeon, all the kids can ride," Murrell said.

Murrell's Farm and Boys Home is for children who are dependents of the court and under the supervision of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Murrell's has two homes in Lancaster and an activity center in Palmdale, said Murrell, the organization's founder and chief executive director.

At the Palmdale site, the staff and residents grow produce and tend a vineyard, from which they produce a nonalcoholic communion wine.

The home's first long ride came in 1993, when boys cycled from Lancaster to Washington, D.C., trying to raise money for computers for the home's then-new independent living program.

In 2005, the tour went from Lake Tahoe to Big Pine, culminating in a hike of Mount Whitney that they did in 24 hours.

Other rides have gone from San Diego back to the Antelope Valley, Palmdale to Santa Monica, and from the Oregon border to the Antelope Valley.

Riders from the boys home also have for the past six years ridden in the Los Angeles Marathon bike tour that precedes the foot race.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Pastor Lowell White tests a bike before a group of riders who left Saturday for San Francisco, where the cyclists will begin their annual bike tour. The route will cover 570 miles, and the group will return Aug. 4 to Antelope Valley College.

(2 -- color) Murrell's Boys Home Chief Executive Director Emmett Murrell helps a couple of boys load a trailer before leaving Lancaster City Park for San Francisco.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer