Anaheim to San Diego

Amber and I parked at Anaheim Amtrak station on Saturday and rode down the SART to PCH and thence down to San Diego Amtrak station.

I've been riding in SoCal for 20 years and the prevailing wind is always from the North except during a Santa Ana wind event or when a storm is coming in. However the wind has been coming out of the South for the past two months. I'm going to have to reorganize my rides so that I ride North whenever possible. We have 10-15 mph winds out of the South all day so we had to deal with headwind for the entire 107 miles of the ride. Oh well - builds character, right?

PCH was very busy with cyclists - much more so than usual. While Amber and I were eating lunch at the Carl's Jr in San Clemente we had a total of 30 or so riders in several groups show up. We detoured onto Vulcan through Ensenada and Leucadia to avoid that dangerous section of PCH and it was much better.

Torrey Pines was easier than usual, I'm not really sure why. We passed a young lady clearly struggling who had passed us earlier. I think she was bonking but when I asked her she said she was fine. I still think she was bonking.

I had designed a route between Ojai and San Diego that used a lot of bike paths but they were largely unusable because they were clogged with pedestrians. I despair of finding a good route across San Diego.

I've been looking at the possibility of riding Santiago Canyon and the Alisal Creek Bike trail to Laguna Miguel and then finishing the ride at Solano Beach. It gives us 96 miles and cuts out Laguna Beach and San Diego. It might be a good winter ride.

Caltrans was up to their usual tricks. The 10/215 SB interchange was closed (at least they provided a sign). Also the 91/57 NB was closed with no sign until the very last moment so everyone was forced to go south. On the way back the 215/10 EB ramp was closed with no notice. If I was Governor I would half their budget and tell them that drivers and their customers and should be treated as such. No real corporation could get away with treating their customers like shit.