Anaheim to Solana Beach

Amber and I tried a new route from Anaheim Amtrak station to Solana Beach last Saturday. The intent was to avoid Laguna Beach - a city more interested in parking revenue than cyclist safety. We also decided to end the ride at Solana Beach which is one station stop before San Diego. I cannot find a good route through San Diego - even the OCW Amtrak Century route is nasty through San Diego. This gave us 90 miles with some considerable climbing over Santiago Canyon for a total of 5000' of climbing.

We started at 8am with the intent of getting the climbing over by 10am to try to beat the worst of the heat. From the top of Santiago Canyon (1500') it's almost all downhill to the beach at Dana Point. From there we stay alongside the ocean all the way to Solana Beach so we figured the heat wouldn't be a problem - good theory anyway.

We ate at 10am at Cook's Corner biker bar at mile 25. It's always busy there and it took us 20 minutes to get our food and eat it. We ordered hash browns and French toast. The hash browns were good but the French toast was awesome. No syrup and a dash of cinnamon. Instead of being sickly sweet the eggy bread was fantastic. That place continues to amaze me.

We had never ridden down Alisal Creek trail before - it's much more fun than climbing it :-) It's pretty much 20 miles of 1-2% downhill.

Alisal Creek Bike Trail

Unfortunately there is one uphill - a medium length 13% brute of a hill up Niguel Rd from Crown Valley Pkwy to Marina Hills Dr. Ow. RideWithGPS claims it's only 5% - it lies.

We had planned on eating again at the Carl's Jr on El Camino Real in San Clemente (mile 55) but we weren't really hungry. We were both carrying some extra calories so we decided to push on to the Angelo's burgers in Oceanside (mile 75). We went through Camp Pendleton and I managed to get the guard to laugh by asking her if she could flatten the hill out a bit. We were both pretty hungry by the time we got to Angelo's. I ordered a steak sandwich and Amber got the veggie burger. Amazing food.

When we left Angelo's we had about 90 minutes to ride 17 miles. Normally this section is nice but the traffic was horrid what with it being Labor day weekend. All sorts of idiots were parked in the bike lane- forcing us out into heavy traffic. Even Vulcan Avenue which is my preferred route through Leucadia and Encinitas was very busy. What with the heat, the traffic, and the idiots the last 15 miles were not particularly pleasant.

We got to Solana Beach Amtrak at 4pm with 40 minutes to spare before the train. I do like being able to book bike slots with the tickets. No nasty surprises when the conductor says you can't bring the bike on the trail. I had major leg cramps on the train (after telling Amber I was surprised I hadn't cramped) but I had some sports beans which seemed to help. I ate a banana when I got home too.

I much preferred climbing Santiago Canyon instead of risking my life in Laguna Beach and stopping short of San Diego worked out well. I'm looking forward to doing this ride again when it's 20 degrees cooler and not a holiday weekend.