Today’s ride was blissfully free of terrible sections. We left the LA metro behind, and are now in the San Diego metro. It’s crazy to think that tomorrow we do the last ride of the tour.
Straight out of the gate was the hilliest part of the day. We wound our way through the streets of residential San Clemente, with many small ups and down, and turns every other block. Traffic was really light, and stop signs were relatively rare. All day, it would have gotten tiresome, but for three miles it way kind of fun.
We got on to a bike path/abandoned road, what used to be 101 before I-5 took the alignment. It ran through San Onofre State Beach and it’s long stretch of car/RV camping spots. We also passed SONGS, a shut down but not yet decommissioned nuclear power plant. There were a bunch of recreational cyclists out, and one stopped to chat. He’s a Warm Showers host, and recalled longingly his cross country tour from a couple years ago. He also mentioned the west tour he had to abort when his wife fell and broke her arm.
We passed through an unmanned gate into US government property, the outskirts of Camp Pendleton. A helicopter circled overhead. Cyclists are allowed, but there’s a bigger gate you have to get through later. Starting this year there’s a more stringent process for cyclists, where you submit your name ahead of time and they do some kind of check. But they don’t tell you if you’re good. And the website doesn’t inspire confidence in whether it’s closed that day for whatever reason.
I was secretly hoping that we wouldn’t be allowed on base. The alternative is a stretch on I-5. Riding a bike on an interstate amuses me enough that I’d like to do it. Other than exits, expressways are pretty okay. There’s usually a nice big shoulder. As we got closer to the big gate, I got less excited. Signs said that I-5 shoulders were closed to cyclists, and offered a phone number to call for a shuttle. That didn’t sound like fun.
We made the turn for the gate, where signs indicated 100% ID check. As we got ready to show ID, the marine at the gate asked if we had signed up. When we said yes, he said we could go. No name, no ID. Kind of anticlimactic, really.
We rode through. Other than the tank crossing signs, you wouldn’t have really known you were on a military base. Towards the north, it could have passed for a country road, with few visible buildings. As we got further south, we passed through more developments. The shooting range ambulance pickup point seemed a bit troubling. There were a lot of signs pointing the way to exciting acronyms. We rode next to an obstacle course, some housing, and even a shopping complex.
We were told not to stop in the base. Ruth was very curious about the rule. Why can’t we stop? Can we stop at a building? Other people are stopping. Mommy, you stopped at that traffic light.
We got through the base without getting arrested, and came out to the beach in Oceanside. We had lunch, letting the kids play in the sand again. When it was time to go, we rolled along the beachfront road, much with a police car ominously behind us. They moved on, again without us getting arrested. There was a residential area which looked like it had just had some flooding, with sandbags piled around, and debris in the street.
We rode through Carlsbad’s main strip. The bike lane was a bit inconsistent, but sharrows, a second lane, and light traffic kept it from being unpleasant. We cut off for a parallel street for a while, which was a little quieter. We had planned to cut off towards the beach in Encinitas, but we decided to stick to old 101, rather than deal with the pedestrian traffic of the beach.
We kept rolling down old 101, with an intermittent bike lane. It was a nice ride, if a little mundane. We rode parallel to train tracks. A couple of trains went by, eliciting cries of “choo choo!” from our passengers. We passed the county fair in progress. The rides also caused some excitement.
We came to Torrey Pines, our only big climb today. On paper, it shouldn’t have been a big deal. Maybe 400 feet, not too steep. But the distances of the last three days have taken a lot out of me, and it was tough. When we got past a curve and I saw the top wasn’t there, I called for a water break. We got going again, and the top came soon after.
We did get a nice view on the way of the valley below, and all its developments. Along the crest was a bunch of office parks. Then a nice but short drop past a hospital complex, and a climb back up around UCSD and our stop for the night.
Our hotel tonight is very different than anything we’ve stayed at. It’s big and shiny, and has an active bar in the lobby, and ballrooms and all that comes with it. And a giant mall across the street. It’s about as far from the Creekside Inn in Hoodsport as you can get.