TrojanHorse

My daughter has one of her interminable soccer games in San Clemente coming up and I figure I'll just ride my bike home. I'm not familiar with the bike routes down there though so I thought I'd ask here.

This is the general drift of what Google Maps came up with: https://goo.gl/maps/SZJy

Obviously, google makes some goofy choices but I could
1) just head up PCH to SART and go that way.
2) ride up through irvine and then hit SART. Unfortunately, this takes me through Santa Ana and I'm not sure about that either.
3) do something different and head up to Santiago Canyon rd (avoiding Stabba Ana and adding some hills)

Any recommendations? The route as mapped is about 50 miles and I don't mind adding significant chunks to that in the interest of riding somewhere interesting.

Condorita

I've ridden all over Santa Ana and have never had a bit of trouble. Not on the trails, not on the streets.

CommuteCommando

Ive ridden the trail up trough Irvine quite a bit. I know that if you get off the trail hand head inland at Harvard up to Irvine blvd to Tustin Ranch,the streets are better. After that Ivr only driven Tustin, but it looks better than Santa Ana.

TrojanHorse

Well, I penciled this route in - how does it look? Google maps put me on 2 trails in south OC that I've never even heard of, so that's kind of cool. I spot checked some of the roads on google street view and they look pretty excellent.

Any better ideas?

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/1312473

Rumpled

I've ridden quite a bit of the south OC part.
On Camino Capistrano just past mile 14 you can stay on CC to the train station. Use the pedestrian crossing at the train station to get to Forbes to connect just past mile 15. Avoids a no shoulder overpass climb. OC Bike Coalition website has some details on this.
Funny how from 40 to 41 it has you go thru the cemetery, don't do that.
Trail thru Yorba Linda ~50-52 is kinda narrow, could go streets?

cdp8

How about PCH all the way up to the north end of Seal Beach and take the Coyote Creek Trail until it ends at Foster Road? Then take Foster to Valley View to Leffingwell to Colima. Most of that stretch of PCH has a wide shoulder/bike lane (except through Laguna and Corona Del Mar) and it avoids Santa Ana entirely. Google maps pegs it at 57.8 miles, so it's about 7 miles shorter.

cdp8

Here is a link to the route I mentioned:

https://goo.gl/maps/vIRN

TrojanHorse

Rumpled - thanks for the train station suggestion. I can't get ridewithgps to let me do it but that looks preferable. I have no idea why it routed me through the cemetery, I certainly didn't tell it to do that! As for that trail in Yorba Linda... I had a couple alternates but I wanted to scope out Lakeview. The trail is OK, but it's a little twisty - no blasting through there obviously. I'm pretty familiar with the roads from there to the end so if I need to find an alternate I can do it on the fly. Anything but Imperial.

cdp8 - I'd do your suggested route but I ride those roads pretty frequently (at least from Sart up PCH, SGRT & Coyote), so I'm just looking for a bit of variety with a bit of hill thrown in, ergo the inland route. Last time I rode on Coyote Creek it was under construction but I think that was a month ago. I have no idea if they're done yet.

Thanks for the feedback!

Rad Fondo

TH - Jump on the bike trail at Doheney and follow it until it dumps you out in San Juan. From there follow the neighborhood fronatge roads until you end up on Ortega Highway. You are only on Ortega highway for about a half mile. Left on Antonio and this will take you all the way to Rancho Santa Margarita. From there you can drop into Live Oak Canyon where you will get scenery and a nice climb. Right on Santiago Canyon. At Jamboree you have options but I would head over Imperial and then jump on SRT depending on where you live.

If you go to my website there is a list of previous events. Rad Fondo #1 does this route (except we take SRT all the way to PCH) and it is a nice way to go. Except for a few little spots it has huge safe roads. There are many routes posted all starting in San Clemente so you could even go South and hop the Amtrak home. I have posted the website and the direct link to the map on Map my Ride (all my routes are posted there as well). I hope this helps.

www.radfondo.com
https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/52967188

TrojanHorse

Cool, thanks. I was just checking out your new RF route the other day, it didn't occur to me to check the older ones.

Nice find with the jumpoline picture - that cost me about 20 minutes looking at THAT site too.

TrojanHorse

Well, I fubared getting on the trail at Doheny - the road was a 1 way the wrong way. I guess I should have taken the beach path. No biggie, went up Doheny pt Rd to Stonehill and caught the bike trail over there.

Live Oak was a nice climb on a narrow road, Antonio Pkwy was loooooooong and at least a slight uphill the whole way. Caught up to a nice tandem couple on that road and we chatted to Santa Margarita Rd.

All in all a nice ride through some new parts of OC... and hot as H E double hockeysticks from noon to 3. ugh.

Aside from PCH, I probably saw 10 cyclists total all day.

Only got irrationally buzzed by one dork in a pickup on Lake view, most people were pretty courteous, particularly in Yorba Linda at those cross walks on the bike path.

Took it easy most of the day but I was still pretty wiped out when I got home.

https://app.strava.com/rides/10986591