PCH in Orange County Route Help Please
 

I am wanting to take my wife on our tandem for a short bit on SART to PCH in Huntington Beach. From there on towards the UCI campus for lunch. It looks on Google Maps that PCH to N. Bayside Dr. to Back Bay Dr. to Eastbluff Dr. to Brown Trail and finally to Peters Canyon Trail.

Can anyone with knowledge of the area provide some feedback if that is a good route or any recommended corrections.

I want to make it a nice, easy, scenic day for her as well as myself in captaining the tandem.

Are you packing your own lunch? Because all the places on campus will be closed on the weekend. I really can't recommend any of the surrounding restuarants as they are nothing special or you'll have to do some light climbing. How about eat somewhere in Balboa Island or on the newport peninsula?

Anyways, your instructions are spot on and the MUP should be clearly marked. You will be going on the San Diego Creek trail, not the Peter's Canyon trail. To get to UCI, take the San Diego Creek Trail to Campus Drive and head towards the campus.

To actually enter the campus, you could take a minor shortcut at California instead of going the extra third mile to Campus.
If you're going to the shopping center for lunch, stay on to Campus.
An alternative to returning is to cicumnavigate the Back Bay using ( at least as Google Maps labels it)
Brown Trail > Left Santiago Drive > Left Galaxy > Left Polaris > Left on ? Trail to Castaways Park > Dover and PCH (or Cliff Drive to avoid some of the worst of PCH)

This route used to be part of one of my runs. And I don't know the name of that trail either. I also recommend exiting the trail near castaways, crossing Dover and using Cliff to avoid that stretch of PCH. Good idea and the neighborhood is nice also.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We did the ride you guys confirmed for me. Me and my wife had a great time. We live in Redlands which is a good bike friendly town but that was before riding the network of trails around Newport and Irvine. Holy crap, it was awesome. I am so jealous of locals that can hit those trails daily. Back Bay Drive was especially gorgeous. Not to mention it was 82 degrees and sunny on an end of January day.

We ate lunch at the Veggie Grill across from the campus in the Trader Joe's shopping center. Great food. Once again very jealous.

Thanks again for the replies. They were very helpful and much appreciated (especially the tip to avoid PCH).

I see you finished already, another alternate route for the future would to be coming off the Peters Canyon Trail and go south to Backbay Dr (instead of the north and west side Brown trial that is always crowded)- this is much more tranquil and scenic. Then cross over the bay on the Newport Dunes bridge to Bayside dr and proceds south across PCH on it towards Balboa island. (Stop for snacks or luch here is an option)- proceed over to cross Newport Harbor on the ferry- then acorss Balboa to the MUP trail(lunch an great option here too) then back west towards Huntington.

Thanks for those recommendations sakeed123. We will back down there in two weeks. We will try those routes out. Thanks for taking the time to assist me.

Glad you enjoyed it. I need to quit taking it for granted, I live 200 yards from the San Diego River Trail...

I totally take it for granted. I do the back bay loop from my house in Irvine and it's awesome. I do the reverse though - since I'm coming *down* from Irvine, I take Back Bay to Jamboree, then PCH, then through Santiago, Galaxy, Santiago again, Irvine...

It really is a great ride. A nice 18-mile loop for me. One of these days, I'm bringing my camera...

Glad you enjoyed it!

We did the "Santiago, Galaxy,..." part last weekend. Very pretty. The houses were gorgeous!!!

Oh that they are and when you're running, they look even prettier.

Did you try that balboa island route yet? That sounds like another great way to avoid PCH.

Not yet, but hope to soon.