I am trying to figure out a way to get from Orange County to San Diego. I have heard you can ride on the base if you show a drivers license. Also, I heard it is a little shorter if you ride on the freeway (if that is even legal). Does anyone have an suggestions or know a better way?
I have been wanting to ride it too. I was planning to roll my bike on the train to OC and ride back to SD. There was a site I found, in which a guy had mapped his route. I need to search for it.
It is legal to ride on the 5 freeway from the Las Pulgas exit to the Oceanside exit. (I actually called the CHP to get this info) I have ridden on the freeway once, but it is much easier to go through Camp Pendleton. Do note however, that you must 1) be wearing a helmet and 2) you will need to show your drivers license. If you are without either of those they will not let you through. Also they will only let you enter the base during specific hours. During the summer the hours were 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, but I believe those hours adjust with the amount of daylight. They also have the right to close off base access at their discretion. It is best to call Pendleton the day before you go to confirm the hours they will allow you in and whether or not they will let you in at all. The phone number for Pendleton is (760) 725-5106. Also if you need it, the Oceanside CHP phone number is 760-757-1675. The route through Pendleton basically parallels the 5 fwy and is not that much farther out of the way and it is A LOT safer. There are two other tricky parts to the ride 1) getting from the Christianitos exit in San Clemente to the Las Pulgas exit at Pendleton and 2) finding the bike path down near La Jolla (the bike path cuts out a lot of stop lights. I have the whole route mapped out, but I did it on on Microsoft Excel. I would be happy to email you my route if you still need it. If enough people want it I could also map out the ride online. It is a really fun ride, and for those that may not want to ride the full distance (from the Irvine Amtrak station to the San Diego Amtrak station it is approx. 85 miles) you can always hop on Amtrak at one of their ealier stops. I hope this post helped.
For anyone interested I just posted a route from the Irvine Amtrak Station in Orange County to the downtown San Diego Amtrak Station. The name of the ride is "Orange County to San Diego". The link is http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/irvine/549281338 . I also included some helpful hints about getting from San Clemente to Oceanside through Camp Pendleton.
I've ridden on the freeway along this route, as I arrived at Pendleton at 3:45pm, only to find out the last time to enter was 3:30. The freeway wasn't too bad. The catch is that there are no on or off ramps, which make it fairly safe, given the shoulder is more than a car widths wide, and especially minor when I was traveling faster than traffic due to a traffic jam.
I just realized I've never mapped this ride out and will get around to it some time soon.
You might also want to visit the Amtrak Century web page, http://www.ocw.org/Amtrak/Default.asp. As it gets closer to ride time they usually post the route they take. They sometimes use the Camp Pendleton path if it is going to be open. This is a good organized Century ride and is recommended as good "First Century" for riders wanting to do a century.
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