Declan's Blog

Another great ride today, and my second half century.

Jim, Don, and I caught the 7:38a train from Solana Beach up to San Juan Capistrano. The train was pretty empty, so they let us throw our bikes in the aisles. We heard later that there’s a more formal procedure with hanging bike racks, but no one told us about it specifically.

The train ride was very nice and most of the people riding were bikers. I knew Dan from work was going to be there, so we hooked up with his group for the ride back. We were a little intimidated because we knew Dan was a tri-athlete, and that the ride was well over 45 miles. Not to worry though – the terrain was all but flat and there was a nice mix of experience levels in the group.

The group does this ride every weekend, I believe. They have some set stopping places, so it was a very casual ride. Long, but casual… We got back to the Amtrack station at about 2:30p! Checking the odometers showed that we’d done 51 miles, a bit more than expected, but all of it very nice.

Also – we cut through Pendleton. All we needed were drivers licenses today.

I certainly want to try this ride again!

Today’s ride was a new one, and quite strenuous. Here’s the map:

I’ve been playing with Google Earth. Here’s the .kmz file to put this map into your copy of Google Earth.

The climb up Scripps-Poway parkway was quite a challenge, but the cruise down Highland Valley Road made it all worth it. It’s very pretty visually, and has some thrilling downhills.

The Noisy Apprentice: Support your local bike commuter

I’ve been looking at San Diego blogs lately. This is a neat article about bike lanes.

San Diego has some gorgeous and terrifying places to ride.

Click here for the route.

Here’s the original app.

Well, we survived the 50 miles. I made it in 4:15, not bad for an old fat guy!

Here are Gabe, Don, me, and Jim after the ride. After one “free” beer, I went home and slept for 3 hours. 🙂

Gabe also blogged about the ride here.

More pictures from the ride here.

Gabe, Jim, Don, and I are going to try The Scripps Ranch Old Pros 50 mile ride tomorrow:

We’re just hoping the elevation is not harder than the ride a couple of weeks ago:

I need a graphics converter and normalizer… 🙂

Had a great ride today with Jim and Dan. Here’s the route:

It’s about 40 miles and took 4 hours, and we stopped in Boulevard, CA for some Mexican food.

Old Highway 80 has some really cool rock formations:

Some of the hills were rough for a fairly new rider, but I made it. Now I’m going to sleep for a few days. 🙂

Here’s the elevation chart: