Beach Ride

I decided to go solo for this one and take a ride down to the beach via the Santa Ana River Trail. I was feeling good from some previous riding I had been doing over the weeks leading up to this ride, so mapped out about 70+ miles and hit the road. It was late in the summer and what a great way to take in some miles and check out a few areas I hadn't been to yet. I figured I would ride, stop for lunch along the way at some point, then have a beer and take the train back to my house. No particular route mapped out, but I did have a basic outline. The weather on the other hand wasn’t quite cooperating as much, although the forecast was calling for the skies to start clearing up.

I left the house and proceeded to jump on the trail around the city of Orange. I went through the town of Placentia which isn't going to win any awards for panoramic views or holiday destinations. Bit busy with traffic, but overall not too bad. Basically it was a bit of dodging cracks and potholes in the asphalt along with hugging the street curbs since the bike lanes are pretty scarce.

It wasn't too long before I found an entrance to the famous Santa Ana River Trail. I jumped on the trail and started getting in to a nice rhythm. The trail is pretty straight and since it was during the week, I didn't have to worry too much about the weekend crowds.

After a few miles I approached the stadium. One of the nice things about this trail, is that it goes right by the home of the Angels. I find watching baseball about as fun as watching paint dry, but at least you can grab beer and a bag of peanuts. Well I can also do that at home, so my list of games I've seen can probably be counted on my hands. The trail at this point is kind of boring too, industrial and flat, so it's nice to have a few landmarks and sites to break things up.

The rain started coming down a bit and I needed to duck out of it for a few. Luckily there was a big street that passes overhead and created some decent shelter. Its kind of cool to check out the concrete structure from below since most people will never see it from this perspective.

It wasn't too long before I was able to continue on. This is the stadium as seen from across the parking lot just beyond the fence. The trail goes right by this spot and at other times on the weekends you can see the flee market going on.

Nice views and overall there are some nice sections.

Closing in on PCH and Newport Beach.Self portrait.

Crossing some of the bridges on the trail. This bridge gets a little dicey when some rain falls on it, making for the turn on and off its planks a good wake up call.

Small ride on PCH, then hopped on Back Bay trail. This trail is a bit nicer and has some nice flow, but mostly flat too. Good way to get in the zone and take in the miles. Music blazing in the earbuds.

On to Laguna Canyon and in to Laguna Beach. Weather cleared up and its turning out to be a nice day after all.

Laguna Canyon is nice albeit with some small shoulders to ride on. The headwind is always a bit of a challenge, and bikes are fairly common. As you roll along, you can see some of the more famous mountain bike trails that get ridden in Orange County. Makes you want to jump off and grab a bike with some knobby tires- sometimes.

The flowers were in bloom and things were looking nice. The flowers only go in to bloom for a short time every year, so it was great to catch them as the showered the hills with some color. A much needed change from the more common brown hillsides we tend to be more accustomed to.

Back on PCH and heading south. The breeze coming off the Pacific ocean helped stem the increasing heat that the opened up clouds were bringing. Stopped by Ron Leland's house in Dana Point and we went for a nice lunch. I was lucky to have him join me for the ride to the train station. He grabbed his BH single speed and we pace lined and rode side by side and joked away the time. Just a quick purchase of a ticket and all aboard to Fullerton with some farewells to Ron. BTW, the shots were all done on my iPhone, so just some energy bars in the pockets and some small extras and I was good to go. 75+ miles for the day and the asphalt kept racking up. Slept good that night.