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San Francisco/San Diego Tour PlanBruce and I came up with the following plans for the SF to SD trip. The total distance is 591 miles. Since we're planning to take 10 days, the average distance per day will be 59.1 miles. I didn't even need to use a calculator to figure that out! There are a few alternatives depending on how we feel at various points during the ride. We always start at the Golden Gate Bridge. The first day is the shortest day. The intention here is to handle having a somewhat relaxed first day and to acommodate a possible late start. Note that we have a collision with the AIDS ride in Pismo Beach/Oceano on day 5.
Day 1 On day 1, we'll start at the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge.
We'lll ride through San Francisco, Montara, Moss Beach, and El Granada
before we reach our sleep spot at Half Moon Bay State Beach. This
campground has hiker/biker camping. The phone number is 415-726-6000.
On day 2, we'll continue down the coast passing through Davenport,
Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Aptos before we arrive at our campground,
Sunset State Beach. This campground has hiker/biker camping, and it's
1.5 miles off the route west and south on Sunset Beach Road. The phone
number is 408-763-7062.
On day 3, we travel through Moss Landing, Castroville, Marina,
Seaside, Monterey, and Carmel before we stop at Pfeiffer Big Sur State
Park, just 1.5 miles north of Big Sur. This campground has hiker/biker
camping. The phone number is 408-667-2315. This section of the ride
promises to be very scenic.
On day 4, the scenery continues as we'll ride south from Big Sur
through Lucia, Pacific Valley, Gorda, and San Simeon before reaching
our sleep spot south of San Simeon at San Simeon Beach State Park.
This campground has hiker/biker camping. The phone number is
805-927-2035.
On day 5, we'll ride along the coast through Cambria, Harmony,
Cayucos, and Morro Bay before heading inland to San Luis Obispo. Then
we'll head back to the coast to Pismo Beach and our sleep spot at Pismo
Beach State Park. We'll stay at the north beach, which has hiker/biker
camping. The phone number is 805-489-2684 or 800-444-7275. This would
be a good night to stay in a hotel if we decide to do that. Pismo
beach has several hotels close to the route.
On day 6, we'll pass through Oceano and Guadalupe. We'll be inland
for a bit as we skirt the eastern edge of Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Then we'll pass through Lompoc. This section of the route contains a
tunnel (whoa...scary) that we'll pass through before reaching the coast
again. Then we'll stay at El Capitan Beach State Park. This
campground has hiker/biker camping. The phone number is 805-968-3294.
On alternative 1 day 6, we'll pass through Oceano and Guadalupe.
We'll be inland for a bit as we skirt the eastern edge of Vandenberg
Air Force Base. Then we'll pass through Lompoc. This section of the
route contains a tunnel (whoa...scary) that we'll pass through before
reaching the coast again. As soon as we reach the coast we're at the
Gaviota Beach State Park campground. This campground does not have
water, but it does have hiker/biker camping. The phone number is
805-968-3294.
On day 7, we'll pass through Goleta and Santa Barbara before we
fall off of the map. The good news is that we'll fall onto another map
and pass through Carpenteria, Dulah, and Ventura before arriving at
McGrath State Park just north of Oxnard. This campground is just south
of the junction of our route and Olivas Park Drive, and the campground
has hiker/biker camping. The phone number is 805-654-4744.
On day 8, we'll ride through Oxnard, Malibu, and Santa Monica
before we arrive at Bruce's Aunt's house, where we'll camp in the
backyard like little kids.
On day 9, we'll ride the rest of the way through the LA area
(Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita, Long Beach,
Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, and Laguna Beach) to Dana
Point. We'll camp at Doheny State Beach, which has hiker/biker
camping. The phone number is 714-496-6171.
On alternative 2 day 9, we'll ride the rest of the way through the
LA area (Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita, Long
Beach, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, and Laguna Beach),
past Dana Point past the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant to the San
Onofre State Beach campground, which glows in the dark and has
hiker/biker camping. The phone number is 714-492-7872.
This is the last day of the ride. We'll ride through San Clemente,
past San Onofre, and into Camp Pendleton. Then through Oceanside,
Carlsbad, Leucadia, Cardiff, Solana Beach, Del Mar, and La Jolla before
arriving home.
To shorten day 6, which is the longest day at about 15 miles above average, we could stop at Gaviota Beach State Park (map 27), but the campground is not supposed to be as good as the one at El Capitan. For example, it doesn't have water. If we do that, we end up with this plan.
Alternative #2Alternative #2 can be used with or without alternative #1. The purpose of this alternative is to get us home earlier. By eliminating a day 10 or riding longer on day 9 so that day 10 is shorter. If we eliminate day 10, we'll ride from Bruce's Aunt's house all the way home, which is about 127 miles. If we ride longer on day 9, we'll stop farther south on the coast, for example at San Onofre State Beach.
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