Illinoistocht

Day 21: Capistrano Beach to San Diego border area. 88.8 miles, 2,170 ft. of climbing (142.9 km, 663 m; not including 1.7 miles on Coronado ferry)
After the route goes through the relatively unpopulated San Clemente and San Onofre state beach areas, it runs through the active military base of Camp Pendleton.  Access is controlled here, so plan ahead and know when (or even if) you may ride through on a given day.  South of Camp Pendleton, the route runs through the coastal communities of the San Diego metro area.   This was generally a pleasant ride, more so than through LA, and I enjoyed passing the many beaches and towns along the way.  I took the ferry to Coronado, and tagged along with three young guys out for an afternoon ride on their road bikes.  This helped immensely as the wind was actually from the south here, so riding in a paceline helped a lot given it was late in the day and I was more tired.  After a ride through the Imperial Beach suburb, the route became more thinly populated close to the border.  Eventually, it ends in a weird, otherworld of a dusty road going through scrub brush, with the only company being Border Patrol pickups crossing over the paved road going four-wheeling over the landscape while doing their job.  The road eventually was flooded in the Border Field State Park, so I’d have had to offroad it to pedal out to the end of the road at the ocean.   The Park was mostly closed given California’s budget woes, and the stark emptiness of this area kind of made for a strange end to the ride given its weird loneliness.  

The ride from the “official” end of the Pacific Coast route to the San Diego trolley at San Ysidro was easy, and had a nice bike lane for most of the few miles to the station.   After the hour-long ride on the trolley, I checked into the 500 West hostel / hotel, which was quite affordable and nice for a downtown area and right next to the San Diego Amtrak station for the trip home, which was supposed to start with the 6:10 am train the next day.   It took all day to get back to my car in San Luis Obispo on a combination of trains and Amtrak buses, but after a pitstop for a big iced tea, I drove the rest of the way back to San Francisco and got home just after 9 o’clock at night.  Tired, but happy.