My friend Dan, who lives right up the street from me, rides a 1984 Honda Nighthawk 700. He uses that bike mainly for commuting to work (less than a mile total both ways) 5 days a week. But a couple of times a year he uses that old Bird for the reason it was designed.
Our last few rides were to Puerto Nuevo for some Baja lobster, Sunrise Highway to Julian for pie and old Highway 94 to Tecate and Jacumba Hot Springs for BBQ and beer.
Today's ride was simply a rough plan to cruise as much of the coast as we could from Pt. Loma/La Jolla to Dana Point, riding up Historic 101. That's about it.
If you're familiar with those parts of San Diego and Orange County, you'll know that there's no real "coast highway" that's easy to ride, per se. The coast road goes through small towns -- and many, many stop signs -- along the way.
But that's no problem, we had the entire day to just enjoy the nice weather.
He rolled up on his dusty old bird after 9am and we discussed our plan. Here's how it went:
Hey, great to see you.
Yeah, you, too.
Need gas?
No, you?
No I'm ready.
OK, let's roll.
And we were off.
We'd hooked up an intercom system in his helmet so we could talk as we rode...and we talked the entire frickin' time.
So we started the ride at Torrey Pines, the view of the coast looked so nice I could tell right then that it was gonna be a great ride.
We rolled rough Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, and Oceanside. The traffic wasn't bad at all. We stopped at O Side and walked the pier then hit the I-5 for about 15 miles until we reached San Clemente. From there we got back on the coast route to Dana Point. After a quick lunch at the marina, we headed back down the I-5 to Del Mar...and that's where we picked up the Del Dios highway.
Now the Del Dios is a cool little road between the I-5 and the I-15. The road is rough in some spots, but the smells of the eucalyptus trees and jasmine as the road winds eastward make this a most excellent bike ride. There's a hidden little gem of a place (Hernandez HideAway) that offers San Diego County's best margaritas. But we couldn't stop for margaritas today. The road follows Lake Hodges for a while then ends at the I-15. What a great little highway.
We rode southbound the last few miles into San Diego, finishing the very fun little ride right before 5pm.
And doesn't everything look better in slo-mo? Yeah, it sure does.
Fun. Nice looking Honda too.
ReplyDeleteWhy 101 around here has the little towns that are stop and go traffic throughout. Not many stop signs, but there is an abundance of stop-lights instead.