Ursa Minor Permanent

Planet Bike rear blinkie

Day before July 4th! This should be a great beach day! Was planning to hook up with the OFR Ride Gruppo out of Magee Park at 0830. They were riding north. Just right. I designed this route just for that a few years back. Start temp of 61F in San Marcos. Arm warmers only today! Clipped on the rear Planet Bike Blinkie. Rolled out before 0600. Had to get a few things in San Marcos before the ride, then meet up with Zaharah. Busy morning before I even started.

Rode the same bike set-up as the Tuesday ride, with the exception of re-lubed the chain after cleaning the bike. Seemed to be a lot of cars along Coast Hwy. 101 today. Made the meet-up with OFR just before the 0830 leave time. Not many riders there today. Some new lady Lisa on a older blue Cannondale with a HB bag. Bruce, Tom, Al, Dr. Dan and old guys Alan L and Dale P. Took Pacific St. to Harbor Dr. then through the main Pendleton Gate. I noticed a newer sign that said "Las Pulgas Gate closed to outbound traffic from 0600-0800 daily! Probably open both sides up to incoming base personal those hours.

San Onofre Campground on July 4th! Busy place.

Had a nice pace at the start. Soon Bruce and Al took off up ahead. Tom and I chased them down. Tom couldn't hold the 21 mph pace and dropped back. Regrouped anyway at the Las Pulgas fence. Rolled through the San Onofre Campground and stopped at #11 for refuel There was some bar soap and Old Castle liquid soap at the rear sinks! Nice stuff! I scrubbed up my hands good. Hands get filthy easily while cycling with fingerless gloves. Campground wasn't that full yet for the 4th. A few fully loaded motor homes had already set up shop. Surf School had several campsites with and array of big tents. I cruzed over and checked them out... table tennis set up, triple bar-b-que grills and plenty of picnic tables for group meals. No one around the area today. Must be out surfing?  Racer dude on a green C'dale started to pull the gruppo along. I dropped back with Lisa. Big mess turning onto the Trestles Bike Path. Several guys should have got hit by cars when turning! Came up on a guy on a new rando set up Denali bike. Whole thing looked 3 days old. New green and black kit. Chatted with the rider. Said he was doing a long ride but was studying about randonneuring. I mentioned the PCH group up here in OC. Said he wasn't ready to hold up a group yet! Huh? He crept up to San Clemente on that heavy set-up~!

Trestles nude surfers were moved south to Camp Pendleton!

Gruppo regroup after the bike path. I kept going, as I knew they were discussing where to stop for lunch in San Clemente. I was going to San Juan Cap. for a control stop. Took the back neighborhood route. Thought I was lost by not concentrating on the "Bike Path" signs! Not today and soon I was on the bikeway to Dohney State Beach. Some dude was trying to drop me with a 22 mph lead-out. Not today. He finally let me go on by. The State Beach was already packed with campers. Quite a mess through there. Made my way over to Carl's Jr. for the traditional choc shake. Ate my carry along tuna/cheese sandwich. Shake was too sweet for me. Finished it off anyway and headed back. I might just bump into the gruppo on the way back?

Rode with some guy on a older bike carrying a wheel and 2 Conti tires. Seems he was trying to get his Bianchi back on the road. Lives in San Clemente near Carl's Jr. somewhere. Then came across 2 riding surfers. One had a board on a side bike mount. "Not a bad set up" I told him as we rode along. His brother had his board in a bag slung over his shoulder! Not good as he was weaving all over the place. Chatted a bit then I took off. Long way to go yet.

Dohney State Beach was packed even before the 4th of July!

Rode through the SO Campground SB at a steady 18mph. Had a slight tailwind through here. No stop this trip. I wonder if the gruppo is ahead somewhere? Went through Las Pulgas Gate and the guard said a group of riders passed through 10 minutes ago. I cranked it up a notch. Finally caught them on a climb down the road. Did a sneak up and hooked on. After several miles, they realized I was there. We did a loop around and exited through the Del Mar Gate. No traffic there, but several easy to miss turns.

Gruppo stopped at the coffee shop by Magee Park as I kept riding southward. Thought I would check out Nytro for supplies and save a trip later in the week. No Joe today, so I rode to Solana Beach and did a "route reverse" from there. No cyclists around this time of day, esp on Del Dios climb past the Lake Hodges Dam. Rolled back into San Marcos feeling good for a change. Right A. tendon was a little "ache", but that was it. Good hard riding today. Maybe I was up to 65% now?

Partly cloudy to clear
Hi: 88     Lo: 62
129 miles

-randorides
...