I will be moving to Carlsbad in a couple weeks and was wondering if anyone could give me some good rides in that general area. I'll be living off the Cannon Rd. exit of I-5. Specifically, I'm hoping to find routes / loops of varying length between 20 and 60 miles.

Not knowing the area makes it hard to know what's out there. Of course I will do some exploring once I get there. If anyone has some ideas to get me started, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hey,
Welcome to N. County! I ride that area pretty much everyday. There is always the pacific coast highway (PCH) which from you down south to a nice couple of climbs in La Jolla is probably right around 50 miles. A nice loop with lots of hills (should be much nicer once construction is done in a few weeks) would be S. on PCH until Palomar Airport Road, up to Rancho Santa Fe Rd straight through back around to PCH back up to you. There are tons of loops between PCH and El Camino Real.

The main thing that stinks around here is that on every road, at every time of day there is going to be fairly heavy traffic and lots of stop lights.

Hope that helps, if you want to go for a ride when you're out here I'd be happy to show you around.

I will be moving to Carlsbad in a couple weeks and was wondering if anyone could give me some good rides in that general area. I'll be living off the Cannon Rd. exit of I-5. Specifically, I'm hoping to find routes / loops of varying length between 20 and 60 miles.

Not knowing the area makes it hard to know what's out there. Of course I will do some exploring once I get there. If anyone has some ideas to get me started, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance for your help.

A good place to start is to get a free map from http://www.ridelink.org/online_orderform.html. It shows bike paths and bike lanes, as well as other suggested routes.

the SDBC / CAF loop. go west on Canon to PCH. take PCH South all the way through Del Mar. Before heading down hill toward Torrey Pines Beach turn left (East) Carmel Valley Road. Take Carmel Valley East under I-5 to El Camino Real. Take North through eastern Del Mar and go Rt. on San Diegito, left on el Apajo, Rt on Via de Santa Fe (Fairbanks Ranch) which will connect you to Via de la Valle into Rancho Santa Fe. Take VdlV to Paseo. Delicias east to Montevideo head North. Go East around lake (Lago Linda Rd.) to El Camino del Norte to Rancho Santa Fe Rd (Olivenhain) and turn rt. (North) to Olivenhain Rd. Turn west follow to El Camino Real and go North. Go North and you are entering La Costa, East CArlsbad, from here there's a number of routes home. Good luck.

Thanks for the responses. I should have mentioned that I already ordered one of those maps. Of course it has yet to arrive, but for some reason that doesn't surprise me. :-)

The routes described so far sound pretty good. I was wondering about riding east on Cannon. I just looked at Yahoo maps and they show that the road ends when it hits El Camino Real. I haven't been down there recently, so my memory might be fuzzy, but I thought it continued as a two-lane road east past El Camino Real. There's a nursery and some farm land it looks like. Does Cannon continue east for a while or does it end pretty quickly?

Thanks again ... I can't wait to ride along PCH!

I work out in Business Park (East Palomar Airport Rd) which turns into San Marcos Blvd.
so that road can take you to the eastern county. ONLY do east county in the off-season, pretty unbearably hot in the summer. The route I described is a great one, beautiful, not too bad for traffic about 45 or so miles as described. Rolling terrain, for extra mileage instead of turning on El Montevido continue east to Lake Hodges. Great stuff. PCH is great, you'll be hammering down it in the summer (usually 2-6 x a week) and realize people save their $$ all year to come here for 2 weeks. The only thing that snaps you out is getting passed by either a world class tri-geek or one of the many pros who lives here or trains here in the off season.

All of this information is great to get going. But if you want to really hit some fun rides, make your way out to Bonsal and Fallbrook. Get to College St and just north of the bike path entrance going north is two right turns that will bring you out into some fun areas to explore, but bring your climbing legs.

All of this information is great to get going. But if you want to really hit some fun rides, make your way out to Bonsal and Fallbrook. Get to College St and just north of the bike path entrance going north is two right turns that will bring you out into some fun areas to explore, but bring your climbing legs.


Are there paved bike paths out that way that wind up through those moutains? I've always thought that would be cool, just maybe a 5 foot wide path through trees and stuff, no cars (my CA dream)

No path ways, just a lot of roads/hills with very few cars. Unfortunately, unless you are military you are stuck on public roads in this area. But if you are in the area for a ride try the Sleeping Indian and Olive Hill roads. You will remember them and tool around the hillside of Bonsall.