Hello,
I am planning to ride with my son down the coast next month, from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We will be on road bikes and have a support car. I have done this ride numerous times in the past, as part of a larger charity group. We are basing our route on what I have ridden in the past, but I'm always interested in finding alternatives to the busiest sections of road that we may encounter.
One section that I found pretty sketchy in years past is when leaving Pacifica and heading south, we ride Highway 1 for about a mile of winding climb to reach the Devil's Slide bike path. Highway 1 has no shoulder here (unless that has changed?) and drivers like to go fast. I'm considering either (a) having our support car follow us closely with hazards on, which will likely upset the motorists behind; (b) finding an alternate route to this section; or (c) getting in the car to shuttle this brief section. Since option (a) is kinda rude and inconsiderate to others, and option (c) is undesirable because it disrupts the "purity" of completing the entire route by bike, I'm leaning toward option (b) - finding an alternate route just around this section. I don't want to add too much mileage.
On Google Maps, I can see that we MAY be able to ride to a road called "Shamrock Ranch Road" and then take a dirt path to connect to the Devil's Slide Trail. The problem is that I don't know if we can actually ride to the end of the pavement, and then it looks like the dirt path will be quite a bit of climbing and/or hike a bike.
Perhaps a better alternative is the Pedro Point Coastal Trail as described and seen at the links below. This looks doable and maybe only a little bit of walking with the bikes. Does anybody have any familiarity with this area and can give an opinion if this alternative route will work? Or is there any better idea?
https://www.reddit.com/...s_an_alternative_to/
https://imgur.com/a/vvFKor5
I am planning to ride with my son down the coast next month, from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We will be on road bikes and have a support car. I have done this ride numerous times in the past, as part of a larger charity group. We are basing our route on what I have ridden in the past, but I'm always interested in finding alternatives to the busiest sections of road that we may encounter.
One section that I found pretty sketchy in years past is when leaving Pacifica and heading south, we ride Highway 1 for about a mile of winding climb to reach the Devil's Slide bike path. Highway 1 has no shoulder here (unless that has changed?) and drivers like to go fast. I'm considering either (a) having our support car follow us closely with hazards on, which will likely upset the motorists behind; (b) finding an alternate route to this section; or (c) getting in the car to shuttle this brief section. Since option (a) is kinda rude and inconsiderate to others, and option (c) is undesirable because it disrupts the "purity" of completing the entire route by bike, I'm leaning toward option (b) - finding an alternate route just around this section. I don't want to add too much mileage.
On Google Maps, I can see that we MAY be able to ride to a road called "Shamrock Ranch Road" and then take a dirt path to connect to the Devil's Slide Trail. The problem is that I don't know if we can actually ride to the end of the pavement, and then it looks like the dirt path will be quite a bit of climbing and/or hike a bike.
Perhaps a better alternative is the Pedro Point Coastal Trail as described and seen at the links below. This looks doable and maybe only a little bit of walking with the bikes. Does anybody have any familiarity with this area and can give an opinion if this alternative route will work? Or is there any better idea?
https://www.reddit.com/...s_an_alternative_to/
https://imgur.com/a/vvFKor5