Directions around San Diego

I'd guess that's at least 40 miles of dodging cars each way just to get there. I'd suggest you take the San Diego/North County Transit (ie, bus) to a more friendly starting point. The busses all have bike racks on the front.

alienator said:

I'm gonna be at a conference in San Diego, next week, and will be likely to head to Mt. Palomar. What I'd like to do is ride there on my bike. So, can some come with a bike-friendly route from, say, the Convention center downtown (because I don't remember which hotel I'll be at) to Mt. Palomar? The Mapquest route doesn't look to friendly for bicycles.

Thanks.

Did you ever ride it? Was going to be out that way this weekend and like you mentioned, the maps don't tell me how bike friendly the roads are.

cPritch67 said:

Did you ever ride it? Was going to be out that way this weekend and like you mentioned, the maps don't tell me how bike friendly the roads are.

Not sure what you define as bike friendly but the roads are pretty busy if you stay on the main roads (i.e. the "I don't know the area" roads). The shoulders of the actual climb are reasonable (and there's not a lot of traffic, at least the shorter, steeper side). But the roads getting to the base of the climb (the shorter, steeper side) are not real fun - narrow shoulders, rough pavement in sections. There was lots of construction a town over in Feb (Center Valley?). Near that town I actually had a guy in a pickup look at me and pull out of his driveway at me while I was descending at 40+. Then he looked in the mirror, took aim, and swerved onto the shoulder. I had to take pretty aggressive action to stay upright.

This year I never made it to the top, just part of the way.

Would I go back there? Yes. I stayed out by the coast and I'd prefer to drive and then ride instead of ride 30+ miles to get to the climb.

hope this helps,
cdr

Did you search on http://trail.motionbased.com/ to look for bike loops

There are quite a few Mt. Palomar routes that I see there, not necessarily starting from the city.

lawrence