A friend is riding SF - Los Angeles next week and is looking for some info for the segment from Santa Barbara south. I have ridden Santa Barbara to Ventura (then up to Ojai) but am unfamiliar with continuing on. Is there a reasaonable bike route from Ventura south, other than State 1 and local minor alternatives.
I know it gets uglier the closer you get, but I don't seen an alternative. They suggested 150 through Ojai and on, but that doesn't look reasonable to me (although I have ridden like both 150 and the 33 bike path to Ojai and beyond). -- Steve Juniper
"The Bush administration's 'war on terror' is legal nonsense - conferring no more powers on the US to detain prisoners than the 'war against obesity' - and President Bush's policy of pre-emptive self-defence is clearly illegal under international law." -- Elizabeth Wilmshurst - Int'l Law expert --
There are several reasonable alternatives but it depends to where in Los Angeles you want to go. Assuming you want to go to the Santa Monica PCH through Malibu is acceptable. From the Ventura Harbor at Seaward take Harbor Blvd south about seven miles and bear left onto Channel Islands Boulevard. Follow that for two miles and take a right (south) onto Ventura Boulevard. Take Ventura Boulevard south for almost two miles and take a left (east) onto Hueneme Road (pronounced Why-Knee-Me). Follow Hueneme Road for just over 4.5 miles and bear right onto Navalair Road (this is just before a freeway overpass).(*) Follow Navalair Road for a little over 2.5 miles to where it ends and turn left (turning right would require a military id). Just after turning there will be a freeway entrance ramp heading south onto US 1. Take this entrance ramp (and ignore the "no bicyles" sign) and it will in a few yards stop being a freeway and become plain old PCH. Follow PCH about 42 miles all the way to Santa Monica.
If you want to avoid PCH for some reason there are inland alternatives. There is a way to avoid virtually all traffic but it requires hill work.
(*) Last time I rode this a few months ago there was a major road project digging up part of Hueneme Road. Hopefully it is done by now or at least isn't too messy.
