PCR Bike Tour Day 8 of 39 Mexico border to Carlsbad. Beautiful San Diego and mechanical issue

PCR Bike Tour Day 8 of 39 Mexico border to Carlsbad. Beautiful San Diego and mechanical issue

Today I start heading north from the border, up the coastline when possible and hopefully through Oregon to the Washington border. I will follow the popular bike touring “Pacific Coast Route” (PCR) for most of the rest of the tour, In places I will break from the official PCR and make my own way. The PCR also continues through Washington to Canada, which I do not plan to do at this time.

My ride was slow, not because of huge climbs or harsh headwinds but because there were so many interesting points and places to stop and take pictures. Below is just a small sample of photos. They are in approximate timeline order of the ride.

Early in the ride goes along established paths and mounds of salt in Chula Vista
Yacht on boatlift
Ride past Navy base San Diego
Very industrial area and busy. Bike lane in the road is the worst condition I have ridden.
Parking seemed quite limited in the industrial working area. This Car’s driver is creative.
Entering San Diego from the south
San Diego’s Petco Park home of the Padres and train yard
Huge unconditional surrender statue
Unconditional surrender statue, bike and USS Midway in background
Bob Hope memorial statues
Old wooden sailing ship in San Diego harbor
Coast Guard helicopter takes off from base
Cancer survival Park
Off-roading walker for those that want to stay active
Ride along Mission Beach Boardwalk
Example of ideal eating opportunity while bike touring. This one found in Mission Beach. You can order your food and eat it, all within close proximity of bike and equipment.
Slow riding along Mission Beach path due to heavy use, but there are many places to eat, shop and view the beach.
Really unique looking house near La Jolla.
There are a lot of sea lions and seals at La Jolla
Kayakers near La Jolla
I took a detour off my intended route on this cool off-road cliffside path.
Unfortunately I found the cliffside path had stairs on it. I’m stubborn and don’t like to backtrack, so I carried my bike down and up them.

I rode many more mile past Torrey Pines and Solana beach. To make up time, I resisted stopping as much.

About 11 miles from my planned stopping point I heard a ping. I experienced my first mechanical issue of the tour. Just the night before I had a discussion with my camp neighbors about possible spoke breaking, if you can continue to ride on it and what are the repair options. Murphy’s law allows me to find out.

Notice the open hole in the hub and the loose spoke.

In this case I was able to carefully ride. It was only a little out of true but I rode very carefully the rest of the way. As good luck would have it, I was already planning to meet my wife and I think I have the needed supplies to attempt a repair.

Real boat houses
Made it to Carlsbad
Mural in Carlsbad. Taking pictures of murals is one of my themed objectives when riding. I was able to capture many of them today.
Home for the night

We were able to meet up Chris and his family for dinner at Angelo’s burgers. Chris is my son’s best friend growing up and we haven’t seen him for years. Thanks all for meeting with us and the place recommendation. It was spectacular.

Tomorrow I attempt to repair both my wheel and my body. I’m getting some sun burned spots and numbness in my left wrist. I may need to take a “rest” day

Ride summary: 5/10 difficulty, 61 miles with 2000 feet climbing. One broken spoke.

Today’s detailed GPS information


6 responses to “PCR Bike Tour Day 8 of 39 Mexico border to Carlsbad. Beautiful San Diego and mechanical issue”

    • When bicycling you can see so much more. But there is still only so much time so you do have to limit where you stop. Of course you can’t cover as much ground as driving either.

  1. I love all those statues, sculptures, and murals, especially the Unconditional Surrender one. Very cool.

    • Yes that was a very cool statue. I am capturing a lot of mural pictures, I haven’t shared very many of them yet.

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