Day 42...San Elijo State Park to Mexican Border

Wow!!!! Today is my last day, I can't believe it ;) I started my day with a great breakfast and soon after I went back on the road I entered the urban area of San Diego. It was a confusing ride through La Jolla but when I entered San Diego city limits I was riding along the coast on the Nimitz and Harbor Blv. After passing a lot of sailing ships and the Midway Museum I left San Diego by riding to Chula Vista and finally arrived at San Ysidrio. When I arrived at the border I was very relieved and happy that everything worked fine through my journey. So I crossed the border with my bike (It was very easy without any passport controls, I hd to ask the Mexican officer to check my passport to get my proof of delivery stamp in my passport ;)). I was riding a few hours through Tijuana and went back to the border. It took my 3,5 hours waiting in the line to get back to the states. The US border control is very tough and my complete bike and luggage was hand searched. But I made it and took a room in the motel6 near the border (47$ per night).

In total i made 3367m in distance and 27363m alt in 40 days (incl. 1 day layover in San Francisco and 2 days layover in Carpinteria). I had 7 punctures, 2 wasted rear tires and 2 broken spokes. No physical problems. So all in all a very successful adventure with a lot of nice people :)


79,8 km / 465m altitude difference

Day 41...Newport Beach to San Elijo State Park

This day was again completely different to the day before. No traffic, no industry! When I left Newport Beach I soon arrived at Laguna Beach, a very beautiful town with very nice beaches :) It was very hot today, more than 30 degrees, so it was very hard to ride. Before I arrived at Oceanside I was able to ride through Camp Pendleton, a US Marine Corps Base to avoid the Freeway. I just had to show my passport and wear a helmet. After Oceanside I passed Carlsbad and stayed at San Elijo State Park directly on the beach in my tent on the Hiker&Biker site (6$ per night). IN between I saw a campground along the road which was burned by the heavy bush fires during the last weeks. I was happy to meet there Michelle from Canada again on the Hiker&Biker site, who I lost during my layovers in Carpinteria.

110,9 km / 612m altitude difference

Day 40...Los Angeles to Newport Beach

Today was an awful day! I was riding all the day through LA with a lot of traffic and smog. It was really hard to motivate myself as the tour seems endless towards the city with a lot of stopping lights and traffic. Additionally there was a lot of oil industry along the way which caused a bad smell during the day :( When I reached Huntington Beach things became more scenic again and I decided to stay in a cheap motel at Newport Beach. I stayed in the Pine Knot Motel (35$ per night).

71,5 km / 268m in altitude difference

Day 39...Carpinteria State Beach to Los Angeles

Today was a fantastic day. After leaving Carpinteria I rode along the Highway 1, which is now called the Pacific Coast Highway, passing Ventura and Oxnard. This area is very rural with a lot of agriculture (salad, strawberry and all kind of fruits ;)) along the roads. When I left Oxnard I passed the the Channel Island Air Guard Base and came back to the coast again. The next city was Malibu where I wanted to stay originally as the area and town is very nice :). But unfortunately there was no campground and rooms were between 200$ and 300$ so I decided to push myself to Santa Monica. When I reached Santa Monica it was almost dark but with a nice view on the the Santa Monica pier and a pleasure ride along the beach. The cheapest room I found was 140$, so I toke the decision to make an easy night ride towards LA to reach the airport area with cheaper motels. So I put all my lights on I had and had an easy ride with very low traffic to the airport. I stayed here at the La Vista Motel (60$ per night). The nightrider was a very good decision to avoid the heavy traffic in LA for at least a few miles ;)

137,9 km / 610m altitude difference