Quote Originally Posted by bcipam
but Brandy how familiar are you with riding around Orange County? Where have you ridden? One of my favorite "holiday" rides (which means because of traffic and people we have to go slo and cautiously at points) is to do Back Bay, to Bayview to Balboa Island, use the Ferry to the Pennisula, out to the end, take the Pennisula back to PCH, turn left to the River trail, go up the Santa Ana River trail and turn back towards Tustin/Irvine. I think that's about 40 miles or so (50 if we take the trail up to Orange or so) but its the "scenic" route. Lots of people and things to gawk at if you are in to that sort of thing.
Pam...my rides so far have been limited to the last six miles of the Santa Ana River Trail, the beach bike paths and the bike lanes on the roads around HB. I haven't done much riding in heavy traffic and I will admit that the thought of riding on Laguna Canyon Road and PCH from Laguna scared me a little...but I know I need to get over that sooner or later!

I'm not sure if they were just working on it yesterday or if it's closed permanently, but the Santa Ana River Trail was closed at the underpass that was just past McFadden (not sure of the street name, but it was just past the 6.0 mile mark) and I wasn't sure how sketchy the neighborhood was so I turned around and went back toward the beach.

9am is fine with me too and honestly, I would be fine with a shorter ride since this will be my first time riding with other people. Plan away Pam!