Bicycling The Pacific Coast: A Complete Route Guide, Canada To Mexico (Paperback)

~ Vicky Spring (Author), (Author) "The 246.9 miles of cycling that make up the British Columbia portion of the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route are unique: The Pacific Ocean is never..." (more)
Key Phrases: shoulderless bridge, city bike route, hostel code, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you've ever dreamed of riding part or all of the Pacific Coast this is a great source of information. -- The Cascadian

This is a book to inspire dreams of rolling adventure. -- San Francisco Chronicle

[A] no-holds-barred look at doing the mighty coast highway on two wheels. -- Oregonian

[T]his comprehensive guide will help you down the road. -- Adventure Sports Journal

Product Description

More than a meticulously detailed route, this is an adventure highlighting what to see and explore along the way.

*Bike the coast in one trip or four separate adventures *Road directions, points of interest, and available restrooms and provisions all built into daily mileage logs *Elevation profiles and new Table of Essentials overview for each day's ride *More than 50,000 copies sold in previous editions

From Vancouver, B.C. to the Mexican border, Tom Kirkendall and Vicky Spring guide you turn by turn along the length of Pacific Coast Bicycle Route-all 1816.5 miles. These forty-two suggested daily itineraries (averaging 53 miles each) begin and end at campsites.

Everything you need to know about each day's ride is included: from tunnel- riding strategies to where to buy a new derailer, from one-of-a-kind museums along the way to side trips to lonely lighthouses and towering sand dunes. New to this edition is a quick-glance Table of Essentials for each daily itinerary, listing availability of bike shops, beach access, hiking trails, youth hostels, and activities.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 269 pages
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books; 4 edition (March 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898869544
• ISBN-13: 978-0898869545
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,900 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #2 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Outdoor Recreation > Cycling > Excursion Guides
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have Guide, November 27, 1999

By	Jeffrey Gaines "Jeff" (San Jose) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Bicycling the Pacific Coast: A Complete Route Guide Canada to Mexico (Paperback)

This guide is a must have for anyone wanting to ride the Pacific Coast. I just used it to for a solo ride from San Francisco to the Mexican border. The guide provides turn by turn instructions to navigate through unfamiliar territory and can even provide some surprises in areas that you may know pretty well. It was very helpful in daily planning for stops for food, water, etc. and for some unplanned needs like bike shops for repairs. The elevation guide was also very helpful in gauging when to take a break or when a big climb is over. The guide provides recommended daily rides which I altered as necessary to stop and visit friends. Obtaining a good tourist guide from AAA would provide a nice supplement to the book for other sight seeing opportunities if you have the time. This leg of my journey was 600 miles and I am looking forward to using the guide next summer on a 1200 mile ride from Vancouver, BC to San Francisco.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best of its kind, October 5, 2005

By	John Shim (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This route guide is one of the best I've seen out in the market place. It has all the details that a long distance biker on a budget would need including: road map, elevation map, descriptions of interesting sites, road conditions, traffic conditions, mileage, camping sites with levels of amenities (esp important shower), and where to get food and other supplies/services. I also liked the fact that it wasn't trying to be everything to everyone by not including detailed information on hotels, motels, restaurants, etc except for the fact that they exist or don't exist in a particular town or area.

So why did I not give them 5 stars?

1) Internal inconsistancy - there are a significant amount of these. Mostly it is where the mileage of the description doesn't match with the mileage of the elevation map. Here's an example. In the Oregon Border to Elk Prairie Campground the written route description indicates that the first summit of the Crescent City hills is at mile 34.6 but the elevation map shows that summit at 28 miles. Am I cutting hairs? You decide. But depending on your ride pace a 6-7 mile difference can be 1/2 hour, not so much of an issue in the middle of the day but it might be at the end of the day.

2) Updated content - I have a suspicion that the guide hasn't been updated even though the 4th edition came out just recently. For the most part, the guide was written in a timeless manner that prevents it from showing much age. For example, it doesn't recommend particular restaurants. But things do change. For example on the Elk Prarie Campground to Eureka KOA day the recommended route is on Hwy 101. It's very busy and a couple of nice smaller roads are recommended (Patrick's Point and Little River St Beach). But the Hammond Trail, that takes you from Clam Beach County Park, just north of McKinleyville, South for 13 miles mostly on car free paved path, isn't mentioned. I suspect the trail didn't exist when this guide was written. The authors generally go to lengths to help you avoid nasty highway riding so I suspect that this wasn't a conscious oversight.

3) Out of scale road maps with little detail - It would have been nice if they sprang for some real maps. For example in the Nehalem Bay State Park to Cape Lookout day, the written mileage shows that Cape Meares State Park to Netarts is 4.5 miles and that Netars to Cape Lookout is 6 miles. Which seems about right after biking this portion. But on the road map the distance from Netarts to Cape Lookout appears to be 5 to 6 times further.

Overall, if you are biking down the coast, absolutely get this book but suppliment it with other resources such as AAA roadmaps, Adventure Cycling's bike maps, or the Oregon Dept of Transportation "Oregon Coast Bike Route" (found at the Oregon Tourist offices).

I've ridden parts of the coast, Santa Cruz to the border and Aberdeen to Eureka and look forward to filling in the gaps. Some advice: 1) Go "off season", much of the ride is basically on heavily traveled highways. I didn't know so many RVs existed. 2) Go out of your way to meet your fellow bike tourists. I met people from all over Europe, Asia and even Americans. All with cool stories. 3) Get your bike in top notch shape, before your ride. Let's just say I toured most of the bike shops in Oregon over a four day period. Not fun. 4) Don't ride everyday and don't forget to relax.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good and Useful Guide, September 19, 2003

By	Mike Eberts (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bicycling the Pacific Coast: A Complete Route Guide Canada to Mexico (Paperback)

I bought this book from Amazon in 2002 and used it during a ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles in August 2003.

It's a very good guide. The directions for their main route were quite detailed and usually clear. I got lost a couple of times, but never badly and it may not have been the book's fault. Milage totals were usually pretty close, although there were a couple of segments that were off somewhat. The guide is much more useful if you photocopy the pages with directions. Then you can use them as daily route slips. The book can be kept in a pannier during the trip to be brought out in the evening to get an overview of the next day's route and stuff you might see along the way.

I also enjoy the overall feeling that it was written by dyed-in-the-wool cyclists for dyed-in-the-wool cyclists. This authenticity comes out sometimes in little asides, such as the authors' comment that a northbound tunnel near Gaviota (CA) is like riding through a high-suction vacuum hose. If you've ridden a bicycle through that tunnel, you'd know how dead-on that description is.

I didn't give the book 5 stars (although I would have given it 4.5 if there was an option) because it doesn't provide much for the bicycle tourist who prefers hotels and hostels to camping. An appendix with a listing of youth hostels and a selection of cyclist-friendly hotels on the route would make the guide more complete. It would be especially helpful if the authors did this for the more remote regions on the route. The authors also might want to add a little more commentary and detail to the alternate routes they sometimes suggest. For example, the authors suggest an inland route along US101 as an alternate to Highway 1 through Big Sur when the road is closed (which happens fairly often) or during the height of the tourist season. Well, if you're going to suggest a 100-mile detour, do more than just put a shaded line on a not-very-detailed map. (By the way, I don't completely agree with the authors' assertion that Hwy 1 through Big Sur is too trafficy to comfortably ride during the tourist season. Maybe it is on weekends, but I went through on a Monday and traffic was only moderate and not particularly hard to deal with.)

Overall, though, this book is well worth the money.