Distance: 21.5 miles
Elevation: 1,530 ft
Moving Time: 1:55
This ride is a tough one where your first ten miles are all hill climbing. However, it’s worth it for the scenic ride back down. It’s also worth noting that this cycling route is on defined bikeways for 90% of the ride and, in the places where you are not on defined bikeways, the streets are wide and traffic is light.
You start at the northeast corner of the Snapdragon Stadium complex, where along the river bike path you’ll find the path either turns towards the stadium or continues along between a chain link fence and an overpass for Friars road. Follow that path under the overpass and past the gasoline storage depot on the left. The continuous hill climbing starts when you come off the path onto Murphy Canyon Road. You’ll ride for 5.3 miles before making a right on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. Continue on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. for 1.1 miles and turn left on Santo Road. Once you reach the end of Santo Road you’ll find a crosswalk to a bike path that loops around the onramp to Highway 52.
On Highway 52 you’ll encounter the Mega Hill. It’s a roughly 2 mile stretch with 400ft of climb going the opposite direction on a busy highway. Now, that may sound intimidating but you are guarded from traffic by heavy concrete K-rails. Once you reach the top of the pass you are met with a continuous downhill stretch of about 2.5 miles.
At the end of the Highway 52 bike path you’ll make a quick left and the next right onto West Hills Parkway which dead ends into Mission Gorge Road. From here, you can continue on the Mission Gorge Road bike lane, however the far more scenic option is to stay right onto Father Junipero Serra Trail which takes you through Mission Trails Regional Park along a class I bikeway. Here, since it’s downhill and there are lots of pedestrians, you will have to go slowly, but you may want to already because the path follows the winding San Diego River through a steep mountain canyon. It’s at this point where I encourage you hop off your bike and take a break to sit by the river.
The Father Junipero Serra Trail will meet back up with Mission Gorge Road at its end and from there you continue down Mission Gorge for another 3.8 miles until you reach the light at Rancho Mission Road. Here I recommend that you use the crosswalk to go left. If you continue on Friars Road (which is what Mission Gorge road turns into) then you’ll be in the thick of it with cars trying to merge onto Interstate 15. The bike lane also ends here and starts up again past the onramps.
Take Rancho Mission Road until you reach the bottom of the hill and go right on San Diego Mission Road. Once you go over Interstate 15 you’ll be back in the SnapDragon Stadium Complex and you will have completed your bike ride.
I love this cycling route for when I want a rewarding challenge. Only half the ride is tough and uphill but once you conquer that, you have scenic and smooth sailing for the remainder. Enjoy!