Microadventuring, mini tours etc

On the 20th I'll be riding from Los Angeles to San Diego. 180ish miles over 3 days. Travelling light. Not the most arduous of tours but it will be a blast nonetheless. Any recommendations or advice for choice spots to visit along the way very gratefully received.

Cheers, we ended up doing something similar just using Google maps' suggested bike routes, which I only had to override once or twice when narrow off-road shared-use routes were getting too annoying. Highlights were some gorgeous country lanes just up from Winchester, and discovering the Saturn Trail running alongside the Basingstoke Canal, which took us through virtually all of Surrey before a short bit of A road into Cobham.

This was the final leg of a five day tour from Exeter to London, 260 miles including a 20-mile potter on a "rest day" in the New Forest. For novice tourers I like to think we got most things right, with just a few tweaks of the kit list for next time.

Pics 1 and 5 look like you're doing it right to me.

Choosing between the local ciders or the local golden ales was one of the biggest dilemmas of the trip. We lucked out with the weather though, so cider usually won during the day. :)

I reckon a username change to PhilCafé is in order. :)

I like it, although the pubs probably out-numbered the cafés...

How did you find the Saturn trail. I'd seen it marked on a map but was wary of it as I did wonder if it would just be mud and stones, like so many of the National Cycle Routes.

Off to France for a sneaky 4 day micro-tour this weekend. Same deal - light as I can go.

As far as I'm aware it's on the canal towpath, so it'll be "changeable". So anything from dry-hard packed mud to gloop.

A bit of the canal through woking is tarmac IIRC.

Where we got on it at Farnborough it was very rough, loose stones rather than gravel, and quite badly rutted. OK for mountain bikes but not so good on loaded road bikes, especially MsPub's Giant Defy with 25c front! We persevered with an eye on resorting to the road if it didn't get any better, but thankfully it did after a mile or two. The vast majority of it is either tarmac/gravel or hard-packed/gravel and even surface. Shared space but not too busy with pedestrians. Friendly dogs.

Lovely scenery, some locks, the odd barge and lots of local residents' rear garden envy!

did you go yet?
cheers

Nice, that's my neck of the woods.

I need to get away for a bit and want to make the most of the bank holiday weekend by riding around somewhere interesting for three days. But I have no idea where to go. I was thinking of going to France but can't decide where... any suggestions? I can't leave before Saturday morning and I have to be back on Monday night.

Wales? Get train to Cardiff saturday morning and one back monday. (if trainins running on BH)

Where would you recommend riding? I don't know Wales at all!

For Wales inspiration I'd get Jack Thurston's Lost Lanes. It's giving me itchy feet!

Good call. I've a copy of Lost Lanes you can borrow if you want @hats

An alternative might be to ride to Newhaven, get the ferry to Dieppe, then head north east before getting a ferry back from Calais to Dover.

That would be brilliant, thanks! Whereabouts are you? I'm Vauxhall by day, Brixton by night.

Will you be at Souths on Wednesday?

Could well be - not until at least 7.30 though as I'm on dog walking duties :)

I'm on child putting to bed duties, so after 7:30 suits me.

I said Wales, because it's somewhere I've never really explored but really want to.
I all to often fall into going far away. When there are really beautiful places waiting here.
Plus it suits your short time sclae a lot better than going across chanel.

You've hit the nail on the head here -I also usually feel I should go far away when there are some amazing places close to home. It's like I feel I need to get value for money on my passport! I've been to the other side of the world but I've never been to Wales (other than to Holyhead).

I recently did a 2 day mini tour round Shropshire, based on routes 24-26 in the Lost Lanes book. I'll do a proper write up some time, but it was great, would really recommend the area.

Some of the real highlights of a LEJOG I did last year were the SW and into Wales. Something like Taunton - Somerset Levels - Cheddar Gorge - Mendips - Bristol - Wye Valley - Monmouth - Abergavenny - Black Mountains (Hay Bluff) - Brecons - is just perfect, the scenery varies so much, as do the villages/towns/cities you come through. I loved it.