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

*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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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

"The" Book is my coast cycling Bible, 2008-07-03
I bought this because I wore out the old copy I had and it was a little out of date. This book is so valuable to cyclist up and down the coast that they simply refer to it as "The book". While I did notice some inaccurate information, specifically, the book mentions that there is no camping on Hornby Island while I stayed in a huge campground there, It is mostly accurate as I read it cover to cover upon receipt to relive my last ride from Powell River BC to Seattle. This book is indispensable for anyone considering cycling any part of the coast from Canada to Mexico. Don't leave home without it!


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Inaccuracies Abound, 2008-04-05
Today, I finished cycling the Pacific Coast from the Oregon border to Los Angeles [900 miles] and can say without hesitation this is one of the most inaccurate guidebooks I've ever used. Mileages often were wrong; elevations frequently were wrong [one climb described in the book as 800' turned out to be 300']; climbs were in the wrong place; towns which were on the bottom of climbs were placed by the book at the top; important places were missed entirely; the maps often did not conform to road maps. Worse, some alternate routes, such as the ride over San Marcos Pass into Santa Barbara, were described positively, but were found to be hellish experiences---5,000' total of climbing, bumper-to-bumper traffic driving at high speeds, minimal shoulders. The authors also missed some obvious alternate routes, such as Santa Rosa Road from Lompoc to Buellton, a gorgeous lightly-traveled country road through wine country in favor of highway 154, a boring 4-lane highway with fast-moving traffic.

A much more accurate, and easier to use, cycling guide is the Krebs map for the Northern California coast. Unfortunately, Krebs has published no map for the Southern California section. Let's hope Krebs produces a riding guide for the rest of California.

Despite the many inaccuracies of the Kirkendall book, this is a great bike ride and no one should be deterred by a crappy guidebook. Some sections are absolutely sublime. Riding from Half Moon Bay to Morro Bay in three days, our riders, some of them very experienced [one had ridden the Road Across America], said, "This is the most beautiful day of riding I've ever had," only to say the next day, "Today was even better." Some of the riding encounters fast traffic and no or small shoulders, so take care in those sections. Also, avoid weekends in the more tourist-oriented sections.


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Good basic guide, mainly for the maps, 2007-04-23
We just completed a coastal ride from San Francisco to Mexico. I bought this book prior to the trip hoping it would shed some light on what to expect, tips, training, etc. I was initially disappointed.

But..as we started our trip we found the maps were very valuable (the rest of the book..so/so). The altitude scales were okay, but good enough to set some level of expectations. They didn't always reflect the map in the right scale, but it worked well enough. We initially thought we could ride route 1 the whole way, but found we couldn't in many of the bigger cities, which is where the book came in handy. The maps showed which side streets to take. You can also follow bike signs or bike lanes along the way, but they're not always around when needed. We usually ripped the page out of the book and only carried the small map vs a bunch of maps. You will be surprised how many different maps you would need to carry. Use the book and maps as a general guide, but don't be afraid to wing it. In a few areas like Santa Cruz, South LA, La Jolla and South San Diego (near the boarder) we couldn't find the streets on the map. We got lost, but usually found our way via other streets using general navigation.

Other tips the book doesn't give...wear bright colors, in SF and LA you will be on busy streets with cars zipping by. I hear going in April or Sept are best to avoid tourists and still have really good weather. We used Yahoo Yellow Pages to print out high level city maps with all the hotels listed with contact info and pre-plotted on the map. This was very handy when trying to find a motel in the evening. I also recommend buying the toughest tires you can find (i.e. Specialized Armadillos). Normal road tires are too soft and get too many holes. Between the two of us we had 6 flats and a tire slash in the first day leaving SF..very discouraging. We bought heavy duty tires at a bike shop in Santa Cruz and never got another one the whole trip! We avg. about 78 miles per day with an avg. speed of 15.5 miles per hour, allowing us to get from SF to Mexico in 8 days. Make sure you know how your bike fits you and your body reacts to long days, esp multiple days. I started to ice my knee and quads every night, which made me feel much better the next day. All in all...it was a lot of fun!


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent Trip Guide, 2007-02-15
I used this book for a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles and found it to be extremely useful for determining route, elevation changes, distances and overnight stops. Its up-to-date and informative, and you don't have to follow the described overnight stops for it to be useful. I brought regular maps for the trip, but ended up only using BTPC for reference throughout. The book is portable enough to bring along for the ride, or you can easily photocopy just the pages you need and stick them in your mapcase. I'll be taking another trip further up the coast this year and will be using this guidebook again.


5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Just OK, 2006-11-03
This book should really be titled, "Touring the Pacific Coast By Bicycle" because it really isn't about the cycling. Following the route in this book pretty much takes you on the most direct route down the coast and misses some great riding roads. Might be OK if you are pulling a trailer or carrying too much stuff but if you are travelling light and like riding, I'd suggest the Adventure Cycling and Krebs Maps as better routes. It does suggest some nice parks to stay at but I found it not worth the weight and ended up leaving it at a friends halfway through my trip.

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