Capistrano Caper (Medium)

Distance: 47 miles and 2400 feet of elevation gain (mapping software) (1800 feet without hill)

All routes are together for at least the first 10 miles. They all head over to the San Juan Creek trail and take that down to the coast. We ride south along the coast for a while and then do some low hills in the community above the coast. When we get to San Clemente, the short route peels off, but the long and medium continue together. The long and medium head up into the San Clemente hills with a very steep climb that goes on for at least a mile and a half (the big spike on the profile). However, the route sheet includes instructions on how to skip this hill and cut off about 600 feet of climbing (not shown on the map). After coming down out of the hills, the routes continue south through San Clemente to the coastal bike route. We follow this south as it takes us along the old coast hwy, past the San Onofre power plant, through the San Onofre camp ground and on down to Pendleton. While the long continues south, this medium route turns around here to go back along the coast bike route to San Clemente for lunch. After lunch we take the posted bike route through San Clemente and then north along the coast to Capistrano and back to the start. As you can see by the profile, there is only the one major climb, but lots of smaller hills which all tend to add up.

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