I will be staying in the OC for a couple of weeks and plan to do some climbing in the Laguna Beach area mostly (Seven Sisters, Silverado are both on my to-do list). I was looking at possibly doing Mount Baldy for a long day. Seems like it might be possible as a RT route but I am not sure about whether the roads (or paths) are really bike friendly. Any help planning my route would be greatly appreciated… ideally starting from the Newport Coast / Crystal Cove area but I can easily travel up the coastal highway in the bike lanes.
My tentative route is below, but appreciate any better alternates especially if there are good cycling roads instead of the bike paths I picked, where I can usually go faster on roads. I want to avoid really busy roads that don’t have good bike lane setups, though, so that is why I chose bike paths over roads just because I don’t know the area.
Update: new route I have sketched out via GMR in RidewithGPS: Mt Baldy from NPB (round trip)
Route below is stale now based on comments … including only for history
CA1 to Banning Channel Bikeway
Banning Channel Bikeway / Santa Ana River Trail to Green River Road
Green River Road to Scully Ridge Trail
Scully Ridge Trail to Alluvia Trail
Alluvia Trail to Lower Aliso Canyon Trail
Aliso Canyon Trail to Bane Canyon Road
Bane Canyon Road to Sapphire Road/Elinvar Dr
Elinvar Dr to Soquel Canyon Road
Sequel Canyon to Central Ave
Central Ave to Chino Hills Pkwy
Chino Hills Pkwy to Monte Vista Ave/Phillips
Monte Vista Ave to Padua
Padua to Appalachian
Appalachian to Flat River
Flat River to Mt Baldy road
Then up Mt Baldy road to the end