San Diego County's coastline extends from the Mexican border through several beach towns and up to the Orange County border.

It alternates between long stretches of sandy beaches and cliffs with stunning views of the ocean.

Throughout the years, we explored many of the beaches by car. This time we decided to go on a 4-hour bike ride along this beautiful coastline.

My wife and I were very ambitious! We wanted to start from the city of San Diego and pedal all the way to Carlsbad. It was a great plan, but it hit the rocky road real quick.

We started our trek from the Point Loma Heights neighborhood, where we rented our electric bikes from Top Jolt Bicycle shop. This place came highly recommended with a 4.5 rating on TripAdvisor.

The first part of this adventure took us through local streets where we had to compete with cars on the road. The drivers mostly respected our right of way. Our struggle on those side streets didn't last for long. We soon reached clearly marked bike lanes which made the ride much more enjoyable.  

We soon left the streets altogether and entered the Ocean Beach Athletic Area, which led us to the San Diego River Bikeway.

The bike trail followed Mission Bay Drive close to Sea World, circled around Mission Bay and Sail Bay, entered a residential area for a short distance then entered another bike trail at Pacific Beach.

Just before we circled the bay, we hit a major snag in our plans. One of our bikes had a loose seat that made it impossible to ride. We contact Top Jolt for help, and the owner was ready to jump into the van and rush to our aid. But luckily, we didn't have to wait. We found a guy with tools who helped us tighten the seat.

We continued our ride through Pacific Beach, La Jolla Hermosa, and finally made it to La Jolla Cove.  All along the way, we enjoyed great views of beaches and coves – and plenty of people enjoying the beautiful weather.

On some stretches of the beach, the trail got so crowded we could hardly bike through. But we made it half-way to our planned destination, had a picnic lunch at a lovely park overlooking the ocean.

After some much-needed rest, we started our trek back. Even though we hit almost the same trails and streets, we got to enjoy different views.

The electric bikes help us overcome some of the steep climbs along the way, but at the same time, they were somewhat limiting. Towards the end, the battery charge indicator was all the way down to 1 bar.

I couldn't help wondering how we will make it all the way to Carlsbad or Oceanside for our next trip.  

If you like to follow our trail, go to this Google Earth Map.