I guided one of the days for Bill and Roger on their 5 day Southern California adventure motorcycle tour because I knew this particular area best. Years ago, my motorcycle lived in Orange County even though I did not, and this was the closest riding area, so I hit it often and know which trails are adventure motorcycle friendly. When I was active duty in the U.S. Navy and stationed in Hawaii, I got sick of the Hawaii mud after a particularly terrible day where I must have dropped my 2017 Honda CRF250L- my first motorcycle that I learned on- 30 times, cracked the gas tank gasket while deep in the rainforest, and barely made it out. The Honda is a heavier bike than the high performance dual sports, but cheaper, and has longer maintenance intervals. I had done extensive modifications to lighten that bike up and add some power, but it was still 300 lbs, which I got to deadlift 30 times that day. After that experience, I vowed “no more mud!” and shipped my bike to the mainland to keep my dual sport in my grandpa’s garage in Newport Beach, CA. I used to ride it, engine screaming at 64 mph, tailbag and saddlebags full of my stuff, all over Southern California, to Superstition OHV area or San Diego to meet my friends, or to Big Bear for all the amazing offroad and hiking there. The joke was on me, because later in my career, the Navy shipped me to Mississippi- plenty of mud there!
Anyway, germane to this story, the area of Orange County where I took Bill and Roger was basically the closest interesting riding to my grandpa’s house. There are offroad trails there in the Santa Ana mountains, although some can be rocky or very rutted and better suited for dual sport motorcycles. There is also the renowned twisty Ortega Highway (highway 74), which sportbikers in particular like to zoom through. Ortega Highway connects Orange County and Riverside County, and spits out near Temecula (Southern California Wine Country), where you can ride more windy backroads through orchards and vineyards. There are even creeks tumbling through those scenic hills.
I took Bill and Roger up the coast, through Mission and Pacific Beach, stopping at the Torrey Pines Gliderport for its fantastic ocean view. We continued up Pacific Coast Highway until it runs into Camp Pendleton and dumps you onto I-5 North. The interstate stretch is worth it when you turn onto Ortega Highway and its many fast, sweeper turns through the mountains. We took North Main Divide road up for a few miles to a stunning viewpoint where the mountains drop off below you and you can see Lake Elsinore and across the valley to Mount San Jacinto and Mount San Gorgonio. Then we rode the switchbacks down into Lake Elsinore and turned south into vineyard and orchard country near Fallbrook, where there are more winding roads and even some mellow offroad. I avoided I-15 for a while with a series of picturesque canyon roads running north-south through bucolic agricultural areas, before you are forced to accept the freeway ride in traffic the rest of the way home. Lane-splitting- that’s a real Southern California motorcycle riding experience right there!