Southern California Certainly has its Mountain Ranges. The Santa Monica Mountains are a tough row to how while transversing them on a bicycle and in doing so I have seen broken down cars, which could not make it thru the Mountain Passes. But the Santa Monica Mountains are foothills compared to the San Bernardino Mountains with peaks of Nearly 8,000 feet. Yes, it gets mighty cold up there indeed. Then there is Mount Whitney, which is the tallest peak in the Continental US, which is connected to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

There are some other tough mountain ranges in California and one extreme bicycling route I would like to recommend, but I also wish to warn you that you will need a warm up first. So start in Hemet CA and ride to Parris CA and then head up Highway 74 and at Lake Elsinore straight up and over the Mountain you go. The Cleveland National Forest Mountains that is.

Once you hit the top you will coast into San Juan Capistrano for lunch and then 1 mile more and you are at the Pacific Ocean in beautiful San Clemente, CA. A nice 25-mile ride along the beach to New Port Beach takes you past Laguna Beach and there are bike paths too. Make a day of it.