Newport Coast Road - Hills

I like to challenge myself on hills and today was just such an opportunity. I left from Huntington Beach at Brookhurst for what turned out to be a 22 mile trip going south on Pacific Coast Highway. Bicycling through Newport is always a scary place since there are cars parked along the road and very little room between the "car door zone" and the cars coming from behind. I turned off PCH at Bayside Drive and thought about my son Tod getting hit by a truck on his bike on this road, he turned out just fine, just scratched up. I headed up past Balboa Island to Fernleaf, the road that has a 12% climb up to upper Corona Del Mar. Around the corner on to Ocean Blvd which overlooks the channel out to the ocean between Balboa and Corona Del Mar, and happens to be where I proposed to my wife on a beautiful summer evening as the sun was setting. My goal is to make it to Newport Coast road which has a 6-8% grade for nearly 3 miles, but I'm running out of water so I needed to stop into one of the Crystal Cove Beach sites and fill up before my climb. The climb was slow and long, but I made it and hope to do better the next time I head back out for this ride. The ride down reached speeds of 34 mph and with the wind off the ocean hitting me in the face, I was a little wobbly, I had to slow down a little. Riding on PCH through Corona was interesting and close quarters between the cars, and the rest of the ride was pretty fast getting back, I would do that ride again.