September 6, 2003-- We had a record turnout for the Amtrak Century! Over 40 BCI members participated in this year’s event.

The Irvine Transportation was dark when many people arrived and was buzzing with activity! Many of our members did wear their BCI jerseys that made it easy to greet each other this early in the morning. People were hugging each other and deciding whom they would begin the ride with. After a smooth and quick check-in process, we received our maps and wristbands, checked in our coolers and began to review the ride directions. Some of us were surprised to learn that we would spend the first twenty miles touring Irvine and Lake Forest before getting on the main route that leads to San Diego. It was like starting the Amtrak Century by first doing a BCI ride.

The first rest stop was in San Juan Capistrano and was well stocked with breads, muffins and fruit. We even had nice bathrooms with flush toilets. The volunteers were great!

The second rest stop was near Camp Pendleton and fueled us up just before we had to ride the 5 Freeway. Those of us who have ridden the Summer Solstice for the last two years are use to riding the freeway. But, whether it was familiar or not, it’s always quite an experience to try and “hold your line” with a big rig sucking on your wheel. I’m certain I did my fasted mileage on that portion of the ride.

The third section of the ride was quite pleasant and again, reminiscent of the Summer Solstice ride. The lunch stop was at the 63-mile mark, just about fifteen miles before we had to do the infamous Torrey Pines. Actually, Torrey Pines wasn’t bad, although it was quite warm on that hill. If you can ride Newport Coast, you can ride Torrey Pines. It may be a bit longer, but it didn’t seem as steep. And, unlike Newport Coast, there was ice cream passed out at the top, our final rest stop. Yum!

At the top of the hill, a sign that said the train would leave promptly at 4:00 p.m. greeted us. This caused some concern as we thought the train left at 4:30 p.m. Evidently, it was just to encourage us to get going and finish the ride as the train really did leave at 4:30 p.m. The last 18 miles were fairly easy, but there were some challenging merges with traffic. At several points, just to make life interesting, we found ourselves sandwiched between traffic on the left and traffic merging from the right.

We were all happy to see the finish line in San Diego. We had to wait in line about 20 minutes to load the bikes onto the semi-truck. After that, we retrieved our cooler from the well-organized line-up and ran to meet the train.

On the train, BCI took over at least one car. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that shortly after the train pulled out of the station, the gourmet food came out and was shared with everyone. There was wine and margaritas, brie and crackers and roasted vegetable sandwiches.