March 29, 2024

Mountain Bike Bill weighs in with a review of the San ELijo Hills area trail system. Mountain Bike Bill provides  reviews, pictures, maps and videos of the mountain bike rides in Southern California . Click here to read Mountain Bike Bill’s review

2 thoughts on “Mountain Bike Bill weighs in on The San Elijo Hills trail system

  1. As a resident of San Elijo Hills and an avid trail runner and (not-so-avid) mountain biker, I tried to read this review without getting too defensive. He is writing as a mountain biker, and after thinking about his review, I would tend to agree, the trails on the trail map listed as the “18 miles of trails” in San Elijo Hills are not good mountain biking trails.

    I love this area, I grew up in Encinitas and have lived in Carlsbad, La Costa, Del Mar and Solana Beach, and when I decided to settle on a place to raise my family, I chose San Elijo Hills. One of the big draws for me and my wife was the trail network. I realize that the trails here are for the most part not ideal for mountain bikes and are not meadow singletracks, but I appreciate the planning that went into adding trails within the community instead of sidewalks. This is the one community that I have found in North County that implemented a trail network and left open spaces around the concentration of houses, and tried to keep some of the pre-development trails, wildlife and flora intact (I also appreciate the “Keep Out – Give Life a Chance” sign that is directed at the children who walk to and from school and may try to create shortcuts through the area).

    I think “Mountain Bike Bill’s” main complaint was that the trails are too wide and some are paved. This is true, and if the trails were designed for mountain bikers, he would have a legitimate complaint with the trail system, but the trails were not designed for mountain bikers, they were designed for the community of San Elijo HIlls, children who walk to school instead of having their parents drive them, couples who walk down to the coffee shop on the weekends, the guy that takes his dog for a daily 10 minute walk, the people who use the trail along San Elijo Road for hill repeat training for their next half marathon.

    I do a lot of running on these trails, and I appreciate that I am not forced to run on sidewalk, or on the street into oncoming traffic. I use the wide trails, and the paved trails to take me to the lesser known trails around San Elijo Hills, the trails that “Mountain Bike Bill” seems to be looking for, but did not find here, the trails that aren’t labeled “Secret” or otherwise, the trails that aren’t on the trail map and aren’t considered part of the 18 miles of trails, although there are more than 18 miles of them. They are here, and I would be glad to take “Mountain Bike Bill” on a ride. a hike, or a run through some of them, and even buy him a beer afterwards on one condition, that he promise not to write about them, because the less crowded the real secret trails are, the better.

  2. There are plenty of great trails easy walks from our homes, just mostly not within the actual SEH HOA area. Sage Hills rocks.

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