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| Shady Canyon Bikeway in Irvine |
The Quail Hill Preserve is a fun little dirt loop located
just off the 405 freeway in Irvine. It’s
more suited for a short walk or a leisurely ride on your mountain bike. It’s
also a great jumping off point for the Shady Canyon Bikeway in Irvine. You can park your car in the Quail Hill
Preserve parking lot and experience one of the best paved bike trails in all of
Orange County.
As you head south from the preserve, the Shady Canyon
Bikeway passes through some really beautiful neighborhoods. The grade is uphill for the first mile and a
half and downhill for the next mile, so you can get a nice workout in a
relatively short period of time. At 2.5
miles south of the Quail Hill Preserve, The Shady Canyon Bikeway links up with the
Bommer Canyon Trail, or you can continue west on the paved bike trail and link
up with the Bonita Canyon trail. Bommer
Canyon is a dirt trail which will take you all the way to Crystal Cove. You’ll
need a mountain bike, a helmet and a lot of time to make it to the beach and
back up. I don’t recommend attempting a 20 mile round-trip beach journey it
unless you are a beast, because the ride back up Crystal Cove is
pretty rough.
If you want to start at the Quail Hill Preserve and ride
North on the Shady Canyon Bikeway, there is a good route which will connect you
to the University Trail. You can link up with the University Trail and head west
towards
William R Mason Regional Park. This route is a leisurely 8 mile round-trip
ride on a paved trail. I highly recommend plotting your route on Google first, because the trails in Irvine can be very confusing and they essentially go on forever in every direction.
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| Shady Canyon Bikeway Orange County California |
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| Shady Canyon Bikeway in Irvine California |
