San Juan Trail

My original plans for the day were to head up to San Bernardino and ride the SART but didn't feel like driving for 2 hours by myself to ride the trails. Also a little heat wave has been rolling through so I wanted to say closer to the coast. I heard that the San Juan Trail was one of the best in the area also so I decided to try my hand on it instead as its located in Orange County which is closer. I got there about 10 AM with 2 cars already in the parking lot and started my long, long, long climb up to the top. Its about an 7.5 mile climb to the top before you get any sort of downhill that allows you to let up. I felt good for the first 2.5 miles of climbing cleaning all but one of the switchbacks. I then started to get tired and the trail was pretty rutted forcing me to walk a few of the steeper sections.

The trail was exposed the whole time except for a small portion of it around the 8 mile mark when you come into a small meadow. I stopped there to cool down in the shade as I was draining my camelback quicker then I planned for. I had thought about turning around since I was low on water and only had a few ounces in my water bottle left. I decide to stick it out as I knew my climbing for the day was almost over. I headed out again walking quite a bit of the trail as it was extremely rocky and I was feeling mentally tired. I hadn't brought any gels and I needed some sugar because I was bonking.

As I started my decent I was feeling good but crashing a few times. One of them causing me to go over the bars into some bushes that ripped my shorts exposing my ass. Luckily I had just passed two girls on the trail and was hoping that would be the last bit of people that I would see as I still had a few more miles to go. I made it down without mooning anyone and quickly threw on a pair of shorts I had brought.

My overall feeling off this trail is that the downhill wasn't all that great as it was extremely rutted and too many switchbacks so that you can't sustain speed. I will not be back to ride this trail again unless I need to work on my climbing more but with Elfin Forest nearby I doubt that.

Photos