Tijeras Creek Trail

[Jordansrealm]

Myself, Brian (Neccros), Matt (BRpunkrock) and my roomate Sean did the Tijeras Creek Trail yesterday and had a blast. We actually didnt finish it because we missed the turn off and ended up going about 6 miles futher down the wash. Total went about 30 miles on the day. For those that havent done this trail its truely a blast. Atleast, the first half is. You enter Oneil Park and follow into the Tijeras section and make your way down the long wash the goes all the way past Crown Valley Pkwy. The first 8 miles is really where the fun is, you have some great rideable water crossings maybe 6-7, fun small rock gardens, long open slight DH burns to get up some speed, overgrown jungle/bamboo type sections that look straight out of a Chuck Norris Vietnam movie, plenty of side burms and weaving and banking turns, etc.. Really a fun trail. Although, we missed the turn off to finish it we kept going straight and ended up on the Aliso Creek trail and finished our day.

Like a moron, I rode through this tiny thorn bursh off the side of the road on the street ride home. Ended up flattening both tires and spending some time on the curb. Sorry we didnt take any pics, next time for sure. Just wanted to fill people in that its a fun route to take.

Jordan

 

[ShinKen]

hmmm gotta try this one soon!! 30 miles? sounds like fun.

 

[Jordansrealm]

hmmm gotta try this one soon!! 30 miles? sounds like fun.

Actually, it says its about 14 miles depending on if you do it all. We went past about the half way mark for about another 6 miles. So, then we had to head 6 more miles back down the street to where we would have continued on to the trail. So you add the two up and its about 28 or so. We didnt finish off all the climbing on the trail because my roomate wasnt feeling too hot so we headed back home.

 

[dstepper]

Sounds more like you rode the Arroyo Trabuco than Tijeras Creek.

 

[Jordansrealm]

Sounds more like you rode the Arroyo Trabuco than Tijeras Creek.

We road Tijeras then missed the turn off which took us on Arroyo Trabuco.

 

[CranxOC]

I'd have to agree with Stepper; Tijeras Creek is on the opposite side of Antonio from Arroyo and doesn't actually have any water crossings. My house actually overlooks Tijeras Creek.

What you described is Arroyo Trabuco.

 

[Jordansrealm]

http://www.geoladders.com/show_route.php?route=12

That is the route we took. Tijeras according to Geoladders has water crossings and we crossed atleast a couple of them before we split onto Arroyo. If you follow that route on Geoladders we made it across the water crossing on picture 19 in the walk through before making a wrong turn. Instead of going up to the gate in picture 21 we kept going straight which lead us on to Arroyo. Or, are you telling me Geoladders is wrong?

 

[dstepper]

Also Tijeras goes no where near O'Neal Park or Crown Valley. It branches off Arroyo Trabuco and goes out to Dove Canyon. Map on page 74, Randy Vogels guide, Mountain Biking Orange County.

Who's right? My guess is Randy.

 

[Jordansrealm]

Why do I feel like you are argueing? lol

I just merely wanted to know if geoladders was wrong thats all. I really dont care what the trail was called, I called it fun as did we all yesterday. Well, we rode what we thought was Tijeras that maybe was called Tijeras Aliso Arroyo Trail Creek Path I dont know. Happy trails...

 

[dstepper]

Sorry don't take it personnel, no argueing intended. It helps people find new trails when the trail names are correct.

No more from me on this.

 

[Jordansrealm]

Is that the book that everyone keeps talking about? I have passed it over a couple times in LBS's, maybe I shall pick it up. Im not offended I just wanted to be sure you didnt think I was trying to be a know-it-all, far from that im a newbie. If its wrong I wanna know too so I know what I am riding especially since this trail begins out my back door.

 

[BRpunkRock]

We rode Arroyo not Tijeras yesterday. Get a clue man, are you dehydrated??

 

[Chaos]

I have no idea what this trail is called, but I rode it last year [spring] after the rains. Boy was that a blast, most of the creek crossings were knee deep. The ride thru the "canopy" was just as you described... you could not tell you were SoCal. Great trail for sure.

 

[ECOdork]

Though I live in SJC, I live right off of the "Ladera Ranch / OC Regional Trail" and have ridden it from my place up to Crown Valley. I've often thought that there HAS to be a way to connect it to "Tijeras Creek Loop"....which could make for a killer epic ride if you could connect it to O'Neil, Whiting, STT, etc....

I know it's nothing crazy, but if anyone wants to explore it one of these days, let me know.

 

[Jordansrealm]

That sounds like fun I would like to see where all those trail connect up.

 

[BRpunkRock]

Looks like its time to break out the Sat photos and a highlighter.

 

[giantschwinn]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but you guys seem to know the area really well. I'm new to the area so any night riding advice is appreciated. Do any of you know if either Tijeras Creek trail or Arroyo Trabuco trail can be legally ridden at night? I don't think they are within O'Neill Regional park boundary. Does anyone know the park jurisdiction for which they are under?