Aliso Creek Bikeway (south west)

In January, we rode the Aliso Creek Bikeway, starting at Muirlands and Los Alisos Blvd, heading towards Trabuco Canyon. Today we 'started' at the same point but rode towards Laguna Hills with the goal to get to Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park via the Aliso Creek Bikeway. In an effort to be “green”, we biked the extra miles from home to the Aliso Creek Bikeway instead of driving. Along with the extra miles and several unintentional hilly and off-road detours, I did not do a very good job measuring miles or jotting down good directions today.

If you are driving, park the car at El Toro Park (Jeronimo and Los Alisos Blvd) or street park along Los Alisos Blvd and Muirlands. The trail is well-marked, paved and appropriate for all ages of walkers, runners, skaters and bikers. The only ‘tricky’ parts are (1) when the path turns into a bike lane for a bit along Laguna Hills Drive and (2) that the trail marker is missing off of Laguna Hills Drive so take the off-shoot (south, under Laguna Hills Drive) to Sheep Hills Park which eventually turns back into the Aliso Creek Bikeway. The Bikeway will run to the entrance of the Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.

I did not have any notable wildlife spottings or hitchhiking ticks today.

Tijeras Creek / Arroyo Trabuco Loop

The Tijeras Creek / Arroyo Trabuco Loop


Navigating around Coto de Caza (some street riding)


blue arrow=jump on the dirt trail, orange arrow=entrance into O'Neill

Tijeras Creek Trail

Coastal Indian Paintbrush along Tijeras Creek

Since we live about 2 miles from one of the entrances to the O’Neill Wilderness area, this seems to be the park that we are spending most of the time exploring since it does not require loading up the car. Today’s ride was the Tijeras Creek / Arroyo Trabuco Loop which ended up just shy of 20 miles. There are several possible places to park (no actual Park parking is available, neighborhoods/shopping mall parking); Oso/Antonio Pkwy to enter at Oso, Bienvenidos and Antonio Pkwy to enter at the Bienvenidos entrance.

Starting at the Oso entrance and take the Tijeras Creek trail behind the Las Flores apartments. It is a crushed gravel trail with great views of the canyon. At one point, the trail pops out onto Antonio Pkwy for about 100 yards and then pops back in behind more apartments. Once the trail gets into the wilderness area, there are about 10 ‘whoop di doos’ (series of hills) to navigate that end under the Foothill Transportation Corridor (FTC). The whoop di’s are a blast, the climbs out (the ‘do’s) not so much. Right now the trail is surrounded by fields of lupines and mustards. Once past the FTC, the Tijeras Creek trail meanders through meadows, along the Tijeras Creek and under canopies of oak groves. With the exception of a few rocky drops and climbs (easy to walk your bike through), this is a great beginner off-road single track trail.

The Tijeras Creek trail ends at Plano Trabuco Road. Follow Plano Trabuco Road for a few miles. When the road starts getting scary, there is an option to hop onto a dirt trail on the left side of the road-get on it. After about a mile, there will be an entrance gate into O’Neill Park, go through and turn Left. Ride towards the back of the park to the Arroyo Trabuco Trail.

March of the Caterpillars at Riley Wilderness Park

Today we headed to the Thomas F. Riley Wilderness Park for some mountain biking and wildflower hunting. In addition to several miles of hiking/biking trails, Riley Wilderness Park has a visitor’s / nature center (1 tarantula, 2 snakes, and a kids interpretive area), and a butterfly garden (which was still dormant). You can also purchase your OC Parks annual pass here. The trails are multi-use; bikes, boots and hooves but no dogs. We rode all of the trails except for Skink (Vista Point) and Horned Toad (Vista Point) and clocked about 5 miles around the park. Not a lot of miles but the hills were challenging even though I opted out on riding up to the vistas.

The word of the day is CATERPILLARS. There were caterpillars everywhere, making 'low impact' riding a challenge. I am not terribly confident on my identification of the caterpillars but the closest I could find would be Painted Lady. If anyone knows what they are (picture above), please share. We observed some interesting human behavior today on the trail. There were several families hiking and all of the little girls were trying to catch the caterpillars, pet them and take them home to love. The little boys, on the other hand, were having contests to step on as many as possible. Fortunately for the caterpillars, there were twice as many little girls than boys out hiking today.

Wildlife sightings: caterpillars. In keeping with my nature spotting ‘luck’, after 15 miles of riding around wilderness areas, the best find was at home: a raptor hunting from my backyard fence. I think it may be a kite but am not sure since I cannot find a match in my bird book.

Wildflower Season has Arrived!!

I hiked around in the Laguna Coast Wilderness today with camera in hand and barely enough water. It is official, wildflower season has arrived! I am not a very experienced wildflower indentifier but I am able to recognize the more common flowers like poppies and lupines and have learned to identify those 'fun to say' flowers like blue dicks and sticky monkey flowers. I saw a number of flowers today that, despite spending an hour searching on CalFlora, I could not identify. I am posting pictures of some of them anyway since I think they are pretty. Reminder: March 6th, the Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline goes on-line.

Wildlife sightings: I did not see any snakes today (Scott saw one and there was a rumor from another hiker about a rattlesnake ahead on the trail) but, when we got home, there was a huge alligator (I think) lizard in the garage. I am hoping he will stay and clean out some of the daddy long legs.

Santa Ana River Trail

I have been looking forward to riding the Santa Ana River Trail for years. It is another one of Orange County’s Mountain to Sea Trails (San Bernardino Mountains to Huntington Beach) and is about 100 miles one-way. Saturday was the perfect distance riding day, overcast and not very windy. With lunch packed, water loaded and tires inflated, we parked at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa, hopped on the river trail and rode east.

After 8 miles of endless cement, garbage, wire (barbed, razor, power and chain-linked), uninspired graffiti, gang tags and trailer parks, I could not endure it any longer and had to turn around. The Santa Ana leg was incredibly boring and somewhat depressing (note: the trail may become more interesting once past Santa Ana). Heading back towards the coast, past Fairview Park, the trail ends at Huntington Beach and there is a northward multipurpose bike/pedestrian path. We ended up eating lunch at the beach, watching the surfers for a bit and then heading back to the car.

Wildlife spottings: a stray pit bull, American Crow, pigeons, vultures, finches and sea gulls. Closer to Huntington, the river is soft-bottom and there were some waders; blue herons, great egrets, godwits and avocets. I did not stop and bird watch since the water treatment plant is on the other side of the trail and sort of stunk. On the bright side, I have now ridden the Santa Ana River Trail through Santa Ana, have seen what it has to offer and will never need to ride this section again.

Irvine Regional Trail to the Back Bay Loop

Upper Newport Bay

Kestrel

White-Faced Ibis

Egyptian Goose

Bermuda Buttercups

Irvine Regional Park to Upper Newport Bay is another Mountain-to-Sea Trail in Orange County that I think is worth exploring. The last time I tried to ride it (awhile ago), there were too many trail closures to finish the ride. From what I have been able to research, the trail has completely opened and a one-way trip is 22 miles.

After parking in a business park around Laguna Canyon Road and Barranca, we followed the creek downstream on bikes. With the exception of a few well-marked road crossings, the paved trail is separate from the street and is appropriate for walkers, runners, bikers and even bikers on training wheels. Fellow bikers range from road racers in full biking attire to beach cruisers and flip flops. Once we arrived at the Back Bay, we rode the Back Bay Loop trail and then back to the car. Based on my odometer, the entire trip was a long but mostly flat 30 miles.

Wildlife spottings: The Back Bay was teeming with shore birds today but my favorite finds of the day were a kestrel, a white-faced ibis and Egyptian geese. I was able to easily identify the kestrel and the white-faced ibis from Orange County birding sites but the Egyptian geese were a challenge. From a Yahoo! discussion site, a flock of Egyptian geese escaped from a now defunct Wildlife Safari Park in Orange County and are occasionally spotted in the area still. I cannot confirm the story but I like it.

The next ride on this trail will need to start from Irvine Regional Park (mountains). Per the trail kiosk in Newport Beach, I rode right past the trail turn-off to the mountains and then, on the trip back, I missed it again. I guess as long as you remember how to get back to the car, it isn’t too bad.

San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, Irvine CA

There was a brief break between the storms today and the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine was the perfect place to take a quick walk, do a little birding and take some pictures. The Sanctuary used to be part of the Duck Club, ponds where migrating ducks could rest and possibly be hunted, but it has been replanted with native plants to ‘clean’ urban run-off water before flowing into the ocean and to provide a refuge for wildlife. There are crushed gravel trails around the ponds, benches placed in view areas and a wonderful butterfly garden. Sea and Sage Audubon has a small gift shop in the parking area that is staffed with knowledgeable birders that also lead interpretive nature walks. If you forget your binoculars, check with them, they may have loaners available.

I was really hoping to get some great bird pictures today but, because of all of the rain this week, this afternoon must have been the birds’ first chance to eat. About 90% of my photographs today were of bird butts poking out of the ponds. I did get a treat, however. For the first time I observed White Pelicans ‘herding fish’ (I had no idea that they did that). I also watched a snowy egret wiggle his golden toes in the mud to attract fish and then I saw him actually spear one (picture above).

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