Calvera Lake
Calavera Lake packs in a lot of punch considering the relatively constrained acreage. This ride is the closest to my house so it is definitely one my locals. |
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| Directions: From the I-5 in Oceanside, take HWY 78 East. Take the College BLVD exit and go right. At the second stop, hang a left on Lake Drive. From here you can (a) After 2 miles you will see Ridge road. Hang a right into Oak Riparian Park and park. (b) After about 1 mile, hang a right on Skyhaven and follow the road until you see the lake and the BMX dirt jumps. See trail note for starting options. | ||
| HAZARDS: The trails range from beginner to what I would consider advanced. With the overwhelming majority of them low intermediate. | ||
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Please follow this map as I describe the area. When you click on this link it will open another windows so you can toggle back and forth with the notes. Aerial Photo to the right |
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| Trail Notes: When you look at the map above you will see that I have drawn it a blue crosshair right trough the middle of the lake. I will be describing areas in relationship to the lake (N, S, E, W, NE, etc...). Calveras Lake mountain bike riding is all about options. There are some options of trails and directions that it would be impossible to describe a best route. You do an easy two-miler with a kid on a BMX bike or you do 20 miles plus by weaving in out out of the labyrinth of trails most of which are single track. For this reason areas will be described more so than individual trails. | ||
| Trailhead options: When parking at the Oak Riparian Park you have two options to get on the trials. You can ride west on the south side of the sidewalk along Lake Drive for about 200 yards and then catch trail that drops off from the sidewalk. Your other options is to go to south end of the park and cross the creek (Don't worry, you should not get your feet wet) and hit a single track runs east-west. You will want head west. If you choose the sidewalk route to get into the lake area you will have a mostly flat land route that leads to the north side of the lake. This area is pretty sandy and has a lot of BMX style jumps and the area see some motorcycle traffic. Different groups are trying to the motorcycles out of the entire area but it seems that they are content to let the motorcycle crowd play here as long as they stay out of the rest of the lake areas. If you choose the cross-the-creek route and take the single track west it will soon cross a big fireroad. Hang a left take the fire road up a steep loose hill. There is a locked gate but there is a "bike around" to it's left. Please do not continue along single track if there was water in the creek you crossed. The trail becomes muddy and you would only add to the trail damage caused by uninformed/uncaring hikers and bikers. I usually have troubles with this hill because I am hitting with "cold" legs and lungs. This route is the quickest way to get to the good stuff and from the top of the hill you get a good view of the North and East quadrants of the area. |
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This is the view from the big hill in the northeast of the area. The hill in the distance is called "Cerra de la Calvera" | |
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Here is a gnarly little single track heading down the hill on the northeast portion of the area. Going down is tricky and going up this is extremely difficult to keep traction and momentum. | |
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Here is a view of the south, southeast section of the area from onto of the ridge. | |
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Wonderful single track section. | |
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Here are some pictures of some fun single track at the south end of the area.
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Here is one of the crossings that allows you to go north and south in the middle of the south area. Notice this is a hike-a-bike section. |
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Take a look at some of the trails on the eastern area of the park. These trails run pretty much east and west. Here are some picture on the trail up to the top of the big hill
Here some of the views from up on top of the hill
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Here is trail on the West side of the big hill. |
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Connecting to Flightline NOTE: This route is currently closed. Please read about Flightline.
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One of my favorite workout rides is to do Calvera and Flightline together. The connector can be a little tricky but once you do it once it is easy to remember. There is a north-south fireroad that runs along the entire eastern border of the Lake Calvera riding area. Most of the fire road has the backyards of home along its edge. The far southeast corner of the area is marked by the ends of the homes along this fire road at the top of a hill. (Can be see on the aerial photo). To get to Flightline from here simply bomb down the fireroad to the south. There are three hills that you will roller coaster on until you come to a one lane paved road. Cross it and keep going on the fire road.
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CONNECTER CLOSE UP
After crossing the paved road you will continue on the fire road
downhill. Just as the see the fire road end ahead, you will see a
power line cross the fireroad. The is a small farm road right at the
power line. Hang a left here and follow the farm road into the next |
