![\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-06\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/imagescaler\/1ffd5419865a657e08b07674ecabd0d4.jpg?resize=840%2C560\" "\\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-06\\"")
<\/p>\nThis past Friday, I went and checked out a loop in South Poway that I had heard about that contained a mix of city approved\/created trails and social trails.\u00a0\u00a0 I really did not have much in the way of expectations when I set out on this semi-urban adventure.<\/p>\n
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The first chunks of \u201ctrails\u201d that I went on were what I typcially expect when I hear of a municipality in San Diego county being involved with creating \u00a0\u201cTrails\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dirt sidewalks and bullshit existing dirt roads trying to be passed off as \u201ctrails\u201d which provide little in the way of a quality natural outdoor experience.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After six or so miles of the this homgenized lowest common demominator tripe things picked up as I went further along on this loop.<\/p>\n
![\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-09\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/imagescaler\/b5565408a6cc271309b64c5ab86d8689.jpg?resize=607%2C911\" "\\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-09\\"")
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Here is a bit of an\u00a0official new city of Poway trail that is a\u00a0 nice singletrack.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clearly\u00a0somebody\u00a0gets it in the\u00a0city\u00a0as it\u00a0provides a nice natural outdoor experience, its sustainable and it is\u00a0narrow to minimize the enviromental impact.<\/p>\n
![\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-14\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/imagescaler\/35d332ede035fc0f92a58fb7a2af685a.jpg?resize=607%2C911\" "\\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-14\\"")
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The next section of trails I was on roughly followed the route of the planned eastern end of the South Poway trail.<\/p>\n
![\"og:image\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/imagescaler\/0c0b12e266c7a85b5b5fe94754225995.jpg?resize=840%2C560\" "\\"og:image\\"")
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According to the current city trail map the eastern end is still just planned.\u00a0\u00a0 I sure hope the intent is to use this trail pictured above as the eastern end of the of the South Poway trail because the trail above \u00a0it is just an awesome chunk of cross country singletrack that had great flow and contoured well.<\/p>\n
![\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-32\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/imagescaler\/9ee4ccfe989c67e6798d6d3d4122f3fe.jpg?resize=840%2C560\" "\\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-32\\"")
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Once I got onto the \u201cbuilt\u201d western portion of the South Poway trail, I was once again back onto the crappy \u201cTHIS IS NOT A F#$^^NG TRAIL<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0 dirt road junk.\u00a0 Note in the picture above only about half the width of the road being passed off as trail is in the picture.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a wide barren strip of non-native gravel that is an enviromental blight that the city probably spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to \u201ccreate\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everytime I have pulled the string on the \u00a0\u201cwho designed this\u201d\u00a0 question, \u00a0it seems to typically point back to some trail standard the governing agency has that was written by people who have a background in civil engineering (aka building roads) vice either an enviromental or forestry background (aka protecting and managing natural resources).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0People (or contracted companies by the city) then blindly follow these antiquated standards to build these low quality,\u00a0expensive hunks of crap.<\/p>\n This little gem (which I\u00a0think is not an offical trail), was probably built by volunteers and did not cost the city a dime.\u00a0\u00a0 Its enviromental impact is a mere fraction of the offical dirt road tripe that scours along the ridgeline above it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The rest of the route I did during the day was a mix of both the offical junk \u201ctrails\u201d and a fair amount of\u00a0 well done social trails.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Overall the awesomeness of the singletracks\u00a0outweighed the retardness of the dirt\/gravel road abortions (referred to as \u201ctrails\u201d\u00a0 by the city) that had to be dealt\u00a0with.\u00a0\u00a0 I did about 15 miles total that day.\u00a0 I will be doing some more exploring out here.<\/p>\n![\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-30\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/wp-content\/imagescaler\/26ebe07ba9aa35616864b1e9f6408e40.jpg?resize=840%2C560\" "\\"SouthPoway-24MAR13-30\\"")
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