Nobel Canyon

This is one of my favorite trail systems anywhere. I started riding on these trails in the early 90s and can't get enough of it. I have heaps of stories and the place still surprises me. It's in the far east part of San Diego County and one of the last set of mountains that overlook Anza Borrego desert. You can climb up the trail, go around via sunshine highway, or take the access road up. The best way to do it is to shuttle with trucks. This gives you many more loop options and you can save your energy for more riding. No worries, even with the shuttle, there is tons of climbing, and lots of terrain to cover. The main trail is just awesome and goes from fast, flowing single track in the forest, to rocky, loose, desert environment in a matter of a few miles. With the saved energy from the shuttle, you can do a bunch of offshoots, including Big Laguna or cross over from Indian Creak trail and do a big loop that puts you back up at the trailhead. There is even a trail that cuts over to Cuyamaca, but I've never done it since it is a big ride and shuttling would be a big project.

I've shown this trail system to quite a few people now and every single one of them has been impressed.  I've ridden Moab, Park City, Oregon, etc., and I can honestly say this rates right up there as one of the best- in the world! The scale of the terrain is amazing and what makes it even more inviting is that it is so close to our backyard. Top it off with a nice cooler full of tasty brews at the end of the ride and you just put your ride over the top. This is what mountain bike riding is all about.