The best place in the OC

If I were to move into the area I would try to move as close to Wood Canyons or Lagune Niguel Regional Park as possible.

It is a great community and a great place to run.

http://www.ocparks.com/alisoandwoodcanyons/

I've been to the Laguna Hills/Niguel areas and they are nice, but it doesn't seem like there is much of a running community there. I got the impression that a bigger place like Irvine or Long Beach might be better in that regard. I've heard there are a lot of good trail options in the Irvine area, too. Thoughts?

??! wrote:

I got the impression that a bigger place like Irvine or Long Beach might be better in that regard.

Long Beach ????.....who are you kidding ??...That has got to be the worst place to run.

On any given Sat or Sun morning there are 100's of runners in Wood Canyons let alone all the mtn. bikers and hikers.

Irvine area is not bad. Back Bay is ok and North Irvine around Peters Canyon and Irvine park is good too.

Best place for you would be near UC Irvine. You will have a lot of different options. You can run on the Mountains to Sea aka San Diego Bike Trail that is marked every half mile for flat run for however long you will ever want to go. Or you can go around the Back Bay

You can run dirt trails through Turtle Rock or Shady Canyon for hilly trails or in the San Joaquin Preserve for flat dirt trails or go on the other side of the San Diego Creek and run on dirt along the creek there.

You also will be close to the trails in Laguna Wilderness Area and Crystal Cove's El Moro Canyon. It is legal to access those trails and the trails through Shady Canyon. You will also be able to run with the Cal Coast group that meets across the street from UC Irvine on Tuesday nights in the summer and on Thursday nights year round. They have track workouts at Corona Del Mar high on Tuesdays night and that is close too.

Aliso and Woods Canyon is not a long drive away either. As well as James Dilley and Nix Nature Center trails if you wanted to go for a short drive to mix things up sometimes.

Julie Cooper's pad is pretty choice.

The Aliso Viejo and Laguna Beach areas are nice. Here are a couple of links to take a look at.

http://www.biketrails.com/alisowood.html

http://www.ocparks.com/alisoandwoodcanyons/

Ok.. Ok.. so Long Beach sucks. I didn't know! Never been there. So the consensus so far seems to be either Irvine or somewhere near Woods Canyon. What about places like San Clemente? Laguna Niguel seems nice, just small. Is Cal Coast the primary running club in the area?

BUMP!

There are other running groups like Southcoast Road Runners and Orange County Track Club.

Cal Coast is coached by Bill Sumner who also coaches the high school teams at Corona Del Mar. This year he has 3 girls going to the state meet in the 1600 (times range from 4:46 to 4:55) one girl make in the 3200 (10:2x) and one guy made it to the state meet in the 1600 (4:16).

san clemente is super sketchy so don't run there. same with long beach. i would reccomend irvine as its very nice, and also maybe newport... newport seems to have some good running outside...

Chino!