Running in Newport Beach, Ca

lots of places to run.

If you are near the airport and want to run on dirt, you can run on in the Duck Ponds without driving or down the San Diego Creek on the airport side down to the back bay.

Here is a map of bike trails. The red ones are off the street and you don't have to deal with signals since the bike path goes under the streets.

http://www.cityofirvine.org/depts/pw/projdev/city_of_irvine_bikeways.asp

There are mile markers from Corona Del Mar High School out 9 miles if you want a measured course. The first mile you have to deal with a couple of minor intersections but the rest of the way you are off the road.

While you are in Newport I'd run the trails in Crystal Cove El Moro Canyon/Laguna Wilderness Area. You can enter the park for free if you drive to the top of Park Ridge.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=address&searchtype=address&cat=&address=&city=Newport%20Coast&state=CA&zipcode=92657&searchtab=home

You can stay on Boomer Ridge which is rolls somewhat but isn't too bad or go down to the beach and back, which involves some hills. There are lots of different routes you could take.

If you want to go for about 5 miles out and back on dirt with nice views and see how the rich live, you might want to check out the Shady Canyon trail.

Let me know what kind of run you are looking for and I can give you more specific advice/recommendation.

You can run along the boardwalk at the beach for quite awhile if you head north up towards huntington and long beach. Around UC Irvine is the Back Bay and the Wet Lands where there are trails, dirt paths, and bike paths to run on. Fairview Park is located right next to Estancia HS off of Placentia. It is somewhat small, but is all dirt and you can loop around for a decent run.

If you are willing to drive up into the hills (about 20-30 minute drive, depending on traffic), you can run for quite a ways in Irvine Park. You would take the 55 freeway North, to the 5 North, exit Jamboree, and take it all the way up to Chapman. You can park in the shopping center and run into the park. You may want to stay on the lower part to avoid getting lost if it is your first time there.

I'll be arriving sometime Sunday afternoon. That will be my best time for a run of any length. I'd like to get about 90 minutes in. I'm not sure of time constraints the rest of the week. First trip to Ca.

Thanks

Do like trails? Are you afraid of getting lost on trails?

Do you want to flat stuff or do you want hills?

If you aren't too big a pussy, I would highly recommend Laguna Wilderness Area. I can give you directions how to get there and which trails to run if you are interested.

If you are afraid you might get lost or afraid of snakes or something like that, I'd suggest something else and stick to bike trails or well marked trails that you couldn't get lost.

Where is this Laguna Woods place? WHere's the best place to park? How far can one run there?

How are the hills? Rolling, one big climb, or....?

I dont mind hills but I dont care for the steep downhills. Bad on my kness.

Thanks

TB

There are three legal ways to enter Laguna Wilderness Area. One of them - the radio towers - you don't have to pay for parking.

If you are staying near the airport I am guessing you will be able to find MacArthur.

The easiest way is to get there if you don't know the area is take MacArthur south (towards the beach) to San Joaquin Hills Road. It is a big intersection with a signal. If you hit P.C.H. you went to far. Anyway, make a left turn onto San Joaquin Hills. You will go up a big hill. Look to your right and you will see the Pacific while you are driving.

San Joaquin will dead end onto Newport Coast Drive. There is a Pavilions grocery store there. This is your last chance to use a restroom and get water since there is none of either on the trail. After you run, you might want to stop in that shopping center and get some food at Sharkies. It is a good fast food mexian joint.

Anyway, make a right turn onto Newport Coast Drive and a very quick left onto Ridge Park. You will go up another big hill for a little over a mile. You will get to a stop sign. Look down behind you and you will see the harbor where Gilligan and his crew left the harbor before they got lost.

Anyway, Keep going another I don't know maybe 1/3 of a mile and the street ends. That is the trail head.

The total distance from the airport is maybe 7 or 8 miles.

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At the trail head you can go to your right towards the beach or to straight down a little hill.

If you want rolling hills and want to stick to fire roads instead of single track, go straight down the hill. You can stay on the ridge (Boomer Ridge) for about 2 miles so and get to an intersection in the trails - a little bit past the random art work picture on the trail. (You will see gates to your for the first couple miles on your right but you probably don't want to go over or through the gates since they will lead you to steeper hills. You will also go through an open gate about 3/4 mile in the run. Don't worry you are legal to run in that area on weekends.

Okay so about 2 1/2 miles out you will reach an intersection without a gate. Take the second fire road on your right. The first one will lead you down a big hill into the center of a canyon. The second one will keep you on a ridge and avoid steep hills. This ridge will give you nice views as you head towards the beach.

(If you miss the trail on your right, you will come to a third intersection that will have a trail on your left and one that goes straight. Both those lead you down steep hills where you cannot see the beach. You will come to another one that will be on your right that you can take to get you back on the ridge that leads towards the beach).

So you will cruise down this ridge towards the beach for a while and you will come to another intersection. Go straight. Don't go downhill to your right. You will wrap around a little hill and go up a little somewhat steep hill for maybe for about 40 meters. Then come to another intersection. Take the trail to the right. You will stay on that ridge but will go downhill. You will see a telephone/utility pole go to your right. The other trail goes up the hill ends at the top of the hill. You will come to a gate and that is as far as you will want to go out here since the trail drops big time from there. Turn around and come back. I don't know what kind of speed you run but it usually takes us about maybe 40 or so minutes from the trail head to here when we go easy.

If you want to add time when you get back to your car, the trail at the trail head that you didn't take isn't too steep down for a while. You could head that way for about a mile or so without dropping too much.

You will enjoy the views on this run. The way back is a little hard than the way out.

Laguna Wilderness Area is quite big with tons of trails. You could easily do 20+ miles without repeating any of the trails if you know you way around it.

There is also another park that is just on the other side of Laguna Coast Canyon that is called Aliso Woods that you can connect to from Laguna Wilderness Area.

Aliso Woods is proabaly the more popular place to run and mountain bike because the trails over there are less steep in general but I much prefer Laguna Wilderness Area since I like the ocean views and less people.

map of run - You will stay on Boomer Ridge the first two times Boomer Ridge is labeled on this map. The third time you will be on Water Tank.

http://www.mountainbikebill.com/images/Trails/LagunaCoast/LagunaCoastWP-Map-Fair.JPG

Run along Campus until you hit University. There is a nice bike path at Campus and University. You can go up the bike path along creek for several miles or down the creek towards Newport Back Bay. Each half mile is marked either way and you are off the street and won't have to deal with cars or any intersections.

Going towards the beach you can run around the bay. It is about 10 miles around the bay so you will have to add however many miles it takes to get there and back if you want to go around it. There are mile markers every half mile around the bay. It is simple loop and hard to get lost but you do go through one residental neigbhorhood. There are arrows painted on the street for the way to go through that section.