Goodan Ranch and Sycamore Canyon

After a few minutes on the trail today, I said cheerily to The Lyle, “this may be my new favorite hike!” My husband laughed and said “you say that on every hike!” It’s true, I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, lately. Being new to San Diego hiking, we are both loving the diversity and amazing sights this County has to offer. Each outing presents an exciting new adventure! Today, we enjoyed a serene, yet moderately challenging loop around Sycamore Canyon. We entered from the Poway Road entrance (Garden Road to Sycamore Canyon Road), heading south 2-3 miles to the small parking lot at the Goodan staging area. We began our hike on Martha’s Grove Trail, traveling a little over 1.5 miles (stopping to pay our respects at the Martha Harville Memorial Oak Grove), before heading left up Cardio Hill (gradual, steady 1 mile incline) to Ridge Trail, which loops around the preserve about 1.75 miles. We headed down this trail to the canyon floor and picked up Stowe Trail north for a very short stint. (Stowe Trail heads south through the Miramar Marine Base and then to Mission Trails Park, for those with a permit.) Bikers BEWARE, the descent on Ridge Trail is steep and curvy. If you are heading too fast, you will have a serious and very unpleasant accident! (Even if you aren’t a speed demon, there are scary, blind curves on the descent!) We continued north on the West Boundary Trail for about a .5 hike to the Goodan Ranch Visitor Center. BTW, we loved the view from The Ridge Trail! It was a 60* partly-cloudy day, and we enjoyed unique cloud formations over the easterly mountains. We could also see the Fortunas to the south near our home. Really great territorial views! The Visitor Center was a treat with bathrooms, comfortable seating near a wood stove, and lots of displays about plants and wildlife. We enjoyed lunch outside on a sunny bench and viewed the stone home that was once used by the Goodan family when they owned the property many years ago (a 2003 fire destroyed most of it, unfortunately). There are 3 picnic tables nearby. After enjoying the Center for a bit, we picked up the trail and hiked a little over a mile through open terrain back up to the Goodan staging area. This was a 6.5 miles hike and took us about 3.5 hours. Would suggest this hike to those wanting to get away from people - we only encountered five others on the trail - and to those who enjoy trails without too many rocks. You will not witness “suburbia” from this hike, just hills, mountains and valleys! This canyon may not receive the press the Los Penasquitas Canyon gets, but it’s equally fabulous! We will definitely be back to hike Sycamore Canyon, again!

Black Mountain via the Nighthawk Trail

We loved the views from this 4 mile hike! Well worth the 2-hour roundtrip. We parked in the Hilltop Park parking lot (plenty of parking and restroom facilities) and headed up the Nighthawk Tail. It’s a fairly good incline and no shade, but very enjoyable since there are views all around, especially of the ocean. There a couple offshoot trails that came up on the right, but we continued on the trail over a mile until we came to the option for Miners Ridge Loop Trail. We decided to forgoe the loop and headed left up the trail to the summit .08 miles. This is where it got steeper and the trail rocks a bit bigger, just for a short time. Then, we reached another fork in the road (Miners Ridge Trail again) where we headed right up to the summit. Just before the summit, you have a couple options to go straight up via a narrow path of a few feet or head right around a longer loop that wraps around the base of the multiple radio towers/disks. We did the latter, snapping photos of the mountain/ocean views in all directions.  Fun to see places we’ve already hiked...Iron Mountain, Mt. Woodson, the Fortunas, as well as those in our future...Mt. El Cajon, perhaps! We had a clear day and could even see downtown San Diego and snow-capped mountains to the north and northeast! After refreshments and posing for the camera for 15-20 minutes, we headed down on the trail for a short bit, staying right on Miners Ridge Trail for the jaunt down alongside Black mountain. Nice views on the way down! We stayed on this trail for about a mile, til having the option to head left into a isolated neighborhood of homes. After strolling past several homes, we found McEntee Street which inclines up to Oviedo Way and Hilltop Park. Next time we’ll do the full loop and add an extra mile or so to the hike, now that we have our bearings on this one! Glad we brought water. It felt toasty on the way up! (A day with a high of 79*.) We started at 9:45am and finished at 11:45 am. Would highly recommend this hike to anyone entertaining visitors or just wanting a fairly moderate hike with captivating views! Final thoughts: Study the trail map before you go! (20180114)

Blue Sky Ecological Reserve

We hiked Blue Sky Reserve in Poway this morning. What a delight! It’s about 2-3 miles east of I-15 exit Rancho Bernardo Road exit. Parking is free and there were a few available spots for our 8:30 a.m. hike. The trail is mostly tree lined and covered for about a mile, until you start the incline (no shade) to the Ramona dam, where it gets much steeper and turns paved the last half mile up. We hiked around the west side of the lake, enjoyed lunch, and then hiked back (we had the lake area to ourselves!), making this just under a three hour excursion (6.5-7 miles).  Lovely and not too crowded on the way up or back down. About a half mile in, there’s a path to Poway Lake - 1.5 miles. (There are to porta-potties on the way, one at the dam.) Nice views of Mt. Woodson to the southeast, Lake Poway to the south and the Blue Pacific to the southwest - all gorgeous! This hike doesn’t have quite the views a hike up Mt. Woodson does, but it’s pretty darn great for a Saturday morning!