After several weeks of not riding much, and generally not going out much, I took a couple of hours this morning to ride around and explore some places in the city I haven't been. One thing San Diego really has going for it is the canyons. This time of year is especially nice, since the natural areas around here are starting to green up again after the summer. Most of the canyons in the urban area are public spaces with trails that are easily accessible as long as you know where the secret staircases and trailheads are. Part of the fun of an exploratory ride is that you get to stumble across them and have little adventures. The photo is from a canyon in Hillcrest, just north of Balboa Park, and these trails are actually part of the Balboa Park trail system.
Parts of the various trails I "discovered" today required hiking with the bike over my shoulder, others I had to walk the bike, but several of the trails allowed me to do a little underbiking*, which is the closest thing I've done to mountain biking since I was a teenager. Granted, it's not very close at all to mountain biking, but it was still fun to ride a little dirt.
