Calvera Lake has a lot trails in a fairly constrained bit of acreage but there are still plenty of trails to get out and about on. It is located in the general area where Carlsbad, Vista, and Oceanside converge. There is a decades long history of recreational use in this area but the surrounding area has seen a lot of development since about 2004. The additional public pressure combined with the shrinking open space has made land use of the Calvera Lake area "interesting". You will have a hard time getting any sizable mileage out here without crossing over into the lands mismanaged by the Calfornia Department of Fencing in Wildlife (CDFW).

There are four preserves that cover this riding area with two different managers.
• Lake Calvera Preserve --- Landowner: City of Carlsbad; Manager: Center for Natural Land Management
• Calvera Heights Preserve --- Landowner: CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife: Manager: CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife
• Carlsbads Highlands Ecological Reserve --- Landowner: CA Dept of Fish and Game Manager: CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife
• Robertson Ranch Reserve --- Landowner: Calvera Hills II, LLC; Manager: Center for Natural Land Management

Additionally there is private property/open space to the south of the Carlsbad Highland Ecological Reserve colloquial known as the "Back 40".

There are also habitat management plans and other competing enviromental interests who would like to myopically look at this area as simply a habitat restoration/preservation project and keep the hands and feet of man away from this area. Given its long history of use I do not see how the typical approach of fencing people out is going to work at all. All you have to do is stand atop Calvera Hill and see that this patch of land is surrounded by over 100,000 people and realize that no fortress of fences are going to keep the public out of here. This entire area needs to migrate to a recreational preserve if it is going to have any reasonable chance of being successfully managed.

The City of Carlsbad are doing an okay job with tackling the problem for their chunk of the area in the north (highlighted slightly yellow). The master trails plan for the chunk of the area that is under their control has had solid input from the community and keeps much of the quality trails open while closing off much of the poor quality and unsustainable trails and fireroads. There will still be numerous problems to deal with particularly with public access points.

I have been urged to take down the orginal page or put up a vanilla style page that only showed only the offical Carlsbad trails plan. The historical usage does not mesh up with the desires of some people and they feel I'm encouraging illegal trail riding. Knowledge is knowledge and whatever actions you take based on that knowledge is soley your responsbility. The orginal maps will remain on this site and I have added a Google Earth KML file that shows most of the historical and newer trails that exist in this area. There are more trails than the ones I have shown. There is a lot at stake and if the current trail users simply "go away" is not going to help keep access to this area. The maps on this page are a snap shot in time and must be assumed to be historical in nature. When you ride at Calvera and criss-cross the various preserves and reserves, pay attention to the signage. Things change out here all the time. I also highly recommend you get involved with some of the advocacy organizations who represent the interest of mountain bikers as well as the other non-motorized trail users. The San Diego Mountain Biking Association is a good start.   Also take a look at the Calavera Trails Coalition and thier facebook group.

History Note about Connecting to Flightline NOTE: When the Flightline riding area was still active there was a connector route from the "Back 40" to that area. You can read about the demise of Flightline here.