Area Overview/Coming to San Diego?
So your coming to San Diego and want to get in some riding. Well we have some good riding to offer you down here. To start with this is the general breakdown of how I have divided up the area of the county as far as organizing the trails are concerned. This roughly matches the menu structure of this site.
Where to Stay, Eat and Drink
WHERE TO STAY: I'm assuming you did not come to San Diego just for the MTB action so where you are staying is driven by other factors. I'm also assuming you have a vehicle. MTB life in San Diego is very sad without a vehicle.
WHAT TO EAT: Okay, I have done some traveling over the years and have noticed a little something about cuisine. If you for sure want authentic Japanese food, go to Japan. If you want real Korean food, go to Korea. If you are looking for authentic Thai food, got to Thailand. Now if you fancy authentic Mexican food, then San Diego is the place for you! Outside of that you will find good stuff here no matter what you like. Just about any Mexican joint that can get high marks on Yelp in this neighborhood is going to be okay. Additionally if there is some place that fits right in for a good post-ride grub place, I will typically mention it in the write up for the indvidual ride.
WHAT TO DRINK: Now for those of you who fancy great beer, congratulations you are coming to Beer Town USA! Our craft beer scene is simply insane! Be prepared to be overwhelmed with the offerings.
Need to Stay Local
If you don't have all day to go play check out some of these options. It is hard to go wrong with Los Penasquitos Canyon but the others are worthy as well but they can suck if you do them "wrong".
East County
If you have the time, do the Tour De Noble. Want jumps, tech in a shortish package hit up Anderson Truck Trail. Want to get your pretty singletrack action on head to the Cuyamacas
North County
If its hot out La Costa is your best option. If you need to get your climb on head to Daley. Want some miles but not much tech, Hodges has you covered.
Where to get a Bike
Bringing your own bike is always great but it is not always possible. The awesome folks over at the San Diego Mountain Biking Association have been keeping a more up to date list that I have been so I just check out thier list of Bike Rental places.
Looking for someone to ride with?
Hooking up with a local is always a good idea. Many of the local bike shops offer regular shop rides and San Diego has quite a few bicycle clubs. Check out SDMBA Meetup Group, Dirttreaders, MTBR's SoCal Forum and the Mountain Bike San Diego FB group.
Tools and Apps
While I am kinda fond of my own site, I highly recommend the use of the Trailforks App as well while here in San Diego. Sure you can find stuff on Strava, but Strava is pretty much the Wild Wild West of data. Trailforks on the other hand is crowed sourced trail information that is currated by local advocacy groups and adminstrators. If you are riding something that is on Trailforks you are probably legit or at least on a non-controversal trail. And lastly I feel my pages provide some trail knowledge if you can sort through the bad grammer and rambling streams of directional blabbage.
I am one of the contributer/currators for this area and most of my recommended routes are on Trailforks. In many cases I will directly link to those routes on Trailforks in addition to having my own GPX file for the route here for use with other apps. On many of my pages I have also embedded the the Trailforks map on my page. This map is available wither or not you have a Trailforks Pro subscription. The benefits of the Trailforks Pro subscription are well worth the cost as far as I'm concerned.
Note: I have no finacnical ties with Trailforks. I am just a believer in what they are doing and I have invested a lot of energy into the content.