Hello!
I live at the Village in Irvine Spectrum and have been cycling in Irvine for a while. Here are your best bets for different trails.
1. Behind the Village, there is a trail that can/will take you all the way across to the Mountain to Sea trail. Currently, there's construction on the trail between Sand Canyon and Jeffrey (but you can take both Alton and Barranca back to the trail). This trail is great. The terrain is flat, and very easy to navigate. Once you get on to the trail past Jeffrey, you'll see a few more cyclists and runners around.
2. Shady Canyon. You can take Alton, make a left on Laguna Canyon Road, and make a right on Quail Hills. Make a left on Shady Canyon and follow the trail up to Shady Canyon. At the end of this trail, you should find yourself on the corner of Anteater and Bonita Canyon Drive (UCI). Its about 13 miles roundtrip from the Village. Difficulty on this one is a bit higher. Once you get good at this, you can have fun on Turtle Ridge summit.
3. Laguna Canyon. Same trek as #2, but instead of turning on Quail Hills, you just go straight on Laguna Canyon/CA-133 and go all the way to Laguna Beach. The climbing is not as steep/long as Shady Canyon, but it's a bit more challenging because there are portion of the road with very small bike lane (and you get pretty close to cars). However, since its summer, 90% of the time you will be going faster than cars (hopefully).
Let me know if you guys need anything else, or want to go for a ride. I'd be happy to take anyone around the bike trails in the area. Lastly, if you see a guy on a blue Trek in the street, please don't get too close to him with your car.
