@jimmyle
1. How long does it take to hike the trail for an average person? Depends upon from where to where. Are you going one way? Where are you starting? Going from the parking lot off of Sorrento Valley Blvd up to the Black Mountain Road and back, you are probably looking at 6 hours unless you really like to hoof-it.
2. If I decide to bike, can I ride in my Road Bike or do I need a Mountain Bike? Has to be a Mountain Bike. You are on dirt, some of it soft, some rocky. You’ll destroy the tires and rims on a road bike.
3. Where are the access points along Sorrento Valley Blvd and Calle Cristobal? There are ‘informal’ drop down points, but there are also formal.
Left side(west side) off of Camino Ruiz Park, just after the entrance. As noted earlier, there are some very steep part of the trail, I would not recommend trying to ride up it, riding down is a little tricky. You have to carefully camp out on the brakes and there are many low branches etc. I wonder who the heck laid out this part of the trail. It really needs to be redone. At the bottom you can head down towards the Sorrento Valley Blvd entrance or up to the Black Mountain.
Sorrento Valley Road. There is a steep up then steep down after going under Sorrento Valley-Calle Cristobal. Then there is a short segment of trail heading down and the longer part of it heading up towards Black Mountain.
From the Black Mountain Road parking lot, you can head down towards Sorrento Valley or up under the 15 towards Penasquitos/Poway. If you park at Canyonside Community Park, it is harder to go up the canyon, but you can travel down the north side of the canyon. From the Black Mountain Road Parking lot, you can easily go both ways.
From Cara Way, off of 15, you can head down towards Black Mountain or further up North.
From Creekside Elementary, you can head down towards Black Mountain or further up. I have not yet traveled further up the trail from this point. From what I see of the satellite, it may be hard to navigate due to fading trails and branching in the trail.
4. If you have biked or hiked this canyon, did you enjoy it? Did both, I now prefer biking it. Walking it seems sooo sloooww. I wish I could go in there when there is more water, the falls would be nice to look at with more water. The problem is that the part of the canyon below the falls is nearly at the level of the stream.. so it gets flooded after a rain
