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The stars aligned this week: I had time, health, and a working bike, all at the same time. I rode every day this week.

It's amazing what having a working, top-shelf fork can do for the quality of a ride. My new Fox Float 32 Factory fork is awesome. Little ripples and bumps disappear, and big ones are manageable. Utterly confidence-inspiring. So, so much better than the mushy, stiction-afflicted mess that was my old Marzocchi.

I spent the first part of the week retracing familiar trails and getting re-accustomed to real trail riding. So I focused on the Yucca downhill (new PR), Grasshopper (ditto), and tried to make sure each ride included plenty of climbing, just to get that into my legs while I have the chance.

And Friday afternoon, I decided not to sweat the pace, and instead just explore what else I could find close to home.

I ended up riding some of the trails through Anaheim Hills. A bit of singletrack along the creek, and some horse trails, but all of it enjoyable. (Some of it simply because it's new, some because it's genuinely great.)

It's a near-perfect one-hour loop starting from the Weir Canyon trailhead at the end of Hidden Canyon Rd. and looping east through Weir, then connecting out to the neighborhood trails through Anaheim Hills.

The singletrack running south from Blue Sky Rd is genuinely great. What a gem to find hidden in a suburban neighborhood. And it was fun to connect Deer Canyon to other trails. Without those connections, it's just an isolated out-and-back. Now I can link it with neighborhood horse trails, and back to Weir.

I've always been a huge fan of hidden neighborhood trails/loops, especially if they involve little secrets you only discover by actually exploring what's there. This loop ticks all the boxes. About an hour, 1300 ft of climbing, some fun singletrack, some challenging technical climbing, and enough navigation to keep my mind engaged. I'm absolutely going to go back and ride this again when I get the chance.

Anaheim Hills Horse Trails Loop