North County SD

There are a ton of trails in the area. I'm in north western Orange County but often run and ride horses in the Lake Hodges area of SD, several times a month.

 

Poway is right next to Escondido and has some great trails, I've run Mt Woodson and Iron Mountain there: http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Hiking+Trails&find_loc=Poway%2C+CA

 

If you continue along Lake Hodges trail towards the ocean into the fancy Rancho Santa Fe area, the trails that direction are very well-groomed and scenic (ie: hilly but worth it). Here's some info on the San Dieguito trails: http://www.sdrp.org/trails.htm

Inland areas near Julian offer some very scenic pine-forested trails such as Descanso and Cuyamaca.  http://www.yelp.com/biz/cuyamaca-rancho-state-park-descanso

 

Also check these folks out, they run a bootcamp in San Diego and also do a trail race series in Jan-April (just ended a couple weeks ago), but also have weekly group trail runs: http://www.meetup.com/King-of-the-Hill-Trail-Running/  I've done the trail race series the last 2 years but am unable to do the weekly training runs b/c I live too far away to commute for them.

You can also check for nearby running groups on Meetup.com.

Edited by Rancid13 2013-04-17 12:00 PM

Thank you so much for replying and providing all the detailed information. I will be checking out all the trails and will definitely utilize all the links. Thanks for keeping me stoked on running in a new area.

If you can get on base, theres TONS of good trail running here.

I usually run the strand and down pacific st. Not trail running but it's pretty nice to run next to the pacific... You're more than welcome to run with me.

I am on Camp Pendleton and yes there are tons of trails to run but it get pretty boring after awhile.  I usually run from Carlsbad Village Drive to North Ponto and back.  Its about 7 miles roundtrip with a beautiful view.