Posts Tagged ‘trails’

Apparently there is a long tradition with a certain group that on the shortest day of the year (or nearest convenient day), there's a bicycle ride down the American River Bike Trail. This year I was invited along by the executive director of my local bike advocacy group (which I'm on the board of).

The trail is historical and beautiful. It was one of the first trails specifically made for bicycles in the US, and one of the longest purpose-built paved bike paths in the US. It's about 30 miles long and follows the American River from Folsom to Sacramento. It's essentially 30 miles of park with a nicely paved trail running the length of it, bridges where needed, etc. Lots of parks of various sizes along the way, from tiny little "one picnic table with a view" parks to big sprawling parks. Some of the parks have big parking lots, so if you don't want to ride the whole distance you can start there.

We used light rail to get from Sacramento to Folsom and then rode the downhill/downstream direction of the trail.

The day started at 5:45am, when my bike and I were picked up for a drive down to San Rafael. We met up with somebody, rode about a mile and met up with the truck that drove us to Richmond while we nervously watched the bikes jiggling around on the overloaded rack.

In Richmond, we got on Amtrak to Sacramento, then on a light rail to Folsom. Had a bit of breakfast on the Amtrak ride consisting of food people brought along, such as some homemade gingerbread and banana bread.

Getting off the light rail in Folsom

The usual tradition in this ride is that there's a rainstorm and epic suffering, but the weather was fantastic this year, so I put away both upper layers that I'd brought along and went until evening in shorts and a t-shirt.

After the light rail, there was a very short ride up a hill to our second breakfast, for kicking off the ride.

Parking our bikes outside the breakfast spot

Then after that, a ride over to the trail, and off we rode.

Regrouping before starting on the trail, which starts right below

One of our first rest stops. A river viewing spot connected to a park

View of the river

Most of the trail is lightly shaded with trees and really quite pleasant.

A fairly typical stretch of the trail

Met some new friends while resting watching the water

Crazy hats on one of the bigger bridges

A huge walnut tree we had to check out

Myself and the Bike Sonoma director posing for a photo

Near the end of the trail

Our ride ended in Old Town Sacramento, a historic tourist-attracting neighborhood that happens to be right next to the Amtrak station to get us back to Richmond. We got some dinner, a few of us got lost finding the train, got some cocktails at a bar on a boat, and caught the next train.

The C&O runs 180 miles along the Potomac river from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC. The surface is mostly packed dirt. You don't want to ride this one with skinny road tires. I managed with 700x32 standard touring tires, but riding here is more fun with knobby tires.

I've been on the trail twice, once as part of a Pittsburgh to DC tour, the other on a shorter three-day ride. (We rode the W&OD west for a day out of DC, then turned towards the more-or-less parallel C&O and doubling back towards the district.)

It's worth noting that the C&O meets up with the GAP trail in Cumberland, which takes you pretty much all the way to Pittsburgh, PA. The two trails are popular touring destinations.

If you're starting in Cumberland, check out the Cumberland Trail Connection, a bike shop that has catered to trail users for years.

The C&O itself starts more or less in the middle of town as a brick-and-stone trail:

Once you exit town, it quickly turns into the dirt trail it will be for most of its way to the nation's capitol.

You'll ride through fields, past pastures and horse farms, and through woods. If it's rained recently, you'll also get pretty filthy. I highly recommend fenders on this trail.

When I went on the northern half of the C&O, portions of it were very overgrown. However, they've since tamed the path a bit, which I think is a shame.

Bring lights along; there are a few unlit tunnels where you'll need them.

Most water available along the trail is from cisterns, and is treated with iodine. If you'll be on the trail for more than a few hours, check the status of these with the park service. Getting stranded overnight without water is, as I can testify, no fun.

Williamsport aqueduct

Fallen tree, about four hours south/east from Williamsport. I had to take an on-road detour, and I was glad I had a GPS for that bit.

Snapping turtle on the C&O, near the great falls

If you have time, stop and see the Great Falls. It's right off the trail itself, and maybe an hour or two from the end of the trail in DC. I found it breathtaking, and well worth spending a couple of hours.

• Bike Washington's C&O Canal Bicycling Guide