Road Ride Report American River Bikeway - Lake Natomas

I finished off my NorCal riding with an easy 11.5 mile loop around Lake Natomas area and Negro Bar on the American River Bikeway. I forgot how beautiful the American River trail is. This is not the Santa Ana River Trail. I wish I could have ridden further, but I had my pops in tow on the new bike I bought him for christmas.

Getting things started beneath the fancy new bridge at Negro Bar (man this area sure has grown).







Right past Negro Bar you get a great view of the cliffs and river.



Around the bend is a little hill and . . . wild turkeys. Wild Turkeys?!?!?!





My pops having to take a break to put on the windbreaker.



What is this? Leaves and trees on the trail? Oh yeah.



The other great thing about the American River Bikeway (besides the hot chicks) is that there are tons of dirt trails off to the side. Perfect for knobbies or hiking.



Some shots of both sides of the dam. It is the end of salmon season. You can see the fish hatchery off to the side on the last shot.









They have nice new section of trail on the other side of the lake that makes this section a nice easy loop. Even a couple cool bridges.

 

The Salsa Vaya is perfect for this trail. You can do a little paved riding and then hop off into some dirt. With more great views from the dirt trail that parallels on the paved trail, including picnic tables every so often.













More beautiful leaves and trees. This whole section looks like this.





Pops pushing the bike up the hill at the end. Must be a family trait.



Just an absolutely beautiful ride and no threat of a hit and run. The trail goes all the way from Folsom Lake (start of the foothills east of Sacramento) past downtown to the convergence of the Sacramento and American Rivers at Discovery Park. I believe the whole route is ~35 miles with parks and restrooms scattered along the way. In the warmer months when you get hot, lock the bike up and take a quick dip to cool down. I wish I had the time to ride the whole length. I'll have to save that for the next visit. Plus, with the Vaya I can enjoy some of the side dirt. May even bring the El Mariachi and really explore the dirt trails along the river. My high school was right on the river/bike path. I didn't know what I had then.

 

Looks like you had a good time there. I live about 15 minutes from there and ride the dirt and paved trails all the time. The American River Bike Trail is one of the nicest things in Sacramento during the day. At night it can be a bit sketchy. Here is a video I posted of parts of the dirt trail around the lake.
[video=youtube_share;wDTU0UVr6hI]http://youtu.be/wDTU0UVr6hI[/video]

 

Yeppers !!! a great trail to ride . I used to ride the river road from Woodland to W. Sacramento grab some food as I passed through old town and then cruise into Discovery park and then ride the trails both paved and dirt.
It made for some high mileage days on my Cannondale SM 800 . The rivers of Central and Northern California are
what I miss the most here in Southern California . Next time you go up there check out Rockville State Park.
A few miles outside Vacaville . It's all dirt but a beautiful place to ride some awesome single track. It's about 45 minutes to an hour away from Discovery Park . Maybe you have been there? I really enjoyed the picture of the fisherman I remember spending hours standing in the line up with my Dad and good friends wading in that cold-ass water to catch a Salmon or Steel head.
Thanks for the great post!