I want to ride this trail this weekend and had a couple of questions. I read it’s around 40 miles one way.
Do the two trails connect?
Is it all paved bike path so a tri bike can make the whole way?
Anything I need to worry about like bad neighborhoods, crazy elevations, not alot of water stops?
Best place to start towards the upper trail?
Thanks for any heads up.
i assume you are referring to the santa ana river trail in socal. if not ignore me. i ride all/some of this 2-3 times a month. i did not know there is a upper and lower trail. it starts right next to the green river golf course in corona and terminates in huntington/newport beach and is about 28 miles in length. there are 5 cross over points. first one is about 2 miles in at gypsum canyon rode (you actually leave the trail and cross over on an over passing). Next ones are about 10 miles, 15 miles, 20 miles and 25 miles in. These are all little bridges within the river trail. There is construction about 16 miles in where the 22 fwy is. Also there is some construction (with a minor detour) going on in costa mesa about 20 miles in. None of this major though. unless you are riding at a strange hour you should have no problems on this trail. there is usually a bunch of homeless people hanging out around the bathrooms at the arrowhead pound crossing, but they have never bothered me. there are a handful of bathrooms along the trail for refueling bottles. when you get to the coast you can go north and hit any of the bathrooms in hunting beach for water. all in all a very good trail in my mind if you want some long uninterrupted riding.
Cool thanks for the info. I was referring to the one in Socal.
I said upper/lower because labikepaths.com said there wre two, but probably they combine into one so if you are riding it, you wouldn’t know.
When you said cross over points, are you saying, you leave the bike path to cross the street so at those 5 points, it’s possible you have to get off your bike for cars OR are you saing you just cross over the street but you don’t have to worry about traffic?
you just have to go over a little bridge or an over pass. the over passes have a seperated path for bikes so even though you leave the river trail you do not go into the street or worry about traffic. the contruction down in costa mesa may have you share the road with cars for a short (<100 yards) length. this was the case about 3 weeks ago when i was on the trail. it may be done now.
Cool, thanks for the info.
Oh, just thought of one more question. Do you know where to park exactly by the Green valley golf course or anywhere for that matter. I’m not familiar with the area at all, I’m coming from LA.
I mapquested how to get to the Golf course and Prado dam but not sure where to park or go.
thanks again for your help.
get off the 91 fwy at green river rd and head north. the street will curve around and parallel the fwy. there will be a place to park just before the golf course entrance on the right. you may want to map quest the golf course from wherever you are coming from. the street dead ends at the golf course so you will know if you have gone to far. or you could probably just go into the golf course and park there. i think this is where the inland inferno tri club starts some of there rides so you can check out there website for more info on parking.
Thanks again.
no problem, that is what this forum is all about.
I also ride this trail at least once a month as I don’t like riding on roads w/traffic, stoplights, etc. if I can help it. I park at the beach at River Jetties (the start of the trail) and typically, I’ll ride along the beach trail up to HB Pier and back (7 miles round trip) and then head up the SA River Trail. It’s an ever-so-slight uphill the entire way inland and ever-so-slight dowhill the way back which of course helps me neg. split my ride usually. That route is an uninterrupted 62 or 63 miles or so. There is a beach trail all the way to Seal Beach I believe that never crosses traffic, though there’s alot of foot traffic to look out for, and you “could” connect to the San Gabriel River Trail, but I’ve never done that.
I loved it the first couple times I rode it but now I find it kind of boring, but it is pretty safe. Go early for less foot and bike traffic, and cooler temps!
You ride it from the beach out and back and negative split it?
Except the case when you have Santa Ana winds (during normal daylight hours) you will have a harder ride back down to the beach, since you got the onshore breeze 2/3 of the way. And it always is in excess of 5mph. That is why a lot of people ride it from Green River (the top). The elevation gain is not making up for the headwind you get on the return trip.
If you can negative split it (riding up the morning and coming back down later the day), my hat goes off to you. I haven’t seen too many riders being able to do that. Most riders I see closer to the beach are in different stages of disintegration when they are riding it “out and back”.
For first timers it is advisable to ride it “from the top”.
One more thing: When you are out there be considerate and courteous! I have had too many idiots trying to ride me off the trail. Stay to the right and don’t veer into oncoming cyclists! That would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
You’re absolutely right about the wind! I typically try to ride it early before the onshores come up, so I don’t have to deal with that wind. When the wind DOES come up, it’s a BITCH. I’ve bonked on that ride a couple of times around mile 40 on the return trip to the beach. Ugh!
My husband and I ride the whole trail about once a week, and portions of it twice a week.
There’s very little wind in the morning, but when it’s hot and the santa anas are coming up off of the river it can be awful.
I have to do a couple of 100-mile rides soon, so I was thinking of doing the SA Trail, then hopping on PCH down to Jamboree, and riding the San Diego Creek Trail through Newport Back Bay to Irvine and then back to my car. Long, but safe (except the 5 miles or so on PCH each way)
Be careful riding on PCH through Newport. A teacher was hit and killed right in front of the BMW dealer last week and she was riding on the sidewalk. I never like riding that stretch on PCH due to the crossover where cars get on the 55. The river trail is great and I almost exclusively ride there now. No cars, nice people normally, and a great workout into the wind in the afternoon riding back to the beach. I’m usually out there on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Saturdays on a silver Cervelo Dual. It’s always nice to ride with others. The construction zone is passable now if you get off and walk in one section (as long as they aren’t doing any work).
Right on Wes. I might ride that stretch this Saturday and will also be on my silver Dual with a silver helmet. Probably going to start by riding to the Pier and back from River Jetties. I’ll try to start pretty early. Trying to get in 75 miles or so as I build for IMFL.
I rode the whole thing round trip from Green Valley to Huntington and back about 3 weeks ago. It is one continuous path although when we rode it there were a couple of minor detours that were easy to follow and only involved getting on a roadway for about 200 yards or so. We did mis one cross over and had to backtrack a half mile to cross over to the other side of the river, I think just east of Angel Stadium. With that included the total ride was 63 miles. Overall it was a boring bike path, the neat part was riding by the baseball stadium while a game was going on. The San Gabriel path is a bit longer, about 76 miles roundtrip and slightly more scenic as far as dried up river paths go. But the bonus and real advantage to these trails is they are relatively flat, car free and great for doing any kind of interval or specific controlled bike workout that you might want to do.
Can you or anyone else give me a guestimate on how crowded the SA Trail during the weekends is?
Also, how crowded is it compared to the San Gabriel path?
I’m thinking of heading out from the dam/golf course area around 7AM.
Thanks.
Just a guess here since this weekend is Labor Day weekend, it could be a bit busier than normal, but it’s really not bad in my experience there. A few times I’ve had to slow down to get around people, but going at 7am is a good idea. Most of the recreational cyclists are out there after 9am. That early, it’s mainly roadies and triathletes as far as I’ve seen.
I have only ridden them both a bit later in the day, starting around 10am and found both to be not very crowded at all.
I ride the river trail two times a week. Most of the posts are accurate. In “general” the wind going south can get tough the later in the day you ride. As for the this weekend should be crowded. I rode Tues. empty except for a couple of rodies. I will be out there Sat. on my Kalibur.