Sacramento Area
Mountain Bike
Association

American River Tour

On Veteran's Day, Tuesday Nov. 11, 2003, SAMBA led the first legal off-road cycling ride on the Lower American River in 18 years.  Thanks to the cooperation of our friends at the Sacramento County parks and planning departments, we were able to show 25 people from various government agencies and parkway stakeholder groups what it might be like to have a legal, designated off-road cycling trail in the lower parkway.  

The ride resulted in a feature article in the Sacramento Bee, and a three-minute news feature on the 10 O'clock News on KOVR, Sacramento's Channel 13.  This tour was the highlight of our Hot Spots event, which lasted from Nov. 7-16.

Our intent with the tour was to showcase some of the existing trails which would be a part of our proposed "Discovery Loop."  Because of the size of the group, and because not all areas of the proposed loop are currently passable, we only saw about a third of the 15-mile loop envisioned.

We started our ride in Discovery Park, and rode the old trail, with its deteriorating or obliterated pavement for the first 3/4 mile.  At mile 1 we had a look at a badly overgrown equestrian trail.  At mile 2 we stopped to look at the abandoned gravel mine.   At mile 3 (roughly the location of the 20th St. bike crossing, we hit the dirt and went down along the river, using old roads an trails to take us all the way to Business 80.  From there, we hit the old bike trail, where the pavement has been completely removed.  From there, we went up to the Campus Commons Golf Course entry, our turn around and refueling point.  On the way back, we hit a cool little piece of trail along the river, just downstream from the golf course, and then we traversed across the Bushy Lake area, along the powerline corridor, down the dirt road to the north of the radio towers and back to Discovery Park.

The ride group, front row (kneeling), L-R: Mark Schmidt, International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA)/Subaru Trail Care Crew; Lou Heinrich, American River Natural History Association; Laura Kaplan, Center for Collaborative Poicy; Lora Woolner, IMBA/Subaru Trail Care Crew; Sue Fry, SAMBA; Bob Horowitz, SAMBA; Brandon Dwight, IMBA.  Second row, L-R: David Barton, Sacramento Bee; Danny McClure; Michael Picker, whitewater sports advocate; Lea Brooks, Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates; Sunny Williams, Sacramento County Planning and Community Development Department; Eric Johnson, appointee of Supervisor Roger Dickinson to the American River Parkway Citizen's Update Committee; County Parks Ranger Will Safford; Aaron Baygell; Katie Baygell, American River Parkway (Equestrian) Trail Patrol; Ed Cox, City of Sacramento Department of Public Works; Tim Washburn, Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency; Jennifer Krier, KOVR Channel 13 News; Chris Marney, SAMBA tandem driver extraordinaire.  Back row, L-R: Mark Murray, Buffalo Chips running club; Bob Ireland, Sacramento County Department of Transportation; Mike Gunby, East Sacramento Improvement Association.  And, of course, the famous IMBA/Subaru Outback, Mark and Lora's rolling home!

Making good television!  SAMBA's Chris Marney and KOVR's Jennifer Krier on the full-suspension Ventana tandem.

Many thanks to everyone who helped put on this very successful event.   Special thanks to Gary Kukkola at Sacramento County Parks for the special permit, head ranger Dave Lydick for sending Will Safford to keep us out of trouble, Chris Marney for the tandem driving and the extra bike, Mark Murray for his expert knowledge of the trails in lower parkway, and Kristin Yee for the tasty scones and sag wagon support!