29 MILES / 390 FEET
54 MILES / 545 FEET

• Travel from Carmichael through Central Sacramento to the Sacramento River Bike Trail, returning (29 mile ride) by Riverside Blvd or (54 mile ride) by Yolo County's South River Road.
  
   

• SETTING

  • American River Parkway Bike Trail, affording a quiet, traffic-free, scenic, and direct conduit through the metropolitan area.

  • Streets of Central and Southern Sacramento, providing generally quiet, shady passage from Eastern Sacramento to the Sacramento River.

  • Sacramento River Bike Trail providing nice river views from the east side of the Sacramento River.

  • South River Road offering quiet and scenic river views from the west side of the Sacramento River (54 mile route).
    
    

• START

  • Carmichael:  mile 13.5 of the American River Bike Trail, William Pond Recreation Area, Carmichael, CA

    • Travel to the intersection of Arden Way and Fair Oaks Blvd in Carmichael, CA (immediately east of Sacramento).  Park in the Five Points parking lot (SE corner of Arden Way & Fair Oaks Blvd, away from retail outlets) or on Arden Way, west of restricted parking.  Mile 13.5 is at the intersection of the American River Pkwy Bike Trail and the Arden Way access path.

  • Any portion of the American River Parkway Bike Trail, or a point near the ride itself, can be used as the start / end point.
    
     

• 29 MILE RIDE

  • This route passes through Central Sacramento and down Riverside Blvd to the southern terminus of the Sacramento River Bike Trail, which it takes back to Central Sacramento and the ride start.

   

• 54 MILE RIDE

  • This route passes through Central Sacramento to Capitol Mall and the northern terminus of the Sacramento River Bike Trail, which it takes to Riverside Blvd, Pocket Road, and Freeport Blvd.  From the town of Freeport it follows Yolo County's South River Road back to West Sacramento, Discovery Park, and the ride start.

   

• RIDE CHARACTERISTICS

  • Climbing:  29 Mile Ride:  390 feet.  54 Mile Ride:  545 feet.

  • Difficulty:  easy.

  • Central Sacramento:  lovely streets.  However, don't be in a great hurry!  Whereas bicycling in east or west directions is relatively fast, travel north or south is slow due to frequent stop lights which -  synchronized for cars - stop bicyclists.

  • Risks: 

    • Inexperienced cyclists on the American River Parkway Bike Trail:  particularly on weekends there can be significant numbers of young cyclists who are utterly ignorant of the "rules of the road" and who can act entirely unpredictably. 

    • Urban cycling (generally easy). 

    • Occasional assaults on bicyclists have occurred on the American River Bike Trail between the H Street Bridge and Discovery Park (54 mile ride).