Plymouth to Sacramento

September 19, 2023

7.8a

After having seen all of the traffic on CA-16 yesterday, we decided to head North to the American River Trail and then take it West to Sacramento. Doing so would add 15 miles to our day but would be worth the investment. This meant getting to Folsom. The last time I was there was 1981. Back then, it seemed a sleepy little place, at least in my memory.

Beautiful field as we started the day on a very calm road.

The plan began well enough. We rode on a beautiful, pastoral, and low traffic road for several miles. I remember thinking this is how the whole ride should be. All too soon, we had to take a right onto Latrobe Road and the traffic immediately increased.

Cruising along out of Plymouth on a fine morning.

Latrobe is small place, to which you wouldn’t think anyone would be going on a workday but beyond it lay Folsom. All the action is going on there these days and everyone seems to be headed to it. The road undulated and continued with the pastoral scenery. But there were times when the shoulder disappeared, deep ditches awaited an error, and lines of fast moving traffic would pass. Fortunately, we made it safely past Latrobe and to the upscale community of El Dorado Hills.

Latrobe, California. I wonder if Arnie Palmer ever made it here?

Bike path in El Dorado Hills. Note the stone wall.

In El Dorado Hills we briefly got onto a bike path. After a left turn off of the path, we subsequently used on-road bike lanes that passed through what appeared to be a retirement community in El Dorado Hills. We saw people out walking, running, and cycling in the area. It was a peaceful and beautiful area, through which I enjoyed riding.

Stone walls off in the distance and high above the roadway, near Folsom.

I have noticed a number of very nicely built stone walls, starting with the ones at Mary’s place in Carson City. They caught my eye because of my time in New England and limited experience in building them there and on my own property. Although these are somewhat different, they are done well and deserve mention.

We emerged from quiet El Dorado Hills into the construction and frenzy that Folsom has become. Building is going on everywhere and the traffic is there to punctuate it. Several roads were closed due to construction that might be re-routing or eliminating them altogether. Even our mapping program had not yet caught up with the changes.

Oversized construction vehicle delivering equipment to further develop Folsom.

We eventually got on East Bidwell Street, which was very busy but had a bike lane that drivers seemed to respect. Later on, the bike lane disappeared along with our feelings of security. We cut through a shopping plaza and got onto the seemingly safer Raley Street. We had only 1.2 miles to get to the American River Trail but it seemed further before we finally reached the trailhead.

Folsom also has an intersecting path called the Johnny Cash Trail. I wish we would have had more time to explore it.

Getting on the American River Trail, aka the American River Parkway (ARP), we learned from a local user that we needed to follow the river downstream to get to Sacramento. The ARP is on the North side of the river for several miles before crossing over to the South shore via the high and wide Hazel Avenue Bridge near an area called Lake Natoma.

Nearly half the ride was on the ARP. In the areas near Folsom, large piles of river rocks can be seen adjacent the trail. These are left over from the gold rush mining days.

Piles of rock left over from the gold rush days.

Further on, the trail becomes more park like. It crosses the river again near Rancho Cordova. Since we were no longer in the mountains, the afternoon became very warm. I suppose there were places nearby to find a cold drink but we didn’t go exploring. The trail itself does not have any visible concessions for a passing user.

At one point, a sharp left down a steep ramp was required. It came up quickly (for me). As I made the turn, someone had smashed a glass bottle in the middle and glass was everywhere. I could not avoid it. At first, I seemed to come through unscathed and continued rolling along.

On the ARP when I realized the broken glass had gotten the best of me.

About 2.5 miles from the finish, my rear tire was flat. My spirit was equally deflated, momentarily. After collecting myself, I decided to walk the bike to the finish and deal with the problem later. The walk really wasn’t all that bad. The river was crossed one more time at the end of the planned route near the Rail Yards section of Sacramento.

Tomorrow is a planned day off. The plan is to look around the city and to further deal with the reoccurring tire issue. While I haven’t been devoting journal entries to off days, tomorrow will be an exception.

Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 1,022 miles (1,645 km)

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