Southern California - Route through Riverside-Corona (Santa Ana River Trail)

I'm planning a ride from San Bernardino to Huntington Beach via the Santa Ana River Trail. I've ridden both ends of the trail many times. There's a section between Riverside and Green River that is not complete. I assume the route there will have to be city streets. Anyone familiar with a good route connecting the two ends of the trail? I'll be on a mountain bike, so I don't have to have pavement. Any information is appreciated.

Lets see...

A possibility is that when you get to Mt. Rubidoux, take Mission west, turn left on Limonite and head southwest, at Archibald or Hamner go south and work your way down to 6th street. You should be able to find your way over to Green River road which will take you to the Orange County portion of SART.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=yorba+linda,+ca&ie=UTF8&ll=33.874691,-117.596111&spn=0.05872,0.165825&z=13&om=1

Hi Gary,

Good to see another Redlands local on the forums. I was out that way last weekend. Riding to Upland, I took a route pretty similar to Psydotek's recommendation, but I headed North on Euclid, off of Mission, as I wasn't heading to SART.

Good luck!

There are lots of routes you can take. I have one mapped out that I haven't tried yet that takes SART to its Riverside end at Van Buren and Jurupa. From the end of the trail, you can hop across the dirt (fairly hard packed and my touring bike goes over it just fine -- you'll have no problem on the MTB) and through some neighborhoods, eventually through Norco, then through Corona on the north / west side of the 91, across the freeway on Serfas Club, and eventually make your way over to Green River. If you want I can send you the list of turns that I compiled but haven't completely ridden yet (my kingdom for an whole day free to ride the bike!)

Alternatively, a friend who rides to HB every other weekend or so prefers to ride down Victoria Ave. and through Corona on the south / east side of the 91. But getting to Victoria from SART is a bit out of the way. Lovely ride though :)

If you sniff around on the Riverside Bicycle Club site you might be able to scare up their route that they use for the ride formerly known as "Smog to Surf".

Here is a pdf of the Smog to Surf route used in 04. You can use it to piece together a route into Corona. Options include heading up Van Buren (where the bike trail intersects) to Magnolia and then taking that into Corona and picking up the route slip instructions. Riverside Magnolia becomes 6th Street. This would be my recomendation if you want to ride as much of SART as possible. The main problem is that Van Buren and Magnolia would really suck because of the traffic. VB is full of glass and debris and a real nightmare.

I was dissapointed to see the name changed from Smog to Surf to Riverside to Surfside! We in Riverside need to be proud of both our Citrus AND SMOG Heritage!!

On my way back during the 05 ride my Polar recorded a 112 degree temperature on the leg through Corona.

Thanks everyone for the routes. My wife and I are going to drive over to Riverside and scout out the routes suggested.

Where's Mandy? I think she rides that area quite a bit.

If you do not mind a little traffic this is the route I have used several times to go between Orange County and Riverside:

SW on Magnolia
Caution as you cross low angle RR tracks when you are leaving town
road becomes east 6th as you enter Corona
Becomes west 6th
just before passing over 91 FWY Left on Paseo Grande Rd.
IMMEDIATE right on 6th/frontage rd.
down little hill
Left on Serfas Club drive
Right on Palisades drive
Right on Green River dr.
continue over 91 FWY
When Green River Rd turns right and enters the golf club continue straight onto the
Santa Ana River Trail.

I am here - just don't post that much. From the Van Buren Riverside exit I take Van Buren (left) to Arlington (right) to La Sierra (Left) to Magnolia (right), turns to 6th Street (straight) and continue on to green river - that way you avoid the worst of Van Buren/Magnolia.

Even Better, Arlington past La Sierra Runs into California (left) to 6th street (Norco, right) to Hamner (left) to 1st street (right), turns into lincoln (straight), then left on 6th street, to green river. That route has a little more climbing but is the prettiest and least traveled direct route in the area.

Personally stay off of Van Buren as much as possable (I used to commute that way - no fun!)