Anybody commute from Folsom,CA to Downtown Sacramento?
 

I was curious if anyone did this commute and had a few questions.

I work an early shift (6:30am) and was thinking about riding into work, but was curious what the trail was like at 4:30am-4:45am. The earliest I've ever been on the trail is 8am.

I'm a fairly new cyclist, just got a Cannondale Synapse 7 and have been riding as much as I can, and am loving it!

Also, Do any of you commute in the rain?

Old Post. Wanted to try riding from Folsom in the early AM hours on the trail and wanted to see if anyone else rides the trails that early in the morning.

Looking for an escape route?

LOL. Sometimes.

I do it and ride from south sac to Folsom and back sometimes,... most sunny days I ride 1-way the full way and the other way I take light rail to cut off 20 miles. But I ride around 7:30.

My boss rides at 5AM from Land park to Folsom... he says the trail is DARK and that there are some temp drops right near the Sac State bridge where it gets pretty cold.

He runs a 110 lumen light which is just barely enough on the ARBT @ ~ 18mph. He wants a stronger light, and I would agree with him.

I have run the trail at night, but not early AM and can say its still fun. Critters abound, but in the winter, there can be frost on the bridges and some slippy sections on the trail so you have to be careful.

HTH

Thanks for the reply. I live in folsom and work off of the Exposition area, there's a trail exit right around the REI down there. The last time I road home it was 26 miles if I remember right, and that took me about 1.5 hours.
I work at 6:30am, and I'm used to getting up early. I used to take the train and then ride home until it got too cold and rainy... Its starting to get warm and I'm super motivated to start riding more, instead of just after work and on the weekends.

I've ridden it several times, and noticed a fair number of homeless types, I wouldn't worry about them other than not wanting to hit them

I don't live in Sacramento now, but I grew up there and my father bike commuted along the trail. He said his biggest problem was with wildlife on the trail. He said he had close calls with deer and wild turkeys many times. I recall when I was a kid there were some muggings on the trail, but having not lived there in a while I don't know what it's like now. Good luck, that will be a beautiful commute if you can work it out.

I ride it every morning. I only ride 14 miles of the trail into downtown every morning and it is freakin amazing! no cars, no cross traffic, just a zen like experince every day.

As others have said, if you are on the path pre-dawn it is dark, way dark and there is a ton of wildlife, mostly jack rabbits and the occasional deer, but either way hitting one could still ruin your morning. The earliest I have ever hit the path this time of year is around 6:30AM and there are always others commuters out, almost all with way brighter lights then mine. If you can pull it I would do 2 lights, one on the handle bar and one on the helmet, its that dark. I will say that I cant wait until its in the 40-50's in the morning, its a bit colder then I would like now, but its a small price to pay.

+1 I used to do Hazel ave. to downtown 3-4 days a week. It was darm there and back since I went to the bicycle kitchen where I volunteered at about 8pm and left somewhere between 2-3am.

It is pretty dark but I used 2 regular AAA powered planet bike half watt fron lights, one pointed kinda down the other pointed kinda up. Then I wore a cheap camping headlamp on top of my helmet that atteched via elastic head band. The head lamp is the most important thing because as others have said there is a lot of harmless wild life out there. I have seen deer, rabbits, skunks, and possums. I have heard of mountain lions near folsom but I have never read about them in the paper or actually seen one. Mostly the deer are used to cyclists so they just freeze.... sometimes in the road, when they see you. Just make a loud noise and they move. I really enjpyed all the animals but some of the tight turns out there would put a deer smack dab in fornt of me. Thats where the head light helps, lets you seen "Around" the turn!

Anyways, I really enjoyed it! I never saw a homless person out there, once there was a drunk college guy stumbling around but you will probably avoid most of that by 4-5am.

Enjoy the ride my friend I really miss it! I just moved to south Korea and riding is.... different here!

I work in Folsom and live in Davis. I ride from Folsom to Davis on Fridays (leave the car at work) and ride back on Monday mornings. Mondays I start my ride at 5:00 am from Davis and get to Discovery part around 6:30 am. I have two lights, Dinotte 200 lumens with 4 double AA rechargable and Coleman 110 lumen flashlight on the helmet. The combination works great for the trail. Also, I wear a light Perfomance Illuminite wind protection jacket that I take off around Williams park. Beneath that I wear a long sleve Performance jersey and LG light jacket. Highly recommend layered clothing. If the Tully fog sets in, you are in for a thriling ride :) I have seen plenty of homeless, but never had any issues with them. I do carry a pepper spray, just in case. Enjoy the ride.

This is making me excited! For now I'll be riding the train in the morning and then riding home. I love cycling!
I just need to purchase some lights and some extra clothing and I'll be good to go.