toolbear

I am looking for information on the California Aqueduct Bikeway which runs about 70 miles from the San Luis Reservoir Rec Area up to the Bethany Reservoir Rec Area on the chip seal access road along the aqueduct.

Any ride survivors out there?

bikingshearer 

I rode part of it many years ago. Not the most pleasant riding in the world.

You can expect headwinds pretty much the whole way the direction you are proposing to go. Depending on when you go, it can also be nasty-hot.

It is a fair number of miles between road crossings. There are these funky gate-obstacle things through which you will have to walk your bike at each road crossing. You cannot get through with panniers on the bike.

The way is basically flat - actually ever-so-slightly uphill most of the time, as you are going upstream for the aqueduct, even though you are heading ever-so-slightly downhill as far as everything else is concerned (the acqueduct ships water north to south, which is uphill as far as the Tehachipi Mountains south of Bakersfield, so the aqueduct had to be built to overcome that - since the elevation rise in the San Joaquin Valley is so gradual, that was possible).

There is vitrually no shade along the acqueduct - bring sunscreen. And while the food-and-water situation is much better than when the path first opened, be prepared to be self-sufficient for multiple hours at a time. For the most part, any refreshment stops will be at roads that have off-ramps from I-5, and will be up to a mile off the acqueduct path itself. In a few cases, you will be close enough to a town to make that feasable. But there will be little or nothing right on the path itself. Bring two bottles and/or a CamelBak.

As for bike breakdowns, be prepared to be self-sufficient the entire way, as there will be no cars to hitch a ride with in between road crossings and precious few riders to offer assistance. Think "belt and suspenders," meaning to bring extra tubes and a patch kit, and bring a pump even if you have CO2 cartridges. At a bare minimum, have a good multi-tool. If in doubt, bring it. Better having to carry some extra weight in unused tools than having to walk five or more miles to get to a road crossing.

If you have ever driven I-5 in the San Joaquin Valley, you know the scenery. If it's hazy or foggy, you won't see much. If it is clear, you will see a lot of flat farm land to the north, south and east and dry, rugged hills to the west. If it is really clear, you might see the Sierras to the far east, but that kind of view probably comes only with a significant headwind penalty.

I hope this helps.

speedemon

I have gone up and down I-5 a zillion times. I would have no desire to ride the Aqueduct. The ride up and down I-5 is one hell of a boring riding. I using it as it's the quickest way to get to Southern CA and back, other than that it's no joy ride for me let alone on a bike. I would find somewhere else more enjoyable to ride like the American River Parkway in Sacramento if I had to ride along the waterways.

toolbear

Thanks for the Fair Warning. Death March, eh? I have scouted the lower end and have the brochure showing the access points (fisherman access). However, it never made it onto my Must Do list. You have covered most of the reasons. It is a logistic challenge - and I don't think my new trike will do the narrow gate openings. The MTB would.

My contact over at the TrailLink IS department wondered why I hadn't been sending in new (to them) trails, so --- why not? I tossed this one at them. It has been in my backlog file for some years. Might as well get it listed and a page set up. I don't think it will ever become a Destination Trail like the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes or the Route of the Hiawatha.

toolbear

Quite so.

I understand Folsom to have about 40 miles of Class 1 trails. I've seen a few videos of them. Look nice. Even have shade.

rumbutter

I have done the top section from Bethany almost down to Patterson. I plan to do the whole thing one day. It does get really windy and there are quite a few sections where you have to get off the bike to cross roads and railroad tracks.
I found that even on a relatively hot day the wind and proximity of water makes things quite cool but avoid summer !

I enjoyed the ride, especially the solitude after you get past Tracy.



As a fellow trike rider I would say you are going to need to do some serious lifting on the upper section of the trail to get through the stiles. they got to extreme measures to keep motorcycles off the trail.

toolbear

Thanks for the input and pix. I think the trike won't get to try this trail. I recall getting my MTB through the gate at San Luis.

Unless otherwise directed, I wish to send your note and pix to Laura over at Rails to Trails. She will be working on the trail submission and data is data. Any more pix? When the trail is listed, folks can contribute reviews and pix.

If the pix are submitted with lat/long, they appear as thumbnails on the map line at that spot. This makes a mini tour at the desktop possible.

<https://www.traillink.com/viewnationalmap.aspx?z=9&lat=37.179920405972&lon=-119.462267276166>

danec99

And here it is. 70 miles of featureless, carfree travel. Speedemon is correct, however I to am strangely drawn to ride this. I see midwesterners getting all the gravel fun, but this lacks a bit from that experience. Rumbutter, when did you ride this? I see a few recent reports of this being closed to bikes.

budmol3

There are sections that are closed for 'maintenance'. Going south from Tracy the path is closed at Bird Road with a sign saying closed until July 2012. This is October and it is still closed. I think the same is true of the section from Patterson Pass road to Grantline Road.

budmol3

Update - the Patterson Pass to Grantline is open. The bike gates are in place but the blue bike route signs are gone.