Spooner Lake Summit - Lake Tahoe, NV

On a quick weekend trip to Tahoe with the family, this was the perfect ride to satisfy my bike craving. Going on a trip with the family can make it difficult to spend "me" time, but this ride took just under 3 hours, and got in all the climbing i needed to make it feel like I could have ridden all the way around the lake.

American River Parkway Trail

If you live in Sacramento and own a bicycle, you no doubt have explored this great bike trail in the area. The American River Parkway starts in Old Town Sacramento near the Train Museum, and ends at Beals Point in Folsom. The mile markers painted on the trail begin in Old Town at 0 and end at 31 miles. Along the way you'll cross the river 3 times, and pass historical markers, parks, Sac State, mild white water, a salmon & trout fish hatchery, 2 dams, CSUS aquatic center and old town Folsom. Even with the out & back distance of over 62 miles, the trail can be extended at both ends from Beals point up Auburn folsom Rd and out to Foresthill, and downtown across the river to West Sacramento down W. Capitol  to the trail on the Yolo Causeway out to Davis & Beyond.

The trail is so prolific, that when the Tour of California comes to town you'll see almost all the pro riders on the trail getting their miles in (yes, Lance Armstrong has ridden the trail, and in a conversation I had with Floyd Landis he also was aware of the trail)

The horse trails are closed to mountain bikers, but the only people that will be bothered to see you there are the trail runners. As a kid I was actually caught by a park ranger on a horse, but let off with an easy warning. The main paved trail is smooth, maintained, and relatively flat with an "up river" direction.

Sac County Trail Map:                                                     link
Partial Trail KML (Business 80 to Folsom Bluffs):            KML file




View Sat Beals Point in a larger map

McArthur - Burney Falls

I'd been on this trail once before, but I was still surprised by the beauty of this waterfall. I was there on at 100+ degree day and when you drop down to the lower pool, you're immediately cooled down by the mist of the falls. It's a great place to be on a hot day, and a necessary stop if you've never been before.

The first section of the trail all the way to the falls is a paved trail and very heavily traveled. There are a few different trails surrounding the falls, including a hike to the Lake Britton and back. The falls loop trail is only about a mile, and is worth the trip since you have to climb out the the canyon anyway, you might as well climb out the other side and see the top of the falls.

State Parks Link:       http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25166
Distance:                   ±1.0 miles
Difficulty:                 Easy
KML File                 Download


View Burney Falls in a larger map

Cinder Cone / Snag Lake / Butte Lake

This was a great overnight hike to Snag Lake. Start at the Butte Lake Campground which is down a well-marked dirt road about 6 miles from Highway 44. For overnight hikes, you'll need to obtain a back country permit which is free and available by simply filling out the forms available in a drop box at the ranger station. If you follow the loop counter clockwise, there is a brochure available at the trailhead for $.50 that details the geological features along the way (the same info is available on the trail markers along the way).

I followed trail around counter clockwise, and was surprised to find the first 5 miles of the 7 mile trail to grassy creek was all ground lava bed and was comparable to hiking 5 miles on a sandy beach. The trail itself was not terribly difficult but the sand + altitude wore me out. Grassy Creek at the south end of Snag Lake was the perfect place to set up camp, and so thought about 3 other groups when I was there. Mid July, there was not much of a creek left, but by looking at Google Maps, it fills in very high in other seasons. The hike up Cinder Cone was very steep at a pitch of about 35 degrees at some points, but is not too long and well worth it for views of the painted dunes and the Fantastic Lava Beds (marked on the map below).


Difficulty:                                       Moderate
Distance:                                       14 miles round trip
KML file:                                       download
Lassen National Park Trail Maps:  click here


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Independence Trail West - Grass Valley

It seemed fitting to post the Independence Trail West for the 4th of July. I hiked this trail on National Trails Day, and got some additional info regarding it's history. This is the oldest handicapped accessible trail in the United States.This was a wonderful trail and easy hiking. My 3.5 year old hiked 4/5 of the miles, and probably would have hiked the whole thing had we done the out and back trail rather than the loop.
To do the loop, take the trail heading towards the river on the right about .4 miles after the trailhead. After arriving at the river (photo of a nice swimming hole below), you continue across the bridge and up the fire road until the top. You'll see a sign for the trail on the left hand side, and you continue a very moderate but beautiful from this point back towards the flume.

Distance:             4.4 miles

Elevation Gain:    1,385 feet

Difficulty:             Out & Back (Easy); Loop (Moderate/Difficult)

KML file:            download

View Independence Trail West in a larger map

Way Too Cool 50k / Western States Trail

Congratulations to my Friend Theresa for completing this ultra marathoner trail run! She is literally way-too-cool for me. Besides this being a monster of a run in Cool, California, the .gpx file will give you an idea where to ride/hike/run on back roads, and through a Section of the Western States Trail which eventually crosses over to the Western Side of the North Fork and down towards Folsom Lake. I haven't done it yet, but you may see me on the trail as I get out of my comfort zone for my next exploration.

Event Website: http://www.wtc50k.com/course.aspx
Distance:          50k
Difficulty:          unknown
GPX file:          here

Elk Grove County Park

If you're from Elk Grove, this is probably a very familiar trail to you, but for others just outside the area, it may be worth the drive for this literal 'walk in the park'. This 1.6 mile decomposed granite track is a great way to run nearby your neighborhood without running on the harsh roads. There are also tons of other things to do in the park including softball, bike jump park, dog park, swimming pool, duck pond, disc golf course, and even wifi access. 

Activity:    Run/Walk
Distance:  1.5 miles/lap
Difficulty:  As easy as it gets
KML file


View Elk Grove County Park in a larger map

Foresthill Divide / Connector / Stonewall / Confluence Trail

I had previously posted about the Clementine Trail, which is an awesome 'loop' trail, but my favorite way to ride the best sections of that trail, plus some additional miles is to connect it to the Forresthill Divide Trail. This shuttle run will give you some of the fun up & down sections of Foresthill, and all the downhill sections of Clementine (Rucky Chuck). In total, this route is about 11.5 miles, but could easily be stretched into 17 miles if you ride the entire Foresthill Divide loop starting past the Foresthill Bridge on the right hand side trail head.

If you've got 2 cars, I recommend trying this Mountain Bike trail out.

Distance:  11.4 mi
Difficulty:  Moderate to Advanced
KML file: click here



View Foresthill Divide / Connector / Stonewall / Confluence Trail in a larger map

Eppie's Great Race

It's that time of year where the weather turns, and I start thinking about my fitness goals for this summer. One of the reoccurring goals is to compete in the Eppie's Great Race. This is a competitive race, and if you're going to compete, you'd better be good at the run. The run itself is 6 miles, compared to 14 on the bike, and 6 downstream on a kayak. It's difficult to pass on the kayak, and the some ground can be made up on the bike, but you don't even have a chance of pushing yourself through these legs if you can't run 6 miles and still have gas in the tank. I've attached the KML file to help you prepare for this years race:

KML file

eppiesgreatrace.org


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Clementine Loop / Stonewall / Confluence Trails

The Clementine Loop Trail is one of my favorite trails near Sacramento. It has up, it has down, and not too much in-between. If you want to make this a longer ride, it can also be connected to the Foresthill Divide Trail using the connector the road near the top of the climb. The initial climb starts at the confluence on Highway 49 near the Cool turnoff. From the parking lot, look up at the Foresthill Bridge, and you'll see the elevation gain for the trail. After this slow climb, the payoff is suite. Steep descents on Stonewall turn into fast and fun single-track on the Confluence Trail. When I've ridden in large groups, it's always fun to shuttle up the Old Foresthill Road to run the Confluence Trail a second time.

Warning: I took a group of boy scouts here and they got too excited for their abilities. The downhill sections make it easy to pick up speed, but know your technical limits.

GPS File: .kml
Distance: 7.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1,294 ft
Type: Loop
Difficulty: Moderate/Difficult


View Clementine Loop Trail in a larger map

Salmon Falls / Darrington Trail

The Salmon Falls Trail (lesser known name is the Darrington Trail) is one of the staples in the Sacramento area. The trail runs along the south fork of Folsom Lake and offers great views for a get-away not to far out of town. The trail is somewhat technical at the beginning, but gets easier as the trail goes on (don't be intimidated by the hike-a-bike section right out of the gate). The turn around point at the trail runs into a campground which offers services during the camping season.

Distance: 10 miles (one way)
Difficulty: moderate

KML file

Granite Regional Park

The Granite Regional Park is part of the old rock quarry in the Power Inn area, just south of Jackson Highway, behind the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services. The park itself has an artificial turf soccer field, a skate park, a fishing pond, a walking trail, and a dog park. The site is used as a cross country course for track meets, but I like to use it as a quick lunch-time MTB track. There are a variety of routes and distances you can use, and all of them link back to the main fire roads through the quarry. You can see on the map I tracked, that some of the loops were cut off by high water.

I've uploaded a map of the 3 mile cross country running course the school district uses for additional reference.

Note: The only access I could find to the trails is through the gate near the Northeast corner of the skate park.

High School Cross Country Course: Download
KML file: Download
City of Sacramento Parks Page: Link

 
View Granite Regional in a larger map

Folsom Lake SRA

In pursuit of mapping out a trail around Folsom Lake, one of the most frustrating parts, was I could not find the legitimate state parks map online. It took a visit to the toll booth at the Granite Bay boat launch area to secure this puppy, and although it's not accompanied  by a GPS file, it's the best overview map of the trails in the area I've found.

Download PDF here.

Beeks Bight / Pioneer Express Trail

Today I mapped Beeks Bight and a portion of the Pioneer Express Trail. In order to map as quickly as possible, I attempted to do this via Mountain Bike. I went under the assumption that the trail was marked "no bikes" due to a bias against the Mountain Bike culture, but after about 3 miles in, the trail is really un-ridable, and at that point we actually ditched our bikes and hiked as much of the trail as I had time for. Another 2-3 miles would have gotten me to the Rattlesnake Bar access.

Along the way, we encountered several groups of trail runners, and some beautiful scenery. I'm usually more prone to fun on a mountain bike, but this is a trail run worth doing.

Click here for full trail report.


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50/20 Inspiration

In May 2012 I'm venturing to do a 50/20 hike with the Boy Scouts. This means 50 miles of hiking over 20 hours. It's a daunting task - and after thinking about it its really like burning as many calories as you burn in 2 marathons.

BUT, the hardest thing about the hike so far is the fact that I can't find flipin sweet trails anywhere. It should be so easy to find .kml or gpx files for different hikes since everyone is logging them on their smart phones anyway, right? Nope. Everything I find is a grainy trail map from the 1960's or some trail on pavement.

So here's my plan - road rides are easy enough to find since the invention of Map My Ride, and google maps, but i plan to map all the mountain bike, hike and trails that i use near Sacramento on the American River Trail, Folsom Lake SRA, Auburn SRA and others (there are TONS of them). Feel free to contribute .kml or .gpx files, and check back here for recent trails for your local hike, run or ride.