Boulder Creek RV (4)

Any time we are traveling up or down in Northern California, we are thinking about doing the Sacramento River Bike Trail. This is one of our top five Best Of bike rides, and we’ve done some impressive rides. From the Boulder Creek RV Park, it’s 22 miles out to Shasta Dam, and 22 miles back, with a stop for ice cream of course. Weather was looking pretty good for doing the ride the next day, so we ate out at our favorite Thai place, Janya’s, and then walked around a botanical park near the Sundial Bridge. Botanical parks are quite pleasant, it seems. There was a nice little fountain and a little grove of trees decorated with hanging chandeliers. This is the place where they set up the Glowing Wild Lantern Festival, so maybe some of the decorations stay up year round. We made our way down to the river and got a taste of Saturday’s ride. Then back to Dory to pack our lunches and get our gear ready so we could get an early start. It wasn’t threatening temperatures above 100 like last time, but it was going to be in the low 90s, so still best to be done by the hottest part of the afternoon.

The first part of the ride starts from Hilltop Drive. You can catch the trail there that takes you down to the river. Then you just hang right, following the river upstream until you eventually cross over a bright red suspension bridge. The entire thing is well paved and well signed, so you are not likely to get lost. You will be sharing the trail with lots of pedestrians, and actually, we went right through the finish line of a charity ride for Alzheimers. It’s the busiest part of the trail, but it calms down pretty quickly once you leave the day use park areas. There is one very short part where the trail stops on a residential street and you turn left to pick it up again at the end of the street. Once you get to the Keswick Dam, that’s where there will be some climbing. This part of the trail rises and descends above the river, which is now on your right. It’s some of the prettiest views, but boy I’d feel differently if I didn’t have an e-bike. At last, you come to a short climb, and then an intersection with the rails-to-trails part. Turn right and it’s an almost imperceptible ascent all the way to the dam. The river is right there with you the whole way. There are even some restrooms along the way. There is one train tunnel that’s not so long as to need lights, and nice and cool to pass through. Finally, you come to Chappie Shasta OHV Park and Campground. You can ride another mile or so up Coram Road to get to the Shasta Dam Visitor Center. I say it’s worth it, but again, e-bike. It’s a no joke climb to get up there. But there are nice bathrooms, AC, snacks and cold water for sale, plus lots of really nice and informative displays about the construction of the dam. As soon as you’ve had your fill, you can roll down to the river and enjoy the smooth, gentle descent until you leave the rails-to-trails section. If you don’t cross the bright red bridge on your way back, you can take the trail on the other side of the river all the way to the Diestelhorst Bridge. This is a separate multi-use bridge from the one the cars take over. Take a right back to the Sundial Bridge and you’ve spent the day on over forty miles of protected riverside trail.

The rangers at the Visitor Center are more than happy to talk to you about the construction of the dam. We need to become dam experts now because they are pretty fascinating feats of engineering. We’ve seen a couple of the ones on the list of big guys, but not because we were seeking them out or paying attention.

After the ride, we headed straight for ice cream. It was getting hot, and riding back into town took a little navigating. We were still able to ride almost all the way on protected bike trails. Once you get to the parking lot where there used to be a Pedego bike rental place, you have to ride city street bike lanes, or go through a bunch of parking lots. It was in the 90s by that time, so enjoying a peaches and cream/lemon crunch duo really hit the spot.

For dinner, we decided to try a different Thai place, to expand our horizons. Thai Cuisine Express is rated higher than Janya’s and we always get an order of drunken noodles as our consistent apples-to-apples comparison dish. We also got a curry and some spring rolls. It was all good, but we both thought Janya’s had stronger, brighter flavors. It’s good to branch out though.

This was a great stop and I’m so glad we got to keep this portion of the cancelled trip. I took the above picture for Randy to show him that possums are going mainstream. These were for sale in the Shasta Dam Visitor Center, next to a pile of stuffed raccoons. I shoulda bought one, darn it. Well, we’re always happy to stop in Redding, so I’m sure there will be another opportunity. Great town, great ride, fun trip!

Total miles from Emigrant Lake: 135.7, 18.1 mpg, 2 hours 49 min. Site 58, electric & water hookups. Great cell, good free dump.