Blog

Cyclete SUB Adventure Around Folsom Lake

Photo of us on the So. Fork American River Trail, looking into the So. Fork AR.
Enjoying the view into the So. Fork of the American River, from the So. Fork American River Trail.

Circumnavigating Folsom Lake is something we’d been wanting to do for a while.  Having received our new, trail-worthy Cycletes a few weeks earlier,  we were finally ready to put our plan into motion.

Check out our video highlights here.

About the loop:

The lake is surrounded by park land (Folsom State Recreation Area [FSRA], Auburn State Recreation Area [ASRA], and Cronan Ranch Regional Trails Park) and trails can be linked together to make a nearly full circuit following a variety of trails.  Unfortunately, half of those miles are closed to bikes.

Note to public land managers: Public lands are PUBLIC – they should be open to EVERYONE, not just equestrians.

Our ride included some great trail sections of Granite Bay (FSRA), ASRA, and the Cronan Ranch, as well as a few really nice bike paths (American River Parkway, Johnny Cash Trail, and Cool). We did need to use about 27 miles of road to connect it all together – not ideal – but most of the roads had decent bike lanes, and/or low traffic, and couldn’t be avoided (see above).

Our route included:

  • ~ 82 miles
  • ~ 6,500’ of elevation gain
  • ~ 10-hr ride time
  • a mix of road, trail and bike path (about 1/3 each).
  • A LOT of rest stops – it was hot (triple digits)…

Our route via Strava (download the GPX file):

Image of Strava output of map, distance and profile
Strava output of our ride.

.

In summary:  This was a fun, challenging and scenic loop! We plan to do it again soon, in the  opposite direction (counter-clockwise), and maybe with a new trail section in lieu of Salmon Falls Rd. (Kanaka Valley BLM land – TBD).

While most of the ride went to plan and was a lot of fun…

  • We got a late start (10:30 am) and ended up finishing the last 30 miles or so in the dark!
  • There was a particular hike-a-bike section (Mr. SUB thought it’d be a good short-cut)  through some of the thickest poison oak we’ve ever seen.  Maneuvering our Cycletes on this less than ideal trail literally had us swimming in the stuff.  Do this: take the Brown’s Bar Trail to connect from the Quarry Trail to Cool, not the Quarry Connector Trail, as we did. (ASRA).  Fortunately, we didn’t get any PO – we did apply Technu liberally after making it to Cool (and the market), and washed up at the Olmstead Loop Trailhead (in Cool).

Of note:

  1. Trail between Auburn and Cool: Includes a 3-mile hike/bike section where bikes are technically off limits.  ASRA has made it impossible for bikers to legally connect between the trails and communities of Auburn and Cool.  So, hike a bike is the only option here, unless one has a death wish – in which case, they should take highway 49 (please don’t do this).
  2.  It may be possible to replace the Salmon Falls road section (~ 6 mi), by taking a network of trails on new-ish BLM land that stretches the entire section of road, to the east (Kanaka Valley).  The west side of the road/Folsom Lake has a beautiful trail, but that of course is reserved for the special user group known as equestrians (rolls eyes).  Satellite imagery makes this look feasible – and we were going to give it a try – but it was dark when we hit this section and route finding wouldn’t be easy.  So, we stuck to the road this go ’round. We will explore it on a future ride…
Close Menu