Category Archives: Bike Trail

Bike Trail, Fish, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

Effie Yeaw to hold speaker series on Sacramento’s natural wonders

The Effie Yeaw Nature Center along the American River is launching a new speaker series in January to illuminate the region’s natural wonders.The six-speaker series begins Jan. 20 with a presentation on venomous bites and stings.

Each event costs $5 per person, or $25 for all six. Space is limited and registration is required.

The first speaker is Mike Cardwell, an expert on venomous snakes and bite treatment. He’ll discuss California’s only dangerous native snake, the Northern Pacific rattlesnake, how to avoid bites, appropriate first-aid, and common myths about venomous snakes.

More at SacBee.com >>>

Bike Trail

Hazel Avenue Improvement Wins County Project of The Year Award

The recently completed Hazel Avenue Improvement Project – Phase 1, has won the Sacramento Area Council of Governments 2011 SACOG Salutes Regional Project of the Year award. Award recipients were honored at the SACOG Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, December 15.

Phase 1 of the improvement project was completed in September, and is part of a major roadway infrastructure project to improve Hazel Ave. from U.S. 50 to Madison Ave., to reduce congestion and improve safety and mobility for all modes of transportation in this corridor.

“We are honored to receive the Regional Project of the Year Award for the Hazel Avenue project,” said Mike Penrose, Director of the Department of Transportation. “From initial community input efforts, to the planning, environmental, project design and approval process to final construction — our contractors, consultants and County staff have completed a great project with many benefits to the community and to local and regional roadway infrastructure.”

More at fairoaks.patch.com >>>

Bike Trail, Fish, Rafting, safety, Salmon, Water, Wildlife

50 years of protecting the American River Parkway

The Save the American River Parkway Association celebrated its 50th anniversary this month and received a resolution from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors honoring its accomplishments over the past five decades.

“We commend the work that a whole host of folks (at the association) have done in providing a strong voice for a precious resource,” Supervisor Don Nottoli said Tuesday as he presented the resolution.

The Save the American River Association is a volunteer, nonprofit group of more than 600 members and a Board of Directors that started in 1961 to develop the American River Parkway and to create a plan to maintain it.

The 23-mile American River Parkway hosts more than 5 million visitors each year for fishing, boating and rafting on the water – and picnicking, golfing and paved walking and bicycling trails for land lovers.

More at SacramentoPress.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety, Water

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson commits to finding ‘safe ground’ site

Mayor Kevin Johnson on Tuesday pledged his commitment for creating a sanctioned “safe ground” for as many as 100 homeless campers in Sacramento, calling it a final piece of the area’s mosaic of programs to shelter needy people.

“I believe we have waited too long” to create a place where homeless people can legally sleep outside with basic services and access to programs that can help them become more stable, he said at his weekly news conference. “We’ve studied this for three years. This is not that complicated.”

Currently, about 100 campers have pitched tents on the south side of the American River near 10th Street, and the City Council was scheduled to take up the controversial matter for the first time Tuesday night.

Johnson urged some of the campers to join the “nomadic shelter” program, in which homeless men and women sleep in rotating houses of worship on cold winter nights.

Wells Fargo salvaged that program this week by contributing $75,000 to keep it running through March.

More at SacBee.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety

Tent City returns

Only a handful of tents are visible from Highway 160 this Monday evening. The air is dry and the sky cloudless as the sun dips above the camp sites. A small group of men on bikes with gruff dogs on leashes congregates at the entrance to the American River Bike Trail. Others head west along the trail.

A quarter-mile up, there it is: five, six, seven, eight—dozens more tents, zigzagging along the base of the river levy for what seems to be at least three city blocks.

“There were more,” says a man seated in a chair. His name is Brother Eli, who oversees a drug-and-alcohol free area of this new Tent City. Eli says that there were at least 50 more tents here last week—before city police showed up and told everyone to move out.

Officers handed out notices last Thursday afternoon: “It is unlawful to camp in the city,” it read. “This location is scheduled for immediate clean-up. … Any items not removed will be considered abandoned and removed accordingly.”

Campers say a few police visited on Sunday night, but kept their distance. Eli claims to have seen police along the west side of the camp, near North 10th Street and the bike trail, as recently as Monday afternoon.

More at newsandreview.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety, Water

Drilling begins on American River Parkway levees

A contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is drilling into levees along the American River Parkway through January to collect soil samples.

Visitors to the parkway are advised to watch out for the equipment and give the crew working room.

This week, the truck-mounted drilling rigs and an equipment staging area are located along the river’s south bank, at Paradise Beach west of J Street in Sacramento. The work will continue eastward to Watt Avenue, on both sides of the river, through January.

More at SacBee.com >>>

Bike Trail

Updated guide out for American River Parkway

The American River Natural History Association has released a new edition of “Biking and Hiking the American River Parkway,” a mile-by-mile guide to the Jedediah Smith Memorial Bicycle Trail from Discovery Park to Beal’s Point, Folsom Lake.

The 140-page volume by Robin Donnelly, explores the natural and cultural history of the trail and includes more than a dozen maps showing access points, restrooms, parking areas, picnic tables, drinking fountains and side trips.

More at SacBee.com >>>

Bike Trail, Events, safety, Water

Bike trail closed near Watt Avenue

A project to repair levee erosion along the American River has closed a portion of the bike and walking path in the parkway near Watt Avenue.

The repairs, overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of engineers, are part of the previously authorized Sacramento River Bank Protection Project, which addresses levee erosion on the Sacramento River and its tributaries.

The latest phase involves placing large rock, called rip-rap, along the waterline of the south bank of the American River at two locations between Watt Avenue and Larchmont Park. A section of public path atop the levee about three-quarters of a mile long will be closed until the expected completion of the work on Nov. 30. Foot and bike traffic are being detoured through the neighborhood south of the levee.

More at SacBee.com >>>

Bike Trail, Events, safety, Water, Wildlife

Parkway volunteers clean up trash at abandoned homeless camps

Volunteers for the American River Parkway Foundation are cleaning up trash left at abandoned homeless encampments along the parkway this morning.

About 150 volunteers hit the parkway shortly before 10 a.m., leaving from the Northgate parking lot of the recreation area.

“We want people to come enjoy the parkway,” said Dianna Poggetto, executive director of the foundation.

That’s hard to do when there’s a lot of trash, so the volunteers go out periodically to clean up what’s left behind by campers along the river.

More at SacBee.com >>
Bike Trail, safety, Water

Levee Improvements Begin In Sacramento

The construction is taking place along the south bank of the American River between Watt Avenue and the Mayhew Drain. About two dozen trucks will be making up to 150 trips a day.

Dave Cook is the project manager. He says the levee is eroding because of abundant Sierra snowmelt.

“When that happens the water speeds up and actually starts to tear the banks away and the sediment starts to transport itself down the river and it causes problems in the fact that if we had a failure it would obviously flood businesses and homeowners in that area.”

More at CapRadio.org >>