Salmon Falls Ride Report

Salmon Falls is a trial that runs along the edge of Folsom Lake near Sacramento. The trail starts where the South Fork of the American River empties into the lake and the trail roughly follows the shore line, going over some hills. The trail is appropriate for upper beginner/low intermediate level riders.

We have some friends in Granite Bay that we visit for New Years, so we made this our annual New Year's Day ride. Several local riders also seem to make this a New Years Day annual ride. Some of them claim this is a cure for hangovers, but I have my doubts. By the way, the pictures show "typical" California winter riding. If you are on the East Coast or up north, eat your heart out!

Salmon Falls is mostly single track. As noted in the profile (and as you might guess since it parallels the lake shore), there is no substantial climbing involved on this trail. However, there are some obstacles and twists in the trail that create some interest. The first part of the trail is on an exposed, steep hillside. If you get off the trail here, you would slide quite a ways down. There is a fork in the trail near the start that later joins back together. The upper leg is the easier ride. The lower section has one sketchy part over some cambered stone with some loose rock on top that looks down into the river. In the interest of safety, I walked this very short section (about 40 feet) and the rest of this branch was quite nice.

The rest of the trail was actually pretty fun. There were a variety of obstacles that have fairly easy solutions for infrequent riders and allow more frequent riders to take a more challenging line. As we had a mixed group, this worked out pretty well. Of course, you have to set the group pace to accommodate the slower riders (remember that it took all of us a while to build up the conditioning to make a non-road ride easy).

There was a little something here for everyone, making this a good place for a group ride. I think this area gets pretty hot in the summer, so the New Years Day ride worked out well.

Warning! Be careful where you park. There have been lots of problems with break-ins around Folsom Lake. While riding another trail near here, my friend's car was broken into. Only later did we notice the amount of broken glass in the parking area. Use your judgement and park near the main streets where the odds may be lower.

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