Modesto Bike Trails: Hetch-Hetchy

Modestans, take advantage of your local bike and walking paths! Today is a gorgeous winter day, almost too warm for biking in pants.

I road the Hetch-Hetchy bike trail today end-to-end, which goes from Wesson Ranch Park on the north-east end to Sisk Rd on the south-west end.

It crosses Standiford a number of times, so no doubt you've see it driving along Standiford Ave at Conant Ave and at Standiford Ave and Shawnee Dr.

Being new to the trail, I biked up Tully Rd to find it.  I headed west out from the crossing at Tully Rd.

My way of doing things would be to push hard to make it in record time, but I resisted that urge. I had a great time just singing praises to God, whistling, humming, and just enjoying God's wonderful creation. I'd coast from time to time, and just enjoy. No agenda, no rush to get anywhere, it was great.

I continued on, and ended up going over 2 miles west from Tully Rd until I finally saw a sign of life at Chrysler 99 Park (just west of Conant, not to be confused with Chrysler Park which is east of Conant, adjacent with Chrysler Elementary). Even still, it was just people walking right by the park, not continuing on either direction on the trail. Wow, folks just need get let their lawns grow and get out for a leisurely bike ride or walk (I saw a number of folks out mowing their lawns at the street crossings).

I ended up my right at Sisk Rd with Red Lobster just to the south.  I spotted my my guilty pleasure, Wienerschnitzel just to the north.

I ventured up that way to see what Dollar Menu specials they had. Low and behold, they had a $1 Turkey Relish Dog! Woot! Onions, relish, and mustard, this was a great meal.

I miss the cheap chilli-cheese fries deals, so I bought a chilli-cheese fry burrito for $1 as well. It's not as good as a big old slathering of chilli-cheese sauce on frieds, and not that filling, but it gives you just enough of a taste of chilli-cheese fries to get by with.

I road back and was happy to see a number of folks out, biking, walking, strollering. Still there were not very many people out on the trail, perhaps a dozen total. One thing I wish that was along the trail were street signs at the small street crossings so I'd know where I was, and/or maps along the way. Signs for the parks would be nice as well.

At the end of the trail, just past Wesson Ranch Park, there is what looks like another trailhead, but no paving. Another day I'll explore this more fully. I could see that south from here was an old railway. I hope the City of Modesto continues the Virginia Corridor Trail which ends at Granger and was converted from the old railway line.  That same old railway contiunes up to the trailhead at Wesson Park Ranch and beyond.  It would be wonderful to be able to bike all the way from Sisk Rd near Standiford Ave all the way to Downtown without having to bike on the street (except for roadway crossings).

Be sure to take advantage of these sunny days this winter, and get out and explore the Class I bike and walking trails in Modesto.  I've biked Dry Creek for a long time as it is close to my house, but I'd never checked out Hetch-Hetchy, and I'm really glad I did.  I think you will be too.

I suggest printing out a color version of the PDF map linked at that site, and on the back of the map print out the two pages of names of the trails.  Here's a tip using Acrobat Reader: under the Print menu in the Page Handling section, for Page Scaling select Multiple pages per sheet and set to 2 and you'll fit the names of all of the trails on the back of the map on a single page and it's still very legible.