Tag: dry creek trail

A look at the newest bicycle trailhead in Clovis (picture tour)

Let’s take a little break from Downtown Fresno and jump all the way up to the far reaches of Clovis, or more specifically, Shepherd and Sunnyside. Clovis has built a new park and trailhead for the “Dry Creek Trail” that runs south and eventually connects with the Old Town Trail. In the future, the trail will continue north, and presumably link to the partially built trail to the west (Enterprise).

The trailhead includes some nifty new features, such as a bike repair station, a water fountain with a water bottle feature, some interesting art, maps, and more.

For some history, way back in July 2013, this project was announced, and I last looked at this project in August, when work had barely begun. Click to read more!

Quick look at new trailhead construction in Clovis

It’s embarrassing how long it has taken me to get these pictures up, but I’m almost done! What that means is that construction will be much further along than noted, but thee pictures give a good idea of the space being taken up.

I’m talking about a new trailhead being built for the Dry Creek Trail, and eventually (maybe), the Enterprise trail.

This map shows the existing Dry Creek Trail in blue, and the enterprise trail in purple. The dotted section has a property in the way, so we may be looking at 10+ years for that to happen.

 

The trailhead parcel is quite large


We start across the canal Click to read more!

Clovis adding large trailhead to Dry Creek Trail

The City of Clovis is looking to convert 2.5 acres of vacant land at Shepherd and Sunnyside into a new trailhead. The project would slightly extend Dry Creek Trail to Shepherd, and provide future connections to a new trail north, and the existing Enterprise Trail to the East. I recently provided a picture tour of a gap-closure on a portion of this same trail.

Here is an area trail map, with the trailhead indicated by the red arrow

 photo shepherd1_zps67cdf125.jpg

Here is another map showing the same thing. Dark green solid lines indicate the two trails, with the red line indicating where they end. The dotted green line is a future trail, which today is accessible as a dirt canal bank. The dotted beige line is a future trail (long distance future). The yellow shape is the planned trailhead Click to read more!

Clovis trail gap filled – picture tour

I thought it was more recent, but it was way back in January that I mentioned three area bike trails would be getting a little longer. A couple of weeks ago, I paid a visit to one in Clovis, to see if anything had happened; it had, and construction was done.

The location is Cottonwood Park, in Clovis, which is part of the Dry Creek Trail. The existing trail had a gap where one had to use a segment of sidewalk, which had no signage indicating where the trail picked up again.

    I guessed that a path would be built diagonally across the park, to the intersection. I was right.   Let’s start where the old trail was (at the bottom right of the water pong in the image above). You can see the existing trail was asphalt, and the new one is concrete. The new trail curves left, the old trail remains and continues straight/right.  Also note the light: the old trail had no lighting. Note that lighting was only added to the new section.  photo DSC03709_zpsef187ca5.jpg This is looking at the same area, but backwards (ie, towards where I was standing for the last picture)  photo DSC03708_zpse64adac8.jpg And this is at the junction. That entire viewing area straight ahead? Brand new.  photo DSC03707_zps3af060dc.jpg  photo DSC03710_zpsdd1236a8.jpg  photo DSC03711_zps88dac613.jpg Some attention to design  photo DSC03712_zps5ec16666.jpg  photo DSC03713_zpsc6c7217a.jpg Shame the fence is so far away from the water.  photo DSC03714_zpse5b6888f.jpg  photo DSC03715_zps5b0b3045.jpg The path itself is smooth, wide and has lighting, but I’m not a fan of the curves. Do they look nice? I guess. But if you’re using this trail for transportation, then they’re simply a pain in the ass. Not everyone is here for 5mph recreation. I do like the placement of lights, not too far apart.  photo DSC03717_zpsfdc013b8.jpg New benches were added as well  photo DSC03703_zps9850798e.jpg  photo DSC03718_zpsa4de29d9.jpg We near the intersection  photo DSC03719_zps66463b73.jpg Water fountains were added for people and pets  photo DSC03720_zpsaca38015.jpg A new gateway was added to match the existing one across the street. Now it’s obvious where the trail is, unlike before when you had to know where to go.  photo DSC03721_zps1b2cea43.jpg But one massive problem: No improvements to the intersection. The shortest, and most logical, crossing is straight. But in Clovis, automobiles get full priority, so anyone using the trail must make two long crossings, essentially making crossing the road a 3-5 minute exercise. Even though the trail is active, if the button isn’t pushed, the pedestrian signals dont indicate one can cross. The ramp also sends people straight into the intersection, dangerous for the blind.   photo DSC03722_zpse67125da.jpg Crossing involves going backwards, due to the diagonal orientation of the crossing. The button is not oriented with the ramp at all.  photo DSC03723_zps7d8e62ae.jpg One can cross either way, but the crosswalks are blocked by concrete medians  photo DSC03724_zps33562b09.jpg Wouldn’t going straight be so much better?  photo DSC03725_zps91450f56.jpg  photo DSC03726_zps43353339.jpg This was the old trail, not signed.  photo DSC03727_zps3986cfd6.jpg One thing I did like. This picture is taken down the street, the stop light is where the last pictures were taken. Note the path on the right…. a direct sidewalk was added to the trail, so people don’t have to walk in the grass or go all the way to the corner to access it.  photo DSC03728_zps8dce7fcf.jpg  photo DSC03699_zps8889cec1.jpg  photo DSC03700_zpsa2db921b.jpg     It was very exciting to see that construction happened so quickly, and it was of high quality. Lights, concrete, and amenities make it obvious someone is taking this trail seriously….for recreation anyway. The unimproved crossing and curves make it obvious that those in charge still don’t see this as a transportation option, which it is. Now, why can’t they fix the old town gap? As far as gaps go, that one is much more serious. 

Three area trails to get a little longer

Even though the Measure C website welcomes you with a large graphic promising miles of new trails,  you’ll find that the Fresno-area trail system has grown remarkably little over the past decade (I’ll be soon posting an interesting map from the 70’s to compare).

For 2013, there’s nothing major in the work, but three small projects have recently made their way through the Fresno and Clovis councils which should make trail use slightly better. These three projects don’t have exact build dates, but I would expect the first two to be useable by summer and the third by the end of the year. I will discuss them in the order they appeared before the councils. Click to read more!

An analysis of Fresno/Clovis rail-trail (4): Sierra to Alluvial

Once again, apologies for the large gap of time between these posts about the trail, but as I’ve said before, they actually consume a very large amount of time to put together.Taking the pictures was easy (all pictures from August by the way), it’s the formatting of these posts that takes a long time. If you find them enjoyable or educational, I’d appreciate a comment.

Previously:
1) South of Shaw
2) Shaw to Old Town Clovis
3) Old Town to Sierra

This is the section I cover today
Photobucket

We last left off going north, approaching the intersection of Sierra and Clovis Ave, which the trail crosses diagonally. Click to read more!