Monday, January 09, 2006

Santa Ana River Trail

Does anyone remember riding the Santa Ana River Trail?

I used the ride the trail frequently during the late 1970s and early 1980s. We lived in Santa Ana, on Richland Ave, near Bristol Street. I'd ride my ten-speed up Edinger Street all the way to the river.

Sometimes I'd head west to the beach, riding below the street-overpasses, and passing by other bikers and joggers. Most times there was no water. In fact back then, the river bed wasn't concrete like it is today, it was all natural sand.

Other times I'd head east towards Yorba Linda. By the time I got to Yorba Linda I was pretty exhausted and usually didn't continue.

These days I couldn't even ride a mile without running out of breath!

30 comments:

  1. I used to live right next to the Santa Ana river, near the intersection of First and Fairview. During the summer months me and my friends would ride our bikes all over OC by way of the 'river trails'. The most common trip was to Huntington Beach where the SA river trail ended. We would spend all day body surfing and then ride home late in the afternoon. Great memories! I also remember a couple of times during the rainy season there being the threat that the river might overflow it's banks. Several times the water level was so high that it was near the bottom of the bridges. Wow... I haven't thought about the Santa Ana River and the 'river trail' in many years. Thanks for the reminder!!! FYI... I lived in that area from 1969 to 1984.

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  2. I used to ride the trail when I was kid all the time. I had many bike-a-thons on the river trail. I too went both ways....Huntington Beach and Yorba Linda.

    I also used to play the golf course that they built into the river bed in Santa Ana near the Block at Orange.

    I used to live by Centennial Park in Santa Ana which is right next to the river. I used to play in the dry river all the time.

    Good memories...

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  3. We used to ride from Fountain Valley to the Big "A". I remember the Rolling Stones played there once as we rode by. Around the Zephyr skateboard days we used to skate along the slopes of the underpass ramps. You can see the Pond and Stadium from the overlook park at Hamilton/Victoria.

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  4. Posted for posterity:

    The Santa Ana River Trail (or SART) is a well-used Bikeway that extends from Riverside County at the Green River Golf Course and heads SW from there through Featherly Regional Park and then follows the actual river all the way down to the outlet located at the southern end of Huntington Beach.

    I have used it quite frequently in recent years (2001-2006) and find it ever-increasing with activity especially in the Santa Ana portion of the City.

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  5. We lived very close to the SA River. We also lived near Alona Park and the golf course that is still there. As kids we would go down and search through all the rocks in the riverbed along the golf course and then go home clean up the golf balls, put them in egg cartons and sell them for 5 cents to the golfers. Also, at the bridge on 17th St there was a huge area of bamboo and the 'bums' lived there. I would sneak food to them.

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  6. You can no longer exit the 91 at Green River and park about a half-mile down the road. There were THREE vehicles there that were broken into just today - a MONDAY - in broad daylight. Sad, but true.

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  7. in 1969 we moved out to "East Anaheim" in an area called the Orange Grove"...today it's the area east of Lakeview, just south of the 91....it was out in the middle of NOWHERE!...today its pretty much Anaheim Hills...our home backed up along the Santa Ana River, needless to say, as kids, my siblings and friends spent most of our days in the river bed. The River was once trees and brush..we fished, swam, hiked...today it is a cement nightmare....I only wish my children could have enjoyed the fun we had as kids....

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  8. The Santa Ana River was very close to many places I lived. While in elementary school I would go with my brothers and their friends to the river to play. We would enter the river where Centennial Park now is, back then it was a large strawberry field and we would pick strawberries on the way to the river. Our mother did not like for us to play in the river, but we would and try not to let her find out. One time it was me that gave away that we had been in the river. I liked wearing white Vans, canvas tennis shoes, and one time I came home with my shoes filthy, she figured out real quick that we had been playing in the river.

    Vans....anyone remember the old warehouse in downtown Santa Ana. My mother would buy our shoes there, it was a large warehouse with a big red shoe painted on the window. When you walked in the building you could smell the rubber from the shoes. Some times we would get some weird shoes, while in headstart in Santa Ana I wore a pair of plaid Vans.

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    1. I grew up in Santa Ana and was just telling someone at a Van's outlet in Virginia about going to the factory and buying wild color combinations that people had custom ordered and I assumed never picked up. The guy might not have believed me, I don't care. You and I know it existed!

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  9. My name is, or was Patti McDow and I lived by the river trails and my sister and I would ride them all the time. We would get to it through Alona park where we also hung out then we would ride it to the golf course. Reading some of these stories brings back so many memories of all my old friends there. Boy those were the good old days.

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  10. I played on the riverbed a lot since I lived right there on Bolsa near Harbor Blvd. I also rode horses on the riverbed. I have lots of memories living at the Turkey Ranch during the late 50's and 60's. I moved away for awhile and would visit each summer until 1981 when I moved back. Those were wonderful days in Orange County! I miss my home, I miss my grandparents.

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  11. I remember lining up with thousands of others on the river trail at Imperial Hwy in Anaheim Hills for Hands Across America. What a great area to grow up. The Yorba family (yes, those Yorba's) hired my friends and I to "protect" their orange groves -- brilliant.

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  12. Wow, the Santa Ana River Trail. We called them the Beds. I grew up in East Anaheim, We would get in on Lapalma Ave and Wagner, i went to Katella High School, graduated in 1990. The entrance was 2 blocks from my house, we used to get wooden rafts as kids and float around, my mom would get mad as there were underground pipes, I lost my first mountain bike in the beds. It was 1985 i think. I drank my first beer in the beds after a high school party. Later on I would get on at Ball Road and La Palma or Sunkist and ride ten speeds to the beach, about a 18 mile ride. So many good times, my day and I would fish in it way up on the north or west side I do not remember now, somewhere around the ols Kaise Permanente Hospiatl. The Santa Ana River Trail was truely my stomping ground as a child and pre teen and teen, among many other spots in Anaheim, Cal. I now live in Thomasville, Ga. Times have changed. I cannot even imagine it being concrete as stated in an earlier blog..I have toured that thing on bike and foot many times with the water and brush absolutely raging....Matt Winterbottom

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  13. In the 50s, Edinger Street did not have a bridge over the Santa Ana River, just a huge dip through the river bed. Probably the fastest we went was around 70 MPH and you could feel the negative Gs as the suspension of the car dropped out from under you as you went flying into the river bed. It's a wonder we didn't get killed, but what a thrill.

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  14. I lived on Sharon Rd by Jack Fisher Park. The Santiago Creek was my road to the SA River and the river trail. My older sister used to have friends with horses stabled off Hesperian Way before the youth facility was built there. She rode horses on the trail, I hiked and played in the sand and at Riverview golf course. I moved to south Santa Ana and in the late 90's & early 00's my son's Boy Scout troop #265 would have an annual bike ride from Centennial Park to Featherly Park using the SART. Lots of fun, LOTS of FLAT TIRES. I still ride the trail today.... Mostly to the beach and back..... Great trail!

    Jim Taylor, Santa Ana

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  15. I live very close to the river trail off on Edinger. I usually ride my old schwinn suburban out to the beach and back just for fun. I have lived in santa ana my whole life. Its nice to read these stories of people that lived here in the past and share their memories on the river trail. Its funny how time passes by so fast. Although the river trail looks very different today than it did in the 50s and 60s, the experiences and the stories on the river trail seem to have everything in common.

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  16. i loved the horse back riding down the santa ana river bed with lisa and cathey had very good times living in santa ana as a kid and teenager i need to go back and visit california when i was kid the river bed was dirt not concreat

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  17. we used the sart from mid '70s on as teenagers with schwinn cruisers bought at Zwellers Schwinn on 4th (?)St. downtown or South Coast Schwinn at bristol / warner. 14 miles from 1st and Bristol to Fairview exit to Newport Blvd.to PCH. go body surfing and girl watching all day, ride back b4 dark.More than once eatin it on the crossovers when pavement stopped and you had to take the dip down to sand level and back up to other side then crossover a mile or two ahead.Ha! We didn't discover HB til '80s. Man, we coulda stayed on the trail all the way in instead of braving 5pm rush hour on Newport Blvd! been a awhile since ridin the trail to HB and Newport; we don't get that livin' up in Sacramento,and the river bike is comparable but sure as heck doesn't dump inta a warm summer beach! good times, good website.

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  18. I still ride there. Its not all concrete. I went to Katella and graduated in 1993. I try to stay in the Yorba Linda area... I dont care for the part south of the Stadium. If anybody has a chance, go north through Featherly Park, pass the OLD Coal Canyon exit to Corona... its still all trees and wild animals. In 2007 on 2 separate occasions I came across rattlesnakes trekking across the asphalt... so stay out of the bushes, but its cool to see.
    After the fires last fall, you can see through the brush to the water and get a better view of everything.

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  19. I grew up in Orange,down the street from the santa ana riverbed.I would wake my friends up on saturday morning and we would ride all the way down to the beach.I was only 9 years old but had no problem riding all that way with my friends.I am 46 years old and i still ride the trail when i can.To me its the most happiest place on earth.It makes me feel like a kid again.There is a magic about it that i can't explain.One time when i was 12 my friend bob berg and i rafted the riverbed all the way to the beach,the water was all the way to the top of the concrete.It was real scary but we made it. Randy

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  20. I am a grandmother and still enjoy riding the riverbed trail. I enter by Kaiser Permenante Hospital and ride to Yorba Park. I always have my camera and enjoy photographing the birds, etc. along the way. I like to ride ahead out to Featherly Park and on occasion I have gone ahead out to Green River. I no longer enjoy going toward the beach because you can find some unsavory areas in that direction. I have riden on the trail now for about 15 years and it is an enjoyable Saturday moring treat for me.

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  21. Wow! I have lots of brothers here. :) Same here. My parents had no issues letting me ride all the way from Santa Ana to HB. No child molestors, no bike thieves, and mostly safe beaches.

    My buddy's mom worked for US Divers on Warner Ave. She hooked us up with a tank and regulator -- that's it. We'd ride over to CDM and dive there. No license, no fins, no BCD. LOL.

    Ahh...those were the days. Circa 1972.

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  22. Bernabe aka SNOOPY :
    I use to live somewhere near Centenial Park at Santa Ana, my and my friends use to go every summer 2007 2008 2009 Down the river in our Bikes down to the beach!.it was always cool and FUN.

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  23. Does anyone remember a fire that occured before the SART was covered in concrete? It happened late 80's early 90's around the bridge at Memory and Bristol. A homeless man was killed. They say that his cigarette caught the brush on fire while he was sleeping. It was supposedly the catalyst for putting concrete over the riverbed.

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  24. A body found Wednesday floating on the shore of the Santa Ana River near Huntington Beach has been identified as that of a 20-year-old Santa Ana man, authorities said today.

    Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said a pair of fishermen found the body of Johnny Sandoval at 2:05 p.m. Wednesday. An autopsy was conducted, but the cause of death has not been determined, Amormino said.

    Sandoval’s body had no obvious signs of trauma and may have been in the water for several days, Amormino said. The victim was wearing only shorts and a thin T-shirt. Authorities suspect that he may have been swimming or rafting in the river during last week's storms.

    “The water’s cold,” Amormino said. “It’s been high and the water is cold, so it’s possible.”

    —Michael Miller in Orange County

    RIP JOHNNY SANDOVAL
    {lived by Edinger and Fairview right on Arapaho}
    JAN. 2010

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  25. JP
    I moved to the jack fisher park area Dec 1972. Me and my cousin from LA would explore Santiago Creek and eventually move on to bigger and better thngs like the Santa Ana River. My most fond memories was riding my dirtbike on a small piece of land the local kids called the "Donut Hole". It was located next store to the riverbed between the I-5 and Youth Facility. It had a concrete storm drain right down the middle of it. We rode our bikes around it & down into it. It was great fun espcially when the cops or sheriff where after us! Once they had us surrounded. A cop was the the old flower st exist. Another was on the overpass (that portion of the 57 freeway had not been completed yet and another on the horse trail. We waited until dark since it was evening already and ditched our 3-bikes inside some huge bushes & overgrowth and high-tailed on foot. We escaped by climbing up the enbankment of the La Veta bridge and walked down bristol st and turned left on memory lane to my house. Me and Eric H. got into my Carmen Ghia & drove up flower st. The was cop was still there waiting for us!!

    Obviously he didn't have our description so just smiled at him as we made a left into the Morrison Park neighborhood and hungout at Mike D's. house until they left and went back in the dark of night and retrived our Honda Elsinore dirtbike.

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  26. I grew up in Santa Ana and all along the river trail were horse rentals. I use to rent horses from Ponderosa Stables on 5th street and the Santa Ana River. The house still remains. I also remember the pasture along Fairview Street and 17th St. called Rainey Stables.

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    1. I remember riding at Ponderosa Stables!

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  27. I rode down the river trail not too long ago for memories sake, I usually ride side streets. The trail seems to have become a dangerous route, scattered with gangbangers,homeless derelicts, and illegal immigrants hanging out under the bridges from Anaheim to Fountain Valley.I recommend sidestreets.If you must ride the trail, don't ride an expensive bike, and maybe carry some protection. Happy trails !!!

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  28. I grew up in Orange 1969 to 1980 when I graduated from Elmodena. I used to take that trail to ride to the beach in the summer time. Moved out of Cali in 1985. Miss winter climate but dont miss the crowds, the illegal aliens, the closed in feeling that it became by the time I moved out. Now I live in the beautiful PNW.

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