American River bike trail finally reopens after three-year landslide closure

After a three-year closure, California State Parks announced it is reopening a several-mile stretch of the American River Bike Trail along the north shore of Lake Natoma on Saturday.

The trail has been closed since early 2017, when a landslide destroyed a section of the trail. State officials said they were delayed in making repairs due to the technical difficulty of shoring up the face of the Orangevale Bluffs overlooking the trail, and also were prevented from doing work during several nesting seasons because a pair of bald eagles took up residence in trees on the bluff.

“As bald eagles are a federally protected species, the geo-technical firm was unable to complete its assessment until the eagles vacated the area, which occurred in late July 2018,” state parks Superintendent Rich Preston previously said.

Debris-clearing work started in summer of 2019 three miles upstream from Hazel Avenue.

“The second phase of the project utilized a geo-technical contractor to scale a portion of the bluff to remove loose rock from the face of the bluff directly above the trail,” state parts officials said in a press statement. “Following the scaling, crews removed the additional debris and repaved the damaged sections of the trail.”

The trail is part of a popular 30-mile recreation corridor that runs along the American River from downtown Sacramento to Folsom Dam.

This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 11:32 AM.