skidder

Anyone have any experience on this trail? I'm looking at using it for a SLO-to-OC bicycling trip in April 2018 and was wondering about it from about Willow St down to Shoreline Village area in Long Beach. I was exploring it a little while driving up there this past week; I stopped at the Anaheim Street and PCH under crossings and walked up each side to check it out. The asphalt trail looks to be in good shape but I did see a few homeless-looking characters on it, and it primarily runs through industrial areas in both those places. Any have any positive or negative opinions/experiences while on it?

diphthong

ridden it from long beach to dtown la a few times. the northern half (from the rio hondo trail split at imperial to just south of downtown la) occasionally has some "characters" on it but they're few and far between. pretty uncrowded. the trail is a little narrower but haven't had any issues. south of the rio hondo trail junction (at imperial) to the end in long beach, it opens up and has more walkers, cyclists and joggers. haven't felt unsafe riding any part of it. ridden it during the 8am-5pm hours and i'll ride it again during those hours. it did have a little mile detour/closure at firestone when i last rode it in april.

skidder

Thanks for the info.

Eggman84

Ride it frequently and never been hassled by the homeless that live along the river and haven't heard of anyone else being hassled either. My take is its safer and way less stressful than the streets but others are put off by anyone who in any way looks different then themselves.

skidder

double posted . . . ARGH!

skidder

Thanks eggman. At first I was worried about the traffic on the streets (Anaheim and PCH),, but that resolved quickly when I went there. The path on the river levee looks in good shape, it was just the amount of homeless stuff and drug paraphernalia I saw under the bridges. Those were the 'odd' items that got me thinking about riding through there (even though its just a quick little loop-down-off-the-street-under the-bridge-an-onto-the-trail situation. I think one of these is gonna work!

TrojanHorse

I've ridden the entire thing up to Vernon, but not recently (except for north of the Rio Hondo junction). The trail north of Imperial Highway is a serious POS as recently as this summer, south of there was pretty nice when I rode it, albeit a few years ago.

Tycho Brahe 

I road the southern section once, never again. As TrojanHorse mentioned, riding between Vernon and DTLA, where there is no bike path, is a serious POS. Last time I did my ride from Central LA -> Palos Verdes -> Long Beach, I simply took the Blue Line Metro back.

The Greenway 2020 plan will eventually connect Long Beach all the way to Canoga Park. The hold up for the section south of DTLA is the construction of the new 6th St bridge. Once that is in place, a bike path will be incorporated.