Dozens of cyclists would not let the cloudy weather stop them from “Hitting the Trail” Saturday for the 9th annual Hit the Trail bike ride at Valencia Heritage Park.
Santa Claritans young and old lined up for one of two rides on the bike trail leading out of the park, one 9 mile ride and a shorter 4 mile ride.
“It’s something we do in conjunction with Bike Month in May along with our Bike to Work event,” said Santa Clarita Councilmember Cameron Smyth. “It’s something we love here in Santa Clarita, we love our trails, we love our bikes and any excuse we can use to get people out on our trails, we take advantage of it.”
Booths from various biking organizations and the city lined the path leading to the starting line, offering free services like chain check and air pumps as well as raffles for different prizes including a bike with a helmet.
Jersey Mike’s booth offered free sandwiches for all riders to get some energy before they kicked off their ride.
Santa Clarita currently has 115 miles of bike access across the city, with street bike lanes, paved bike paths and natural paths. All the bike trails can be found on the city’s bikesantaclarita.com website.
Another yearly event for the city is Bike to Work Day, that encourages as many business to have their employees ride their bikes instead of driving their cars. Five pit stops will be available around the city. The event partners with Santa Clarita Transit and Metrolink, offering free rides on local routes to anyone with their bike and helmet.
“We have a great relationship with the bicycle coalition, since May was declared as Bike Month we started thinking of ways to take advantage of that and build on that,” Smyth explained “Santa Clarita has been named one of the 10 healthiest cities in the country and its because of these trails the 34 parks we have. So even if the weather is not perfect you see people show up and take advantage.”
