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HWY 160 – River Road runs along the delta between San Francisco and Sacramento. This is a nice, swoopy road along the Sacramento River. Good pavement, most of the time good visibility as well. This is farm land area, so be aware of large, lumbering slow moving equipment. While the route shows you crossing the river back and forth, you can run up either side of the river the entire way. I actually prefer to stay on the east side of the river most of the time, but a good route is up one side and back down the other.

The road is on top of the Army Corps of Engineers levees, put there to create fertile farm land. If you look from the river to the “land” side, you can see that the land is below water level. Sort of like inverted islands. This is a great ride during the hotter months since the river naturally cools the area off quite a bit. Lots of trees aid in shading as well. Do be careful of the grated bridges. They can make your front wheel do wonky things and be disconcerting. Make sure you have good spacing between you and any vehicle in front of you, go slow with steady power and you will be fine. In the wet, they can really make you pucker, but the same technique applies.

There are several old towns along the route and a bit of early 1900’s history as well. The feel is definitely an old rural country feel.