Pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal coasssssssssssssssssst brakebrakebrakebrake pedalpedalpedalpedalpedalpedal pedal pedal pedal pedaaaaaaaaaaaallllll. I didn’t have the funds to actually record the sound of bicycling along the San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail, but this is a very, very close transcribed simulation.
Extending roughly 4 miles from Monroe Street in Santa Clara to the Baylands Park just past 237, this bike trail is a mostly straight line and about the easiest ride imaginable.
Easy peasy
How easy is it? There’s a trailhead on Monroe Street fifty feet west of San Tomas Expressway. There you’ll find lots of parking if you’ve brought your bike on your car.
Get onto the trail and head north. The trail is fully paved with a lane divider—how civilized!
And what about all those cross streets, you ask? You know, such inconveniences as Central Expressway, 101, and 237? Ignore these pedestrian concerns, dear pedalist. While on the San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail you are treated as the patrician class.
Each street is crossed by an underpass. You can stay at street level and use the crosswalk, or you can coast and brake your way underneath the street and pedal back up the far side.
So that you don’t become bored down there in the gloom riding under the street with nothing to do but avoid colliding with someone coasting down the opposite side with even less respect for lane markings than you, the city has thoughtfully mounted onto each underpass wall a series of concrete plaques depicting area wildlife. Hung in rows, these plaques look like little Han Solos encased in carbonite.
Personally, I would have spent the money on lights and warning signals, but it does give you the chance to admire embossed versions of the squirrels, burrowing owls, and egrets you're trying not to run over as you speed past.
Things to see
In the likeliest of coincidences, San Tomas Creek Trail follows San Tomas Creek. Besides providing a lot of fine scenery as you bicycle, there are a few other interesting sights you’ll pass along the way.
Several high-tech companies have buildings on either side of the creek, connected by some futuristic as well as some rustic bridges.
As a special treat, you pass behind Great America at the midway point. I know the park has some extra name, such as Ferdinand’s Great America, but honestly, that place has been owned by the equivalent of every third person who has ever visited there, so any name I’d attach to it would likely be out of date by the time this article appears.
At any rate, wave at the visitors as you pass, and think fondly of how they’ve just spent $13 to park and where anyone over the age of two is considered an adult (seriously) and gets to pay $55 to zoom around while you’re doing the same for free.
If you go
San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail
Runs along San Tomas Aquino Creek from Monroe Street to Highway 237
Location map
Website
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