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To reach the southern trailhead from State Route 99, take the Paradise Exit. Merge onto East Park Avenue, which becomes Skyway Road. Continue on Skyway through the town of Paradise to the intersection of Skyway and Neal Road. At the intersection the trailhead is next to a short brick wall that reads TOWN OF PARADISE-WELCOME. There are several nearby shopping centers with ample parking.
Just a heads up that this town basically burnt to the ground a few years back. They are rebuilding, but all these amenities listed may no longer exist.
Almost no shade on entire trail with miles of absolutely no shade, almost all direct sun at temps of 90-105 all summer long, no water fountains or bathrooms on entire 5 mile trail except for one park on Black Olive Rd at Pearson Rd, and the rest is miles of hot sun and nowhere to pee or get a drink if you run out of water. Not good for moms with kids. Someone will have to pee and you'll be miles from the nearest bathroom, and nowhere to covertly pee in the bushes either, as if anyone would even want to. Landscape is dry, dusty with scrubby dusty bushes, unappealing to look at. People don't clean up their dog's crap, most probably because the few garbage cans there is are miles apart too. Everywhere you look is trash, broken glass, and dried dog crap. Especially lots of trash on trail where it goes past the local high school. Smell of marijuana being smoked is also strong there. Not where I want to push my kids in their stroller so I can get some exercise. I have to either walk at the local cemetery where their are hobos lurking from the perimeter trees, but there is a bathroom and water, or drive miles away to Paradise lake trail, (with clean port-o-potty's but no drinking water), or drive miles away to Bidwell Park in Chico. It's a real pain in the *** to have to drive out of town to get some decent walking with kids or risk it with the cemetery hobos because the Paradise Train Trail is so terrible.
Just rode the trail today. .trying to get back in shape. . Enjoyed the constant uphill climb. .not too terribly taxing but enough to get the old ticker pumping! ! Yay..finally getting out and about
is this path downhill skteboard friendly?
The trail has been extended about 3 tenths of a mile south from Neal Road to Princeton Way. See the map.
As a beginning biker (at 51) and needing exercise to complete my efforts to drop my weight following gastric bypass surgery, this trail is awesome.
Initially, I bought my bike with the intention to ride in Chico. It's flat there with lots of trails to choose from. I never really considered riding in my own town and just about any street has some kind of serious incline to it.
I knew about the rail trail, but never thought I'd be riding it this year. It's very steep at any point, some much more so than others, plus I needed to get to it - and those roads were fairly steep, too. I did take the bike down the hill a couple of times, but I didn't enjoy the whole extra hour to load up, get ready, drive down (plus the $4 in gas each way) then reverse it all to ride and do it again on the way back. So I just hopped on and tried the trail.
I began with riding from Maxwell up to Bille Rd. A gain of 200' in about 1.2miles. Very tough. Each day it got a little easier. Finally, I was able to go to Wagstaff Rd - a gain of around 300' in 1.9miles. After three weeks of every other day riding, I finally made it to the top of the trail, an 8 mile round trip with a total elevation gain of 475'. Not bad for an old fat man.
My next goal is ride down to Pearson, to the beginning of the trail and ride to the top. Should be a total ride of around 10 miles, with something like a 550' elevation gain.
Nicely maintained trail with benches for dying, er, resting on at every major intersection. Yes, as someone else mentioned, there's not much of a view, but there is a lot of shade trees for the 100+ degree summer days and lots of fall color in the waning months of the year.
Well worth the time.
"I walked this trail while visiting family in the area last December. It's the steepest rail-trail I've ever seen, pretty much a continuous climb from one end up to the other. This might cause problems for newcomers to biking, although it should be no big deal to walkers or ""serious"" cyclists.
It's nice and quiet and shady beneath all the ponderosa pines. But really there's not much to see, since it's bordered by backyards on all sides. It's worth riding if you're in the area, but too short and drab to go out of your way for."
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