To reach the northern trailhead, exit State Route 99 at East Lathrop Road and go 0.5 mile. The trailhead will be on your right. Parking is not permitted on this busy street, but there is a church parking lot across the street.
To reach the southern trailhead, exit SR 120 at South Main Street. Turn left and proceed 0.4 mile to East Woodward Avenue. Turn right on Woodward and go 0.9 mile to Spreckles Road. Turn left on Spreckles Road, turn left on East Atherton Drive, and follow it until it ends. There is no parking in this residential area.
Way to much gravel on the trail. Also, large cracks through paved areas.
If you want your wheels chewed up by the jagged rock, be my guest. My husband and I ended up skating around town because it was much smoother!!
I GO IN MORNINGS WITH COOL BREEZE ON MY FACE. LOTS OF FREINDLY WALKERS , BYCLELIST, JOGGERS. I WANT TO WALK THE ENTIRE PATH SOMEDAY. THANKS MANTECA.
The north end of Tidewater Bikeway has recently been improved. There is now an access path from the new Union Ranch homes that essentially links Del Webb homes to the Bikeway. Also, there's now a traffic controller to cross Lathrop Road. So, if you are starting your ride from the parking lot of Calvary Church, you can ride all the way to downtown Manteca (and more). And there are traffic controllers for all the cross streets. Now all Manteca needs to do is plant some trees along the Bikeway southward from Main Street to improve the aesthetics. It would also be nice if the trail linked to Orchard mall and Woodward Park.
I get lost very easy and this site really helps by way of it's mapping. Thank You Trail Link
A friend of mine and I rode this trail. It's not bad, fun for a quick ride. You do have to deal with traffic though, you cross some busy streets.
I've rode this path.. It's pretty uninspiring. The main problem is not that it's short, ugly, and doesn't link up the major parks. It's that the surrounding areas are not biking friendly. The roads are busy, narrow and with out bike lanes. Some go over freeway over passes built with out any thought to pedestrian traffic. I read that the City paid a consultant nearly $10,000.00 dollars, to tell them whats wrong with Manteca.. His advise, pull some weeds, and “Locals first, visitors second,” he said why bother to work to pull people off the Highway 120 bypass or lure them here from Modesto or Stockton if you can’t get people in Manteca to shop, dine, and entertain themselves here. This blows me away that they needed to pay for this kind of advice considering the problems are so obvious. So great, they've laid down some ugly ground cover and planted some bushes and trees along the highway.. how about laying down some paint on the roads, add some side walks where there are none, and think about setting aside some space to actually make this bike way go to all of the premiere locations that it's so proud of (Big League Dreams, Woodword Park, The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley), or what about the surrounding schools, and lets not forget some of this beautiful agricultural land.
As a Manteca native, I can say with some authority that at least one of the photos--the one depicting the tall trees--was not taken anywhere near Manteca, CA. Another--the photo depicting a trail surrounded by bushes--may be of the same genre. The other photos appear genuine.
Manteca is in the central valley, and the only "hills" in town are the overpasses over highway 99. Otherwise, it's flat as a pancake.
I am pleased, though, that the city has become advanced enough in its civic thinking to construct a bike and pedestrian trail.
Pedaled this trail in light rain to get pictures. Trail surface is excellent and has good drainage. Parking at ( N37.79647 W121.21793 ) Noel Keller 2 May 09
It has improved since it was first created. They now water the plants. It is a nice safe ride through town. The town needs to have better access to it from all directions. To get there from some areas of town it is not very safe. The roads are too busy and room is not given to bikes.
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