Ojai Valley Trail

The Ojai Valley Trail is a paved dedicated bike that runs from Ventura to Ojai, about 17 miles from

the sea to the mountains. The trail consists of two trails, the Ventura River Trail that goes from the end of Rex Street off of North Olive Street not far from Main Street, Ventura to Foster Park, 6 miles away. The older Ojai Valley Trail picks up from Foster Park and runs to Bryant Street in Ojai near the Humane Society of Ventura County. It is a converted railroad line, the Ventura and Ojai Valley Railroad, that ran from the Southern Pacific mainline to Ojai. Trains cannot function on steep grades, so the bike path is mostly 1 to 4% with small sections up to 8%. Most sections, I can barely feel this is going uphill.

The start of the trail is tucked at the corner of Rex Street and Dubbers Lane just north of the Highway 33 off ramp. The first few miles is a trip through the industrial side of Ventura with a couple of neighborhoods mixed in. At mile 3, you pass though the Ventura oil patch, where the belt of oil exploration passes from Santa Paula to the ocean. There used to be a couple of active pumps here, now there are a bunch of them packed together. At mile 4, you will ride past an abandoned oil refinery that is slowly being cleaned up after shutting down 40 years ago. Foster Park sits in a notch between the upper and lower river valley. Here wind can be a factor, especially on the way back down the path. The wind can get up to 15 to 20 mph during a typical afternoon, going up the valley toward Ojai. Foster Park has a restroom and a water fountain.
At Foster Park, you can go left on Casitas Vista Road and then right on Santa Ana Road to go directly

to Lake Casitas, 5 miles away. From Foster Park, continuing up the bike path, the path becomes steeper for the next 5 miles or so. The bridge over San Antonio Creek replaced a much smaller bridge that was really bad. This new bridge is a great improvement and much safer than before.