SIMI VALLEY : Final Touches for 6.5-Mile Bicycle Trail

Work crews are expected to paint the last few stripes on fresh blacktop along the Arroyo Simi next week, opening a 6.5-mile bike trail that stretches from one end of the city almost to the other.

The Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District has been working since summer to pave and improve nearly two miles of trail along the drainage canal at the base of Sequoia Street and Tapo Street.

Crews finished installing fences, gates and sign posts along the two-mile segment this week, said Jerry Gladden, parks district director.

Once the path is open, bicyclists will be able to ride all the way from Madera Road on the trail’s western end to the Metrolink station on Los Angeles Avenue at the eastern end.

That is good news to some cyclists who had to rattle and clatter over rough dirt and gravel on the unfinished portions in the middle part of the trail before they were done, said Al Bandel, a spokesman for the Rocky Peak Mountain Bike Club.

“If you had a mountain bike, it was not a problem” Bandel said Friday. “But 10-speeds were not made for that. . . . Each section they open is very helpful.”

Parks officials said plans are being drawn for improving the final 2,200-foot segment of the trail that extends west from Madera Road west toward Moorpark.