A casual day of bike riding, picnicking, and wine tasting around the Livermore area. The initial interest in this many-times-rescheduled ride and the good weather made me think 15 people might show up… but it was a group of 31, word of mouth through three degrees of separation. Thanks for being great, everyone.
Riding a few miles through Sycamore Grove Park– interesting trees on either side, bridges to ride over, and almost no cross-streets or signs of other people:
Scenic (accidental) half-mile detour to the Southern terminus of Arroyo, before it becomes a path to Del Valle or the ruins of an abandoned TB Sanitarium:
A long leisurely picnic on the grass with good bread, cheese, and bottles of wine, at Wente Vineyards (chosen not so much for their wine, but to have an excuse to ride through Sycamore Park):
On the way back we decided to turn the ride into more of a loop than an out-and-back (and I wanted to share the dedicated bike paths at the base of the Southeast hills that we’d stumbled upon last year). They start at Wetmore & Arroyo, and aren’t even shown on my East Bay Bike Coalition map, so they must be fairly new:
ladybug: (not shown: the vulture I saw tugging on the entrails of some other dead animal, about 20’ off the side of the road)
Fenestra, a very friendly cellar and space:
A good day.
The whole ride was about 30 miles (hey, with riding to and from BART and 31 people, that’s probably a thousand person-miles):
