Tag: East Bay

May 1st is the Grizzly Peak Century. Here’s my map of the 109-mile route (drawn quickly based on their map, may not be 100% turn-for-turn correct). I’m thinking about doing it. For now, here are two 53-mile BART-to-BART rides I’ve sketched out that together cover most of the route (North ride, South ride). I plan to ride them some time in the next month and a half (as practice, and because they look like interesting rides– I’m not a biking-as-outdoor-spinning-just-for-the-sake-of-exercise guy)– anyone else interested? ...

Riding through the redwoods (there’s a school ahead??)

Reservoir, seen from the second bear.

The morning fog in Tilden that burned off.

I didn’t organize a ride this week, but went with Adam & Becca on a roughly 50-mile ride combining Berkeley->Orinda (via Tilden Park / Inspiration Point / Wildcat), the “Three Bears” loop (a.k.a. San Pablo Dam loop, but nicknamed after the three moderate hills in a row), a ride through Moraga (less scenic), and then a switchback-filled climb among redwoods and fast descent on Pinehurst. GPS map of the route. It was a good day, at a modest pace (5+ hours, 4 hours actually in motion). Fauna sightings included wild turkeys (including a fluffy little baby turkey), sheep, deer, many trailers of horses, and roadkill.

Port Costa Ride: photos

The ride today was both a great success and a collection of minor disasters. On the up side: Eight people, including a few people who hadn’t been riding in a while. A casual-pace 29-mile ride, with successful climbs of many winding hills and a few thousand feet of elevation gain. People got tired of me saying “I think this is the last hill.” Port Costa was not at all sleepy– there were 100-200 motorcyclists (of the Harley / leather / chaps persuasion), a live band, and more loud-exhaust bikes rolling in every few minutes. It was a scene. We’d heard “the motorcyclists are taking over the Warehouse kitchen for the day” and it felt like a private party, so we weren’t sure we’d be able to get food… but they encouraged us to help ourselves to the spaghetti, salad, and bread, for free! A few interesting (and also large, and strong) beers. All in all, about everything I wanted out of the post-birthday ride, thanks everyone. On the down side, members of the group experienced: ...

Photos from the east bay vineyard ride. The weather was pretty much perfect, and we saw jackrabbits, a wild turkey, other strange birds, and several groups of spandex-clad bicyclists. ...

Meet at 11AM at Dublin/Pleasanton BART (a ways out there: about a 50-minute BART ride from 16th & Mission, for example). Hitting up Ruby Hill Winery in Livermore first for a picnic (they sell bread and cheese) and tasting, about an 8 mile ride: http://www.rubyhillwinery.net/tastingroom.html Next stops TBD.

Four more photos from last weekend’s ride, courtesy DR (and I’m trying out the new Tumblr slideshow feature)