Northern California - Niles Canyon during rush hour, insane.

So I finally got up the courage to ride from my house in union city, through niles canyon to the end of calaveras road stopping at felter road and coming back. I'm guessing it was around 50 miles(forgot to reset my darn cyclometer). This was last friday late afternoon and my plan was to be home by around 5.
This was also my first time riding through niles canyon, and it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
Well, halfway up calaveras road, my tube goes flat from a bad patch job I did the week before. I was too tired and lazy so I ended up taking a 30 minute rest, and my arm was too weak to get my tire pressure up higher than 60psi. So, it took me a lot longer to get back than I expected.

I ended up getting back on niles canyon at around 5pm, rush hour, and turns out theres a headwind and I'm starving because I forgot to bring any food. And my front tire is underinflated...AND my frame pump broke.....That was one of the most miserable 6 miles of my life. And when huge semi trucks drive by at 50mph, I feel like I'm about to get sucked right in underneath the wheels!

anyone else hate riding through niles canyon?? any tips or advice on when the best time to ride through there would be? I haven't ridden through there on a weekend yet, so I guess it wouldn't be all that bad when there isn't traffic but during rush hour it's almost unbearable especially because half of it doesn't have any shoulder at all.

Weekends are much better.

Yup - that's one of the stretches of road to avoid at rush hour! And if there's any wind around at all, it will be a headwind going down Niles Canyon from Sunol. BTW, instead of turning around at Felter, you could have gone right and followed Calaveras down to Milpitas and then had a pretty flat ride back to Union City that way. It's a fairly fast descent (not sure I'd want to do that with a soft front tire!), but if you take the roads from the Primavera century in reverse it will take you right to the Niles Canyon/Mission intersection. There will still be tons of traffic, but the roads are good and mostly have a wide shoulder or plenty of room for a cyclist.

JB

^ ah didn't think about that. Although that time I did have a soft tire like you said, so it might not have been an option but next time I'll probably take that way instead.