Northern California - Who else has an ugly duckling route?

We all have favorite routes. Some are memorable for their epic climbs or scenic beauty.
I have my share of those to be sure, but I also have this one route that is so fugly that if it was a dog, I would shave its butt and teach it to walk backwards. And yet I find myself strangely attracted. I ride this particular bizarre loop in Martinez at least once a month.

On this loop I ride through such scenic wonders as:

A Broke Down Old Airport
The Sewage Treatment Plant (compete with fragrant evaporation ponds)
Boot Hill - cemetery for the destitute, forgotten and unclaimed.
The Dog Pound
A Highway Patrol Station
A Swamp (I know it is PC to call it a wetlands, but it is a swamp)
The Dump
A Neighborhood I call "The nice part of over by the dump"
(picture chain link fences, mangy dogs and cars up on blocks on the lawns)
2 Oil Refineries
An Oil "Tank Farm"
A Biker Bar
Bail Bonds Row
County Jail
A Wino/Needle Park
County Hospital

Ain't she a beaut' ??? Bikely Link
(http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Fugly-Martinez-Loop)
Anybody else want to share your route so ugly only a mother could love it?

Fortunately for me, mostly nice scenery, either through Golden Gate Park and south or, across the GGB into Marin. :)

My old commute from Foster City to Union City was pretty ugly, but I only have beautiful scenery around me now.

Even the road going by the dump in Pescadero is pretty nice.

A Swamp (I know it is PC to call it a wetlands, but it is a swamp)


OT, but "swamp" is quite possibly the correct term. A swamp is simply a type of wetland whose primary emergent vegetation is composed of various types of trees. A wetland whose primary emergent vegetation is composed of grasses and shrubs is called a marsh. All swamps are wetlands, but not all wetlands are swamps.

There are other classifications and subclassifications, but there's nothing inherently "un-PC" about calling something a swamp.

Martinez loop?

We refer to ours as the Airport Loop. We ride it because it's there and it's quick. Perfect if you only have about an hour to ride.

It's 21 miles, no hills, mostly straight roads. It starts up a fairly busy road, then parallels I5 and fields where homeless people often take up residence. You turn and cross I5 and parallel the freeway, with barbed wire and aircraft to your left, brown fields as far as the eye can see, to the right. You turn around the back of the airport, and the view doesn't change. Up on the levee (Garden Highway), you ride along a beat up road with no shoulder, fairly nice homes scattered about on your right side, and fields and horses and stuff on your left. You get occasional views of the river, but mostly you're concerned with dodging the potholes, not getting hit by that big pickup towing a boat on its trailer, and not taking in more calories than you're burning with all the bugs that keep flying down your throat.

But we ride it. And it's good to us. In a way, I know it loves me too.

Mine's in NJ. I used to live in Elizabeth, just south of Newark and close to the airport. Oh, and a mile from the Budweiser plant (I was right out of college, so we were regulars on the tours and tasting sessions). Didn't matter what direction I rode in, we had refineries, slums, horrible roads, interstates, a huge airport, an even bigger and more run down port, the smell of the Staten Island dump when the wind blew the wrong way - it was a delightful place to live and ride!

JB

OT, but "swamp" is quite possibly the correct term. A swamp is simply a type of wetland whose primary emergent vegetation is composed of various types of trees. A wetland whose primary emergent vegetation is composed of grasses and shrubs is called a marsh. All swamps are wetlands, but not all wetlands are swamps.

There are other classifications and subclassifications, but there's nothing inherently "un-PC" about calling something a swamp.

Can you build a castle on it?

Can you build a castle on it?

2, maybe 3.

Mine's in NJ. I used to live in Elizabeth, just south of Newark and close to the airport. Oh, and a mile from the Budweiser plant (I was right out of college, so we were regulars on the tours and tasting sessions). Didn't matter what direction I rode in, we had refineries, slums, horrible roads, interstates, a huge airport, an even bigger and more run down port, the smell of the Staten Island dump when the wind blew the wrong way - it was a delightful place to live and ride!

JB

Smell Secaucus! :D...whatta lovely area.

My ugly route takes the shoulder of Route 23 through Wayne NJ for 2 or so miles then through an abandoned industrial park. Goregeous :rolleyes: ....but its a fast way home.

Hey, I for one like riding by airports! Dan, i'm curious which one you ride by.

I don't have anything to rival some of the other routes posted. The closest I can come is when I lived in Palo Alto, the route I took to the Dumbarton bridge took me through the heart of East Palo Alto. Definitely not a very safe area and I remember there always being a disproportionately high amount of debris in the bike lanes. Then the bridge itself isn't very nice. Almost always windy, cars going by at 70mph just a couple feet away, more debris. I used to ride across that bridge just for the novelty of it, now I treat it more like a necessary evil of getting to and from the east bay.

Maybe this next part should go in the confessions thread but when I first started road cycling I got a flat on University Ave between 101 and 84. I didn't have any patch kit, spare tube, tire levers, pump, co2, or anything whatsoever. I had to call a friend to come rescue me while I sat on the sidewalk guarding my bike that probably cost more than most of the cars passing by.

Maybe this next part should go in the confessions thread but when I first started road cycling I got a flat on University Ave between 101 and 84. I didn't have any patch kit, spare tube, tire levers, pump, co2, or anything whatsoever. I had to call a friend to come rescue me while I sat on the sidewalk guarding my bike that probably cost more than most of the cars passing by.

I used to commute across Dumbarton Bridge from Palo Alto to Fremont, so I know what you meant about the scenery and feel. For sure I thought you were going to say that you just continued riding with the flat tire, not wanting to appear helpless and vulnerable right in the middle of EPA.

My old commute from Foster City to Union City was pretty ugly

Should have described it better...took me through the worst part of Redwood City, the worst part of Menlo Park, over the Dumbarton, and through Fremont/Union City. The bridge was probably the nicest part of the whole commute. :rolleyes:

Maybe this next part should go in the confessions thread but when I first started road cycling I got a flat on University Ave between 101 and 84. I didn't have any patch kit, spare tube, tire levers, pump, co2, or anything whatsoever. I had to call a friend to come rescue me while I sat on the sidewalk guarding my bike that probably cost more than most of the cars passing by.

I would've just kept going on the bare rims. Probably not as bad in the morning after a long night for the locals.

My bike commute to work takes me by the Dixon Landing dump site in Milpitas, than along the sewer treatment plant and a few more dump sites in Alviso. This whole stretch is littered with glass, sand and rocks in the bike lane. Then on top of that the commute home has a headwind all the way back to Fremont. And what's up with Dixon Landing Rd? It was bad enough before, now they squeezed in an extra traffic lane where the bikes use to go!

Martinez loop?

Here is the Bikely Link (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Fugly-Martinez-Loop)

I used to commute across Dumbarton Bridge from Palo Alto to Fremont, so I know what you meant about the scenery and feel. For sure I thought you were going to say that you just continued riding with the flat tire, not wanting to appear helpless and vulnerable right in the middle of EPA.

I used to have a co-worker that bike commuted from Union City to Mountain View. One day, on the way home thru EPA, these three dudes asked him to try out his bike. He didn't stop and sprinted away but they started chasing him (on foot). He said they were gaining on him but gave up after a while. He drove everyday after that.

I used to have a co-worker that bike commuted from Union City to Mountain View. One day, on the way home thru EPA, these three dudes asked him to try out his bike. He didn't stop and sprinted away but they started chasing him (on foot). He said they were gaining on him but gave up after a while. He drove everyday after that.

Holy crap. They were gaining on him? That's just frightening.

That's a totally UGLY commute. Not even a duckling in the sense of this thread. That's like the Black Swan of Commute.

Then on top of that the commute home has a headwind all the way back to Fremont.

I know what you mean. Calm in the morning, northerly winds in the afternoon. So on my commute I never have a tailwind :( But the wind just lets me spend more time in the saddle so, umm ... yay?