backinthesaddle

For those of you who haven't wanted to wade through 100+ postings (and hats off to BlastRadius for the suggestion) I'm starting a new post with the ride info.

We'll meet Sunday 7/22 @ 9:30 AM at Orinda BART. Route is first a loop around 3 Bears, then up Wildcat Canyon to Tilden Park, Grizzly Peak Blvd, then Skyline. Then 2 alternate routes. Short loop (50 miles) goes down Redwood Road, Pinehurst, Canyon road to Moraga, Moraga Way to Orinda. Long loop (70 miles) continues down Skyline, through Oakland Zoo, Lake Chabot Road to Castro Valley, Redwood Road to Pinehurst, then the same as the short loop. Short loop is estimated at 5755 ft climbing, long loop is estimated at 7,093 ft climbing.

Route is courtesy of jonathanb715 who unfortunately may not be able to make the ride, so I'm filling in as coordinator. Here's a link to the long route created by Jonathan on routeslip.com. https://www.routeslip.com/routes/27068

All are welcome, pace depends on who's there. I'm fairly slow, so I'll probably sweep, so anyone who knows the route and is strong enough to be at the front is especially welcome.

There are water stops along the route, but no food especially on the short route, so bring energy food, snacks, or a lunch.

Here's who's on board so far -- I'll keep this updated.

50 Miles (5755 ft climbing):
Gee 3


70 Miles (7093 ft climbing)
SV Commuter


50 miles or 70 miles:
8lives
backinthesaddle
bigbossman
rincewind8

And here's the cue sheets, courtesy of S V Commuter:

Short loop:

Start NW on Camino Pablo
cont. on San Pablo Dam Rd 2.2 mi
R on Castro Ranch Rd 7.6 mi
R on AlhambraValleyR 12.6 mi
R on Bear Creek Rd 16.8 mi
cont. on Wildcat Canyon Rd 20.9 mi
L on Shasta Rd 24.8 mi
L on Grizzly Peak Blvd 25.3 mi
L on Skyline Blvd 31.6 mi
L on Skyline Blvd 34.1 mi
L on Redwood Rd 37.4 mi
L on Pinehurst Rd 39.9 mi
R on Canyon Rd 42.6 mi
L on Moraga Way 44.4 mi
Arrive at BART 49.1 mi

Long loop:

Start NW on Camino Pablo
cont. on San Pablo Dam Rd 2.2 mi
R on Castro Ranch Rd 7.6 mi
R on AlhambraValleyR 12.6 mi
R on Bear Creek Rd 16.8 mi
cont. on Wildcat Canyon Rd 20.9 mi
L on Shasta Rd 24.8 mi
L on Grizzly Peak Blvd 25.3 mi
L on Skyline Blvd 31.6 mi
L on Skyline Blvd 34.1 mi
bear R on Grass Valley Rd 43.0 mi
L on Knowland Park 45.2 mi
R on 106th Ave 46.1 mi
cont. under freeway 46.2 mi
L on Foothill Blvd 46.2 mi
bear L on MacArthur Blvd 46.8 mi
L on Estudillo Ave 47.5 mi
cont. under freeway 47.5 mi
bear R on Lake Chabot Rd 47.7 mi
L on Seven Hills Rd 50.8 mi
L on Redwood Rd 51.9 mi
R on Pinehurst Rd 60.7 mi
R on Canyon Rd 63.4 mi
L on Moraga Way 65.2 mi
Arrive at BART 69.9 mi

See you Sunday!

Gee3

My friend backed out... family obligations.

So I'll be coming solo.

Gary (Gee3)

jonathanb715

I'm really bummed I'm not able to make this ride! Enjoy!

JB

BenRidin

Would love to have made this ride, but my kid is in a H2O Polo Tourney that day.

BR

Gee3

So how long do you estimate the ride to take? My wife wants to know about what time I'll be back home.

Thanks!
Gary

backinthesaddle

I'm guessing at a slow pace with maybe a couple of rest stops 50 miles back by 3:00. with a faster pace sooner. 70 milers might also be back at close to 3:00 if they go significantly faster.

backinthesaddle

we'll miss you, thanks for all your planning and organization, see you next time!!

is your bike repaired now?

jonathanb715

No, the shop received the new frame today and has started building it up but won't finish until Monday.

JB

SesameCrunch

Sorry guys, but I am not going to be able to make it tomorrow. Too much family stuff piled up. I'll have to get a solo make-up ride in on Monday.

Hope to see some of you at the Mt. Tam century.

8Lives

Hi everyone,

I am still planning on making it but as usual my time is compressing a bit. I'll probably opt for the 50 mile route and ride over to Orinda from Berkeley. Thought ought to add another 15 miles or so total and be more time efficient than driving.

Aaron

spingineer

Have fun guys. I won't be able to make it ... I'm in LA.

Oh, BTW, dodgers won!

8Lives

Hi all,

Sorry bout that - I had to get home for a conference call I intelligently scheduled for 2:00. Hope you all enjoyed the ride!

Aaron

BlastRadius

Ride report?

backinthesaddle

Quick report, more with pictures to come.

7 riders, 6 bikes (1 tandem). Total miles per my Garmin (long route) was 72 with 6869 ft climbing. (That included a couple of miles retracing the route up a hill, actual route mileage was about 70.3.

The tandem (Rincewind8) did 3 bears, then went up to Grizzly Peak (1600 ft) then took short cut back to Orinda.

8lives rode 10 miles to the start, went out in the lead group, since I was in the back I never saw him again, he headed back home for a 2:00 appt, don't know yet how many miles he rode.

BigBossMan and Gee 3 did the short route (congratulations to Gee 3, did 50 miles, I think his previous longest ride was 15 miles). BigBossMan was the trip photographer, hope he posts soon.

SV Commuter and yours truly did the 70 mile route. I was my usual slow and steady. I also got a flat tire 1/2 mile from the end SV commuter's first big ride was our Memorial day ride, he's just jamming through now, eats hills for breakfast.

Great ride, good weather, we hit Redwood Road climb late afternoon with a mild breeze so it wasn't as hot as it might have been.

Thanks to all!!

backinthesaddle

Sorry I didn't get to see you at Inspiration Point. What route did you take and how many miles did you log?

Rincewind8

According to routeslip.com we did ~32miles and 3965ft of climbing. The decent towards Orinda was so steep, that we had to stop several times to let the brakes cool down.

8Lives

Since I ride round here all the time I decided to take a different route from the bears - Over Happy Valley through Orinda to Pinehurst, then to redwood road, and more or less back up skyline to home on Grizzly Peak. 61 miles but the two traverses through Orinda meant only about 5,200 feet of climbing. I di get home by 1:15 though...

Gee3

Hey everyone...

First off, thanks to everyone for making my first group ride back in the Bay Area a fun one. The scenery was great especially the peak where we could overlook Berkeley/Cal's football stadium and the SF skyline.

Backinthesaddle - Thanks for being a great embassador and ride leader! Mr. slow and steady! But you can kick my butt on mileage!

Also thanks to Bigbossman for breaking off with me for the 50 mile ride and the EPO, I mean endurance pills...!! haha! Also thanks for the gel near the end. I think I was partially dehydrated, hence the cramps on both thighs! But the rest and the gel got me through to the end.

SV Commuter - thanks for letting me be a wheel sucker for lots of the ride!! For someone that just picked up cycling again after taking several years off you hauled butt up the climbs!

Rincewind8 - I hope your girl's knee is feeling better. Maybe one day I'll get a tandem and my wife will go with me too. But unlike Bigbossman and yourself my wife would kick my butt if I brought home other "projects" to work on. hehe!

8lives - It was nice meeting you and eating your dust! You jammed out of there!! Hopefully you got to your appointment on time.

I'll post my ride report in a little bit after I get some work done here in my box! hehe!

Gary

uspspro

Damn, I wish I hadn't missed this.

My efforts to mix GF with cycling aren't working well enough

I just finished (finally) getting the fit good on her Bianchi I built. We had to switch handlebars to something more short/shallow.

Now that it's done, I hope there will be no excuses!

bigbossman 

Ok - so I'm the last to check in here.

This was a fun ride, and thanks to jonathanb715 for initially planning, and Jerry (Backinthesaddle) for executing the event.

I don't have too much to add to the ride report. The first half was the typical East Bay rural riding that I know and love - rolling oak woodland with sparsely traveled roads. I've never done the 3 Bears before, so that was fun. It was sort of hard for me to tell where one bear stopped and another started, but looking back on the Garmin profile it becomes readily apparent. The descent off the last bear was very, very nice. Wide open, excellent pavement with fantastic sight lines - we're talking an easy 40+mph downhill for a couple of minutes or so. Sweet. I'll go back just for that, alone.

The second half was up Wildcat Canyon Road (steep!!) and then skirting along the west side of the Berkeley Hills. There was a little more traffic here (well, a lot more), but other than that one maniac in the red sports car trying to kill Jerry is wasn't an issue. There seemed to be a lot of climbing here, even after "summiting" at Inspiration Point, but there was a pretty nice descent going down to Redwood Road, and Redwood Road itself was a blast - another extended, cruising descent that was very enjoyable. So enjoyable, in fact, that Gary and I blew by the turn at Pinehurst (but only be a little bit). after climbing up Pinehurst, the final treat was the twisty-turny plunge through the redwoods into Moraga. That was nice!!

I had originally planned to do the full 70, but truthfully by the time we reached the split I had pretty much had enough climbing for the day. All I could think about was my hammock and a cold rum n' coke, so I was glad that Gary wanted to split off and used the opportunity to wimp out.

Garmin Data shows the totals for me at 50.2 miles and 4,837' of climbing.

Elevation profile:


Some random scenic pics:

bigbossman 

Some people/action shots:

BlastRadius

Nice report. Hopefully you all can make the next BF ride.

backinthesaddle

Did you do El Toyonal back to Orinda? That's so notoriously steep I've never tried it either up or down.

backinthesaddle

Good riding with you again, and thanks for the great pictures! That descent down Redwood Road is really sweet.

bigbossman 

Here's one more, taken from Inspiration Point. A panoramic view of San Pablo Reservior with The 3 Bears somewhere in the background: