Any bay area commuters out there have any ideas of how I can get from Concord to Alameda? I'm trying to get ready for the big bad BART strike next week, and if it happens I'll try and ride the whole way in.

Check out these maps: https://www.ebbc.org/maps.html

Looks like you've got to ride up and over the hills!

Shucks, I bumped in to a commuter last week on the iron horse trail, going from concord to oakland. He said he took pinehurst up and over the hills. So, iron horse to lafayette to moraga and over ... Good luck!

Thanks for the info, I do already have both of the EBBC maps (East/West of the hills) and was hoping for info from someone who had done it. Will look inot the Iron Horse, there's an access point near my house, I've just never gotten around to riding it.

And actually now that I look at my maps it loos like the Iron Horse is more N/S and the trail to get to/over the hills is the Layfayette Moraga, anybody know what that's like? I'm going to test ride this weekend and if it's not too tough (i've only been doing this for a couple of months, using BART in between two 3+ mi rides) I may switch to it for good.

There is a bike path at the end of Olympic Blvd that will go up into Moraga next to St Mary's Rd turn left on Moraga road and it will become Canyon Rd go out of town and turn right on Pinehurst Rd. It will be a gradual climb for a little bit and then gets steep torwards Skyline after the real tight hairpin, 39x25 or better. Park Blvd will drop you down into Oakland.

Sweet, that's the trail/path that I was looking at on the EBBC map. Thanx for the pic. Any idea how crowded it will be on a weekend? (I want to test ride on Sat, hoping there wont be too many people cause of the 4th and heat)

I have not been on that path lately because I live in Sacramento now. Anytime there is a holiday there are people on the bike paths that are not, to put it nicely, experienced trail users. So keep an eye out and give a little more room when passing. I've had several close calls on the American River pathway on Holiday weekends although a lot of that would be because of the rafters that you won't have to deal with. I really like the ride up Pinehurst and usually take a right on SkyLine and ride the ridge to grizzly peak and come back down into North Orinda on Soutpark dr next to the steam trains. A couple of weeks ago I was reading someones blog where they commute that way. I think they were one of the Diablo cyclists.

good luck to all if there's a bart strike!

any bike-commute stories from the '97 strike? i was a full-time cager then and paid over $100 in parking downtown that week.

Don't suppose you'd remember just whose blog it was? It'd be great to take a look at. Thanks for the info on the ride. One of my buddys at work has ridden in the general area often (lives in San Leandro and was training for a tour) and said it's great.

https://www.diablocyclists.com/RiderT.../DHJournal.htm I think this is it but my lunch ended 20 min. ago so give it a try.

Thanks again, did the ride on mon (4th) and while it was fantastic it was just a bit too long (3+hours) for everyday use, once or twice a week probably though