Morgan Territory, take 2

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 15:00:18 +0000

Morgan Territory Road was one of my favorite Bay Area roads four years ago (see that post for more details), and a few weeks ago a group of us finally made it back.

The ascent and descent on windy one-lane roads with minimal traffic were even better than I remembered (riding on a cool day helped):

This time, for variety, I charted a new route (44mi, 2800’ climbing) with a more roundabout intro/outro, picking up a range of paved and gravel trails through various parks, to take us off the busy + boring suburban roads. This probably added at least an extra hour (partly due to riding slow on multi-use trails with more pedestrians and dogs) but I felt they were a great addition. A few examples:

Morgan Territory scenic climb and descent

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 14:37:13 +0000

Morgan Territory Road definitely makes it into my top tier of best rides in the Bay Area. Miles of paved single-lane road twisting up through a forest and then swooping down through hilly countryside (which is actually green at this time of year!)… all with no cross roads and not much traffic:

Five of us rode it Sunday via this 42-mile route from Pleasant Hill BART -> Clayton (a town with oddly Old-Western-themed street signs) -> Morgan Territory (quail, red-winged blackbirds, frogs, the trickling of streams, some wildflowers), with a break for lunch and to refill water near the top -> the suburbs of Livermore -> Dublin BART.

Morgan Territory on Velodromedary

Morgan Territory, take 2

Morgan Territory scenic climb and descent