Four of us met up for this ride. 29.2 miles, 2:45 active riding time, about 4:30 total including a break for lunch and a beer in Port Costa, a stop to photograph miniature horses(!), and so on. Lots of scenic, rolling hills, and not much traffic. Approximate route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2924086 I’ll post a few photos shortly.
I’ve been on some individual rides with people (including a few 20-mile SF circuits involving Trouble Coffee), but it’s been a while since I’ve been on a group ride. But… weather permitting, Port Costa/Martinez loop in the east bay again a week from Saturday (that is, on 3/6). I’m open to votes on whether to do it the “standard” direction (several miles of long gradual uphill and then a steep shorter decent on a 17% grade on McEwen), or the opposite, the direction we accidentally did it last time (sorry, helen and matt!).
benicia bridge
rolling hills
so many flowers
graveyard
video: biking through a tunnel
Three of us met up on Saturday for a nice East Bay ride, from Pleasant Hill to Martinez and Port Costa, in a loop. We did a hybrid of a ride in the SF Short Bike Rides book (in particular, warm-up riding on the Iron Horse and Contra Costa Canal trails – paved, off-road meandering along a canal for miles, flat with mild rises and dips), and a loop recommended by Max C. This is more or less the route we took: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2937679 . My cycle odometer says it was about 34 miles total– there was a lot of small-scale twisting and turning that doesn’t show up on that map (it was about 19.5 miles out, and 14.5 miles back). The ride along Carquinez Scenic Drive was fantastic, up through an old graveyard, and then along a twisty cracked/filled/painted pavement road closed to cars with great views of the Carquinez Strait and the Benicia Bridge. We saw turkeys, deer, huge butterflies, and wildflowers. Port Costa was a tiny little town, with some friendly dogs outside Sparky’s, a new motorcycle shop under construction, blackberries just ripening along the train tracks, and The Warehouse – a huge bar with hundreds of beers, a gigantic stuffed polar bear, and really mediocre sandwiches and shrimp cocktails (they do weekend BBQ, but only on Sundays, we found out). Then coming back, we climbed McEwen (a painfully steep mile and a half, see the elevation at Mile 18 on the map above– I’ve since learned that most people do the loop in the opposite direction), but were then able to coast and ride along a gradual, curving downhill for about 6 miles. That was perhaps my favorite part of the ride. Smooth pavement, gradually winding turns, riding between rolling hills covered brown (I mean, “gold”) grass, warm sun with a slightly cool breeze, and almost zero traffic. I’ll put up another few photos after this.
Passed the ghost bike for mark pendleton :(
On the way to Port Costa