Lake Chabot loop

I had a discussion with my son about the relationship between talents and passions while watching F1 on Sunday morning. We all know how talented and passionate those drivers are. They are the best-of-the-best in the world after all. Of course there are people good at doing stuff that they don't care for and that's certainly not a lot of fun. And the last case: no talent but has passion perfectly describe me and biking. By no means I'm good at biking, road or mountain. For many years I try riding as much as I can but confined to flat routes only. A lot of them are paved bike trails. I didn't start riding more challenging roads until several years ago. And I finally bought a real mountain bike 2 years ago and honed my climbing and turning skills at the nearby Arastradero Preserve. (My climbing skill I got from road biking was useful but it takes more to climb mountain biking trails) One of the first trails I wanted to ride was this Lake Chabot loop.
So, why do I have a thing about this route? Check out these pic from 7 years ago (with my old Costco bike!):

The first picture was where I stopped and turned back on the East Shore Trail. The reason was shown in the 2nd picture: it was way too steep for me in 2007 (August 31st to be exact) Fast forward to today, this climb was no longer an issue. (Still, there are other sections that I have to get down and pushed the bike, e.g. parts of the Honker Bay Trail which looks like cracks on a palm. Also, parts of the Logger's loop which I couldn't get any traction on the rear wheel because of loose leaves and tree trunks) The bigger challenge was actually not to get lost.

Here is the map of the route:

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My map showed I did ~18 miles. It would have been about 13 miles without my 3 detours:
- the quail trail
- the logger's loop
- the sections of grass valley trail and Brandon trail after the stone bridge bypass.

I started the ride with the East Shore Trail. When this trail ended, there's a sign about continuing onto Cameroon loop. Just keep going and soon there's a wood bridge.

This was actually taken after I crossed the bridge and turned left immediately, which was the wrong way! I should have continued on until the next junction, then turn left to the Honker Bay Trail, which was along the lake. After the climb that gave me trouble, the trail went through the campground and there was a gate/office with attendants. I mistook an entrance to a trail before the gate as the one for the Brandon trail but in fact it was the quail trail. I won't recommend this detour at all. From my biking experience, you always feel bad after taking a wrong turn downhill because you need to waste more energy to get back up, which was the case here. I got smart after getting back: once I saw the gate, I asked for directions to the Brandon trail :) In less than a mile there was the logger's loop on the left. The loop was ~ one mile detour that I rode counter-clockwise.

Lots of loose, dried leaves and wood sticks on the ground. Not a bad experience but I might skip this loop next time. In less than 2 miles there is a stone bridge, which I chose not to cross as I saw on one book there's a grass valley trail after the gate which I could ride. It was a fun section even though there was water and mud and I got it all over my bike and legs. After 1.5 mile, there's another gate.

Exit the gate and turn back for 1.3 mile on the Brandon trail again. And you will be on Goldenrod trail. This trail has a tricky junction:

Of course I went the wrong way (right) and got into the Lake Chabot Golf course :P Once I got back and turned left. The rest was simple: followed Bass Cove Trail and West Shore Trail along the lake and you will soon see the dam and lots of hiker. And in no time there's the marina!

Biking Bangkok to Angkor Wat

I was chatting with my sister about places to travel while we are still (relatively) young. For some reason Angkor Wat immediately came to my mind (maybe it's because I watched the TV program "Seven Wonders of the Buddhist world" recently) This seems like an interesting biking trip.

Pinkbike

Just saw Pinkbike, a mountain biking site, being advertised during the telecast of Red Bull Joyride. I've never heard of it before and I ride a pink bike almost everyday. I'm well known for this at the office building. And most don't realize I actually have 2 different pink bikes :P And because of this show, I just learned that this discipline of mtb called freeride that features tricks done on downhill slope course is one of the most popular.

Five European bike rides for amateurs

I came across this article on CNN last year around the time I went biking in Europe. All of them sounds like relaxing ones. Probably a bit lack of challenge for me but might be good for taking the family! I definitely wanna bike in France on one of the TDF route or Spain (Seville has a good system of bike paths)

Mt Tam revisited

I rode up to Mt Tam and the Seven Sisters from Fairfax with a group of experienced riders before (just realized it's two years ago. I've learned a ton from them that time) and I kept bragging about it in front of my biking buddy. So the only right thing to do was to ride up with him too :) (BTW, I've also bragged about my Mt Hamilton and Mt Diablo rides before so eventually we would go all big 3) I found this route on MapMyRide and it seems more fun for an all-day ride than the morning ride I did before. Learned from last time, we parked in the narrow but long free public lot opposite to a garage (auto mechanics) on Sir Francis Drake road in Fairfax (the lot is on the intersection of Bolinas Rd between Sir Francis Drake and Center Blvd) The ride started from Bolinas Rd, through the neighborhood via some local streets to Olema Rd and back onto Sir Francis Drake towards North. Then we turned right into Nicasio Valley/Reservoir. Quiet and open country road there. Nice! Next, we turned West to Point Reyes Station, which I haven't visited for more than 10 years! Last time we came here for oyster. Actually the whole area has quite a few restaurants and we passed by many of them, e.g. Bovine Bakery, which was highly recommended by my co-worker but was closed that day. Instead of going South on Hwy 1 immediately, we took a detour northbound to Inverness. Again, nice ocean view! We turn back from there and passed Point Reyes National Reserve on Hwy 1, which was famous for bird-watching. I saw a black bird with a big red dot on each of its wings (probably a red-winged black bird.) Doesn't seem to be common everywhere! Finally we saw the ocean again (~40 miles into this route) and it was time to turn left and ride up Bolinas-Fairfax rd (small entrance, easy to miss!) It's a long 4-mile climb 'til we reached Ridgecrest, i.e., the famous Seven Sisters. Each sister represents a rolling section of the road (more than 7 of them!) The last "sister" was a hard 3 mile stretch before reaching the East peak. The original map didn't have this section so our planned 64 mile ride became 70! Nevertheless, we really needed to go up East peak because of the water fountain there to refill our emptied bottles. We still have 16 miles to go after the East peak by retracing the Seven Sisters in reverse and go down the other side of Bolinas-Fairfax rd. This part overlapped with what I rode 2 years ago but my memory was vague. I still remember the dam at Alpine Lake. That was a steep downhill with lots of sharp turns. Our arms were tired because of the descent but it was only ~2 mile long! Then we had 2 more Cat-5 climbs after the dam. Those are usually pieces of cake during our regular training rides but they felt like killers after riding 63 miles (including 1 Cat-1 climb!) We were completely exhausted after we made it back to the car. Nevertheless, we had a great time. This will be one of the rides that we talk about for years to come.

So here is the map of the route we did:

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide

Mt Diablo and Morgan Territory Metric century

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide

As I mentioned last time, I enjoyed riding the routes recommended by biking books. Two books I found invaluable are Foghorn Outdoors Bay Area Biking by Ann Marie Brown and Bay Area Bike Rides by Ray Hosler. I have done quite a few routes exactly following their directions, e.g., the Mount Hamilton ride, Big Basin, and Calaveras. When I have plenty of time (like today), I like trying long and faraway ones. This time I don't mind burning all my energy so I ended up doing not one but two routes from the books combined (I actually learned about the route from Strava when I looked for metric century, i.e., 100km, routes in the area. The other routes recommended by my friends is a 100km ride in Marin that includes Mt. Tam and the Seven Sisters, which seems equally interesting and I plan to do it next time) This is my longest ride since the Vienna-Melk ride. (More difficult climbs this time but I rode 75+ two days in a row then)

I always wanted to climb Mt Diablo since I've already done 2 out of the Big 3 Mt in the Bay Area (Mt Hamilton and Mt Tam) and I think it's the right time to go. The books recommended against going in Summer 'coz its lack of shades. I thought a cloudy Spring day would be ideal (which is WRONG and you'll see why later) The two routes I combined are: Mt Diablo Summit Ride, and Clayton (including Morgan Territory) The books suggested parking at or near Blackhawk Plaza Shopping Center and I followed. Started from there, I took Blackhawk Road, which passed a few gated communities (affluent neighborhood!) Then turned into Mt. Diablo Scenic Blvd at 3.5 mile mark (I wasn't too confident about getting my route right and stopped at the turn to read the map, which should not have been necessary. Of course it's supposed to be scenic!) From that point on you really can't go wrong since it goes all the way to the Summit at 3849 ft above sea level. MapMyRide actually broke down the climb into 2 sections. A cat 2 climb starting at the South Gate 'til the entrance kiosk. There's a short flat section to catch your breathe, then a 6-mile cat 1 climb all the way to the top. At the 10 mile mark there is a junction ranger station. This is where to return to after reaching the Summit. From junction to the Summit it's ~4.5 miles with the Juniper campground exactly in the middle between them, which was another good place to rest. I was not only a bit tired from climbing but more importantly very much bothered by the poor visibility due to dense fog and mist. Anyway, I made it to the top and as my friend told me already, the very last section before the Summit was steep (kinda like Golden Oak in Portola Valley, which I found manageable and less torturing than Joaquin)

You would think the trickiest part is done. Well, not quite, because the dense fog and mist was still there, if not worse, when I needed to go back down (also needed to negotiate the turns on the slightly slippery road and avoid getting hit by cars going downhill, which I could only hope the drivers were skillful enough to handle) I couldn't feel safe until I got back to the junction, where I regained visibility finally (that 4.7 mile descent felt like eternity!) From there it's a comfortable ride down North Gate Rd all the way to Walnut Creek. There is a round-about, be careful and ride onto Oak Knoll Rd. Then turn into Ygnacio Valley Road, where I watched the Stage 3 of Amgen Tour of California in 2012. BTW, the route today overlapped the route of that stage quite a bit (also this year's Stage 7) The cars are very fast on the busy Ygnacio but bikes should be safe on their own lane.

Finally it became less busy, especially after turning into Clayton Rd and the town of Clayton (seems like another upscale neighborhood) After leaving the shopping centers on Marsh Creek Rd, it became rural again. It took me longer than expected to arrive at the Morgan Territory Rd (at the 38.5 mile mark) and I checked the map a few times!

The first few miles of Morgan seemed too mild and that worried me coz' I knew it went up to 2000+ ft above sea level eventually so the later the climb start, the steeper it would be! Finally I started climbing at the 42 mile mark (where the road is buried deep in the woods and my friend warned me there's no phone reception) and the Summit (2087 ft) is at 48. I took some breaks in between and of course at the campground near the Summit, where I replenished my water bottles and sat for 5 minutes. Overall, Morgan wasn't that bad (I had similar if not worse experience with long climbs on the Sea Otter ride, Tunitas Creek and West Portal on the Peninsula.) It's just that I was tired from the prior climb and rides. And coming down the Summit felt safe even though it's steep (the riders will go the opposite direction than mine to Morgan's Summit on Stage 7) but it's paved well. The descent from 2000 to ~600 ft leads to Manning Rd (turn right) and then Highland Rd (another right), which are also part of Tour of California's route! And it's all flat and fast back to Blackhawk/Danville on Camino Tassajara, where you could see a bronze statue of a horse for an equestrian school. I think I'll feel more connected to the Tour of California this year!

Big Basin Bear Creek loop

I enjoy reading books on biking in the SF Bay Area and finding new routes to try. For the labor day weekend, I picked the 57 mile Big Basin loop found in one of the books because it's far enough from where I live to justify riding it on a holiday. It's also long enough but not too long to burn all my energy for partying afterwards! The ride started at the parking lot of a "hidden" small park (Wildwood Park) in Saratoga. It was empty at 8:30am. There was a long climb (~7 miles) immediately. We had no problem doing it since the legs were fresh. After reaching the familiar Skyline Blvd (most rides on the Peninsula end the climb on this road), we started descending into the beautiful Big Basin Redwood State Park. Obviously there were many huge Redwood trees. BBQ made by campers smelled great to us :( Once we turned from Big Basin Way (236) into Bear Creek, it was another long climb. Even though MapMyRide said it's Cat-2 (while the initial climb was Cat-1), we found this actually harder, maybe because our legs were no longer fresh. Finally it got easier when we reached the wineries (Byington, David Bruce) We were too happy and went the wrong way down 35 (Bear Creek Rd.) Fortunately we knew there were more climbs and realize our mistake early and turn back to get back on the other side of 35 (Skyline Blvd), which started very narrow, too narrow for 2-way car traffic! Another 7 mile we reached the submit at 3100 ft and from then on it's all downhill: back to the intersection of Big Basin Way and Skyline Blvd that we reached after the first climb and retraced that climb back to Saratoga. This route is definitely worthwhile to try because of the great scenery and also interesting climbs.