Briones

My Marathon Mondials are in their final death throes, so before I replace them and most likely return back to 28 mm tires, I want to try and push these as far as I can, plus with an incoming wet storm, it was time to take advantage of some dry trail and go off-roading. I was also inspired by Rivendell's video on the Diablo foothills, I knew I just had to get away from the pavement for a bit. I checked a book on California's mountain biking trails and set my sights on Briones Regional Park.

One of the silliest things I've always found about mountain biking books is "recommended parking" or "how to get there" where they give you detailed directions by highway. It is definitely my snobbish bike purist showing, but I always prefer to ride to the rides, the times I've summitted Diablo I rode to the base from my house (although after the decent I usually took the Walnut Creek BART back). The ride to Briones was not planning on being a cake walk and I made it even tougher.

I decided to favor a steeper climb to get me over the Oakland Hills quicker through Tilden, choosing the more direct but steeper Claremont Ave. over Old Tunnel Road, which sends me off to the South of Tilden. For some reason, maybe it is actually the tires, but these steep climbs seem much rougher than they were in the fall when I first started riding them, maybe not doing sixty + miles a day had finally worn off my legs. Nevertheless, I pushed and spun over the top into Lomas Contadas once again, to drop down Wildcat Canyon Road.

Skyline Panorama

A view from the top

At the base of Wildcat Canyon Road sent me another challenge, one of the three bears, and it was Papa bear, a steady high climb which helped whip me into shape climbing over it. Luckily I only had a taste of Mama bear before I cut off into Briones Regional Park.

The reservoir from Bear Creek Road.

The beginning of the Briones Road Trail. The pavement didn't last long.

Now that I was in the park the fun began. I started out on Briones Road Trail, I'm assuming what used to actually be a road that connected Briones to Orinda, but now is part of this protected park for cattle ranching and general recreation. The trail turned off into Briones Ridge Trail, the one I chose to ride. Being a ridge trail it, of course, had to climb up, so up I went. The green hills rolled around me until some trees appeared arching over the trail, briefly, as they let back out to California grazing lands. I passed a few cattle guards and made it to the "pass", essentially, where looking back I could see the rolling hills of Briones park and looking forward I could see San Pablo Bay, Martinez, and to the right a cloud covered Diablo. The wind whipped through me on top of that pass. The microclimates in the Bay Area are enough to drive one mad, so far I'd gone from chilly in the clouds to warm in the sun to back in the chilly shade and would jump between those a few more times during the course of the day.

People don't like the Robin's Egg Blue Surly, but it contrasts green so well.

The top of the Ridge

The final section of trail, going down?

From there the trail bobbed up and down on bumpy trail, seemingly patted out by cow hooves in the mud hardened in this dry winter. I could definitely tell I was on a fake hard tail 29er, feeling my arms bounce on the steep downhills and hearing my chain rattle around. Either way, it was worth it. The ups at times were difficult, but I hammered through em. The biggest obstacle though was a group of cows hanging out dead center of the path. I hopped off and walked around them (I'm terrified of getting kicked by a cow or horse, for whatever reason). Crested a few more times bouncing along until the final decent which was the only single track and steep as hell. I squeezed the brakes almost the whole way down and even walked some of it. But I made it. Now it's just Papa Bear and the Oakland Hills one more time. If only that were easy. By the time I had reached the Centennial Drive drop my legs were toast. It was good to get that far of a ride in with a lot of elevation, but I really should master a mountain someday soon.