Breaking Down Barriers

Last week passing through the Planet of the Apes was a bumpy somewhat off road adventure that was a total blast. But I remember at the top when meeting those other cyclists, before I stopped I heard one of the guys on a mountain bike mention "The roadie is most likely going that way", referring to me pointing down the mostly paved section that drops out to Highway 1. It was weird, because I feel like a huge anti-roadie, taking my bike everywhere, hopping curbs, riding in the rain, dirt, mud, but for whatever reason, most likely my thinner tires and drop bars had me mistaken for a roadie. So since then I've decided it's time to get back on the trail I've been craving for; I saddled up and headed for the Ridge Trail in Redwood Regional Park.

This dude followed me all the way up Snake.

The Ridge Trail that connects the Redwood staging area with the Lake Chabot staging areas in Redwood Park has been often designated as a "beginner fire road". I had taken the Western section before to the observatory and remember it being not so bad, so I decided to head in that direction, as opposed to the East.

These Salsa Cowbells are meant for light trail, but don't function all that well on them.

Do Redwoods ever stop being cool?

With unBay like 70 degree sunny weather (especially in the hills), Redwood was packed. When I arrived at the park dog walkers and joggers were everywhere, but few bikes. The lone cyclist at the trailhead I rolled my 28 mm onto the dirt and started heading south along the contours of the hills. The beginning section wasn't so bad, my bike bobbed and bounced, but nothing too crazy. There were a few points to dip back out to the road, but I was feeling daring and pressed on, shooting up some short steep climbs and back down the other side.

This woman had trouble getting down this steep hill. I had an even more troubling time, but I kept rubber side down!

I still like distant hills.

It wasn't long before I had reached the observatory once more and decided to see what lay beyond my last stopping point. Little to my knowledge the trail gets a little rougher here. Still considered a fire road I suppose, with a wide gerth, but a lot of the trail is very rocky and on top of that some parts are incredibly steep. As much as I wanted to ascribe to the idea of any bike anywhere, there were points where I was clearly ill equipped for this kind of terrain, my Salsa Cowbell bars were my biggest disadvantage. Riding on the hoods gave me great control and no braking or I could ride in the drops with good braking but poor handling. I switched back and forth between the two several times, until I figured out, not having braking ability is terrifying, and faced these downhills in a low position in the drops. There were points where I was almost certain I was going to bail and of course these are always at the points right near hikers, no one ever falls when no one is watching, right?

Creek at the end of West Ridge Trail. This was near where I saw all the Mountain Bikers unloading their bikes from their SUVS.

Tilden Park creek. I sat here for a long time, feeling miles away from the city.

Despite the challenges of the bike, the trail was quiet and scenic and this is why I'm trying to get back on trail. Sure there are definitely roads that can lead to solace, but nothing like a trail can. There were no cars passing by and at points nothing could be seen but the trail and the backside of the hills blanketed in green trees. That's what I'm in search of and why I still am in love with this place, because these places are so close. There weren't even crazy hardcore mountain bikers to tear up the trail and ruin the mood, it was just quiet. I was so in love with this ride I repeated a shorter one to Tilden the following day to a silent creek near Lake Anza. These places are so close and it's becoming obvious almost any bike can take you there. Now that the weather is breaking and trails are drying up along the West Coast there's no better time to try getting out on trail and if your bike isn't quite suited, so be it, hike and bike are better than dealing with motorcycles up your ass.

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.