Wanting to get out and try my new shoes (which you can read about here), I decided to head for the hills once more. I poked around on Google Maps a little and found Shephard Canyon Rails to Trails, which sounded interesting so that was my destination.

The contrast is too much, but looking beyond those trees looms Mt Diablo.

It took some back tracking to where I was the other day, taking Broadway Terrace up, but before the real steep climb to the top of the hills I veered South along the Hills on Duncan Rd towards Montclair. It was much more decent than going straight up. Montclair was a nice little village that is oddly enough still part of Oakland, even though it too feels wildly different from the flats of the rest of the city. It came and it went, I crossed a tunnel underneath the highway, went straight up, turned right down Snake Rd, a fun little twist, then turned left on Shephard Canyon road. Before that turn I went under what looked like the rails to trails, but enjoying that windy descent I neglected to take it, oh well, it looks like I'll stick to roads.

Skyline Blvd looking over the Bay.

Shephard Canyon Rd was a beautiful little road that went through a quaint little village (although not as little as Canyon, CA!), with houses peering down on it from the opposite side of the canyon. I powered up this hill to the same junction I was at the other day taking the much less friendly Broadway Terrace, and instead of taking Pinehurst down the opposite side of the hills I took Skyline back towards the Bay. Skyline hooked up and spun at gentler grades eventually topping out before a wild wild descent down Joaquin Miller Road, where I rocketed down to 45 MPH! I haven't gone that fast since the Catskills in NY, and to be honest, it was terrifying! I improved my technique a little though on this descent, basically flattening my chest on my bars for the descent.

The harrowing descent!

It didn't take long for me to get back into the city, through the colorful Fruitvale neighborhood to the waterfront, where I took the Embarcadero. There I did my part and helped a cyclist who threw his chain in a pretty nice way (it was tangled like I've never seen). It was a quick fix and we parted ways. I finished up with some Blue Bottle, pretty pleased with the short 2 hour 22 mile ride I put in.

Best way to end a ride.

Shoes

Shoes have always been a problem for me, well, a problem and not a problem. I lived with my Classic Vans for the entire cross country trip and can't say enough about how pleased I was with them. Sure, I got some wet feet at times, which meant I would wear my flops for the night and let them dry outside the tent, and being such a dry summer, this was rarely a problem. But after putting in over 5,000 miles on those babies they have no reached retirement, with Mt Diablo as their final ride.

Vans, how ye will be missed, and yes, I bought that color to match my frame, get over it.

Why not clipless? A lot of cycle tourists where clipless and I don't think it makes much sense, because when you're cycle touring you want to spend some time off the bike, so why buy shoes that are designed for only one thing? Versatility is key in ultralight packing. This was why I went with Vans. They are comfortable, have good grip on the platforms (skate shoes became BMX shoes essentially) and are light (again maybe not as light as a Shimano SPD pedal, but who needs it!). A small preference most people don't agree with is having a thin mid sole, which I like so I can feel the pedals, but strong mid sole is usually what cycle shoes have. The only problem now is I'm planning a winter tour and cold wet feet will just not do.

What I'm looking for is a waterproof, lightweight, grippy shoe. I was doing some research on free ride shoes and got interested in the Teva Links, but the reviews said that they weren't exactly waterproof, so that's a no go. Then I got into the Five Tens, but unfortunately their Gore Tex shoes are no longer in production. I did get a chance to sample the Five Ten Spitfire, thanks to my roommate. I must say, if I were going for grip alone, I would stop searching with these shoes. Zipping around the city is a blast as I get more power transfer than my Vans. They are a tad heavier, but with the extra grip it's negligible. They look pretty sleek too, I'm not too sure about that bright green color, but the skate style always looks good. Now if only these were waterproof I'd be ready to roll through the slush.

Five Ten Spitfires, so green.

Feeling a little lost I went down to my local REI and asked around a bit. Their recommendation was the Merrell Moab Waterproof shoe. Not a cheap option (or pretty option either), but it should get me through next summer hopefully (I wanted a good shoe for hike and bike too on the AZT). I bit the bullet and purchased them and took them out for the first time today. Of course there is no rain today, which is the most important reason I got them, but other than that, they fit alright. Their weight was a little more than the Five Tens, but unfortunately had less friction on the pedal, which made for a tad more wear on my legs going up the hill. Part of the problem too was that the larger sole meant I had to go up on my seat, changing my riding geometry; less than ideal. The worst problem about these shoes was trying to get them in the pedal straps. The Vibram soles have grip on the toe for hiking and climbing, which stick to the front of the pedal making it difficult to slide into the strap. This could also have to do with my janky straps right now which are plastic single straps with the All City double straps I didn't want to toss, so I will pick up the Crayton MTB straps tomorrow hopefully. A possibility is to cut those off I suppose, but maybe I'm better off just looking for a better shoe. I may end up with seal skin socks and cycling booties with those Five Tens, but who knows.

Merrell Moab Waterproof.

In action.

When all is said and done I miss my Vans. I was looking at some Vans BMX shoes (including a clipless pair!), but the best they had were water resistant, not water proof. It seems no Mountain Bike shoe is looking to get into the world of waterproof shoes yet (what do Mountain Bikers only ride when the sun is up?), which is a shame, because they would be perfect for the kind of stuff I'm into.

If anyone has any shoe recommendations send them!

Every city has “their ride”; Buffalo, WY had the Big Horns, Jackson has the Teton Pass, and Oakland has Mt. Diablo. These rides are rights of passage for road riders. That being said, since moving here it has been a ride I’ve been looking at and looking at. A ride I have been all too compelled to ride. Having a day off and stressing a little over life I did what any good cyclist does on a day off from work, I rode.

Mt Diablo, from Wikipedia, I failed to take a good full picture of the Mountain.

I opted to ride to Diablo instead of taking BART to Walnut Creek as many riders choose to do, which also meant it was my first time riding East over the Berkeley/Oakland Hills; that was no picnic either. I went up Broadway Terrace towards the Sibley Volcanic Monument, a grueling ride through a ritzy upper class neighborhood (yes, Oakland has money and they hide it in the hills). I worked up in the warm fog that had my pores oozing sweat, doing no good in the humidity. Getting about ¾ up I had to take a breath.

I pulled off and leaned up against a barrier to catch my breath and my bearings, but something wasn’t right. My stomach was not in the best mood and my head hurt a little. The descent would be easy and I’d be home to sit and swill in my thoughts. I’ve been here before. Been here a bunch of times actually, that moment when you first get out and test the waters and realize your body may not be ready for this ride (going up before the warm up doesn’t help). I pointed my tire downhill, got on the bike, held it for a second, then got back off turned the bike around and went back up. Not getting off that easy today.

It wasn’t much longer before I crested and it felt good The descent was a dreamy blur; Redwood, Oaks, and Eucalyptus whizzed by in a beatific haze. Roadies went by going up as I began to go down. My legs were starting to get under me and my body was starting to agree. I dropped down through the strange blip of Canyon, CA, someplace I’d expect to see in Northern California on some back highway. A Post Office with gruff men standing outside smoking cigarettes looking off at the woods, like looking at something I’d never understand. Past the post office was a log cabin school that seemed out of place in this highly urbanized region.

Foggy Descents

Canyon, CA School

Continuing the Western theme, I nabbed some rails to trails. My original plan was supposed to be quite a few of these, but getting a tad turned around meant I was only on the Lafayette Moraga Trail, a typical Rail to Trail, which being Sunday eventually became too trafficked for my speeds and I bailed on it, luckily the Erie Canal Trail in December shouldn't have this problem!

Lafayette Moraga Trail, the rare quiet section on Sunday

From Canyon I dropped further into Moraga. I was now in the sunny valley riding through the streets of commuter towns that also felt worlds apart from the Bay’s waters. It felt like a dry Western, this little town seemed to hang on to some ambitions of those desert towns further East. It’s a hard thing to describe, but if you ever pass through one of these towns, you know what it’s like. Although importing Bay money it was a little more of a built up Western township, with Chipotles and Starbucks, similar to Jackson or what I’d imagine parts of Aspen look like. The population also gave it a less transient feel.

Roads, where we're going we do need roads! Briones-Diablo Trail.

Somehow in Moraga I got turned around. I trusted my GPS with new Open Street Maps, which was a bad idea. It ended up putting me out on the Briones Mt Diablo Trail, which was unpaved. I tested the waters on my 28 mm slicks, but it was daunting and I had to turn back. This was another crossroad; to quit or press on. I was about 30 miles in and still had at least 16 to get to the summit. It wasn’t a bad ride to that point, and the ride back would make for a decent day ride. But no. I came out to beat this thing and I will.


I reapplied the GPS and got back on track and finally found the park (you’d think that a mountain would be easy to find). I crossed into the park and immediately got passed by a roadie, one of the many many many cyclists punishing their legs for the view and the self satisfaction of pulling your body weight up that mountain. Then I too began the climb.

Elevation profile from Mapmyride.com

Up it went, and up was the only direction it went. I was talking with Scott the other day about climbing and how I prefer climbs that don’t let up, well here it was. No drop downs, your breaks are smaller grades, when the road isn’t vamping up around corners. I found my cadence and pressed on. On this side of the valley the sun beat down and I was pouring sweat tasting the salt on my lips, all I could think of was the descent, especially as I watched other cyclists whizz by on the descent, some of them with big fat huge smiles on their face, soon enough I’d get it.


I reached the Junction Ranger station, but I wanted an uninterrupted climb, so on I rode. Pushing and pushing and pushing. I watched as cars spinned around the mountain towards the summit where I’d eventually be riding. I had to reach it. I grinded out the climb and gruelled onward, the gear got heavier and heavier. Standing out of the saddle only brought more dismay, how much longer could I push?

Cars circle their way up the climb.

Not much further apparently, my body began to go again. My chest felt like it was shrinking and couldn’t take the air I was reaching for, this brought my stomach and head into a fray. I couldn’t imagine the summit to be much further up, my odometer read 45 miles, I had calculated it to be at the 47.5 mile that I’d summit. No giving up that close. I drank some water and again for the last time tried the summit.

This was the point that was real tough, knowing I was so close, watching the visitor center grow to human size meant I was nearly there, but my legs still thought it was centuries away. I grunted through the pain, kept my head, turned the corner and finally, after 10 miles of up the visitor center parking lot appeared. It was there. The last section from the lower lot to the visitor center is a super steep one. I cheated and hit my granny gear (which tossed my chain for some reason, and almost threw out my back). But there I was. I had made it. It was a great accomplishment, while at the summit I had seen a handful of other cyclists, but not like that takes away from what I did and that’s what I love most about cycling, it’s never about beating the guy next to you (for the most part), but beating your own times and breaking your own limits, defeating the rides you want to defeat. I had made it.

You can see forever from here.

The views were stunning (apparently from Diablo you can see the most geographical territory than from any other US peak), to the East was the Sierras sitting beyond the valley towns (apparently on a clear day you can see Lassen). Off to the West, where I started were the hills, which literally were hills looking down on them from this height. After a Coke and a Snickers bar I geared up for the long (really actually long) ride down.


The descent was as fun as those big grins had hinted towards. The bends were wide and long and the road was steep, cars veered out of the way as I could take the road much better than they could. It wasn’t like most descents that just seem to happen then be done, going over 3,000 ft down meant I could just coast through and enjoy the swerves and bends and sun on my face. With the wind through my hair after an accomplished climb, it felt great, and with it all my stresses were left there at the summit and I’m still riding that high that comes from an unbelievable ride.

At the end of the day I did probably over 5,000 ft of elevation gain (I skipped going back over the hills and took BART from Walnut Creek, which is further than I thought I was) and 65 miles. It was the first big ride I had done in a while and it felt good that it was a killer climb. Now I just need to get Mt. Tam under my belt.

Summits!

I forgot how hard it is to get a good ride in on days off when there are groceries to be bought, checks to be deposited, and other things to just tidy up the loose ends of life. Luckily on Friday I found some time to get a short ride in with roommate Scott. Our destination was the Albany Bulb, a land fill (meaning a fill on the Bay, not a junkyard!) jutting out of the city of Albany just north of Berkeley on the bay. This little section of fill on the Bay has gained some notoriety for the artwork that sits there, but I’ll get to that later.

First we took off along the semi-hazardous streets of Oakland, Berkeley, and Emeryville, I say semi because drivers in the Bay Area are a lot friendlier than those I faced back in Western NY (and way better than middle of the country RVs). From there we turned down along the Bay Trail pathway, which is a work in progress that will loop the entire 500 miles of the Bay! The ride reminded me a little bit of the Niagara Pathway, highway on your shoulder and a rocky shoreline on your other shoulder, except no large fences that seem to box you in.

The mean streets of Berkeley! 

The Bay Trail along the highway and Bay.

Riding with Scott is always a pleasure, because he jams his pedals. Scott did a tour in Southeast Asia a bunch of years ago, which is actually how we met (he commented on my loaded touring Cross-Check), he’s now a bike commuter and must do sprints all the way to work to keep the legs he’s got, I wouldn't say I truly struggle to keep up, but if I get lackadaisical about my riding I realize he starts pulling away, forcing me to push my legs to catch up. But I got back at him at the Golden Gate Fields where there is a short climb. I nailed down a smooth cadence and blasted up the hill, crested and then descended and we were there, the Albany Bulb.
We rode some off road at the beginning of the Bulb, both rocking our Cross-Checks we barreled over the mud for a little while, but then concrete jutting out of the ground forced us to carry them, I wish I had some fat tires or a real mountain bike to just never get off the bike.

Off roading at the Bulb.

Cyclocross!

With the view of both Oakland and San Francisco skylines on our left we walked around the hill that is the center of the Bulb. Turning a corner this concrete structure sat like a citadel protecting the shantytown on the other side of the hill. Riddled with spray paint by numerous artists, crisscrossing and overlapping as graffiti artists fight for a spot to put their work.

Hard to tell but Oakland skyline to the left, SF to the right.

Scott's new home.

After marveling at this site we walked around some more peering into little encampments that are scattered off the main road in make-shift shelters. It reminded me a little of my night in the Targahee National Forest in Idaho. As you may or may not know, camping in the National Forests is free and legal, and on this reservoir in Idaho, families met to spend a week or two living outdoors in fairly comfortable fashion, with tarps and trailers arranged in ways that looked like they’d live there forever. Dogs and children ran around enjoying the cooler air of the higher elevation before the brutal desert of Southern Idaho. It was a strange experience, part of me wanted to grasp it like some idealistic place to live, in an old school community. The lack of walls creates an open-air community where everyone knows their neighbor. But that’s not what it was. Instead people were more protective because of these lack of walls and seemingly more suspicious. I only spoke to one family, but the man I spoke to seemed stand-offish and uninviting. He staked his claim and didn't want me near. Later his sister offered me dinner, but I was already put off by this fella's attitude (plus it was a meat dish).
The Bulb had this same feeling. This homeless encampment had no idealism (despite the library Scott told me about, but we didn't see). It was a place to live, in fear and rejection from society. There were some people that were looking to work together, but other than that it was not very welcoming.
Then on the other hand, there was the free art gallery essentially nestled at the very end of the Bulb. Here people had arranged gnarled metal and lost driftwood into structures resembling some sort of steampunk robot people that seemed to have personalities all their own, like the Farmer John sculpture that had an almost Mid-Western workhorse attitude to it. Or the lazy traveler couple sitting on the bench.Some roses made from the same gnarled metal stood out of the ground, which gave the metal a feeling of rebirth and growth, even though it’s been discarded and isn't going anywhere soon.

The Lazy Travelers

Roses on  the Bay

That was about all there was to see at the Bulb, so we took off, nabbed some tasty Indian food and some nice looking but over roasted coffee then headed home before 5 PM to give ourselves time to finish off our day off chores. It wasn't a long ride, but I got to do what I love doing on the bike, exploring something new. That’s why I got into cycling, I didn't know Buffalo until I got a bike and just decided I needed to see new things around the city. Maybe that's why cycle-touring is the life for me?

Rails to Trails Conservancy did a piece on the Canal way trail, which I'll be traversing, although in not the same weather as pictured!

"President Thomas Jefferson once said the idea for the Erie Canal was a "little short of madness," yet when it first opened in 1825, the waterway was deemed the "Eighth Wonder of the World." It's no wonder, as constructing a water route spanning the entire state of New York—using nothing but human and animal power—required a staggering feat of engineering. Today, the Erie Canalway Trail, which traces the canal's route for nearly 365 miles from Buffalo to the state capital in Albany, stands to be one of the longest multi-use trails in the nation when it's completed....

Read More"

So here it is: after being off from touring for a little over a month now I am already planning ahead for the next tour. While it seemed crazy to jump back on the bike already, my good friend James, who has now been on tour for over 15 months came to town and convinced me of something I should never forget, do what feels right. And being stagnant here in Oakland feels a little wrong, being on the bike feels right. So I have figured out a way to help finance the next tour and take off for my first winter travels by bicycle!

That being said here is the plan. Having worked in Buffalo for some years I thought it would be nice to come back and work on a show which I have enjoyed working in the past. I got in touch with my old boss and she warmly welcomed me back to join the crew. It’s six straight days of longerish days, meaning it should help finance the entire trip, train ticket included.
After catching up with friends for a few days in Buffalo, I will embark along the Erie Canal trail on December 13th, giving myself an immediate offday in Rochester, then pushing on through to Syracuse for a night, and then Sprakers, hopefully for some Warmshowers accommodation. Then zip by the capital city and cross the Hudson, leaving the Canalway behind, but sticking to Route 5 straight across to the Massachussets border to hopefully nestle into Pittsfield, MA for a night. Then the following day race down to Hartford, CT to see my first host from my x-country tour and spend an extra day with my good friend Nicole. Then the ride home. Instead of ending on a bridge, I’ll end on a ferry. Instead of ending in a town where I hardly know anyone I’ll end in a town where I was born to see my family for the holidays.
The pathways will be mostly gravel and most likely unplowed (this should only be a problem until about after Rochester, where hopefully the snow belt gives way a little to Syracuse, but who knows!). I should make it to Long Island by the 20th, but luckily I’ll have that 5 day buffer for storms, break downs, or meltdowns.
This tour is going to be on my mind every hour of every day until it happens. I’m already excited to get out there and hit the pavement and gravel!