epic commute

Dirty Alpine & Montebello

2010-05-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hello blog. Been ignoring you for awhile. All my rides are now stored on Strava. This rather reduces the need to update here, but I'll try to throw in the interesting rides.

May 6th, AM. Now that Alpine fireroad is dry again it's doable on skinny tires. Combine that with the Montebello fireroad climb to the top of black mountain plus the fast paved descent and you have a fantastic sub-3 hour commute.

http://www.strava.com/rides/98752

Mountain bike commute: Alpine Rd and Montebello+Fremont Older OSPs

2009-11-20T08:28:00.000-08:00

Oct 21st & November 17th & 19th, AM. On the Spot belt-drive 29er SingleSpeed. First two scouting trips were solo, last one with Isaias. The objective is to hit as much interesting dirt as possible while generally heading towards work.

- caltrain to Menlo Park

- dirt trail along Alma

- head to Alpine road, and ride the dirt between Westridge and Arastradero

- takes an hour to get to the point where Alpine turns into fireroad. The rest of the trip to Apple is mostly dirt.

- the initial scouting trip last month was complicated by multiple trees down on Alpine after a big storm. These have all been cleared since:

- highlight of yesterday's trip was being able to clear all Alpine road's washed out bypass for the 1st time:

- the best part of the ride is next with the mostly all downhill dirt through the Montebello Open Space Preserve. Last month Canyon Trail was the only option because White Oak was closed due to wet conditions. It has since reopened so White Oak was taken to the lower portion of Canyon Trail, which eventually dumps out onto Stevens Canyon Rd. Future hilly diversions could include Bella Vista to Old Ranch trail to near the top of black mountain to Indian Creek.

- hike 1 mile through Stevens Creek County Park on Lookout Trail since biking is not allowed (a lot of it is too steep for my singlespeed monster bike anyway). This is the only south-westernly entrance to Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, and might even be the only southern entrance unless there's some way off Mt Eden.

- ride through Fremont Older along Vista Loop, Fern, Hayfield, and Regnart trails. Still have more to explore there:

Map from Nov 19th (see also 17th and Oct 21st):

ss 29er up alpine to white oak to canyon with isaias then Fremont older exploring (Mountain Biking) | Los Altos Hills, CA 94022, USA

Dirtmoon Pacific Ocean Way

2009-11-11T20:39:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, November 11th. This route roughly parallels the Half Moon Bay way road “commute”, but on as much dirt as possible and avoids riding along Hwy 1. Christon was the only one brave enough to join me.

Segments:

• Climb up to Sweeney Ridge. View of the bay from the Portola Expedition monument on the top:

• Descend Baquiano trail to Fassler Ave, and then a dirt bit by the water tower. The Baquiano trail switchback is well packed and much nicer than the alternate fireroad that goes straight down.

• Pedro Mountain Road (“Planet of the Apes”). Amazingly no fog today.

• Cut through eastern Montara on a road wiggle with small dirt cut-through to Sunshine Valley Rd.

• Hop across Hwy 1 on Cypress Ave and ride through the portion closed off to autos to a road along the ocean that is falling apart as if they paved the dunes.

• Continue on some scenic oceanside dirt by turning towards the ocean whenever the trail forks, all the way past the airport.

• Mix of paved and dirt horse trails through Half Moon Bay along the ocean.

• Nature break and refill water bottles at the restrooms along the ocean. Then left turn on Kelly Ave to cross Hwy 1 at a stop light. (It's possible to continue on the ocean trail to Poplar St, but it has no light crossing and there tends to be a lot of traffic.)

• Main St to Higgins Purisima Rd which goes from flat artichoke fields to steeply climbing 600 feet and then throws that gain away by descending into Purisima Creek Open Space.

• Purisima Creek Trail. Sure, it's beautiful at first as it gently rises amongst the giant redwoods. Then it kicks you with 1,100 feet of climbing over 2 miles. This climb is exceptionally hard, especially with the high race gearing of my cross bike, but not as bad as when I rode it last in hot dusty July afternoon heat. The slightly damp fireroad gave better traction.

• Kings Mountain descent to water bottle refill on Tripp Rd (only carried 1).

• After all of that we wanted to get to work as fast as possible and with as little elevation gain as manageable. Being on cross bikes however, it was hard to resist horse trails along the sides of the road, a quick jaunt in Arastradero Regional Preserve, a nice little fireroad that connects Purissima Rd (that dreaded name again, and Los Altos Hills spells it with 2 s's cause they're fancy) with Okeefe Ln.

Google Map plan: red line and then light blue line.

Recorded map (click link below for details and more pics):

dirtmoon ocean way with xton (Mountain Biking) | San Carlos, CA 94070, USA

Kings to OLH, then windy hill dirt & montebello

2009-11-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

Tuesday November 10th. Express train to Redwood City with Mark. Climbed Jefferson to Cañada and then climbed Kings Mountain via Huddart Park cut-through. Took two wrong turns in Huddart's many parking lots this time -- one of these tries I'll get it right.

Mark bailed at Old La Honda, which turned out to be a bad choice due to repaving in the middle. I continued along Skyline and rode parts of Windy hill for the 1st time. It'd be nice if there was more dirt parallel to Skyline. If I had more time, Crazy Pete's or Cloud's Rest Trail to Alpine fireroad may have been nice (haven't tried either of those yet so don't know how friendly they are to road bikes). Instead rode the usual Page Mill to Montebello fireroad and fast paved descent to 'tino.

No shortage of vistas:

kings to OLH with mark, then windy hill dirt & montebello (Road Biking) | CA, USA

Caltrain failway home with Isaias

2009-11-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

Friday November 6th, PM. Double caltrain fatalities froze all trains on the tracks. So after finishing the partycar snacks and randomly meeting a fellow employee only known virtually before, Isaias and I took the parallel caltrain route north. Lots of trains passed by southbound, but only one north. Weather was warm and road dry after earlier light rain.

“No refunds or replacements.”

The only change I'd make to the route would be to avoid going through busy downtown San Mateo and dark California Ave. Alt route from Hayward Park: Claremont, 5th, Delaware, Burlingame Ave, Carolan Ave, Rollins.

Partial map from Mtn View until my phone had enough recording:

caltrain fail home with Isaias (Road Biking) | USA

Middle East Way - West Oakland & Coyote Hills

2009-11-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday November 5th. Route exploration with Brett to connect the West Oakland bart stop with the usual dirt bayway from San Leandro. Rather than ride the levy by the 84, we gave Coyote Hills a try. Both are beautiful approaches.

Brett has an extensive writeup here with video.

7th street sunrise:

San Leandro dirt:

Coyote Hills:

Map (click link below for details and more pics):

middle east way exploration from Oakland with Brett (Road Biking) | CA, USA

Mount San Bruno Bayway with sf2g

2009-11-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

Wednesday November 4th, solo up and down San Bruno mountain, then joined a large sf2g crew for the bayway past Google and south to 'tino.

Guadalupe Canyon Pkwy approaching Radio Rd; mystery rider in front:

Essentials:

“You Slay ‘Em, We Filet Em”:

Map (click link below for details and more pics):

mount san bruno bayway with sf2g (Road Biking) | San Carlos, CA 94070, USA

Riding to Races

2009-10-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

Nothing sucks the fun out of a bike race like driving there in a cage.

Saturday October 3rd. LKHC #1 Montebello. Rode from San Bruno bart with Ben to Los Altos to meet Bev and have a delicious raspberry brioche donut. Then with the paved climb under the belt continued on the fireroad up and over to Page Mill. Returned to Los Altos and then off to the Cal Ave caltrain stop to ride a completely packed train home.

from Luke Burton's photoset:

Montebello fireroad:

Next time caltrain should be avoided during lovefest, but we did get free cheese:

LKHC #1 Montebello, ridden from San Bruno with Ben (Road Biking) | Redwood City, CA 94061, USA

Sunday October 4th. Pilarcitos Bay Area Super Prestige @McLaren Park. Survived the race with only one spectacular wipeout in soft mud.

ride to pilarcitos #1 Mclaren from San Bruno (Road Biking) | South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA

Saturday October 10th. LKHC #2 Old La Honda. Large mouse showing for this one with Daniela, Ben, Nicholas, Becker (who rode all the way from sf), Liam, and a prospective mouse out for the challenge. Sustenance was had at Rolling Pin Donuts in San Bruno before taking the same flat route to Cañada as last week. OLH came and went. I felt strong this week. Results.

The real fun was afterwards as we continued on Skyline to descend the nicely repaved Tunitas Creek. After fish tacos were devoured in Half Moon bay we tackled old Pedro Mountain Road. Ben giggled like a schoolgirl the entire time over being able to clear it all on his fixie. It has a perfect even grade up and down that's not too steep, and just technical enough in the singletrack sections to be fun on skinny tires.

Note that the OLH climb was not recorded and part of the Tunitas descent is missing, plus some stats on there aren't very accurate like max speed when the gps signal wandered a bit. I couldn't stop riding and continued all the way to sf, rode some dirt in gg park, and took the caltrain home. Many more pics are at the trailguru link below.

LKHC #2 OLH with mice from San Bruno, down tunitas, with Pedro mountain road (Road Biking) | Hillsborough, CA 94010, USA

Mori Ridge trail to Sweeney Ridge

2009-09-30T23:11:00.000-07:00

Wednesday September 30th, PM. Time is running out for post-work daylight exploring this year. Took a little detour from Daly City to Pacifica, climbing back up the Mori Ridge fireroad to Sweeney Ridge while avoiding Highway 1. Used the beater road bike and its triple wasn't enough to prevent the need to walk a few steep sections. Road bikes are fine for most the trip, but I wouldn't wear SPD-SLs.

History lesson: Sweeney Ridge is the spot where the Portolá Expedition discovered the San Francisco Bay. There's even a monument up there south of the abandoned Nike missile site SF-59L.

Most of the way up, past the last steep bit:

View of sf & San Bruno Mountain from Sweeney Ridge:

Hungry white bunny at the Sneath Ln gate:

Click on the map link below for more pictures & stats. Other dirt bits: fireroad off Carter Dr along Skyline, trail connecting Lundy Way with the Orchid Gardens to avoid Hwy 1, and a short bit of dirt connecting Skyline with Crestmoor Dr.

colma to callan, sharp park, Mori Ridge trail, sneath, crystal springs (Road Biking)

San Bruno's pockets of dirt

2009-08-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

Tuesday August 25th, PM. This commute 1-upped Cross loops by Crestmoor by adding 3 sections of dirt (done on the road bike of course):

- trail between Skyline and Carter Dr starting just south of King Dr to Westborough Blvd

- fireroad between Skyline and Fleetwood Dr from College Dr almost all the way to Sneath

- old Helen Dr fireroad through Junipero Serra County Park. Too bad bikes aren't allowed on any of the other dirt in this far-underutilized park -- it's rare to see someone there on weekdays.

Now the only way to 1-up this ride further would be to descend Sharp Park Rd to Pacifica, do some loops at the recently-improved Mori Point, and then climb the Mori Ridge trailhead at Shelldance Orchid gardens to Sweeney Ridge and descend the Sneath Lane trail.

Aug 25 pm colma to san bruno's dirty hills (Road Biking) | South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA

Friday Night Track Racing

2009-08-14T23:35:00.000-07:00

Friday August 14th, PM. Took a super low-traffic route to Hellyer Park Velodrome to watch the track races. Cut through two parks to get to the bike/ped trail along Lawrence, which happily includes some dirt for a tiny semblance of epic. Then the ped bridge connecting Bucknall Rd and Rincon Ave. Ends with a nice creekside trail from Tully Rd to the track. I suppose that Homestead to San Thomas Expy to Hamilton would be shorter and much faster, but with a lot more speedy traffic. Meh it's friday.

aug 14 - apple to hellyer (Road Biking) | San Jose, CA, USA

Cyclocross loops by Crestmoor Elementary

2009-08-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday, August 13th PM. Took the high road from Colma and looped 5 times on the dirt by Crestmoor Elementary. Not sure who owns that dirt, and there's no fenced attempt to keep people out of it. The loop is rather hilly and requires hiking at the bottom over a stream to complete. Some parts could using pruning to curb the invasive blackberry, and check out the large invasion of fennel in the picture below:

aug 13 on - colma bunch if cyclocross loops at crestmoor (Road Biking) | South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA

Mouse ride on dirt to cut to Page Mill, then solo on Montebello to work

2009-08-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

August 2nd, AM: mouse cross ride on dirt through the trails along Cañada, Manzanita, Portola, and Arastradero to Paseo del Roble Dr and Page Mill. Regroup and then solo on Montebello and Coyote Ridge Trail off to work. All on the road bike.

Coyote Ridge Trail was steeper and hotter in the exposed sun than I was expecting, but it was all clearable on the road bike. These pictures are from the nice segment after the climb from the reservoir.

mouse ride up page mill, then dirt to work (Road Biking) | Redwood City, CA 94061, USA

After a quick spell at work, rode to Timpani Crit and then to Lawrence Caltrain stop via dirt that is not recommended (I had hoped it would go under 101).

apple to timpani crit and Lawrence caltrain (Road Biking)

Jefferson to Alpine to Canyon Trail to Stevens

2009-08-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

July 24th solo on the road bike, and August 4th on the cyclocross bike with @eaceaser. On the cross bike, multiple trails along Cañada, Manzanita, and Portola Roads were hit. It was Ed's first real experience on dirt, and he endo'ed in glorious style on Canyon Trail's descent.

alpine and canyon trail (Mountain Biking) | Los Altos, CA 94022, USA

Ed on Manzanita Way:

Canyon Trail descent:

AM cross with ed from redwood city to Alpine and canyon trail (Mountain Biking) | Los Altos, CA 94022, USA

"Planet of the apes" scouting

2009-07-18T17:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday July 18th. Not technically a commute, but this ride passes as scouting for a future epic commute. Rode from home south to the Chris Hipp memorial ride at 92&Cañada, and then rolled back north with the group. On Sawyer Camp trail my road bike's rear derailleur cable snapped so I single-speeded it home. Quickly swapped over to the cross bike and hoped to catch up to the group by "cutting through" Sweeney Ridge. I never saw them again, and mountain bikers on Pedro Mountain Rd told me I was about 20 mins back from the "large group of road bikers". After passing tons of stuck traffic on Hwy 1, climbed Higgins Purisima Rd into the park, taking the Purisima Creek trail all the way to Skyline. Had a nice lunch at the Woodside cafe, then rode the dirt trail along Cañada for the portion where there aren't any "no bikes" signs, before heading back to the road where eventually Timmay, Julie, and Paule came up from behind cutting through the headwind at the end of their roadie ride. Great day.

Terrain verdict:

- Baquiano trail has a very steep descent close to Fassler Ave. I'm not sure that road tires will be able to get enough traction to slow down. I wonder if descending Mori Ridge trail from Sweeney Ridge is better. Even if it is, crossing Hwy 1 at the Shelldance Orchid gardens could be annoying, making Sharp Park the best bet.

- San Pedro Mountain road, a shell of its former glory, is ridable on road wheels. Sure there's potholes, some singletrack, and dirt, but nothing too terrible and the grade of the climb and descent isn't that bad.

- Purisima Creek Trail was a hot, tough climb at a steady grade. Doable on a road bike with low gearing and a strong will.

iPhone's battery cut out near the end. Finished the ride by taking Skyline to Larkspur's descent to right on Helen, cutting through Junipero Serra park on the fireroad, and descending Crystal Springs on home.

Pedro Mountain Road:

chris hipp ride (Road Biking) | Half Moon Bay, CA 94019, USA

West Skyline to 2-park cut-through

2009-07-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Thursday July 16th, AM. Hooked onto Skyline via Burlingame Hills and then cut through two parks: Palo Alto Foothills (requires some hiking to enter) and Rancho San Antonio. Rode excellent singletrack from Central Dr off Page Mill to Moody. Only 2 stop lights from the start all the way until Homestead: crossing El Camino and at the 92. The extra hills and dirt only add about 20 minutes to the default Sand Hill/Foothill out of Portola.

Panda on Cañada:

Boronda Lake in PA Foothills park:

Singletrack (Artemas Ginzton Pathway):

2-park cut-through (Road Biking) | Atherton, CA 94027, USA

East Skyline

2009-07-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 15th, AM. 1st East Bay commute. Took the 5:37 AM Bart from San Bruno to Ashby to begin the ride. Fellow intrepid travelers:

Entire sf2g crew Scott, Mark, Trinh, Faye, and John on Tunnel Rd:

Pinehurst Rd & Redwood Rd regroup:

View from top of the Palomares Rd climb:

Found some dirt along the trail that follows the creek out of Niles Canyon:

To the Dumbarton:

Great ride this morning on mostly car-free east bay roads. The medium pace and breaks were nice for a change, even though I did get to work a bit later than expected. Many more photos & stats (some of which, like the max speed of 60.07 mph are just a wee off...) on the trailguru link. Drained the iPhone's battery so the map cuts off early – continued on to Apple via Stevens Canyon Trail like yesterday.

east skyline sf2g (Road Biking) | Hayward, CA 94545, USA

Bayway dirt exploration

2009-07-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

Tuesday July 14th, AM. Tried new dirt for the first time right between Whipple and the "bridge to nowhere". Then right before the bike path along the 84, a large piece of metal ripped the rear tire's sidewall. 1st epic commute flat! Sidewall punctures are the only weakness of the Conti Gatorskin + Mr. Tuffy's setup. Last time I hit a piece of metal it didn't get past Mr. Tuffy's and just pinged the frame on each revolution. Managed to get the tire to hold a new tube at a low pressure. Had been making great time until then, so after the setback took some leisure time to explore dirt by the dumbarton: rode underneath the bridge and tried all the dirt possible. Various cranes hauling dirt stopped my progress a few times (some kind of wetlands restoration project). Grabbed a new gatorskin at Chain Reaction Cycles in Los Altos.

July 14 2009 (Road Biking) | Atherton, CA 94027, USA

Burlingame hills ala trailguru

2009-07-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

Monday July 13th, AM. Same extra-hilly route through Burlingame as recorded last week. The luck with the lights on Foothill was better today so I didn't detour as much on the parallel route. That plus fresh legs and little wind made the trip 5 mins faster than last week. Trailguru did a great high resolution job recording without using much of the iPhone battery, and the detailed stats like elevation profile on the link below are also nice.

33.34 miles, 1:54

Burlingame hills to apple (Road Biking) | Atherton, CA 94027, USA

Fixie route to Cañada

2009-07-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

Friday July 10th, AM. San Mateo's Crystal Springs Rd is the least hilly way from the northern part of the bay to hook onto Cañada Rd. There's still an inevitable incline, but nothing knee-blowing. (San Bruno Ave to the San Andreas trail would be the second best option I think.) Capped the morning with two bike/ped bridges over 280: the one along 92 pictured here and the one by the 85 connecting Mary Ave.

35.6 miles, 1:51

Burlingame hills redux

2009-07-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

Thursday July 9th, AM. Same route as yesterday's Burlingame hills, with a little detour to add in a couple hundred more feet of climbing by descending Hillsborough's Pullman/Pinehill/Sandra to climb Robinwood/Denise. Added a mere 5 mins to the commute. This is becoming more like an Egan Ride.

32 miles (from Millbrae/Burlingame border), 1:59

San Bruno mountain home

2009-07-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 8th, PM. Avoided tonight's caltrain trouble with a lift to Colma. Hadn't planned on riding much in my street clothes after this morning's hilly commute, but the weather was too nice to head straight home. iPhone (old) pics:

14 miles, 0:50

Burlingame hills

2009-07-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 8th, AM. Rode one of the hilliest ways possible through Burlingame:

Hillside, Summit, Bella Vista, Macadamia, Skyfarm, Darrell. Barely any auto traffic at 8:30 am! Continued the hill tour with Polhemus, Hallmark, Crestview. Saw deer on Crystal Springs Cross Country Course and later along Junipero Serra (time to cull the herd?).

Next time a little hilly detour in the "perfumed city" is in order:

Chateau descent, Ralston, Pinehill, San Raymundo/Sandra, Robinwood, Denise. Or Pullman directly to Pinehill if there's as much traffic as seen on Chateau's street view.

31.2 miles (from Millbrae/Burlingame border), 1:54

Standard Fare

2009-07-01T20:57:00.000-07:00

Wednesday July 1st, AM. No time to mess around today. 2-hill route out of San Bruno, Skyline, Cañada (+ select dirt portions paralleling the road), Manzanita, Sand Hill, Foothill (+ usual parallel detours based on light luck), and Homestead. Didn't come across any Woodside/Portola police combating the scourge of cyclists on the land — a good thing as I might have been cited for excessive bean exhaust.

34.7 miles, 1:53

sf2g part-bayway then Ringwood

2009-06-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

Monday June 29th, AM. Riders: Googlers Ben and Dave. An sf2g NRLB ride, so we kept the pace light and the tour scenic, hitting up the Broadway bridge over 101, the path along Sanchez Creek Lagoon, and the feral cat highway under the 92. Discovered a dirt trail from Whipple to near the bridge to nowhere that I'll have to try out another day. We hit the path along the 84 at 8:40 and parted ways so I could solo the remaining hour to Apple in time for a most delicious pancake. Detouring on Ravenswood of course (vs the more direct Willow bridge) to hit up the dirt trail along Alma to El Palo Alto.

37 miles, 2:20

sf2g Solstice Ride

2009-06-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday June 25th, PM. Riders: Christon, Brian, & Eric. Organized via sf2g, which meant that xton and I rode to the G beforehand on a route decided by the luck of the lights. Since the solstice came on Sunday, one weekday had to be picked for a ride home, and we lucked out with perfect weather. I brought the fixie as punishment for not riding all the way to sf.

Cameraphone speed warping effect on Cañada Rd:

San Andreas dam, which for once wasn't foggy, cold and (super) windy:

42 miles home. Map cut short after taking above picture (FirePin crashed):

San Bruno to Daly City

2009-06-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Thursday June 25th, AM. Not epic, but a first for me riding the newly completed Centennial Way/Linear Park path from San Bruno's bart to South San Francisco's bart. It has 3 at-grade road crossings which is ok, as only Chestnut Ave has a large amount of traffic. Mountain View's Stevens Creek trail by comparison, is a much longer path completely separated from street crossings. Gotta grow from somewhere.

I then cut over to the bike lane on Junipero Serra Blvd to head to Seton Medical center and later to Colma. Xray'ed the clavicle and as expected, I still have clearance to ride for a few more months!

Caltrain track route home

2009-06-24T23:22:00.000-07:00

Wednesday June 24th, PM. Despite advance warning of massive hour+ southbound caltrain delays this evening, I gambled on northbound train 193. Gave up waiting after 23 minutes of it nowhere in sight and no status update anywhere. When I passed California Ave though, only one passenger was waiting so the train must have gone by. The next hourly train was right on time as I passed it at Hillsdale. Perfect evening weather for a ride since I had my insanely bright lights, but I should have stopped to put on the cycling shorts I was carrying (bag was full with a week's worth of dirty clothes + MB Air).

29 flat miles, 1:45.

The map shows how I briefly got lost finding:

- bike/ped bridge in mtn view connecting Wilkie Way and Miller Ave

- Loyola Ave turn off El Camino in Atherton. Jumped too early. Loyola Ave leads to multiple low-traffic, unofficial bike boulevards to downtown Redwood City.

Epic points awarded for:

- dirt path along Alma from El Palo Alto to Ravenswood. So much fun with bright lights.

- not taking the train at Hillsdale

Sunnyvale station says "is delayed 1' 6 minutes", where 1 foot == 1 hour.

Highway 1 to Tunitas Creek

2009-06-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 23rd, AM. Riders: Christon, Lina, & Nils. Organized via sf2g.

Pacifica at 7:30:

4 of us climbing away from Pacifica:

And then Niles went off solo tucked into his TT bars as we 3 maintained "Christon endurance pace", ie, Christon's heartrate must stay between 140-155, even when drafting off you:

On the Tunitas climb I pulled away and saw Niles for the first time in 20 miles. Passed him on the steep portion, which gave him enough motivation to pass me in full TT mode on the long shallow bit at the end. Wanting to get to work before 11, but needing just one more hill, we ended up continuing on together where I had my revenge up Cervantes:

60 miles, 3:40 (not including the 15 mins waiting at Sharp Park).

Notables:

- took a nice path from Sneath through Skyline College spied in satellite view. This path, which juts off Moreland Dr, looks like the original Moreland Dr (possibly from before the county jail) which has been left to crumble.

- the 3rd Verde Rd sign is the magic one that leads to Lobitos Creek Cut-Off -- a faster way to get to the Tunitas climb. We failed to recognize it and took Tunitas all the way, passing the new bike hut (which had an Open sign!).

- iPhone's battery ran out near the end from overuse. Poor thing.

Monday morning

2009-06-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

Monday June 22nd, AM. Bit of a late start this morning, so did a mostly direct route in with some exploration after Portola.

Explored:

- dirt trails south of Arastradero between Alpine & Page Mill. Passing by Arastradero Creek was nice, but probably not as fast as taking left at a fork beforehand. Still much to explore there. Looks like it's even possible to pop out on Page Mill via a trail to Paseo del Roble.

- Quinnhill Rd in Los Altos to connect Summerhill Rd with Border/Foothill. I had meant to try Valley View Dr, but this one worked out just as well. The actual Border Rd to Foothill connection is a fun short dirt bit.

- Short dirt horse trail connecting Manzanita Way with Sand Hill south. Too short and sandy to be worth ever bothering with again.

Standard variations:

- Manzanita instead of Mountain Home for zero traffic

- Westridge/Cervantes/Peak/Golden Oak for a steep hilly cut-through from Portola Rd to Arastradero Rd

- Frontero/Granger/Deodara as a shady parallel alternate to Foothill

- Arastradero to Purissima to dirt trail along 280 to Okeefe Ln

- Millbrae's Spur Trail Park to Murchison/Hunt to get to Skyline

37 miles, 2:20

Alameda de Las Pulgas

2009-06-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

Thursday June 18th, AM. With this morning's caltrain turmoil in the east-Sunnyvale ghetto*, a semi-epic** commute was the only way to make a morning meeting. Alameda de Las Pulgas has the shortest mileage to work plus many bike lanes, with the tradeoff of more lights and traffic, especially in school season. It had been awhile since I rode this last and it was nice to see two spots with new bike lanes due to removing a car lane. One in particular, by Carlmont High School, prompted more than 100 angry letters from motorists, one with veiled threats, to Belmont officials. Now that school is out, Belmont has a bit of leeway time while it reconsiders free-ranging their high school students with non-parental forms of transit.

* a bay area ghetto is defined as any parcel of land between the bay and any at-grade caltrain intersection. The high speed rail aims to remedy this with full grade separation.

** semi-epic because there was only one significant hill, and no dirt was involved

32 miles, 1:50 during rush hour.

Alpine fireroad with Ed

2009-06-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

Wednesday June 17th, AM. After advertising the ride to the sf2g list, the only taker was regular fellow-epic-commuter Ceaser. Alpine may have claimed his rear brake pads and knee skin on the way up, but it could not claim his ascension! Trail conditions are perfect for road bikes: completely dry except for one small portion with a little stream in the middle.

After Alpine, Ed had to descend Page Mill to go to something called "work", so I soloed it on Montebello.

Learned that the best way to avoid being eaten by a mountain lion is to offer it a small child (red circle my emphasis):

Spied this plucky fellow wandering Montebello road at (aptly named) Peacock Ct:

41 miles, 3.2 mellow hours.

Large pin gap on Alpine Rd is due to assisted GPS failing to find cell towers.

fixie day

2009-06-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 16th, AM. Bay way with Isaias and Murph to the Stevens Creek Trail. Explored a new route through Foster City but neglected to record it. Murph with the writeup: sub20olh blog.

(photo via murph)

PM. Coach to Colma & rode to the inner sunset for treats at Arizmendi (bike riders get a discount) and mouse meeting. I'd never ridden on any of these roads before, and based the route on the San Francisco Bike Map. 8 miles, 36 mins.

Missed the train, so rode home before the next one. 11.5 miles, 39 mins.

Bay trail to Ringwood on in

2009-06-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

Flat, lots of bike paths, 38 miles, little over 2 hours.

WWDC

2009-06-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Easy 14 miles to Moscone. 53 mins on the fixie. Heavy single-occupancy rush hour traffic in SSF balanced by light, reverse-commute traffic on 3rd.

maps

2009-06-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

No epic commute today. Here's links to a few google maps I've wasted way too much time making over the past year:

SF to Apple via Skyline/Cañada - with lots of variations south of Portola. Avoids the foggy Hwy 1 onramps.

Burlingame to Apple - complex map with all nearby bike stores marked. 4 parallel routes south and a nice low traffic way from Mtn View.

San Bruno to Burlingame - low traffic (avoids El Camino unlike the official bike route) and lists multiple hilly ways to get to & stay on Skyline.

San Bruno to SF - a work in progress that lists a few popular ways

home via rancho and foothills parks

2009-06-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 9th, PM. Commute home by cutting through the hills of Rancho San Antonio and Palo Alto Foothills parks. Most excellent singletrack from Moody Rd to Page Mill. First time taking this route north, so a fair bit of time was wasted getting lost a few times in Los Altos hills. Tons of bikers were still out on Cañada by the time I rolled through. Then it lightly rained from the 92 through Sawyer Camp Trail. 40 miles, 2:40, one barbed wire fence and short hike through the woods.

Delicious off-limits venison:

Jefferson to Kings to Skyline to Montebello

2009-06-09T23:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 9th, AM. Rode with Isaias, Ed, Tim, and Mark this morning. Somewhere around 40 miles with a bunch of climbing starting from Redwood city caltrain. Assisted gps failed big time so there are some large gaps in the map (gotta get a real gps). Climbed Kings in 25 mins from the righthand bend after Greer according to the phone. Screaming fast descent to the 84 trading pulls with Isaias. Fluffy bunny rabbits on Montebello.

Alpine to Montebello

2009-06-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

Thursday June 4th, AM. Lots of off-road, car-free riding on this route. Steed was the '06 Litespeed Firenze road bike with standard compact gear set and 23c gatorskins on the original FSA wheels. Route:

- 2-hill steep climb through San Bruno to Skyline

- Sawyer Camp trail to San Mateo's Crystal Springs Rd

- Cañada, Manzanita, Portola Rd, Willowbrook Dr

- Alpine Rd all the way to Page Mill. Last 1/2 is a fireroad climb. Able to ride all but a few steep meters on the road bike

- Page Mill east to Montebello Rd (unmarked gate)

- Montebello Rd has a little paved climb, and then a scenic dirt climb and ride to the paved portion of the road which descends into 'tino.

46 miles, less than 3 hours, at work in time to shower and have a pancake before the cafe closed:

Apple to Mtn View Caltrain #383, home in 1 hour, avoiding El Camino

2009-06-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Wednesday June 3rd, PM. Not epic, but fast and 50% biking.

Wednesday morning: 34.7 miles, 1:55

2009-06-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

Wednesday June 3rd, AM. Direct fast route.

Tuesday evening via Montebello fireroad & Skyline: 46 miles, 3:20

2009-06-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 2nd, PM. Scouted out the way north on the Montebello fireroad to Page Mill. This is the unmarked entrance on Page Mill at one of the bends:

Clocked 35 mins up the paved portion of Montebello, 5 mins slower than my 2008 LKHC time. The slog home on Skyline was difficult due to all the extra climbing and headwind on top of that.

Tuesday morning: 34.3 miles, 1:53

2009-06-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 2nd, AM. Direct fast route.