Sunday, May 10, 2020 I rode Skyline to Sibley, clockwise around Round Top, down to Orinda, nice road ride on Lost Valley to Valley View to Moraga Way.
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| I ended up eating the roasted root vegetables, four gu's, and I wish I'd refilled those three bottles. They had Nuun in them. Not a lot of water options on this ride. |
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| Fernandez ranch is roughly center-left. |
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| Mt. Diablo framed by Oak trees, on the ranch road descent to Orinda |
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| Descending ranch road to Orinda. What you can't see; it's steep. |
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| At the bottom of the ranch road, in Orinda |
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| A little bit of pre-suburban architecture on Lost Valley Drive, in Orinda. I'd never been on this road, it's really nice to ride, saw lots of walkers. |
I will do that again. Does require good brakes and tires, and climbing it would hurt. I will add in a left onto Wilder next time. Road burn to Miner, up Miner, up Lombardy Lane - man, these people are in economic denial, truly the land of I win, you lose - up Sundown Terrace, down Happy Valley (I love that road) to Bear Creek Road. Right onto the last Bear. SO MANY CARS. The entrance to Briones was packed with cars for 1/4 mile on both sides, people milling around their cars. New (to me) city limits sign for Briones on the final summit.
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| HISTORICAL SITE - Ranchos Acalanes, El Sobrante and Boca de la Cañada del Pinole intersected right near this spot, on Lombardy Lane / Dalewood Drive |
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| 40 caliber shell casings on the top of the northernmost bear / hill, Bear Creek Road |
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| Welcome to BRIONES, CA |
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| It's Adequate |
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| FEEDER TRAIL NUMBER ONE |
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| Roasted root vegetables; beets, sweet potato, parsnips, red onion, walnuts, olive oil, salt, pepper, at 425º for 30 minutes, add rosemary with 10 minutes to go. So good. |
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| pause on the bridge, before the horrors of EBMUD BART trail open to bikes, AKA dirt clod chunder hell |
At BART trailhead, an obscene choice between a barely walkable stretch of earth ripped into black adobe clods by agricultural attachment (the bike legal Bay Area Ridge Trail) and a singletrack marked both BART, and no bikes. I wanted to share this ride, and also not get yelled at by hikers, so walked, stumbled, pushed through the clods to the farm roads that are the bike-legal BART. It was peaceful, slightly boring riding to the final climb to Fernandez, which I hadn't done last time. (The first, and last time I rode this section of the "BART" I started at Kennedy Grove and did the obscene roller coaster route clockwise to Bear Creek Road.) This climb is shaded, follows a creek and except for the very end, isn't that steep. Very nice, for a ranch road!
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| Aforementioned dirt clod chunder hell |
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| Oh and straight up, on a side hill. This is what EBMUD, EBRPD thinks bikes should be on. This is what they opened to us, so that we could ride the "Bay Area Ridge Trail." It's hardly walkable. Meanwhile, 90º to my right is a version of the Bay Area Ridge Trail that is singletrack, and closed to bikes. Grr. |
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| The bike-legal BART is briefly singletrack, before... |
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| Becoming a scraped, adobe road. This part is fine on a gravel bike, and the scenery is nice. It's a bit boring out here, but if you want to get away from people, this is a good place to do it. |
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| More Bay Area Ridge Road views; Fernandez Ranch is around the bend of those hills, uphill, to the right. |
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| Hi, Tom. |
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| This climb was really nice; shaded, gently climbing uphill along a creek until a steeper pitch near the top brings you to Fernandez Ranch. If I were to do this again, I'd enter/exit where the southern extent of this road meets Alhambra Valley Road, not the way I did enter/exit. |
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| At the Fernandez Ranch gate |
Arrived at Fernandez Ranch. Immediately I see a beautiful little singletrack, Woodrat, to my right and a steep, cow-hoof-pocked fire road to my left, with a warning sign - STEEP ROUGH TRAIL - NO BIKES. Whatever, onto the singletrack I go!
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| The far sign reads STEEP RANCH TRAIL - NO BIKES. Whatever. That's Windmill Road, and I'm sure it's as rideable as the rest of the STEEP RANCH FIRE ROADS EVERYWHERE IN THE EAST BAY. I rode Woodrat singletrack, to the right, and it was very nice. |
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| The faint trail you see traversing from bottom left to top right is the singletrack version of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, on which bikes are not allowed. |
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| Windmill & Woodrat |
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| Beginning of Woodrat trail |
Woodrat was delightful. Sublime. Flowy singletrack with little bridges over the creek beds. That could be said to be the theme for Fernandez Ranch; flowy singletrack with little bridges. Delightful. Right onto Whipsnake, which is just beautiful. This is really the dream; convert old ranch land into usable trails for the community, while preserving the natural state. How hard is this? It took a private trust (
John Muir Land Trust) and a bicycle trails coalition (
BTCEB) to make it happen.
EBRPD can't do it. Beautiful views on Whipsnake.
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| Woodrat |
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| Woodrat, so nice, leafy and flowy! |
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| I believe this was on Whipsnake, a trail that branches from Woodrat. Beautiful. |
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| Woodrat, with a glimpse of distance hills, in a beautiful little grove |
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| There were cows resting under this oak. It was a serene moment to ride under it, through them, on the trail snaking uphill and to the left in this photo. |
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| A distant hiker and dog on Whipsnake. This sums up the kind of human interactions I had, out here, on a Sunday. There is a parking lot effect; more people as you get closer to the northern parking lot entrance. |
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| Zoom in to see parked trains. Or just enjoy the view. That's Highway 4 in the distance. |
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| Double-stacked trains, an electrical sub-station and Hwy 4, from Whipsnake trail |
Finishing onto Black Phoebe trail, I'd seen maybe 10 people, most near the northern trailhead. (Parking lot effect) I wound along past a sheltered picnic site with a little pergola and its own singletrack, up Windmill road (just an old ranch road, avoided including it in my ride, I rode enough ranch roads) to a right on Woodland trail.
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| Intersection of Whipsnake and Black Phoebe. Am I in a blues song? |
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| Black Phoebe trail |
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| The Windmill, of Windmill Road. I shot this from Woodand trail. Windmill Road traverses from left to right, in this photo. |
It was immediately noticeable that Woodland has more hoof prints, less traffic, and while the same geology - grey adobe grassland - is much rougher than its neighbor trails to the east. I got to a gate, where the trail looked to disappear in the grass and thought, "Is this worth it?" I still had a lot of riding to do before I got home, and it was already getting close to end of day, about 5PM. I went through the gate, and I'm glad I did! It transitioned to smooth, woodland (hey!) singletrack, with little bridges. Every switchback was rideable, and thoughtfully designed, and all the grades made for very nice riding.
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| Woodland trail starts out somewhat less inviting, but once you cross a gate and get into the trees, into 'woodland,' it's really lovely. |
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| Sublime Woodland trail |
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| Woodland trail, notice the almost-white adobe trail |
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| I'm a sucker for Oak trees in late-day sunlight |
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| Woodland trail is so pretty. |
At the end of Woodland I had a choice between a return, or one more Fernandez Ranch loop; Canyon Loop trail. The trail looms, northward; a double-track that is ranch-road steep. I figured, why not. I'm here, let's complete the set. I rode up it, and then burned some brake pads on a ridiculously steep descent, losing a ton of altitude with really no fun on offer. At the bottom, there's some sort of golf course to the right, and in very tall grass a trail sign. A faint trail, mostly overgrown is the return of Canyon Loop Trail; a leg-stretcher, where the first part was a brake-burner. It is very pretty, and if you want solitude on a bike legal singletrack, riding distance from Oakland, here it is. It follows a creek up-slope, back to the original point.
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| At the intersection of Woodland and Canyon Loop trails; that double-track marching upwards is the somewhat uninviting start of the Canyon Loop trail. Spoiler; its steep on every part of its loop. |
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| After the brake burner of the Canyon Loop Trail's road descent, is this barely-there return single track in tall grass, that is - surprise - a leg-stretcher. It's very pretty in the trees. |
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| Canyon Loop trail climb |
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| I don't know what these are, but they are pretty. |
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| Climbing Canyon Loop trail |
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| I love big oaks and I cannot lie |
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| Looking back fondly at the top of Woodland Trail |
At that point there's one more trail that can be done, so of course I did it. Paul's Peak Trail says the signpost, where the map calls it Vista Trail. It's some singletrack cut in a nice gradient to the top of the nearest knob, passing beautiful Oaks, amid tall grasses. I found a nice surprise someone had left at the top, and some beautiful views. Strange to be looking down on train cars, Solano Bay, a different, rotated view of Mount Tam, highway 4 and off in the very distance, I think the Sierras from East Bay trails.
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| OK, one more; Paul's Peak Trail |
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| At the top of Paul's Peak Trail |
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| Diablo in the distance |
At that point it was after six. I saw the single-track Bay Area Ridge Trail at the junction of EBMUD BART and Fernandez Ranch singletrack, the same junction through which I'd entered, and the singletrack was tempting. But it said no bikes, so I took the fire road back. This time, a google maps check showed a faster return by bicycle through Castro Ranch road. It was a toss-up, do the Three Bears to get home (or one Bear and Happy Valley) or the really noxious section of Bay Area Ridge Trail ranch roads to the Southwest, then Castro Ranch Road to San Pablo Dam Road. I'm not sure which is easier, but I opted for the latter. I don't like to repeat trails/roads on rides, I prefer to loop. My legs were tired, and it was late. I destroyed the rest of my brake pads on the ridiculously steep ranch roads, bringing me to the exit gate on Alhambra Valley Road, right near Castro Ranch Road. It was a mindless, slow, chilly return on San Pablo Dam - Moraga Way - Camino Pablo - Pinehurst - Skyline to home.
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| Back to Bay Area Ridge "Trail" |
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| This used to say no bikes. Then it became bike legal. Someone tried to scrape the sticker off. This causes me disquiet. |
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| OK then |
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| I think this may be the same jet fuel pipeline that runs from Martinez, through Canyon to the Oakland Airport. |
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| Returning on the BARRR to the Fernandez Ranch entry gate, you can make out the BART singletrack arcing up from center to right. Sure would like to ride that. |
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| Hazy spring sun and ranch roads |
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| So pretty. |
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| You buy a plot of land amid the EBMUD property. What do you do with it? If the answer is, cram as many houses into it, as densely as possible, with no space between them, you are... wrong! |
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| Diablo again, always creepin' |
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| So steep. The road in front of me goes straight down, then falls away out sof sight, and the continuation center-left appears distant and offset. That next section falls away again. I would not want to be in a 4x4 EBMUD truck on this road. It's built on the fall line, and is loose over hard pack. EBMUD should give BTCEB the option to build a contour trail, within 90' of centerline, which - like the nearby deer trails - is passable for a human, or animal. This road is just a scar. |
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| Buckle up. This is where I burned up the last of my brake pads. |
I ate some yummy roasted root vegetables in a ziploc, 4 gu's. I had three bottles with Nuun and really could have used a refill. There's no water on this ride. Add in everyone's fear about Covid - mine included - and perhaps a missed chance in Orinda and Moraga, where I might have gotten bottles filled, and you have a dehydrated Morgan. I arrived home pretty spent.
I rode my adventure bike, a Santa Cruz Stigmata with 42T front and 10-50 back drivetrain, Panaracer Gravelking SK 650b * 48mm tires at 30psi, food in a little handlebar bag, perfect bike for the day. Did finish off some brake pads. Will be better about water when I do this ride, or a ride like it, next time. Could have put a third bottle cage on, didn't. Carried third bottle in my back pocket, could have been a fourth.
Hermit Had Buried Wealth
John Henry
Fernandez Ranch Sat, Sep 26, 1914 – 3 · The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, California) · Newspapers.com
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