Secret Walnut Creek route, with Bears!

I was just getting ready to drive to Walnut Creek to drop off some papers when LanceOldStrong called proposing we ride before the rain came. I haven't been feeling great lately, but said "OK."

I'm glad I did. It was a cool overcast day, but our ride up Pig Farm Hill and two of the Three Bears was delightful. But the best part by far was LanceOldStrong's weird route through the west side of Walnut Creek. I grew up there, and didn't realize it was possible to get from Lafayette near Pleasant Hill Road to Larkey Park by climbing through neighborhoods and taking bike/hiking neighborhood cut throughs. It was just weird. And highly vertical. You couldn't do it in a car, but following trail-blazer OldStrong it was possible. Apparently he Google-maps and street-views obsessively to find these unlikely routes with semi-secret paths and steep hills.

However he does it, it sure was a fun 40 miles with 2700 feet of climbing, even with the rain at the end.


Secret route through Walnut Creek. Click for larger version and don't tell anyone!


Click for much larger version


Test for embedding Ride with GPS map here.

Christmas lights ride 2010

Antioch's Delta Pedalers hosted a Christmas lights ride. I'm not a big fan of Christmas, or it's associated lights, but this was really fun. We joined almost 30 people on a swing past some of the more outlandish displays in town. Apparently the latest one-upmanship is to have a low-power FM radio station connected with your display to broadcast Christmas tunes.

Our group included many Christmas-light covered bikes (Yep, guilty. Tricia and I both hung battery lights on rides) and even a rolling, lighted Christmas tree on a Burly trailer.

We had a car honk at us and the driver shout "Merry Christmas!" which isn't what I'm used to hearing. It was a pleasant change.

As we rolled down the street Tricia pointed out that, with out bike lights and blinkies, LED lights and Christmas tree, we were our own Christmas extravaganza. She was right. We really did look pretty cool, in a weird sort of way.

Delta Ride, Jersey unveiling

To steal a line from LanceOldStrong...
Recipe for a great ride in the Delta:
5 friends, 50 mi, 300 ft of total climb, 2 ferry rides, 1 nice lunch, about 6 cars total. A great day.

Maybe we weren't supposed to ride everywhere we actually rode, but no guts no glory, so we went ahead.
Not that there was a lot of glory on this ride. It was pretty darn relaxed.

We started at Brandon Island and somehow managed to sneak through the delta region on back roads up to Walnut Grove where we had a way-to0-large lunch. We crossed bridges, rode on levee roads, and never once saw the sun.

We took a detour to check out the Grand Island Mansion, which seemed like a great place to publicly unveil LannceOldStrong's and my own 1000 mile club five-double-century jerseys. We'd been waiting and they finally arrived. Now I need to drop a few pounds so I can wear it closer to home.

Eventually we made to Rio Vista, crossed Rio Vista Bridge and ended up back where we started.

Page 28 girls

London newspapers may have tacky "page 2 girls" but the 2011 Adventure Cycling catalog has classy page 28 girls women. Yep, Tricia made their annual tours catalog again. They apparently recognize a good model when they see one. I wasn't left out either. There's a nice pull quote from me on page 2 (no photo, so I am not a page 2 boy) that reads "Signed up. Sent money. Waiting for 2011 like a kid waiting for Christmas!"