Berkeley Hills

Bill Bushnell — Saturday, November 21, 1992

Jude, Paul, and I carpool to Chris’s house in Berkeley for a ride in the Berkeley hills and the Orinda area. At Chris’s house, we meet Jennifer who has driven this morning from Sacramento to join us for the day’s adventure.

We start the ride by zig-zagging up the hills, trying to warm up before starting the major climb. The air is cold and damp. Finally we head up Euclid. At Marin, Jennifer and I decide to challenge (or punish) ourselves and ride the three city blocks at >20% grade up to Grizzly Peak Blvd. This is very difficult because neither of us has warmed up enough. When we get to the top we wait for a few minutes for the rest of the group to join us.

We continue up past Centennial Drive to the overlook right below Grizzly Peak. We stop to enjoy the view and to take a few pictures. Big Game preparations are underway at the Cal Berkeley stadium below. After a few minutes we continue down, but when we get to South Park Drive, we discover that the road is closed! Moreover there is a special sign of a bicycle with a slash through it. This is a disappointment because South Park Drive is one of the most enjoyable descents in the Bay Area. I want to take Fish Ranch Rd. to CA-24 to Orinda, but I am outvoted by those who prefer to stay off of the freeway. We take Lomas Cantadas to El Toyonal down to Orinda Village. This road is very steep, curvy, and the corners are poorly-banked and sprinkled with gravel. Since I am recovering from an unfortunate spill earlier in the week, I ride cautiously. The descent seems to go on and on.

When we get to Camino Pablo we turn left and head north toward Richmond on our ride around the reservoirs. Chris and Paul race to be first while the rest of us are strung out behind. Next time we ride here, we’ll practice our paceline skills. We regroup at Castro Ranch Rd. and head northeast. At Alhambra Valley Rd. we turn right and head east. Then at Bear Creek Rd. we turn right again and begin a southward journey. After riding up the seemingly endless “mama” bear and the somewhat shorter “papa” bear, (from the north) we cruise back down to Camino Pablo. With a slight headwind, I manage a max speed of 39.0 mph, but some of us get into the low 40’s on this descent. At Camino Pablo we turn left and head into Orinda for a rest and a snack.

After eating lunches and snacks we start up Moraga Way toward Moraga. Chris says he isn’t feeling well, so he continues home when we turn left on Glorietta Rd. heading toward Lafayette. The rest of us continue to Acalanes Rd. and then to Upper Happy Valley Rd. We turn right on Happy Valley Rd. and then left on Mt. Diablo Blvd. just past the Lafayette BART station. A mile later we turn right on Moraga Rd. This road isn’t too much fun. The lanes are narrow, and traffic is heavy with wide, impatiently-driven American and German cars and buses and trucks belching fumes while passing very close.

We finally reach Moraga, and as we pass onto Canyon Rd., the traffic dwindles to a trickle. I am half-hoping that we’ll meet up with Chris since he came by here earlier, but I guess he got impatient and continued without us. At Pinehurst I decide to lead the group up the right-hand path to Skyline. Pinehurst rises slowly through a deep canyon before starting a twisty, sometimes steep final climb one mile before Skyline Blvd. The road isn’t as steep and dangerous as it seemed when I rode down it last year. We regroup at the top and head south on Skyline through Joaquin Miller Park and then down Joaquin Miller Rd. This descent almost makes up for missing South Park Drive. It’s almost as steep, but since it’s a four-lane road it seems safer somehow. This is one of the few roads where bicyclists might feel more comfortable riding in the left lane to pass slower auto and bus traffic. We all reach speeds in the low- to mid- 40’s. If the winds are right, one can get up to 50, but we have a pre-storm headwind today.

At the bottom we continue north along the CA-13 frontage road, Mountain Blvd. At Snake Rd., I figure we have just enough time for one more climb to Skyline before heading back to Chris’s house. We start up Snake Rd. and continue up Shepherd Canyon Rd. Near the top, we decide to press on rather than follow the easier but longer bike route to the top. The road steepens considerably, and while Petersen’s Roads to Ride rates the average grade at only 9%, it seems more in the mid-teens to me. And that “stinger” at the very top looks about 18%.

At the top we turn left and head north toward Berkeley. As we pass over the Caldicott Tunnel, we can see construction in progress on the hills below following the Oakland Hills fire last year. When we reach Claremont Rd. we stop briefly, and I warn people to take care on the descent. The road has a few surprises for the unwary: hairpin turns near the top that are steeper and less well-banked than they appear, an unexpected rut running across the otherwise smooth road about a third-mile from the top, and generally lousy pavement conditions on the bottom half of the descent. Just after I finish my lecture of caution, two helmetless teenagers whip by us down the hill in a mad pedaling frenzy.

As we near the bottom, crowds of people dressed in red are walking up the roadway, and cars are parked on the verge. The Big Game is over, and Stanford has won again. Since Jennifer wants to see some of the University, I decide to lead us back to Chris’s house via Piedmont. The most smog-filled segment of riding I’ve done to date was between the parked, idling buses lining the streets on our return route. The air is thick with diesel fumes, and we make our way carefully down the polluted corridor of metal. Emergency vehicles with sirens blaring and lights flashing push their way through the crowd to get to a hapless bystander injured in the chaos. We are in Berkeley.

We turn left at Bancroft and coast down the hill past the center of all chaos, as it were, to Oxford and then on to Chris’s house a mile beyond.

Following hot though necessarily brief showers for all, we walk the two and a half blocks to Fatapple’s for a hearty meal and lively conversation. Over dinner we argue every controversy: abortion, guns, Libertarianism, environmentalism, conservatism, liberalism, Bush, Perot, Clinton, Boxer, Hirshensohn, Democrats, Republicans, income tax, social security tax, flat taxes, slanted taxes, upside-down taxes, drugs, animal rights, people rights, vegetarianism, etc. Maybe the ride wasn’t long enough!

Ride stats:

distance: 67.8 miles

climbing: 5710 feet

total time: 8:03

riding time: 5:15

average speed: 12.9 mph

maximum speed: 41.5 mph

index: 91

irp (Index Rate-of-Progress): 11

mirp (Moving irp): 17

An article on indexing can be found here.

©2004, Bill Bushnell

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