East Bay and BART

Bill Bushnell - Sunday, April 19, 1992

Easter Sunday. This is much the same ride I was going to do with Frank last Friday, but Frank was still sick, and everyone else was out of town or visiting family. So, since the weather is warm and dry, it’s a great day for another ride. Also, since I just got my BART bicycle pass in the mail, I could think of no better way to explore the east bay than to use BART to get me further afield.

The sun is bright and the air is warm as I ride up Middlefield Rd. to Willow Rd. and out through east Menlo Park to the Dumbarton Bridge. A slight tail-breeze is blowing and this makes the riding easy. The sign at the base of the bike path on the south side of the bridge indicates that the bike path is closed weekdays until May 10. I ride up and over the bridge. There’s rock, broken glass, and nails scattered everywhere. I’m glad I have Mr. Tuffys in my tires. These things really work for me. They make the wheel a little heavier, but I hate flats. I’d rather haul around the tiny bit of extra weight than change flats all the time. I used to flat every 150 miles or so, but now I haven’t had a flat in over 1500 miles of riding.

On the east side of the Dumbarton, I roll quickly to the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Wildlife Refuge Center. After stopping briefly to note down my distance and climbing, I continue to Paseo Padre Drive, turn left and continue pedaling through Fremont. I notice that the traffic lights are not particularly sensitive to bicycles along this road, nor are there obvious marks for sensor rings cut into the pavement at any of the intersections. At Decoto Blvd. I turn left and continue another mile or so to the Union City BART station.

After getting my bike inside the station I proceed to the elevator leading to the northbound platform. I step in, the doors close, and nothing happens. The “P” button is lit, but the elevator doesn’t seem to be moving. I press the “C” button, and still the elevator is silent. I look around the car. The two up/down arrows near the door are dark. What’s wrong with this thing? Just as I’m about to despair of being trapped inside an elevator at a BART station, the doors open, and I’m on the platform. I guess the arrow lights were burned out and the elevator must be very slow and quiet.

I try to remember the long list of rules for bicycles on BART. Let’s see, I must ride in the last car, and then only at either end of the car. I look up at the electronic info sign. The station agent must have punched up the “bicycle rules” display as the sign flashes a reminder “BICYCLES RIDE IN LAST CAR. KICKSTANDS MUST BE UP AT ALL TIMES”. “What if I don’t have a kickstand?”, I wonder. In a few minutes the Richmond-bound train arrives and I’m off.

A few minutes before the train reaches the Oakland 12^th Street station, the conductor announces that the Concord-bound train will arrive on the same platform and that the next station is the transfer point. I couldn’t remember whether or not the Richmond-bound trains and Concord-bound trains share the same platform at the MacArthur station, the other transfer point, and I didn’t want to hazard another two trips in a BART elevator, so I got off at the 12^th Street Station. No one said anything to me at the time, but I had just broken my first BART bicycle rule: “Do not onboard or offboard at 12^th or 19^th Street Stations.”

25 minutes later the Concord-bound train arrives. It’s late, and the last car is full of bicyclists. Fortunately, there’s enough space for me to squeeze in. Actually, I’m glad bicyclists are using BART. I only wish there were some racks or some other way of securing the bike while in transit. I figure out how to position my bike so I don’t have to hold onto it all the time: Keep the bike in the aisle and lean it against the edge of the seat so that the handlebars prevent forward motion. I can hold onto the bike to prevent rearward motion, which occurs only during acceleration. I chat briefly with a couple bicyclists who are on their way to Rockridge. Without much delay, the train reaches Walnut Creek. Another trip in a silent elevator. This time the arrows are working. When the doors opened I am outside the station gate. I walk over to the station agent’s box, and he promptly waves me through the little fence so I can “process out.”

The air is warm and drier than in Union City, but I am finally rolling under my own power again. I head over to Main Street and through downtown Walnut Creek. In a few minutes I cross under Hwy 680 and am rolling south on Danville Blvd. with a moderate tailwind at my back. In what seems like no time at all I reach Norris Canyon Rd. my turn off point. I could make the ride trivial by continuing south on San Ramon Valley Blvd. (was Danville Blvd.) until Sunol and then ride through Niles Canyon, or I could continue on up to Calaveras Reservoir, and head home via Milpitas and Mountain View. Since that segment is included on the Mt. Hamilton Challenge ride I’ll be attempting next weekend, I decide to try another route. I turn right on Norris Canyon Rd. After about a mile of suburb, the road narrows and passes some rolling grassy hills. About 3/4 mile from the top, the road becomes steeper, but I reach the top in short order. My altimeter reads 920 feet. It’s probably a little bit higher. The Avocet 50 seems to always compress a little bit, especially on days when there’s an inversion layer, and I’ve tried using three of these units. It’s most accurate on cold, clear, windy winter-type days.

The western descent of Norris Canyon Rd. is a screamer. I didn’t realize it at first, but I got up to 42.5 without pedaling and even while using my brakes before a few possibly tricky corners. (I hadn’t ridden this road before.) I soon reach Crow Canyon Rd. Crow Canyon Rd. is the main road from Castro Valley to San Ramon, running parallel and about a mile to the north of Norris Canyon Rd. Being a main road makes Crow Canyon Road very busy, and even though I can almost keep up with traffic, 30 to 35 mph isn’t fast enough for most drivers, so they pass, even before blind curves and across solid yellow lines. At least no one honks. Of the times I’ve ridden in the east bay, I’ve noticed areas where motorists are particularly rude to bicyclists. This is one such place, and another is on Camino Tassajara near Blackhawk.

At East Castro Valley Blvd, I turn left and head up a long hill. This is the only part of my ride where the AAA Peninsula Points map does not indicate my route. I’m looking for Palomares Rd. As I ride near I-580, I see a sign on the freeway: “Eden Canyon Rd., Palomares Rd. Next Exit”. Good. The turn off isn’t too far. I continue past Palo Verde Rd. and a short distance later I reach the freeway offramp. On the other side is Palo Verde Rd. again. It must be a “crescent.” But where’s Palomares Rd.? I consult the map in vain. Palo Verde Rd. doesn’t even appear on the map. Maybe Palomares Rd. comes into Dublin Blvd. (was East Castro Valley Rd.) further on. I continue up a short hill. As the road reaches the top, I can see that it is straight for quite a ways, and there doesn’t seem to be any intersection. I must have missed the turnoff. As I head back down the hill to the intersection, some folks with car trouble are standing near the off ramp. I ask them, “Where is Palomares Rd.?” They don’t seem to know, but the guy says he rides his motorcycle on Palomares Rd. all the time. He says to go back toward Castro Valley and turn left at the next road. Grr. I hate backtracking. So back down the hill I go. In this direction a sign says, “<-- Palomares Rd.”, but when I reach the turn it’s Palo Verde Rd.! I guess Palomares Rd. must come off Palo Verde Rd. Well, after about 0.3 miles of Palo Verde Rd. I reach Palomares Rd.

The air is hot, dry, and very still now, but the land is pretty. The north end of Palomares Rd. rolls through a nice valley with older ranch homes. Fortunately, the “tract mansion” developers of eastern Contra Costa County haven’t gotten ahold of this land, yet. The road rolls up and down, though with a greater emphasis on the up, and after about 3.3 miles, the road begins a long, rather steep ascent. I am hot and tired now, but I struggle on. A long line of about 15 motorcycles pass by. Some of them are very noisy, but at least they’re driving slowly. I don’t mind motorcycles as much as autos except for the noisy ones. I can’t stand the noisy un-mufflered motorcycles.

Soon I reach the pass: 1220 feet on the topo map, but 1150 on the altimeter. The upper part of the south end of Palomares Rd. passes through a narrow verdant valley, but further down the hill, the descent becomes another screamer as the road winds and whips down Stonybrook Canyon. I don’t get going as fast here as I did on Norris Canyon Rd. because of the curves, and there is loose rock on some of the turns. Soon I reach CA-84. After fighting the traffic for road/shoulder space for a couple of miles, I reach Mission Blvd.

I turn left and head for the Fremont BART station. I’m not going to take BART anywhere now, but I want to compare the distance from Newark Center to Fremont BART and Newark Center to Union City BART for future reference. It turns out that Union City BART is 0.1 mile closer, though the proper tail winds on some days could make the Fremont BART station easier to get to.

The ride through Fremont and then down Thornton through Newark is uneventful. When I reach the end of Newark, there is a very strong headwind blowing due east. Running low on water, I ride up to the building at the Don Edwards SF Bay Refuge. It is just past 17:00, and they’re closed. Fortunately, there’s a tap just outside the door, so I fill up my water bottle.

The ride back over the Dumbarton Bridge is much as it was in the morning except for the fierce headwinds. I can manage about 18-19 mph. As I head over the Willow Rd/US-101 overpass, I hear a cracking sound. I look down and see another large stone hit the pavement. What the ____?! I turn around to see some youths hurling rocks at me. Fortunately, I didn’t get hit. I think about going over and giving them a piece of my mind, but the road is divided, it would be dangerous to make a U-turn, I’m too tired for an argument, and they might be carrying a gun and try to shoot me. You never know these days.

Several weeks ago I had been walking along Woodland Ave. near the Menlo Park/East Palo Alto border and heard the sharp report of gunfire. We reached the next street in time to see an old rattletrap car speeding off in the other direction. Meanwhile a large group of people was gathering outside an apartment building. My walking companion wanted to leave fast, and I thought that might be a good idea, too. A few minutes later we heard sirens.

Ride stats:

distance: 70.5 miles

climbing: 2220 feet

total time: 7:00

riding time: 4:26

average speed: 15.9 mph

maximum speed: 42.5 mph

index: 79.4

An article on indexing can be found here.

©2004, Bill Bushnell

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