Ride Bike! Happy Valley Road

For all routes

Take BART to the Orinda station. From the Orinda BART station, take Camino Pablo northbound (cross the pedestrian bridge over Moraga Way/Camino Pablo to get on the right side of the road). Camino Pablo is a busy road with wide shoulders. The second light is Miner Road; turn right.

Miner is a wooded, residential road with moderate traffic. It trends upwards, but without any notable climbs. After about 2km, bear left on Lombardy Lane (marked as "Not a through street"). Lombardy is a very quiet residential road, which continues the upward trend and adds a couple of pitches which are noticably steep (but still not too bad). Lombardy curves to the right, then after about 2km, bears right and changes names to Dalewood Drive. Dalewood climbs a little more noticably for about 1km, then comes to a gated intersection with Sundown Terrace. Turn right on Sundown Terrace.

The gate at Sundown Terrace is often open to cars, but both sides are marked as dead ends, so not many cars use it. In any case, it's always open to bikes. Go through the gate and you'll soon see a fairly short, steep climb to the intersection with Happy Valley Road. This climb might be a little rough on some of the beginners, but it's the end of the climbing for the beginner's ride, so you can afford to kill yourself on it. After about 1km, Sundown Terrace ends at Happy Valley Road.

For easy route

Turn right on Happy Valley Road. Happy Valley Road is also wooded and residential, but is wider and has slightly more traffic. It has a reasonably nice descent, but the pavement isn't that great, especially on the first part of the descent, which is twisty. The road descends all the way to the BART station, which will be on your left after about 5km. Total riding is about 13km.

For intermediate/advanced routes

Turn left on Happy Valley Road. There's a slightly longer, similarly steep climb to the top of the road. The descent on the other side is rather sharp; it averages a 9% grade and it's twisty. Be careful; there are usually sharp shadows that make road hazards hard to see. The road surface is bumpy but not that bad, just don't get out of control. There's a sharp hairpin turn near the bottom; as soon as you see the yellow 10 MPH sign you should get on the brakes. After the hairpin the descent continues but is less steep. The road ends at Bear Creek Road about 2 km after the peak. Turn left on Bear Creek Road.

Bear Creek Road is one of my favorite roads. It's wide, well-paved, has little traffic, and is very pretty. Happy Valley Road hits it between Mama Bear and Papa Bear (the two main hills). The hill starts as soon as we turn, and kicks in in earnest around the time we get around the first bend. It's a very straight 7% grade and about 1.5 km long. There's no shade so be wary of overheating and drink lots of water. After the peak the road dips for a bit, then climbs again to about the height of the first peak, then drops for about 4 km in one of the best gonzo descents in the area. There's no traffic, no turns that require braking, and a nice view. I usually find myself shouting something similar to "whoop!" somewhere along this hill.

Eventually the descent flattens out, then there's a short, steep climb up to San Pablo Dam Road/Camino Pablo.

For intermediate route

Turn left on Camino Pablo. Camino Pablo is mostly flat and straight into Orinda. BART will be on your right after 4 km. Total riding is about 20 km.

For advanced route

Go straight through the intersection onto Wildcat Canyon Road. Wildcat Canyon Road is a wooded climb up to Tilden Park; the hill is fairly steep and winding. After about 1.5 km the hill lets up and you get some nice views of the hills you've conquered today. Inspiration Point is 4 km up the road.

After Inspiration Point, the road rolls along the top of the ridge for a while, until it nears the Brazil Building. There, we encounter a downhill curve to the right, and before we get to the end of the curve we hit South Park Boulevard. Turn left on South Park.

South Park is the fastest descent in the East Bay; the top part has curves but isn't twisty enough to slow you down, and then you can blast out of the last turn into the steepest part of the descent, a straightaway near a parking lot. I hit 88.5kph once (my fastest recorded speed anywhere). Today, though, we are going the opposite direction. This climb is one of the featured hills of the Berkeley Hills Death Ride, planned for late this spring.

The climb starts out fairly easily, then gets rather steep around the end of the straightaway. It continues steeply basically until the top of the hill, with 200 meters total climb.

South Park ends at Grizzly Peak near the steam trains; turn right and descend on Grizzly Peak to Euclid (about 5km) and turn left on Euclid. Euclid ends at Hearst and campus; to return to BART, turn right on Hearst and continue down the hill to Shattuck, then turn left on Shattuck. The Berkeley BART station is 3 blocks up. Total riding is about 35 km.

Last updated 10/16/04