Ride Bike!: Palomares Road
Take BART to the
Dublin/Pleasanton station. Take Stoneridge Drive west about 1 km
to Foothill Boulevard--turn left on Foothill. Foothill at this
point is a mostly flat, straight road with moderate traffic. It
sometimes is kind of windy, but the wind should be at our back in
this direction. Take Foothill 7km to Castlewood Drive; turn left
on Castlewood, then right on the Pleasanton-Sunol Road just after
a short climb.
Pleasanton-Sunol Road is a pleasant road paralleling some old rail
lines. It's wide, flat, and lightly wooded, with light to moderate
traffic. Take it 6km to where it ends at Niles Canyon Road. Turn
right on Niles Canyon Road, then right again on Main Street into
Sunol.
Sunol is an old railroad town that's grown up from having a general
store and a biker bar, to having two general stores, a biker bar
and a restaurant. It's usually a decent place to stop for victuals,
and for an excuse to stay off 84 for a while.
After feeding, continue on Main Street until it merges back onto Niles
Canyon Road (Highway 84). Niles Canyon is actually beautiful, one of
the best gorges around here, but the road itself isn't too great.
Most of it is pretty wide, but it usually has quite a bit of
high-speed traffic, and there are a few pinch-points at bridges.
It slopes gradually downhill towards Palomares and Fremont, with some
nice views of Alameda Creek along the way. After about 8km it hits
Palomares Road.
For beginner's route
Continue down Highway 84 for 3 km, where it hits Highway 238 (Mission Blvd.)
Turn left on Highway 238, and then turn right on Mowry Ave. after 1 km.
Mowry splits off to the left after 2 km; follow it to Fremont BART. Total
riding is about 29 km.
For intermediate and advanced routes
Turn right on Palomares Road.
Palomares is a very nice wooded, rugged road with little traffic. It climbs,
with some steep sections, for about 7 km, then peaks at about 400 meters and
then has a fun descent for about 11 km into Castro Valley. There are a couple
of wineries along
the way. Keep bearing to the left as we near the bottom; Palomares becomes
Palo Verde and then E. Castro Valley Blvd.
Continue on Castro Valley Blvd. until it hits Redwood Road.
For intermediate route
Turn left on Redwood Road. The Castro Valley BART station will be on
your right after about 1km. Total riding is about 45 kilometers.
For advanced route
Turn right on Redwood Road. Redwood starts out busy and commercial,
then leaves Castro Valley after a short, steep climb and becomes a
nice, deserted road through a canyon. It climbs about 250 meters up
a ridge, then rolls along the top paralleling San Leandro Reservoir.
After a total of about 12 km, it has a moderately fun descent to
Pinehurst Road. Redwood-to-Pinehurst is a common feature of loop rides
out of Berkeley/Oakland, but today we're staying on Redwood. After
Redwood passes Pinehurst, it begins to gradually climb, eventually
getting moderately strenuous a little before it hits Skyline.
Turn right on Skyline.
This section of Skyline is wide, open, and usually windy. It climbs
up to the intersection with Joaquin Miller Road--turn right at the
intersection (you'll still be on Skyline). The climb continues after
the turn, but the road becomes twisty and wooded. We'll pass Redwood
Regional Park, Huckleberry Regional Preserve, and Sibley Volcanic
Preserve, before reaching the intersection of Skyline and Grizzly
Peak.
Continue straight on Skyline. This eventually becomes Tunnel Road,
a highly popular and enjoyable ride in either direction. Today
we are going downhill, taking care to watch for water and gravel
on the road in the turns. Some nut also installed botts dots on some
of the turns, so watch out for those, too. Tunnel isn't that fast a
descent, but it's a great place to practice your downhill turns.
Eventually it splits off at a T intersection. The right turn
at the T takes you down to Claremont and eventually becomes Ashby;
the left turn takes you to Old Tunnel, which will bring you back
to Rockridge BART. Total riding is about 75 km.
Last updated 03/20/03
