Another Ride in the Hills
Saturday, Adam volunteered to break out his mountain bike (he's normally a roadie) and join me and Mike for one of our MTB adventures. The plan was to head up Tunnel Road to Skyline Road, then up to the steam trains in Tilden Park, finishing the climb at Vollmer Peak. Then down the Seaview Trail (part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail) to Inspiration Point, then down Meadows Canyon Trail to the Little Farm area, before climbing back over the hill and heading back home.
The ride up Tunnel Road is interesting for a number of reasons. First you pass the interestingly-named Gateway Emergency Preparedness Exhibit Center & Garden, which is a memorial/educational site regarding earthquakes and the big east bay hills fire. It's a good place to fill any low water bottles, to read about being prepared for disasters, and to enjoy a good view of the distant City from over highway 24.
Highway 24 runs through the Caldecott Tunnel under Tunnel Road, which passes overhead. But that's not why it's called Tunnel Road. See, Caldecott isn't the first tunnel to have been built through the hill at this point, but back in 1903, a huge bore like Caldecott would have been difficult. So instead, a much shorter bore was made nearer the summit, and Tunnel Road is how you get there. (Fish Ranch Road gets you there on the Contra Costa County side.)
The tunnel is collapsed now, so there's no way through, but you can still see where it is. The only man-made thing left nearby is a short rusty flagpole which the observant might notice poking out above a small scrubby tree next to the road. The flagpole is encased in a modest concrete block with a aging plaque on the side that once proudly marked the now mostly-forgotten tunnel.
Finally once you hit Skyline, you head north again to superb views of Oakland far below and San Francisco far away.
It's a good 30 km ride, the first 16 km of which is climbing on asphalt to Vollmer Peak. After that, which is good for endorphins, but not quite so much fun as dirt, you get to the dirt. And to the fun.
What actually happened is that we climbed 16 km of asphalt, and then on the final stretch to the summit, Adam's chain snapped throwing him to the pavement, fortunately unhurt.
We made a token effort to do something to fix it, but there was no way.
None of us had chain tools. Soon all of us will have chain tools. I plan to buy one tomorrow. In fact, I really need to fill out my bike repair kit--it'd suck to have to walk it back from some place.
So, standing there at the summit of Vollmer Peak, elevation 580 meters, we remounted bikes, and coasted all the way home via Claremont Ave., which is a screaming downhill in a well-shaded canyon with a couple sharp turns. I hit 67.1 km/h according to my GPS. Woo!
Ah well. I guess you can't get dirt every day. It'll still be there tomorrow.
Unless it rains.
