Learnin' the roads

I'm finally coaxing myself out for decent road rides on the weekends, with the first step being to figure out how to get up Tunnel Road to reach the other side of the hills to the east. It turns out that Tunnel falls into a black hole of sorts on most maps: Google Maps is car-centric; the "West of the Hills" map by East Bay Bike Coalition is out of print; Tunnel falls at the 4-corner intersection of the varying-scale pages of the scanned-in online version of the EBBC WotH map; and my Berkeley bikeways and walkways map doesn't reach far enough east to make things clear. Finally, the text directions from Missing Link for a loop ride out to Pinehurst Road made things relatively clear (points for the bike co-op).

It's a little funny to get back on the road bike after riding the commuter bike pretty regularly for three months. I think I should get out a measuring tape and see what the BB-to-seat and seat-to-handlebar distances are; my legs didn't seem to be extending and my arms didn't seem to be reaching as far (caveat on the BB-seat of different pedals/shoes/cleat stack height). Huh.

So let's see:

Tunnel Road. What a pussycat of a climb. The road must've been laid out with horse-drawn carts in mind, as it doesn't seem to get much over 5% grade--similar to the San Jose approach to Mt. Hamilton, though only up to what, 1200 ft?, instead of 4000 ft. Which is nice, because climbing Tunnel seems to be necessary to do any other East Bay rides if you want to ride from home in Berkeley or Oakland. Plus, it has great views.

Pinehurst Road. Um...is Pinehurst an up road or a down road? I was going down, and everyone else coming up seemed a bit surprised to see someone descending such a narrow road. It seems to have been repaved recently, but it is rather narrow. Pinehurst does carry you past Canyon, CA, which seems to consist of the post office, a school, and not much else. And riding under the trees is good for the soul.

Moraga Way. This 5-mile, two-lane highway connects Moraga (quaint, hoity-toity community to the south) to Orinda (quaint, hoity-toity community to the north), with plenty of room on the sides for shoulder/bike lane--nice! Um, except no one told me that the pavement is currently grooved. Not knowing any alternative routes, I plowed over the grooves for what, 3 of the 5 miles? Not fun, though it was good practice for relaxing my grip on the handlebars. I hope that the repaving is imminent.

Wildcat Canyon. Another pussycat climb--more of a traverse, really. No shoulders, so it's narrow and things have to be negotiated with all the cars driving up to visit Inspiration Point and Tilden Park, but the road is twisty enough to keep those cars from doing 50, which seems to give everyone time to figure things out.

Euclid Road. Having climbed back over to the west side of the hills, Euclid is a traverse to match Wildcat Canyon on the east side. Going down, it seemed to be an efficient through-way for a bicycle with a minimum of stops and not much traffic to deal with.

Past that, there was the messiness of finding my way back to Oakland. Some of Berkeley's bikeways work, and others are just complete nonsense. I think I forgot to wipe a bike commute (~4.5 miles) from my computer before starting, as it's telling me almost 35 miles while Missing Link claims a 29.5 mile distance from the shop. Anyway, if I know a 30 mile, a 50 mile, and a 70 mile route to ride, that oughta keep me occupied.

Another note to self: cut toenails. Road shoes fit tighter than commute shoes.