Training Ride 7/30: Temescal-Orinda-Pinehurst

On July 30 I joined the Grizzly Peak Cyclists weekly Wednesday ride.  This ride was to celebrate the repaving of Wildcat Drive.  As one friend said, "the wild cat has turned into a kitten."  The road was in terrible condition and cyclists had to be very careful on it.  Now it is so smooooth.

We started at Lake Temescal in Oakland and headed up Old Tunnel Road and then took Grizzly Peak to Wildcat.  What a difference to be on a good road!  We followed Wildcat with a break at the Island picnic area.  Despite being a Wednesday morning, there was a party going on there with a lot of BBQing and music.  Too bad we weren't invited.

We continued through Tilden Park on Wildcat until we arrived at San Pablo Dam Road.  We took a right on SPDR and continued to Orinda where we had lunch.  I met a former Grizzly Peak Cyclist who now lives in Oregon.  He gave me some information about what kind of weather and temperatures to expect on the Oregon coast in early September.

After lunch, we continued on SPDR which becomes Camino Pablo.  We took Moraga Road to Pinehurst where we rode through the town of Canyon on rolling hills.  After leaving the town, no more rolling, just climbing up to Skyline Blvd.

There was a brief regroup and then we continued on Skyline back to Old Tunnel Road and reversed our morning route to Lake Temescal.

That's me in the front riding on Grizzly Peak Blvd.  Photo by Nancy Yu, a member of Grizzly Peak Cyclists who has her own blog.

There's the equipment that fixed the road.  They still need to do the striping and all, but it was great.

At theater square in Orinda for lunch.

Stats:
36.33 miles
3,014 feet of elevation gain