Training Ride 8/24: Mountain biking at Redwood and Joaquin Miller parks

On Sunday, 8/24 John and I joined his friend Chris for a mountain bike ride that started in Redwood Regional Park on Skyline in Oakland.  We headed out on West Ridge Trail until we got to the crossing with the Chabot Science Center's parking lot, where we turned down, crossed Skyline and entered Joaquin Miller park. 

Unfortunately, I don't know the name of most of the trails that we take, but I can say that we went down Cinderella.  About halfway down I got indecisive about what line to take down a technical part and ended up on the ground with some scrapes.  It was a minor fall.  Most of the time my falls are preceeded by indecision.

I could feel the effects of the ride from the day before.  I didn't have any power in my legs for uphill obstacles on the trail, but my goal was not to have a great technical ride, just to get some more miles in with cardio.  Also, remember, that I count mountain biking miles double road miles.

The parks were about the most crowded that I can remember ever seeing them, especially since this was a regular Sunday and not a holiday.

Eventually, we worked our way back to Redwood.  We did a hot climb up Canyon Trail.  It has been a long time since I've been on this trail and I had forgotten how steep it is.  I tried to figure out what the elevation gain was just for this trail, but I couldn't do it.  It appears from the park trail map that it is only 0.36 of a mile, but it felt like more.  Trail map: http://www.ebparks.org/parks/redwood#trailmap.

After that, there are rolling hills all the way back to the parking lot on East Ridge Trail.  Some of these are tough, too, especially after Canyon, but not nearly as difficult.

View from the top of one of the rolling hills on East Ridge Trail.

Also East Ridge scenery.

Here's my scrapes.  Unpleasant, but no big deal.

Stats:
12.30 actual miles (not double)
1,697 feet of elevation gain