South bay loop — slightly extended (Niles Canyon Road, Calaveras Road, Felter Road)
I titled this ride on Strava “Quadranscentennial ride” since it was on my 25th birthday. On the first few hours of that day though, I was playing Go chess with a friend. The game ended up really close (either we had a draw or I won by half point, depending on which Komidashi (コミ出し) rule we used).
So this trip didn’t start until the 11th hour of that day. “South Bay loop” is a classical Bay area 80km flat ride- basically starting from Stanford, taking Dumbarton bridge to Fremont, taking Cherry St, Femont Blvd and McCarthy Blvd to San Jose, then taking junk miles back . We planned to make it a bigger loop today though.
The ride from Palo Alto to Fremont via Dumbarton bridge was smooth. It’s a ride I had done over 20 times, so I was happy to show Ben a vista point at the end of Marsh Rd. It looked vastly different when I first visited in spring now that the weather was quite dry.
Riding through Fremont was no fun due to the heavy traffic and numerous traffic lights. Upon reaching the entrance of Niles Canyon Rd, the relic of a heritage railway - Niles Canyon Railway - caught our attention. We were amazed by the hilarious scene in this mural: the businessman nearly stepping on a chicken (still no idea why there were so many chickens at the platform).
As a cyclist and a car-free movement advocate, I always wish we were still in the days when street cars and trains dominated the roads. The hustle and bustle depicted was still present, albeit by another (less eco-friendly) form of transportation.
At the first glance I thought it’s a railroad constructed to carry out materials from some mines (I did road there were mines in Livermore area, and there’s a road called “Mines Rd”). Later I was surprised to learn that Niles Canyon Railway was actually a portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Also this heritage railway was still in use (so not really a relic). According to Wikipedia, It first operated in 1869, ceased operation in 1984 due to highways’ takeover, and resumed passenger service in 2006 connecting this station (Niles) and Sunol. They even have plans to extend it further east to Pleasanton. There’s also a museum nearby, but was not open after the pandemic.
Instead of riding the railroad we reached Sunol by pedals via Niles Canyon Road. It’s a very nice, nearly flat road with not too much traffic. I’ve heard 10 years ago the road condition was horrible, but now it’s one of the few nice flat miles one can get without substantial ascent in Bay area. From now on we’ve entered the typical yellow-bownish East Bay view.
We had lunch (sort of) in the Casa Bella (which means “beautiful house” in Spanish) restaurant in Sunol. Ben grabbed a sandwich, while I didn’t feel like eating so only ordered this berry smoothie. The restaurant had very nice restrooms, which is particularly valuable during the current pandemic.
We then continued on Calaveras Road all the way south to San Jose. It’s ~25km rolling miles with notable ascent in some stretches. Its grade was fine (nothing more than 8% as I remembered) but a bit lengthy. We got really nice view over Calaveras Reservoir, which I used as the cover photo for my Facebook profile. When I visited here again in October, the view became a little bit lame (The region was also hit hard in the fire later this year). At some point of the road we saw the Santa Clara/Alameda county line.
It was still really hot (nearly 35 °C) after we finished Calaveras, but we turned left to try on climbing Felter Road.
After the first turn we spotted the donkeys (not very common in Bay area farms). We were lucky this time since they were nowhere to be found when I revisited in October.
Felter was definitely not a climb for beginners with a number of 10–12% walls, but there were several flat and downhills parts in between, making it more friendly than the nearby Sierra Rd. On this road alone I spotted donkeys, horses, cows, and llamas (!) in the farms by the road. Ben also spotted a pair of peacocks (one male and one female) crossing the road while a car was waiting patiently behind. Too bad I didn’t see them.
After some rolling hills we arrived at the parking lot on the top of Sierra Road, with many people driving up to take pictures.
Then after a slow ascent on Sierra Road (the -15% bumps were terrifying) we were back in San Jose. After that it was basically boring Junk miles back to Stanford (We did stop at YY’s house in Mountain View for a quick drink.) Thus this concluded my Quadranscentennial ride, and Ben’s longest ride (so far) on Strava.
