If you want to attract a good group for a bakery ride, make
sure you include FUN in the ride description.
The two organizers of this ride did just that and got a good
turnout. We had about a dozen riders,
both sexes equally represented.
We started out with a climb over the Oakland Hills (Liemert
and Butters) and some folks were wondering about the organizer’s definition of FUN.
But after the climb comes the fabulous descent down Redwood Rd and the FUN aspect was
restored. If you are unfamiliar with Butters, it is one of Oakland’s biking
treasures. It winds up the Oakland
hills, parallel to Joaquin Miller, but is basically a quiet country lane cut
into the side of a steep canyon. Oak
trees overhang most of the length, and it gets to 10% grade in one section that
is owned by the Butters Canyon Conservancy http://www.bcconservancy.org/, but
that is short and it levels out quickly
Ascending Butters Canyon (image from their website).
We descended Redwood Rd and turned left onto Pinehurst
and climbed over ‘little Pinehurst’, then turned toward Moraga on Moraga Rd. The little climb went by quickly as one of the
riders had just returned from vacation, and he filled us in on his various
adventures while driving from Chicago to Oakland, visiting old friends in the
Rocky Mtns and experiencing the vast emptiness of Utah and Nevada.
The remainder of the ride out to Danville is flat, and it seems
to be the season for deer to get hit, as we saw 2 down along as pedaled east
toward Lafayette. The temperature was
perfect for riding, even the little refrigerated zone in the pocket of redwoods near Pinehurst and Moraga
Rd was quite temperate - not even a shiver as we rolled through.
On the way out of Moraga we took St. Mary’s Rd, past the
college, turned right on Glenside then left on Reliez Station Rd. This is not my favorite route, as there is a
steep and narrow descent at the east end of Reliez Stn Road. It is one of those descents that can be somewhat terrifying on
a bike, as there is no shoulder and it is long enough that cars get impatient
and try to pass (eventhough the cyclist may be breaking the speed limit). Moreover, there is a stop sign at the bottom,
where it intersects Olympic. So screaming down ahead of cars, then hard braking for the stop at the bottom gets the adrenaline going. All that aside, we descended as a group, so no
cars were tempted to pass – …..On the
return, we took the Moraga-Lafayette bike trail west from the end of
Olympic (no need to climb up that narrow road). The bike trail forms the little loop that
you can see on the map (below). It is a great
trail for biking, as well as walking, etc.
There is a lot of parking available along Olympic, near the trail head. To get from Olympic to Danville Blvd, we took the flat route along Newell, Lilac,Lancaster/Castle Hill. Another route is Tice Valley Rd (not my favorite, but some folks like it).
Once on Danville Blvd we headed South to the bakery. One of the great things about the Danville
location of La Boulange is that the back entrance is right off the Iron Horse
trail. The Iron Horse parallels Danville
Blvd from Rudgear Rd all the way to Danville and both are good cycling routes.
The road is faster.
Boulange
de Danville
Boulange de Danville is one of the several La Boulange
bakeries in the Bay Area (http://www.laboulangebakery.com). They have
excellent pastries, including an almond croissant to die for, dreamy fresh
fruit Danish, fantastic pineapple upside down cake and myriad other treats, as
well as very nice tidy little sandwiches. Oh yes, your espresso drink will be
served in bowl. I highly recommend their
Mocha on a cool day, but went for a cappuccino on this day.
They have plenty of seating, but the place can be popular on
Saturdays. Note that there is a Peet’s
Coffee in the same shopping center, and
this particular Peet’s is very popular with cyclists. The day we were there lycra was in full
display at both La Boulange and Peet’s as well as the surrounding sidewalks.
We returned to Lafayette by retracing our route along Danville Blvd and the Newell neighborhood, and then
took the Lafayette-Moraga Trail to Moraga.
During the return ride I started to
feel a bit beat. When a Shot Blok didn't help, I
realized that on the previous day I was a bit under the weather, and evidently had
not fully recovered by ride time on Saturday morning. I started to fade about mile 40 and (wouldn’t
you know) the remainder of the ride included the climb up ‘big’ Pinehurst to
Skyline Blvd. Oh well, I have felt
worse, so I found my granny gear and slogged my way up, DFL at the top.
Got home, walked in and my son asks if I’ve heard about the
‘Crash’? There it was on the TV
Summary:
53 miles, 3227 ft of ascent
Calories Burned: 1668
Bakery Items sampled: Almond
Croissant, Fruit Danish, Bread Pudding, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and
Macaroon.
Route: ***
Pastries: *****
Map:
Note: Working on graphics, hope for improvement by next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment