Tuesday, September 23, 2014

China Camp to Tiburon – Wait, you can’t get there from here…


One of the more interesting, beautiful, and convoluted bike rides in the Bay Area is an out-and-back ride from China Camp to Tiburon. It is a relatively flat ride, 45 miles with 1500 ft. of ascent, and has lots of shoreline that makes for fabulous riding along San Pablo Bay and the San Pablo Strait.  That is not to say that the ride is devoid of urban environments and challenges they bring to cyclists.

China Camp State Park 

Parking is easy on residential streets just off Pt. San Pedro Bay Rd, near the north entrance to China Camp State Park.  From there cycle east on Pt. San Pedro Road over a small bump and then down along Waterfront Marsh and San Pedro Bay.  China Camp is a remnant of a Chinese shrimp-fishing village that thrived in the 1880’s. There is a museum at the park that details the history, or visit their website:


Point San Pedro Road meanders along the shoreline and features fabulous views of the bay and wetlands, as well as some of the most scenic restroom locations to be found anywhere.

On this stretch of road we were definitely outnumbered by mountain bikes, all headed to the multitude of trails on the ridge separating the park from the city of San Rafael.  Being there it was hard to imagine that just over the ridge are the quixotic, but still bustling business centers of Marin County. 

San Rafael and Corte Madera Creek

Continuing on along Pt. San Pedro Road we passed the Loch Lomond Yacht Harbor and on into San Rafael, essentially riding along San Rafael Creek.  This is where the route morphs from remote and sublime to urban and congested. Pt. San Pedro Road becomes 3rd Street in San Rafael.  A couple of blocks before reaching Hwy 101, we took a left on Grand which became Francisco Blvd.  This is in a high traffic area, and we followed David (our guide) down the center turn lane as it seemed safer than the traffic lane, which was narrow and busy and bordered on the right by an endless row of unforgiving and downright intimidating concrete barriers, what with all the scrapes, black marks and gouges.  A group of 3 riders were in the traffic lane riding parallel with us.  They shouted over asking if the riding was better in the center lane.  We replied ‘better than there’, at which time they came across and drafted us down the center lane.  This only lasted a half mile or so, as we turned left on a side street and pedaled through an industrial area, not dissimilar to many of the grittier areas of Oakland, with lots of auto body and repair shops.  

After a few minutes of urban riding we were at Picklewood Park and back on a nice shoreline bike path.  Continuing south along the shoreline, the trail comes to an end near the north anchorage of the San Rafael Bridge, basically behind San Quentin.
From the end of the bike trail, it is a short 2 blocks through a neighborhood back to Francisco Blvd, where it is adjacent to the freeway. Looking at a map, it would appear that the only option would be to double back north on Francisco.  However, just at the beginning of the Sir Francis Drake exit off the freeway David pointed out a gap in the fence between Francisco Blvd and the freeway, which gives access to a bike lane on Sir Francis Drake!  Amazing! So we follow David though the break in the fence, over the freeway and along Sir Francis Drake to Larkspur Landing – Nice !

The route around Larkspur Landing, Wood Island, over and under US 101 and across Corte Madera Creek is rather circuitous and includes both wooden and concrete pedestrian bridges, small crowded parking lots, sidewalks, the large parking lot at the ferry terminal, and a few other oddities.  (The route is shown in red in the figure below. Note, we came in from the east (right) and headed south.  The red line heading north is the return route, more to come on that).  Note that some signage is provided.





One of the highlights of this section of the ride is the Marin Country Market, http://marincountrymart.com/ , and there we noted that the Folkish Festival will be held soon.




Just across the Corte Madera Creek, heading south, David led us along a few blocks of Lucky Drive, one of the more eclectic streets in Marin.  It seemed to be bike friendly.



After Lucky Drive, we continued south and were soon on Paradise Drive, which follows the Tiburon shoreline all the way to Tiburon town center.  We made a counter clockwise tour of the peninsula shore, crossing over on Trestle Glen Blvd, and riding the Richardson Bay bike trail.  This was a Saturday, and a girl’s soccer game was happening at McKegney field.  This has to be one of the most beautiful places to play soccer anywhere, and we slowly rolled through the many spectators in lawn chairs that were lining the trail.










Tiburon

The Tiburon waterfront is one fabulous place to enjoy a cappuccino and a pastry, or if you have time, the calamari at Sam’s.  We opted for the former, and took up residence on one of the benches along the water. 



Waiting in line to use the facilities, I was behind another cyclist and inquired about his ride.  He was coming from SF, and asked about our ride.  When I told him we started at China Camp he gave me a puzzled look and asked if it was possible to get there from here?   Well, actually….


Sitting on the shoreline, Sally recollected visiting a monster estate somewhere along Paradise Dr. Of course, we decided to use our electronic devices to try and locate the place, and see if it might be on our route.  This is where things got a little hilarious, at least for the thirty-somethings sitting on the adjacent bench.   In the bright light, Sally couldn’t see the screen on her phone, so I did the keying, but I didn’t have reading glasses handy..   (you can see where this is going).  After much kerfuffling with the electronics we eventually found the address and determined that, yes it was on our route, all to the great relief of the younger folks chortling and rolling their eyes during our electronic adventure.  We had a great sense of humor about it, thinking that the new BIGGER phones might be a good thing, except – how do we carry them on a bike?

Return to China Camp

Riding north up Paradise Drive along the east shore of Tiburon was spectacular – as usual, with views of the East Bay across the San Pablo Strait and the San Rafael Bridge

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Continuing up toward Larkspur, retracing our route, we had great views of San Quentin.


Back at Larkspur Landing and the Marin Country Mart, we stopped at the Rustic Bakery.  I can highly recommend this place, although it is Marin Mob scene on a Saturday afternoon. Their goods are also available at least one other spot, as I found their cookies, biscotti and a few other goodies at the Cowgirl Creamery in Pt. Reyes Station.

Tunnel Anyone

This ride has one more unique aspect, the Cal Park Hill Pathway that provides a quick way between Larkspur and San Rafael.  It is an old railroad tunnel that was refurbished and converted to a bike route in 2010.  It is a clean, well-lit place to ride bikes, and flat too It is a key component in the North-South Greenway and is also part of the future SMART corridor with a planned station just behind the Larkspur Century Theater. http://www.marinbike.org/Campaigns/Infrastructure/CalParkIndex.shtml




The tunnel exits onto Andersen Drive and the route then winds through an industrial neighborhood back through the congestion to 2nd Street.  Just beyond San Rafael Creek it is possible to rejoin Pt San Pedro Road and retrace the route back to China Camp.  Along the way are view of an old Brickyard sited on Pt. San Pedro.


Then it is back to China Camp State Park and its fabulous vistas


From China Camp Park one can see that the stacks at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond are nicely hidden behind a hill.

Here are links for gps and route data for this ride.
Enjoy!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/589798793
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6008261










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