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.
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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
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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