Big Bike Ride

Finally went for the big bike ride today that I'd been wanting to do since Saturday. After days of fatigue, sore throat, etc., yesterday was the first day I was feeling totally fine, so today I took advantage of the holiday to bike.

Generally: I went down to Oakland, visited Endgame, and then went out to Jack London Square. From there I went southeast down the coast across from Alameda, past Coast Guard Island, past the end Alameda, and around San Leandro Bay. From there I biked across the entrance to Bay Farm Island until I was past the Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline, then went back through that park, cut back across the middle of Bay Farm Island, biked through the Shoreline Park to the north of the Island, then went out to Alameda, biked through many posh neighborhoods, and finally returned to the mainland. On the way home I varied my route  a bit by exploring some trails around Peralta College, stopping in Chinatown, then taking Broadway up to College so I could travel through Rockridge.

I was out for about 5 hours, but that included lunch, chatting at Endgame, and stopping here and there in attractive parks around the area to read and enjoy the shorelines. Total ride was 36 miles, which was more than I'd expected (though that's in part because my ride was longer than my original plan, as I both went out to Oyster Bay and didn't take BART home).

A few notes about various things:

The Fourth: I really love going out and biking on holidays, as many roads that would be otherwise busy aren't. That was indeed the case today, such as when I ghosted through a noontime Downtown Oakland that was largely free of cars. It was even neater than usual to be out today, because a lot of the parks were full of people barbecuing and otherwise enjoying the day. 

New Trail around Alameda: This was my main purpose for the ride: to check out new Bay Trail across from Alameda that's gone in since I started my (incomplete) bike-the-bay-trail project. The first segment was between the Park St. Bridge and the Fruitvale Bridge and the second was between the Fruitvale Bridge and the High St. Bridge. They were broadly similar: mostly smooth cement with benches and lamps, all out on the bayside of various buildings. Nice rides, though the neighborhood deteriorated very quickly. At the Park St. side there were very expensive condos, but soon you were into the decayed industrial zone that fronts so much of Alameda.

Disappointingly, neither of these trails actually reaches the adjoining major streets where the bridges are. So, they're essentially useless as part of the Bay Trail. You can ride all the way out to them, take them a couple of blocks, then you have to cut back to the street you started out to actually get past the major intersections. Even more disappointing is a business just short of High Street that's been allowed to fence off their part of the Bay Trail and only keep it open during business hours. Through their locked gates you can see signs that say "Public Shore".

Some Oakland politicians should get off their asses and deal with what looks to me like a de facto seizure of public land. Because if they did, it looks like that part of the Bay Trail would actually go all the way to High Street, resolving one of the four problems that those segments of the Trail have.

Oyster Bay: I think I've only been out to Oystery Bay just once before. It's a very pleasant if small shoreline park. It's also got a pretty neat design. There's basically one path through the park that raises you up to the ridgeline, then starts running you clockwise around the park. As you're carried around, you see grassy hill ahead of you, and then suddenly the whole Bay appears, splendid and blue, filling your entire view. Very nice.

I went all the way out to Oyster Bay because there was new Bay Trail connecting the park to Bay Farm Island. Before it'd been a real pain; you had to go all the way out around an inlet and back to make the transition. It was a mile or two detour. Now you get to the edge of the park and you find Some Politician Bridge. That crosses you over the inlet, then you ride through a HEAVILY fenced path and poof you're on Bay Farm Island halfway to the airport.

Peralta College: I'd long noted several paths running along another inlet (on the Oakland side of things) and up through Peralta College, so I travelled those on my way back. The trails were nice, with one of them even ducking you under a bridge to keep you off a busy road, which I really appreciated (and which is needed to make those new trails contra-Alameda work). But the whole area was just kinda sad. Run-down and relatively people free. Ah well, now I've seen it.

And anywho, a good ride overall. I should now be up-to-date on my Fremont to Point Pinole Bay Trail credentials once more. I just need to get to the edges of those and go on (which I've actually been thinking of doing lately).

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This close to Oakland, I really don't know if those two particularly sharp retorts that went off while I was writing this were gunshots or firecrackers. Certainly sounded like the former. But I'm reminded of one other Fourth where I was out at Donald's former apartment, and we heard a lot of what sounded like gunshots. It made me feel kinda vulnerable, in that second floor apartment with its no doubt paperthin walls. Happy Fourth?