![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
El Cerrito Hills
Sep. 2nd, 2012 06:41 pmGiven the three day weekend, I wanted to do some biking, so today I headed up into the El Cerrito hills. I've never been up there before, but I figured that I've been getting better at hills this summer, and that it'd be doable and it was (for the most part).
My main goal was the Hillside Natural Area. It's a big open area on a hill pretty much straight up from El Cerrito. Google marks out three main trails and said that one of them was bikable, which it was, more or less. The ride along the top trail was absolutely breathtaking. It looked out straight over El Cerito, but beyond that you could see much of the North Bay, from San Francisco to the Marin Headlands. It was a bit foggy out west, so the Golden Gate Bridge wasn't hardly visible, but other than that it was entirely terrific.
As for the riding: there was a lot of level ground with hard-packed earth, and the trails were generally wide, so a lot of it was fine. Some of the downhill areas were pretty loose, and those I walked. All around nice, though. I might head out there again sometime.
I visited a few other parks while I was in the area. The Cerrito Vista Park was pretty disappointing, because there was almost no Vista. It was all blocked by trees and/or big piles of sawdust. Most of the park is also taken up by a Baseball Field and Tennis Courts, so there isn't a lot to enjoy. Huber Park above that was nicer, though it was largely a vertical park, with a pair of trails heading up the hillside via steps and steep paths. Various playgrounds filled the middle area for the first half of the park. There was a bench up at the top, but it just looked down on the trees that filled the canyon-like area of the park.
I also wandered around a bit in the neighborhoods east and north of the Hillside Natural Area. I was annoyed by a schoolyard that was entirely locked up, preventing easy access from the streets on one side to those on the other (instead you had to go out of your way a couple of blocks to the much busier Arlington Boulevard). I was partially annoyed because I was pretty tired by then. On the other side of that school I investigated a Google marked "bike path" that turned out to be steep stairs — not appropriate for bike riding at all — and when I got done with that, I went home.
There were some other places I'd considered exploring in that area, but by then I'd had plenty of exercise, plenty of (sunscreened) sun, and plenty of beautiful vistas at the Hillside Natural Area, so I headed homeward along the Greenway.
And the Ohlone Greenway is still screwed to hell, by the by. Albany is the worst for their dishonesty. Twelve months ago they had signs up that described which areas would be closed through March 2012 and which would be closed from March 2012 through August or September 2012. Those signs are gone now, and they're still working on that first segment of repair. A year later, they've got the BART Seismic Retrofitting done and are finally laying the asphalt for the revamped Greenway, so maybe those first parts will be done soon.
In El Cerrito, they've still got Greenway closed as well. But at least they're more honest about it. When I was heading past El Cerrito Plaza on the way home I saw a sign up that said the Greenway just past was going to be closed March 2012-August 2012. 100 feet on, when you got to the (still open) Greenway, signs said that it was going to be closed September 2012 to March 2013(!).
So they're apparently running at least six months behind on most of the BART & Greenway work. I hope BART and/or the cities are fining the hell out of their contractors.
Anywho, about 17.5 miles today. I got some tired out muscles too.
My main goal was the Hillside Natural Area. It's a big open area on a hill pretty much straight up from El Cerrito. Google marks out three main trails and said that one of them was bikable, which it was, more or less. The ride along the top trail was absolutely breathtaking. It looked out straight over El Cerito, but beyond that you could see much of the North Bay, from San Francisco to the Marin Headlands. It was a bit foggy out west, so the Golden Gate Bridge wasn't hardly visible, but other than that it was entirely terrific.
As for the riding: there was a lot of level ground with hard-packed earth, and the trails were generally wide, so a lot of it was fine. Some of the downhill areas were pretty loose, and those I walked. All around nice, though. I might head out there again sometime.
I visited a few other parks while I was in the area. The Cerrito Vista Park was pretty disappointing, because there was almost no Vista. It was all blocked by trees and/or big piles of sawdust. Most of the park is also taken up by a Baseball Field and Tennis Courts, so there isn't a lot to enjoy. Huber Park above that was nicer, though it was largely a vertical park, with a pair of trails heading up the hillside via steps and steep paths. Various playgrounds filled the middle area for the first half of the park. There was a bench up at the top, but it just looked down on the trees that filled the canyon-like area of the park.
I also wandered around a bit in the neighborhoods east and north of the Hillside Natural Area. I was annoyed by a schoolyard that was entirely locked up, preventing easy access from the streets on one side to those on the other (instead you had to go out of your way a couple of blocks to the much busier Arlington Boulevard). I was partially annoyed because I was pretty tired by then. On the other side of that school I investigated a Google marked "bike path" that turned out to be steep stairs — not appropriate for bike riding at all — and when I got done with that, I went home.
There were some other places I'd considered exploring in that area, but by then I'd had plenty of exercise, plenty of (sunscreened) sun, and plenty of beautiful vistas at the Hillside Natural Area, so I headed homeward along the Greenway.
And the Ohlone Greenway is still screwed to hell, by the by. Albany is the worst for their dishonesty. Twelve months ago they had signs up that described which areas would be closed through March 2012 and which would be closed from March 2012 through August or September 2012. Those signs are gone now, and they're still working on that first segment of repair. A year later, they've got the BART Seismic Retrofitting done and are finally laying the asphalt for the revamped Greenway, so maybe those first parts will be done soon.
In El Cerrito, they've still got Greenway closed as well. But at least they're more honest about it. When I was heading past El Cerrito Plaza on the way home I saw a sign up that said the Greenway just past was going to be closed March 2012-August 2012. 100 feet on, when you got to the (still open) Greenway, signs said that it was going to be closed September 2012 to March 2013(!).
So they're apparently running at least six months behind on most of the BART & Greenway work. I hope BART and/or the cities are fining the hell out of their contractors.
Anywho, about 17.5 miles today. I got some tired out muscles too.