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The Fourth, with Bikes
Jul. 5th, 2015 02:23 pmYesterday was the fourth of July, and though I'm not a big fan of mindlessly habitual patriotism, I do like punctuating my year, so when Donald and Mary invited me down to a BBQ before their regular alternate-saturday gaming, I opted to take them up on it.
And, we had a nice BBQ. Donald and Mary were there (of course) and their housemate Guy and Kevin, Chris, and Corina. And Chris Jr. It was fun hanging around with everyone in a non-gaming environment and just talking and relaxing. There were also delicious BBQ foods, including chicken and sausages and corn-on-the-cob, plus potato salad and a cookie.
A nice afternoon.
Of course getting down to San Jose was a challenge (and to be honest part of the reason that I decided to go down there). It's at the end of the BART line and Donald & Mary's house is about 20 miles beyond that. So I left at 9.30 in the morning to get there at 1 and I left the party just before 4 to get home by 8.
That of course meant biking. I totaled 48 miles for the day, which I think is the most I've ever biked in a day. My butt was really dragging for the last 8 miles or so, but I used to get exhausted after 30 miles, so getting exhausted every 40 miles is a huge improvement.
I was really tired as I pulled into Fremont (which is still several miles south of the Fremont BART station), so I made an emergency stop at a 76 Gas Station for a coca-cola Icee. First time I can remember having an Icee in years ... maybe decades. Oh, it was good in the hot south bay weather after much exercise though.
I rode down to San Jose fairly near the hills, and then I looped back up to Fremont (after the party) via the Guadalupe River. Along the way I touched upon all the trails and paths I could. There wasn't much that really impressed me, but there was some nice trails.
Lake Elizabeth is a pleasant little park just south of the Fremont BART station. I've seen it passing in cars many a time, but if I have ever visited it before, it was decades ago. It's got a nice lake in the middle and a lot of less-nice scrub around that. There are walking paths and picnic areas and even a water-slide. It struck me as a little less-cared for than I like and a little too suburban (mainly because huge parts of the park seemed to be taken up by miles of parking). But I might like it better if I visited it more. As it was, it was a nice way to travel through a mile or two of Fremont without having to ride the streets.
Railroad Avenue is a mysterious several blocks of off-road trail just past Lake Elizabeth. It run behind some condos. It also has a bridge over the major road there, which would be a great way to get to the Lake if it weren't just scrub at that point. I think perhaps this is part of an off-road trail that's mean to run all the way to the Fremont BART station eventually, but if so there's not much attention being given to it. Fremont generally seems to suck for their off-road trail work.
Hetchy Hetchy Trail is a little trail that starts just south of the Fremont border and mainly serves to connect together a couple of parks. It actually had a northern spur that I skipped because there's no way to get to it from the north! You have to go to the midpoint of the trail, and then go back. Sadly, that's the type of trail that people used to build, before they considered them for possible commute use. Even sadder, there's a clear space running through Fremont (presumably an old rail line) that the trail could continue on for many, many miles north, but ... Fremont.
Berryessa Creek Trail touches the south end of the Hetchy Hetchy Trail in Milpitas (or at least the south end of the park that the Hetchy Hetchy Trail peters out in). It is, I think, the worst trail that I've ever seen. All of the asphalt is cracked with waist-high weeds growing throughout. It's right next to a "creek" which is entirely enclosed in cement banks and which is filled with algae and weeds. Yuck.
Penitencia Creek Trail is the path I wanted to see because it runs behind the condos that my dad lived in many years ago, and I used to play on the trail when I was young. Sadly, it's not impressive. The eastern part runs through a park that I'm pretty sure wasn't there when I was young, but it was mostly scrub. The trail that I remember by the condos has a really nice part right next to the condos with lovely foliage (but you can't see the creek), then it ducks under the highway (just like I remember, but it's much lower than I would have guessed) and a few hundred feet past that it mostly peters out as it runs alongside some houses. It certainly seemed longer when I was young. Maybe the houses weren't there? I also could have sworn the path ran on the opposite side of the creek that it actually does, but I can probably attribute that to my crossing the creek and playing on the other side when I was young (and I now remember crossing on stones in the creek, but that may be confabulation). There's a second park on the opposite side of the trail, and it's nicer, with more greenery ... though its lake is totally dried up. Yikes!
Guadalupe River Trail is a rather magnificent trail that runs all the way from the Bay down to downtown San Jose. It's also a great commute trail, because it has underpasses that drop under every road you get to, meaning that you can go for miles and miles without stopping (except when rain floods those underpasses!). It was really nice where I got on, in downtown, but at some point I had to cross from the west bank to the east bank, and that wasn't as pleasant. The trail was on top of a big embankment (to keep those flood waters out), which means you got less river and more wind. Also: you see the backs of big industrial buildings to the east, most of which had nasty signs telling you they'd shoot you and feed you to the pigs if you dared to look at their property too long. Still, a pleasant ride.
Coyote Creek Trail could be the next big thing, but right now it's a big mess. Another Hetchy Hetchy Trail, which is supposed to connect Guadalupe and Coyote doesn't quite do so (so it was surface streets, past miles and miles of Cisco buildings) and then part of Coyote Creek Trail is still gravel (which is always awful to ride) and then it dumps you on to streets to cross over highway 237. It picked up north of 237 and is nicer up there, but then it stopped when it hit ... Fremont.
Overall, some wonderful trails. San Jose has really done a great job of creating trails in the 25 years since I moved away. If they can finish the Coyote and Guadalupe trails and connect them, they'll have a really impressive infrastructure for getting through the city North and South.
Also, I was reminded of what the streets are like in the south bay, as I rode them for at perhaps 20 miles of my ride. They're all huge with many lanes ... and simultaneously empty. Very ugly, but easy to use. And there were good bike lanes everywhere; in downtown San Jose those lanes were even buffered!
I expect I'm never going to repeat this particular ride. First, 48 miles was a lot. But also, BART is theoretically going to open a new Warm Springs station this Fall which will make all of San Jose more accessible to me by expanding the line several miles southward. Heck, that might be just enough that I could ride down to San Martin if I wanted (and ride back a separate day!)
I actually stopped and gawked at two of the BART stations under construction while in the South Bay. The Warm Springs station indeed looks like it might be done sometime in the foreseeable future, though I wouldn't bank on this year. The Berryessa BART station was clearly further from completion (though it's the one that will really open the entire south bay to me, and would cut a trip to San Martin down to a very reasonable 30 miles).
No one told me Donald and Mary had a pool. NEXT TIME!
And, we had a nice BBQ. Donald and Mary were there (of course) and their housemate Guy and Kevin, Chris, and Corina. And Chris Jr. It was fun hanging around with everyone in a non-gaming environment and just talking and relaxing. There were also delicious BBQ foods, including chicken and sausages and corn-on-the-cob, plus potato salad and a cookie.
A nice afternoon.
Of course getting down to San Jose was a challenge (and to be honest part of the reason that I decided to go down there). It's at the end of the BART line and Donald & Mary's house is about 20 miles beyond that. So I left at 9.30 in the morning to get there at 1 and I left the party just before 4 to get home by 8.
That of course meant biking. I totaled 48 miles for the day, which I think is the most I've ever biked in a day. My butt was really dragging for the last 8 miles or so, but I used to get exhausted after 30 miles, so getting exhausted every 40 miles is a huge improvement.
I was really tired as I pulled into Fremont (which is still several miles south of the Fremont BART station), so I made an emergency stop at a 76 Gas Station for a coca-cola Icee. First time I can remember having an Icee in years ... maybe decades. Oh, it was good in the hot south bay weather after much exercise though.
I rode down to San Jose fairly near the hills, and then I looped back up to Fremont (after the party) via the Guadalupe River. Along the way I touched upon all the trails and paths I could. There wasn't much that really impressed me, but there was some nice trails.
Lake Elizabeth is a pleasant little park just south of the Fremont BART station. I've seen it passing in cars many a time, but if I have ever visited it before, it was decades ago. It's got a nice lake in the middle and a lot of less-nice scrub around that. There are walking paths and picnic areas and even a water-slide. It struck me as a little less-cared for than I like and a little too suburban (mainly because huge parts of the park seemed to be taken up by miles of parking). But I might like it better if I visited it more. As it was, it was a nice way to travel through a mile or two of Fremont without having to ride the streets.
Railroad Avenue is a mysterious several blocks of off-road trail just past Lake Elizabeth. It run behind some condos. It also has a bridge over the major road there, which would be a great way to get to the Lake if it weren't just scrub at that point. I think perhaps this is part of an off-road trail that's mean to run all the way to the Fremont BART station eventually, but if so there's not much attention being given to it. Fremont generally seems to suck for their off-road trail work.
Hetchy Hetchy Trail is a little trail that starts just south of the Fremont border and mainly serves to connect together a couple of parks. It actually had a northern spur that I skipped because there's no way to get to it from the north! You have to go to the midpoint of the trail, and then go back. Sadly, that's the type of trail that people used to build, before they considered them for possible commute use. Even sadder, there's a clear space running through Fremont (presumably an old rail line) that the trail could continue on for many, many miles north, but ... Fremont.
Berryessa Creek Trail touches the south end of the Hetchy Hetchy Trail in Milpitas (or at least the south end of the park that the Hetchy Hetchy Trail peters out in). It is, I think, the worst trail that I've ever seen. All of the asphalt is cracked with waist-high weeds growing throughout. It's right next to a "creek" which is entirely enclosed in cement banks and which is filled with algae and weeds. Yuck.
Penitencia Creek Trail is the path I wanted to see because it runs behind the condos that my dad lived in many years ago, and I used to play on the trail when I was young. Sadly, it's not impressive. The eastern part runs through a park that I'm pretty sure wasn't there when I was young, but it was mostly scrub. The trail that I remember by the condos has a really nice part right next to the condos with lovely foliage (but you can't see the creek), then it ducks under the highway (just like I remember, but it's much lower than I would have guessed) and a few hundred feet past that it mostly peters out as it runs alongside some houses. It certainly seemed longer when I was young. Maybe the houses weren't there? I also could have sworn the path ran on the opposite side of the creek that it actually does, but I can probably attribute that to my crossing the creek and playing on the other side when I was young (and I now remember crossing on stones in the creek, but that may be confabulation). There's a second park on the opposite side of the trail, and it's nicer, with more greenery ... though its lake is totally dried up. Yikes!
Guadalupe River Trail is a rather magnificent trail that runs all the way from the Bay down to downtown San Jose. It's also a great commute trail, because it has underpasses that drop under every road you get to, meaning that you can go for miles and miles without stopping (except when rain floods those underpasses!). It was really nice where I got on, in downtown, but at some point I had to cross from the west bank to the east bank, and that wasn't as pleasant. The trail was on top of a big embankment (to keep those flood waters out), which means you got less river and more wind. Also: you see the backs of big industrial buildings to the east, most of which had nasty signs telling you they'd shoot you and feed you to the pigs if you dared to look at their property too long. Still, a pleasant ride.
Coyote Creek Trail could be the next big thing, but right now it's a big mess. Another Hetchy Hetchy Trail, which is supposed to connect Guadalupe and Coyote doesn't quite do so (so it was surface streets, past miles and miles of Cisco buildings) and then part of Coyote Creek Trail is still gravel (which is always awful to ride) and then it dumps you on to streets to cross over highway 237. It picked up north of 237 and is nicer up there, but then it stopped when it hit ... Fremont.
Overall, some wonderful trails. San Jose has really done a great job of creating trails in the 25 years since I moved away. If they can finish the Coyote and Guadalupe trails and connect them, they'll have a really impressive infrastructure for getting through the city North and South.
Also, I was reminded of what the streets are like in the south bay, as I rode them for at perhaps 20 miles of my ride. They're all huge with many lanes ... and simultaneously empty. Very ugly, but easy to use. And there were good bike lanes everywhere; in downtown San Jose those lanes were even buffered!
I expect I'm never going to repeat this particular ride. First, 48 miles was a lot. But also, BART is theoretically going to open a new Warm Springs station this Fall which will make all of San Jose more accessible to me by expanding the line several miles southward. Heck, that might be just enough that I could ride down to San Martin if I wanted (and ride back a separate day!)
I actually stopped and gawked at two of the BART stations under construction while in the South Bay. The Warm Springs station indeed looks like it might be done sometime in the foreseeable future, though I wouldn't bank on this year. The Berryessa BART station was clearly further from completion (though it's the one that will really open the entire south bay to me, and would cut a trip to San Martin down to a very reasonable 30 miles).
No one told me Donald and Mary had a pool. NEXT TIME!